Monday, January 1, 2018

That's All Folks


Happy New Year, Friends!

I've really appreciated the inquires about upcoming projects on television.  These notes have meant a lot as well as the words of support and enthusiasm for the shows.  

As many of you understand or can imagine, renovating a house that's been condemned is a big challenge and doing this work with a film crew on site makes everything more interesting and exciting.  In many ways, the network's role makes things easier and in others, it makes them trickier.  It's certainly a give and take, but without a doubt the TV involvement in the effort makes the renovation work more expensive.  

Schedule is significant in renovating houses, but with a Pig's Ear or extreme rehab, it's just one factor.  For me, it's never been the top thing.  I know it's really important in home flipping, but that's not what I do and this disconnect in priorities was an obstacle that I didn't anticipate.  My objective is to save the house, make the most of whatever I have to work with, and come away with some profit.  But the producers have different goals.  They have a show to make with an awareness of what viewers will tune in for.  Along with that they're diligently focused on the schedule in a way that takes precedence over everything.  As an example, the producers came to South Carolina to film me four times and we wrapped production as scheduled all four times.  But this adherence to the schedule comes with a cost and our rehabs were extremely costly, especially on Restoring Charleston where we completed both homes in nine weeks as planned.    

I'll always be grateful for the TV experiences I enjoyed and will continue to share my work through this blog as well as my Trentovation page on Facebook.  

Best wishes for 2018 and as always, please feel free to ask any questions or comments below or email them to bloodsweatandpigsears@hotmail.com.

My step-son Covington getting a feel for the
weight of the camera, Summer 2016.



1 comment:

  1. I have only recently discovered your to DIY Network shows, and I love what you do. I definitely understand what you are saying about TV shows forcing you to a schedule. In today's age of Self Made YouTube celebrities, have you ever considered setting up your own show just with your own family and friends being your film crew? Perhaps something like Wabi-Sabi's page, where he really only updates about once every month or so and one room at a time, but it's extremely entertaining and has the production value of a good TV show while also being done on a home budget.

    (Link to wabi Sabi's project as example if interested: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaPvVoafe5d0zzdTEK1ya4MdHyLw4etv6 )

    Hope to see some more stuff from you someday!

    ReplyDelete