Snow Day

No real breakthroughs to report from here today on the DIY front. We decided to all stay in since about a foot of snow and high winds were forecast for our area. Everyone had a nap, everyone did some work, Hubby shoveled the driveway and Baby supervised. I got caught up on my blog reading.

In thinking about the ultimate Do-tique project, the dream of having a top designer come in and decorate one of my rooms for me is quite close to the top. That's exactly what happened to one of the regular blog readers over at Rambling Renovators. Check out the interview with Geeta where she discusses what it was like to have Sarah Richardson and Tommy re-do their dining room for the show Sarah 101 on HGTV.

I've always wondered how the costs are shared on one of those shows and what the behind the scenes experience is like. My guess has always been that what they show on TV as a fairly smooth design process with short time frames is in reality much more complex than it appears. I give kudos to Sarah Richardson for occasionally showing where things go wrong in the decorating process, but I suspect, like Martha Stewart, she is not fully showing the team of interns and assistants and specialty designer source catalogues that help her pull it all together. Geeta's interview gives us a bit more of an insider's look into the process and I want to thank her for sharing her insights with the RR readership.

Since this blog questions a prevailing DIY culture and the concept of Sarah 101 is that by learning the basic building blocks of design, anyone can create what she is putting together - especially since she relies heavily on out of the box solutions like IKEA. I wonder, if having seen the behind the scenes process, whether those people whose homes appeared on the show would agree that what Sarah creates is really something that anyone could do themselves?

In a slight shift of topics:  We're trying to get a renovation project I'm working with onto Mike Holmes' radar - or maybe someone like him. Can anyone comment on what it's like to be on one of these TV shows? Any tips on how to get on and how to negotiate what will happen? If you are someone or know someone who can help, let me know. This is truly an incredible project, but it's going to be a huge challenge to get the building from where it is now to where it needs to be. This particular place serves the poorest of the poor; it is a refuge to these people and it is falling apart.

DIY Rating: Undetermined

I wonder what Geeta would rate her experience as and whether you, 

dear reader, would ever agree to lending your home to a TV show or not?

I would consider doing it, but worry that by only decorating one room, 

that room would look out of place with the rest of my house.