House Hunting Made Easier - Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 61

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

Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 60 - June 10, 2026 

At the end of 2015, it may have seemed as if the network and production company were waiting on me to provide them with photos, estimation budgets, site details for production mobilization, and addresses of prospective houses. But in reality, the three of us had preliminary steps that needed immediate attention and action.

When I begin a renovation, I have a step-by-step process that works for me. I knew early on what to do on my own house project, in a lot of ways from Day 1 back in 2000, because I’d been dreaming about the moment for some time and had construction experience to build upon. Although I didn’t go in with history on a condemned house or fire damage, I had enough fundamentals to get my introductory pig’s ear to a point that felt more familiar.

TV rehabbing, and my cliff dive into it, was so different though. I had no background to build on. Other than what I speculated about as a viewer of This Old House and other home improvement types of shows, I was an empty jar. Still, two years had given me what I needed to sort out so much. There were still loads I didn’t know, couldn’t know really, but what I’d figured out, I felt rock solid on, the things I described in my previous post. I wasn’t totally certain, but I felt pretty good about my takes over what the others and I needed to dig into hot and heavy. These were far from an ironclad guarantee to success, but I held some certainty they’d be sufficient to sweep up more audience share, make some wrongs right, and create energy, enthusiasm, and momentum in my tri-county region of the state. In my head and heart, I felt I had some heightened responsibility toward what Scripps had initiated for all three of us—network, production company, and myself—and for us to put forth reasonable efforts focused on what I’d laid out.

On a normal project house, I feel more capable of driving the job as needed. I know what I can do, the work I really enjoy or knock out because I must, and what I’ll need help with. And if I’m unable to find the right skilled people, I’ll manage on my own to inch forward. Sometimes that means breaking a scope into smaller parts with me doing fractions and connecting with others to take on chosen pieces to complete the whole.

Home rehabbing television was different though. I didn’t know people to call on, nor was I qualified to do most of that. I was left to let a big team reach out to others, brainstorm, and tackle their tasks however they did. And although this removal was a good test for me, an exercise in faith, it was choppy. I was unaware of the progress others were making and it wasn’t work I could measure and evaluate visually. I just needed to hope they were chipping away, navigating obstacles along the way as they moved forward to where we’d need to be in the early months of 2016.

Just like it had been in 2013, we were in a holiday season time crunch. On the surface, my urgency to buy three houses suddenly, right then, would be laughable to the crowd of realtors overseeing the Berchador real estate market. However, with a home improvement series under my belt, and the involvement, participation, and quasi-anointment with and by HGTV/DIY, my aspirations came across as reasonable, more understandable. And the sooner people in Manhattan found us some time on HGTV, the easier this searching would become.    

However, just as it had been two years before, I was staring down the barrel of my original oversight of this golden opportunity to renovate my houses for TV: I had no written agreement with Scripps, HGTV, or DIY.

Response to TV Show Viewers: Post 62 - Coming Soon