Q: When I watch those TV reality shows about room makeovers, I wonder if there is anything "real" about them. Can you really do a complete makeover in two days with $2,000? –Gayle K.

A: Yes and no — and therein lies the problem of the contradictions and false expectations of some of these phenomenally popular reality home-improvement shows.

On the positive side, these shows can provide viewers with a tremendous wealth of information and ideas for redoing rooms that they might not have the experience or imagination to come up with on their own. If you’re looking to give a complete new look to a bedroom through the addition of some interesting new paint colors, new window coverings, some moldings, the revamping of some existing furniture and maybe building a simple bookshelf, that is indeed possible to do in two days with $2,000 — but not by the average homeowner.

The kind of accelerated pace depicted on these shows requires that absolutely everything has been thoroughly planned in advance and meticulously organized, and that all of the materials have been prepurchased and are waiting on-site. Remember also that the $2,000 budget is for materials only — often purchased at heavy discounts — and that the very expensive fees, salaries and services of the on-site decorators, the highly skilled carpenters, the supervisors and coordinators, the delivery services, the cranes, the rental equipment, the professional shoppers, and all the rest of the vast network of other peripheral people and companies are not coming out of that money.

Reality home-improvement shows are great, but viewers really need to realize that this is not reality. For example, the average homeowner certainly will not have a building inspector standing by to blitz through (or waive) inspections on a moment’s notice, and they won’t have access to all of the hundreds of off-camera personnel and all of the freebies that these shows have to rely on.

One of the problems today is that we have become a society of instant gratification, and these shows play into that. They raise false expectations of what is possible for contractors and especially do-it-yourselfers to accomplish, and while I think the average homeowner understands that they won’t be able to have a crew of 75 people re-roof their house in an hour or get the local fire department to fill their swimming pool, they probably don’t always understand that many of the other instantaneous makeovers they see materialize on the screen are virtually impossible in real life as well.

Remodeling and repair questions? E-mail Paul at paul2887@ykwc.net.


***


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