HGTV Home Makeover

I'm crossing my fingers! I signed up on the Home and Garden Television (HGTV) website to get a room makeover for our home. I've applied with a couple of my favorite designers/shows: Kim Myles' "Myles of Style", Vern Yip's "Deserving Design", and the new show launching Genevieve Gorder on HGTV (she is one of my favorite designers on Trading Spaces over at TLC).

I love these design shows where a professional designer and a team of carpenters, contractors and productions assistants come to your home and re-design and makeover your space. Basically, the shows start out with the designer meeting the homeowners to get ideas and to find out what the owner likes/dislikes. In some of the shows the homeowner helps out with some renovation projects but leaves before the room is put together. In other shows the owner is sent away leaving the professionals to do all the work. In the end, my favorite part is the surprise reveal when the homeowners first see the renovated space. I love how the owners gush, get teary-eyed and breathless over their new rooms. In rare occasions, there have been shows where the homeowners appear disappointed (and even absolutely horrified!). But not on the shows I signed up for. Kim, Vern and Genevieve are known for their good taste, great designs and working well with their homeowners. I HOPE, HOPE, HOPE we get picked. I know these shows have a long waiting list but you never know!

If picked, I would ask that our room makeover be for our kitchen and adjoining family room. Jojo and I agree that our kitchen really needs a makeover since the cabinets and tiled countertops look dated (I would love dark mahogany cabinetry and granite countertops) and new slate flooring too. A new stainless steel fridge wouldn't hurt either! For our family room, it would be great if we could get a new entertainment center (with a bonus flat screen LCD TV!) and maybe a few design touches so the room does not look too plain. Since Jojo and I are sadly mechanically challenged and verging on design dyslexic, we would be totally psyched to have design teams over and would trust our home to their capable hands.

There are a couple of rules for homeowners to sign up. I think they are super reasonable. Here are the rules to sign up:

• Be a homeowner or renter within 30 miles of our North Hollywood offices (LA zip code 91607). (We are!)
• Be willing to let our design team have free reign over the design and execution of the room. (No problem!)
• Be willing to contribute at least $1,000 to the design, and release complete control to the designer on how it best be spent on your room. ($1,000 for a room makeover by a professional design team? Can you say "bargain?")
• Be willing to arrange and pay for a dumpster on site during filming. (Done!)
• Be available, for shooting purposes, for approximately 4 full shoot days during the workweek. (We get to be on TV!)
• Complete and submit application, then EMAIL PICTURES OF YOURSELF AND THE SPACE. Be sure to include your name and contact information. (Did the application am now working on the pictures!)
  

Wish us luck! We'll let you know when we get a call and when we'll be on TV.