A TV Star in the Making

Our yard, of course, not me. On Thursday, chez Sturgill was overrun with cameras, producers, landscapers, friends (who graciously volunteered their time to help out), and one hunky host for the filming of our Desperate Landscapes episode. Before for I reveal the transformation, I have to share a few lessons I learned during our foray into television:

1. Demand to know the "plan" for the day. We spent the entire day with no idea what was going to happen. We had trucks full of plants with no idea where to plant them, gallons of paint with no idea which color went where, and just general confusion. We often found ourselves standing around feeling useless or confused.

2. Be clear with the make-up artist that you are allergic to many cosmetics so you don't have to spend the next couple of days looking like a victim of domestic abuse. That is not a joke - I walked around for three days with very red, puffy eyes. People stared at me and glared at Msturg when we went out in public.

3. Don't forget that you are wearing a mic. I'm still not sure what all was heard, but there were several times when I found myself ranting then remembered that the producers could hear everything.

4. Be the holder of all things removed from the house so that you know what where they are. (i.e. if the house numbers are removed, make sure you put them in a safe place so that they aren't thrown away.) We had to go out on Friday and buy new house numbers so we could order pizza.

5. The cheesier the better. I tend have a dry, sarcastic sense of humor which I quickly learned does not translate well to the TV world. My husband on the other hand turned up the cheese factor and made life-long friends.

6. Don't waste time correcting the host and producers. Just because they think spraying cleaner on a door means it was refinished doesn't mean you have to speak the truth. If it's on TV, it must be true, right?

7. Sometimes the behind-the-scenes crew is much more amusing than the host. Here's a shout out to those landscape gurus, cameramen, and painters that really made our day enjoyable.

8. Jason really is that beautiful in person. He also always sounds like he's on TV even when having a casual conversation. I guess that's an occupational hazard. However, he's very friendly and nice to work with.

Overall, the experience was exciting and fun. There were a few things that really upset me about the way our house was treated by the crew (i.e. painting broken boards instead of repairing them because you can't tell on camera, etc.) and I'm not happy with number of paint colors used. Our house used to be white with blue trim - now it's white with blue trim on the second floor, a dark brown porch, creamy trim on the porch, grey window trim on the first floor, and a hideous orange-brown around the door. Needless to say, the paint colors will soon be made more cohesive at our own expense. But who can complain with a landscape like this:

Before:

After:

My favorite part is the new walkway. It's so welcoming and beautiful.

It makes me happy every time I walk out the front door.

In addition to all the beautiful plants and paint, they also gave us a new dining set to fill up our huge front porch. (Ignore the nosy dog in the window) They also used my favorite pasta bowl to hold that plant. It has since been switched to an actual pot.

In the next couple of days, I plan to do a post about the different plants that now reside in our yard, but for now I'll leave you to take in the transformation. How do you think it turned out?