Thanks for letting me know what to watch for after I win it! :)
I'm guessing they cut a lot of corners in order to get it done as cheaply as possible.
Still, I'd be happy to have it given to me so I could sell it!
It is unbelieveable how cheap they really are on all these 'crasher' shows. I wonder if the recipients are really as happy as they act after all the cameras and celebrities are gone.

The "crasher" shows are the worst. Everyone makes mistakes now and then, and you know that with that construction & production schedule there is no way in hell that they take the time to re-cut or re-trim pieces of wood or tile that aren't cut right.

If I ever saw one of those hosts in my local hardware store I would *RUN* away. Half the time I don't even like their style choices!

To me the worst is when they stain cabinets or furniture. One coat of stain and maybe one coat of poly.....they always look splotchy and uneven...like a kid did it...

Remember Trading Spaces when Genevieve Gorder hot glue-gunned straw to a wall in a house with a 2 year old? I think she was also the one who took up a wood floor and put down slate in a bedroom....talk about stubbing your frozen toes everyday!

Remember Trading Spaces when Genevieve Gorder hot glue-gunned straw to a wall in a house with a 2 year old?
That was Hildy, and now that I have kids I am even more appalled at the memory of that. lol! She was always good for the "shock" value, which I am sure is why she did a lot of the things she did. But who was it who glued wine labels all over the kitchen walls of people who didn't drink alcohol? That might have been Genevieve. DH and I used to laugh that we would have to spend a month fixing whatever the Trading Spaces people had done to our house in a couple of days. I saw camera shot of some trim molding in one episode... seriously awful paint work, can't believe the neighbors couldn't hold a brush any better than that.

My DH would shoot any of those guys who showed up at our house. The drywall/mud/paint walls or thinset/grout/seal tile type projects that they seem to get done in 1/2 day wouldn't fly with him. I seriously wonder what those projects look like in person when they're done.

But who was it who glued wine labels all over the kitchen walls of people who didn't drink alcohol? That might have been Genevieve

That was also Hildi. Both she and Doug were always good for a laugh due to their flagrant disregard for any homeowner request/preference.

I think she [Genevieve] was also the one who took up a wood floor and put down slate in a bedroom....talk about stubbing your frozen toes everyday!

I don't remember her pulling up wood to put down slate, but I do remember her replacing carpet with slate as part of the infamous Moss-wall bedroom.. Moss in my bedroom, just what I always wanted... Though I suppose it beats a sand floor (also a Hildi creation, of course). I should shamefully confess I did aesthetically like the moss wall bedroom; it was just so impractical.

re the "Dreamhouse" ... does one really need a changing room the side of most people's master bedrooms? I also disliked the kitchen and felt it did not fit well with the house.

Is it true that those 'dream' houses turn into a nightmare since the winners have to pay the taxes? Then, the house is way over priced for the neighborhood so any comps if they want to sell would be hard to come by.

Edited to add an article about what to do if you win the HGTV Dream House.

Here is a link that might be useful: What to do if you win the HGTV Dream House

I just read an article and most don't actually ever take the houses. They directly place them on the market and generally have zero trouble selling them, since they are status items. And/or the people just take the cash.

(while reading the article, make sure you follow the link to read the "winner's tale" article. It's eye opening from the 2002 winner.

Here is a link that might be useful: HGTV Dream Home Taxes

I remember the story of one family that won the dream house and tried to live in it. In addition to the house you also get a car and 500k in cash.

The adults in the family that won weren't especially bright, to be honest. They partied and squandered all the money, then wondered how they were going to pay the taxes since they had moved to the dream house location and weren't working. I think they were deep, deep in debt when I read their story.

These contests really should come with a set of consultations with an account and financial planner. I can see many financially naive people winning and then getting into trouble.

Chiefneil said the pragmatic part well, so I'm going to get back to the Hildirics: Anyone remember when she decided to reshape the floor transition from the kitchen to the next room, and didn't have enough money to do it right, so she put magazines under the carpet?

ROTFL!!!

I liked the time Hildy punched hundreds upon hundreds of holes in a wall to insert silk flowers. In a bathroom. It apparently had to be gutted afterwards.

The Dream Home winners plan for a sale now, but at the beginning most of them tried to keep it. There was a long and depressing article in the NYT or somewhere about how one couple sat in an increasingly darker and darker living room, because nobody had any idea how to change the potlights on the 30-foot ceiling.

All the outrageous, hideous stuff Hildy did, yet I read she lived in an all-white interior house.

I sure hope the winners of the dream home like green apples!

LOL....totally forgot moss was also in the slate floor bedroom! And that flower bathroom....absolutely ridiculous! Wonder where Hildy is today? Remember the lady whose house was all ducks and hearts and an ugly brick FP and Doug put plywood over it and painted it and actually tried to give the room some updated style and she walked off and was sobbing off-camera?

Several years ago they profiled a young couple who won a house in Texas. They were from IL, I think quit jobs, moved to Texas and within a year couldn't pay for heat, AC, not to mention taxes. Put the house on the market and moved back to IL to live with parents...

