apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I like the concept of this show although I don't really like the style they usually end up with - but that's the point I suppose. They really are going for the most middle of the road look, so I don't look at it for design ideas, but more for future reference.

One of the reasons I like the show is that it really makes you think about the criteria people consider when pricing a home. I never could understand why it would matter to a buyer how the current owners decorate the house, and yet "staging" is so important when it comes to pricing. I find the psychology of it so interesting.

I love the first five and last five minutes of this show, and can't abide the middle. I agree that the "design" work is dreadful, but the decluttering is ALWAYS insprirational.

There are occasions when I'm thinking "Oh my gosh, they're actually probably ruining it for future owners," (and if I were watching it for a house I put an offer in on, it would provide fodder for offering LESS) but I do find it fascinating that that can bring them more money. It's not so much about design to live with as design to sell by. I find it both disturbing and comforting that people live with such clutter--and that's part of the reason that they need to move into bigger spaces...provides life lessons for me!

They always seem to pick houses that have dreadful clutter, blank cream walls and no window treatments. I always find it amusing to guess what Ms. Laporta is going to do before she does it. Change the floors in the bathroom to tile, change countertops in kitchen and/or bathroom, paint wooden kitchen cabinets white, switch out hardware on cabinets to chrome pulls, add window treatments in some rich color, and paint the walls neutral shades of buff or soft green. The houses always end up looking the same, very middle of the road. Having said that I still find myself watching the first and the last couple of minutes.

I would prefer it if they tackled on major eyesore each episode instead. I'd also like to know how much the actual cost including labor is. It's easy enough to spend $2000 updating a house when the carpenter and electrician are free!

Once again, it's the labor that costs so much. They never incorporate that into their $2000 budget. And everything is done so cheaply. But if it changes the "look" of the home to inspire buyers to place a bid then I guess it's okay. I find it amusing when the seller has objections to certain ideas. Why should they care since they won't have to live with it?! In the long run I think the homes always look better than at the beginning. But I have to keep in mind that it's a temporary look that will/should be changed as soon as the house is sold.

We have been encouraging our mother to sell her house, built in 1954, and not changed much since then. She thinks that a little sprucing up will do the trick. Then I watch these "staging" shows and think how bad my mother's house will come off when buyers start going thru it. I mean, she has a pink bathroom - PINK IN EVERY REGARD - tub, sink, toilet, tile, towels. YUCK!

Since my life goal is to get a bargain on a place that needs cosmetic improvements, I'm severely depressed by anything that encourages sellers to expect rampant bidding wars as soon as they turn everything beige. But it's amusing to watch.

Wende, I think you should find it encouraging. It shows that people have no idea what these properties are really worth. If you know what you are looking for and can see past the cosmetic problems, you should get a great deal, because you know that others will devalue the property because of the cosmetic problems.

Beige just turns every place into a neutral palate so buyers can imagine (if they have any imagination) something different. I watched Sell This House last night and the house had aqua carpet in the living room and horrible colors in the bedrooms. As soon as beige was introduced the buyers came back and loved it when initially everyone hated it. It was all because of the color - or lack of. (Oh yeah, they cleaned, too.)Same place, no color. It's amazing what no color can do when you try to sell a place :)

If only this show was around a few years ago when I had problems selling my sudio condo in Chicago. I had spent about ten grand re-doing the kitchen, and installed high end carpet, and made the small bathroom into a virtual spa. The problem was there was color throughout the place, and it terrified possible buyers. It was too nice, and I mistakenly thought it would be an easy sale.
Next time, I will dumb it down completely, and invest in a lot of neutral paint. God forbid there be anything modern in one's home.

i like "sell this house" on a&e better. and the re-dos are always only a couple hundred bucks.

I agree with New Tenant about the fascinating psychological aspects of this show. You really understand just how completely irrational the house-buying process can be (I'm certainly not exempt). One episode featured a young family with 4 kids, and the house they were shown was this tiny 2 bedroom. And the mom was like, wow, I really love the faucets. Hello... where are your children going to sleep??!!

Sell This House is much better. My problem with DtS is that they have too much money than they really need and it sometimes leads them to take on bigger tasks than they can manage: rip out old but charming kitchen tiles in the California bungalow and replace them with faux concrete? WHA?

My heart belongs to Roger Hazard.

I heart Roger Hazard too!
At our house we call him "The Bear."

Anne-the-mean-one: there is a horrifically pink kitchen featured in the Winter 2005 issue of Atomic Ranch magazine. Pink stove, fridge, dishwasher.... pinkpinkpinkpinkPINK. Oy. The article is called "Patty's Pink Palace".

I am nuts about bright shades of the color green... but green seems so much less polarizing than pink. If I could do that pink kitchen in parrot green, it would be beautiful - well, to ME.

But probably only to me.

And certainly not to anyone else I know!

I saw a 50's house recently with all pristine, original appliances in robin's egg blue enamel. They were beautiful. And I just know whoever buys that house will rip them out for some Fisher & Paykel/Dacor goodness.

When my parents and I moved into a 50s house when I was 12 (and it was the early 90s at that time), EVERYTHING was red or pink. There was red wool carpeting throughout the living room, dining room and hallway, pink SHAG carpeting in a room supposed to be a bedroom in the basement and its adjoining bathroom, pink and blue tiles with a pink toilet, tub, and basin in the upstairs bathroom, red linoleum in the kitchen. Even the steel beam running through the house was painted pink!!! And that was behind wood paneling! Some of this still remains, sad to say, but I don't live there anymore...yet, even with the beige walls, the place has become much less offensive over the years!

what this should subliminally is teaching is to look for a house with shag carpeting or a pink bath... that changing this kind of cosmetic stuff isnt really that difficult.

