Guest Author - J. Lynn

In the past week, I’ve learned how to lay down flooring tiles, expand the size of my kitchen height by using a variety of knobs and pulls on cabinet doors and decided to tear out that old wainscotting, something I didn't even have a name for until I saw it on tv. Can you tell that my television dial has gone completely off 1-11 and went completely cable?

All of these lessons I have received are from the Home Improvement shows that have crossed traditional programming with Reality TV. It’s Bob Villa meets Survivor with an Interior Designer tossed in for good measure. Almost every show has the same format. Enter someone’s life or living space, tell them what is wrong with it and fix it. If only it were that simple. Some of them are near dramas with the intense level of reality they bring to an audience. So much so that you almost feel like you are intruding. Yep, definitely Reality TV.

On a recent episode of Clean House on the Style Network, wildly entertaining host Niecy Nash introduces us to a mother/daughter team at each other’s throats over the mess in their home. The daughter, a basketball player and fan is a college student returning home with quite possibly entire lines of Aeropostal and basketballs lining her floors and completely hiding her bed. When asked about it, she says that she got rid of the box spring and frame because she kept losing things under the bed. That really should have been a light bulb moment. With a life size stand up poster of Kobe Bryant adoring the room, she absolutely refuses to give up all of her possessions, especially Kobe because in her words, “He’s happy there”. Something tells me Kobe would appreciate more of a full court clean up in that room. By bargaining with the home owners and subsequently selling their ‘Things’, the shows experts are able to use the proceeds to buy new organizers, furniture and decluttering tools to re-design several rooms in the home. Joined by shows like Neat and Clean Sweep, the popularity of these shows is indicative of typical American over burdening. We capture and covet clutter until it takes us over then we call a network to find someone to clean it up for us. Ahh, the land of the free!

My favorite of all of these shows are Property Ladder, Designed to Sell and Flip That House. Both shows deal with homeowners first purchasing, then redesigning and remodeling their way to profit by improving an investment property and turning it into an eye catching home. On one episode of Flip That House, we tag along as Kelly, the home owner, goes through her first flip.

The before pictures of the dilapidated loft look more like after pictures following a demolition and with the piles of broken windows, moldy laundry baskets and leftover belongings that no one will miss it’s hard to belief someone can turn this Trash into Treasure. Yes, that’s likely also a show on one of the networks too. We learn from Kelly that the previous owners lived for over a year without running water or electricity.

Working with a team of contractor’s, Kelly has all of the debris hauled and the demolition and renovations begin. New flooring is installed, bathrooms and kitchens are updated as Real Estate agents and consultants are quick to point out that these are the strongest selling points on a home. A little sheet rock here and much less of it there, add wood floors ( everybody’s doing it), and paint everywhere and Voila, always over budget and past deadline we can a sparkling new home bearing no resemblance to its previous state of disrepair. In California, this new home will sell for nearly $700,000 and bring the homeowner a hefty 6 figure profit.

There is something on these shows for everyone. For the Do-it-Yourself fans, there is an entire network dedicated to doing just that called DIY. Fans of more décor and renovate programming can tune into Discovery Home or HGTV and catch a project that they can use to improve their own home. With the housing market bursting at the seams as it is, these new Reality Shows offer the viewer a chance to do more than spend a few hours as a voyeur into another person’s reality. They provide them the ideas, know how and tools to create their own.