The worst room Hildi ever did ... the pink & grey quadrants living room where she painted half of the fireplace pink and the other half grey, then glued broken glass to the brick fireplace so the colors would show thru, and GROUTED the broken glass in.

At least in all her other horrendous things, they could be fixed even if it meant tearing out the sheetrock and replacing it. I guess technically, you could rip your fireplace out and replace it. Hmmmmmm.

If I had signed up for Trading Spaces and then found out Hildi was my designer I would have refused to do the show.

I remember the guy who won the HGTV Dream House in Lake Lure was a tax accountant and he seemed to have a plan in mind when he won. It's not just the taxes on the house, you have to pay on every single item in the house at full retail.

Marcolo - if you have an idea how to change the lights in a 30' ceiling I'd love to hear it. The bulb changer didn't work even from a tall ladder. We're going to have to bring in a lift to change the lights! The other idea is build a scaffold.

I remember when Hildy feathered the bedroom -- literally. Similar to the flowered bathroom, she glued feathers all over the bedroom walls. Talk about dustcatchers!

And the wine label kitchen -- the guy was a minister & I think they didn't drink for religious reasons. That was a real "wow."

I wonder if Hildy actually designs for REAL people living a REAL life, and gets paid REAL dollars for the jobs?

So I looked at the HGTV Dream Taxable Event on the website. First of all, none of these houses are anywhere I would want to live. My "dream" does not include driving a 1600 s.f. SUV at 100 mph for an hour and a half hoping you can make it to your nearest neighbor's house before you wet your pants.

Second, the style is pure middle-class ostentation. It all looks like a mall. I don't know if that woman Linda even knows how to decorate without price tags on the pillows.

Third, the contestants are just tragic. Did you read any of the comments on the site? All "I'm disabled, I'm divorced and ready to retire, I'm a single mother with three kids, I've got a week to live." Right, and a $500K tax bill will be just the cure. And who thinks making yourself sound miserable in a comments thread will improve your chances?

Back to Hildi--she spray painted a lot of upholstery in her day. I'd love to see her and the other old T.S. performers try out on "Design Star" so they can be evaluated by Candace Olsen. Now that would be a laugh.

ROTFL!!!! What a marvelous notion!! But...aren't the other judges on that show T.S. designers?

Yep, Vern and Gen. To be fair, both of them produced the "best" work on the show imo. To clarify, by best I mean rooms I wouldn't need to immediately redo. I do like a lot of Gen's stuff on her regular HGTV show, so I blame a lot of what was done for TS on time/budget constraints and the show seeking shock-value. What I think would be even more hilarious would be to have Candace on TS. I think she has fabulous taste so I'd love to see what she'd come up with, but my guess is she'd fail miserably just because she tends to go with a much more expensive and involved look aesthetically.

First of all, none of these houses are anywhere I would want to live.

Exactly. It cracks me up because they are forever repeating the age-old real estate adage of "location, location, location", yet these dream homes seem to be the furthest from that advice. The only exception I can think of is Sonoma, which I wouldn't have minded.

Yeah, I wouldn't even want to live in Sonoma, though it's pleasant enough when it isn't hot. :) Thing is, where I live the price of a million dollar home is mostly for the lot (i.e., location). The house might even be tired and pokey. They have to buy a desirable enough lot that doesn't cost much so they can spend the money on the materials and promotion and all, so it has to be in a place where not so many people want to live (supply and demand).

Vern was the only decent one on TS, and I did like some of Doug's rooms...the rest..ick! I don't watch Gen's show now, but evidently she has improved since TS. You know all the rooms were slapped together and that is how I always felt about Extreme Makeover---an entire house remodel in one week? Always wondered how things were holding up 6 months later.

I like Candace, but absolute favorite is Sarah Richardson...I love just about everything she does, even if it's not my style...the way she uses fabrics is astounding. Wish I had 1/100th of her talent!

Steff 1: We also have a two story great room with can lights. Whenever you do find a way to change the bulbs, replace them with led lights. That should hopefully give you 15-20 years until you need to replace them again. That's what we are hoping for!

I never like the decorating in those dream homes. Always looks very suburban. And they admit that they never intend for the winners to actually live there and they give some assistance on how to get rid of it.

I remember in the Sonoma house, they went with floor to ceiling drapes that puddled on the floor. I'm sure that must be an accepted style somewhere, but I just couldn't live with puddling drapes.

in one episode they took fake grass and put it in a bedroom with fake flowers everywhere. They even put a picket fence around it. It was hideous.

'Half the time I don't even like their style choices!'

I seldom like them. I wouldn't want them to redo my place unless they'd give me what I want rather than what they want... they wouldn't like me much I think.

in those 'won' homes you also have to think of upkeep. AND who IS gonna clean all of those rooms?

I worry about changing light bulbs with a 8' ceiling. can't imagine a 30' ceiling!

David's thing this year is plastic animal heads, usually multiples. I, for one, could not live with mounted plastic heads, or real ones for that matter. Not big on animal skin rugs either.