I talked a friend into buying a misunderstood house that had sat on the market for a year due to issues such as the second floor missing all the doors, (found in crawl space under kitchen) and linolium covered bedroom floors (two weekends of scraping)

Actually, a pink bath is sounding rather fun. Rip off any wallpaper that has flowers (flowers are EVIL), then depending on the shade of pink, do it as:

1. Glam-deco. Accents in black, silver, and hot-hot-hot pink.
2. Sixties playful. Pink and orange, big mod flowers, Marimekko-esque stripes, translucent plastic accessories.
3. Box o' chocolates. Accents in dark and medium brown, burgundy/maroon, and deep pink. Maybe a toile wallpaper.
4. Sleek mod. Accents in grays, browns, the matching pink, and maybe a gray-lilac. All angular, modern, and executive.

I don't even like pink as a color, and I'm starting to want one!

No wende, DON'T! Be afraid, be very afraid. Once the pepto them starts you'll never get rid of it.

Was that post really from Tanya Memme? She is the co-host on Sell This House and works (very hard, I might add) with Roger Hazard to literally clean up and declutter the featured houses.

If that WAS the real Tanya, um, her post was kinda tacky.

True, but tacky. :)

And YES, Roger. Yeehaw. A big boy who "styles." Love it.

But you DO have to give it to Lisa LaPorta... she works REALLY hard on this show, AND generally improves the house. Her misses (imho) are window treatments, but I think that's mostly a symptom of the show's format (and budget). She has done really nice work on past HGTV shows like Designing for the Sexes...

"Tanya Memme" is French for "trash that will not burn."

And Roger looks like he smells bad.

Just saying.

I think that Lisa Laporta and that lot do great work, and I think that watching that show really helped me figure out some things that helped me get ready for when I sold my tiny little studio apartment 2 and a half years ago for so much more than I paid for it, even though market forces, and gentrification of my old neighborhood were also on my side.

I still like watching that show. And seriously, what's good about watching that show, also, is that when you're looking at places that have NOT had that treatment, you can more easily imagine the kinds of things that YOU would do it when you buy it. And THAT means that if you're one of the few potential buyers that can see that in a place... then you just might get it a better price, because most people have NO imagination.

So, if you can plug in a little bit of Lisa Laporta's imagination into your own, and then add your own really good, fun (if you ARE good and fun) imagination, then you're just golden.

But not too "Golden". Buyers don't like that color. ;)

"Paige"
That made me laugh out loud.

But Roger looks like he smells like after shave, latex paint, and vodka tonic.

Deeee.Lish.

I enjoy watching the show but I've got a few bones to pick, some of which have already been stated here by others:

1) The $2000 budget is completely misleading. They never account for labor, which would at least double the cost! And the prices they give for materials seem awfully low. Every room they paint only comes to $20. That buys a gallon of paint, but what about brushes, tape, etc? And it usually takes me at least 2 gallons to paint anything but the smalles of rooms.

2) I believe some of the changes they make would actually subtract from the price of the house. A lot of people want a blank slate where they can foist their own design ideas.

3) What proof do they have that their changes actually improve the price of the house (or specifically, that it would net the seller more than the amount they've spent -- were they to give a REALISTIC price on what it would cost to make the changes)? In one episode they said, "the liked the changes so much they upped their asking price by $10,000!". Um...who cares what they're asking for, what matters is how much it sells for...they could've just asked $10k more before the changes, doesn't mean it's going to happen.

Personally I think Lisa La Porta does a wonderful job of updating those houses for the buying population. Ever look at Model homes? She adds light where it is needed, cleanliness where it is desperately needed, and leaves space for those buyers who may have a little imagination to inject their own personalities.
Few buyers would walk into a dark room and think Oh, I could add a french door here for more light or dry brush a fireplace to lighten it up. Try watching house hunters and listen to the comments or watch Flip that house and see what those flippers do. My house is for sale and I would love to have Lisa walk through and give me her opinion. Keep up the good work Lisa. I enjoy your show.

the new season is just great cant wait to see more of it

I worship Lisa and Clive (and the Freemans), ! They make me want to throw half of everything I own away and paint my house soft greens and buffs, pile pillows and throws on everything and meditate in the neutrality... I think the show is fun and inspirational. Go Lisa go!

Love the show! Lisa LaPorta may be an acquired taste for those of you who are dissin' her here. I think she does a great job with that limited budget & I've gotten a few ideas from the show.

I just love the show. I find it very inspiring, and I've learned from her that it's all about creating drama and personality in a room. My husband wants her to come over and make suggestions for our place...

Right on Magpie! Lisa is very talented and I have learned a lot from her.I wish I had her "knack" for decorating.

Either Monica Pedersen the "designer/actress/model/perky cheerleader/dumb blond" goes or I go. I used to really like that show. It was fun to watch and had a great crew of people. Lisa LaPorta is both clearly talented and really has the right presence for the show. Perhaps for clueless second rate producers who desperately attempt to apply some outdated Hollywood formula for what the audience wants, Monica Pedersen seems like the answer. -Maybe she would have been in 1982. Where did they find her? "Self-trained" as she is described on the HGTV website is evident. I think she and her suburban charm school perma-smile should move on to something more fitting like politician's wife or something in the hospitality industry.

lisa, please tell us where you go to shop for all your bargins? My son just got back from over seas and we are trying to fix up a small place for him and his family. So we need all the helpful hints for fixing up cheap. thank you sheila kelly

For the most part, all these comments are civil and thoughtful! S'why I like Apt Thrpy so much. :)

As for Lisa, I think she's doing a great job.