Lines in the Sand - Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 65

Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 1 - January 23, 2026

Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 64 - June 19, 2026

Although likely unintentional, HGTV/DIY producers had drawn some lines in the sand when they made Charleston integral within the show title and overinflated their description of me. From a marketing approach it was well aimed. But it other respects it put us down in a hole.   

This demarcating may have just happened seamlessly in early stages. Some producers met me, perhaps leaving with a lukewarm opinion. Then more came to film and create a pilot episode. After not wowing their socks off, it’s likely that most producers were left thinking, “What do these details really matter after all?”  

And schedulers placed us into 11pm and 1am time slots.

Except we did better than anticipated, leading to a full season. And by the end of 2015, after ARC grabbed attention, a verbal green light for another series had been inadequate for bank officials.

Rather than strictly being a dollars and cents issue, it was more my inability to connect the dots of basic business and secure a legitimate agreement on paper. The network placed a large pie on the table, and there’d been plenty of slices and slivers to satisfy everyone. I saw it but had been incapable of bridging the gaps. And without some sort of written contract, I’d been unable to qualify for the seven-figure financing I needed to secure three houses downtown. And so, I shifted my house hunting further inland.

Summerville thrives nicely without the Holy City. Except for coastal beaches, everything needed is up there in this jurisdiction that spills into all three of the counties that make up Berchador. It’s inhabited by sweet folks, but they’re also proud people. And American Rehab Charleston playing out as if I was down in the more well-known city rather than up in Flower Town in the Pines was disrespectful, hurtful, and another missed opportunity.

If the show had been named “American Rehab Summerville,” it’s likely that more doors would have been opened for us up in this small southern town. But producers had no way of knowing any if this. They didn’t live here, were just visiting for the work assignments, and didn’t have a lot of familiarity. Making it worse, I didn’t leave a strong enough impression for them to bring me into the show naming conversations.

I’m speculating, but it just stands to reason that with the title, and within the series, that I came across to the folks of Summerville as if I was less than pleased or proud to be renovating a house in that town. This wasn’t the case, but who’d believe that after watching the series?

Still, at the start of 2016, I was hopefully oblivious to these factors as I began beating the bushes for three more pig’s ears in Summerville.       

Along with traditional real estate searches, online websites, and scouting neighborhoods in search of For Sale by Owner signs in front yards, I spoke with the president of the Summerville Preservation Society, a local real estate mogul, and a neighbor of the American Rehab House. Although the investor was willing to let us renovate some of his properties for the show, he seemed genuinely indifferent about selling me a few of his vacant homes.

The thing is, even though that could have worked, I had no interest in being the face of a show where my status was overinflated, bragging about working in Charleston while actually being in Summerville, and in a position where I’d be claiming to own a house that wasn’t actually mine. This would have me even further from something organic and authentic.

I had a finite amount of savings to work with and was swinging and missing in Summerville. Eventually, with the help of the retired neighbor, I was introduced to the President of the Upper Dorchester Historical Society, and I pivoted my attention to the village of St. George even further away from the region’s epicenter.

Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 66 - June 22, 2026