On February 4, 2015 our House Hunters episode aired... and since it aired I can officially write about my experience on the show!
I've been dying to publish a post about our experience filming House Hunters.
Every night I'd come home, after a long day of filming, and write down my thoughts and insights.
Sadly, this personal journaling of my experience has become lost...
... and I'm trying to get photos from every day of our experience, but it's tricky trying to get someone else's photos from them.
However, I still want to document the process we went through, from the photos that I have, so that I can always look back and remember the "behind the scenes" of our house hunting adventure.
Day 1 (July 19, 2014):
We met our crew that we'd been working with. Due to some crazy flights, we started the day a little later than we would have liked. But we had so much fun. This was the interview getting to know us, and our little girl better.
We started by dropping off Lily at a babysitters (thank you Sarah Tucker) and doing a personal interview explaining our likes and dislikes and what we ultimately wanted in a home. This took about 2 hours.
I then went and picked up Lily and the crew filmed Michal getting ready for work...
... selecting ties,
... selecting watches,
... riding off into the "sunrise" on his bike,
... and other cameo shots.
When Lily was back with us we did some fun shots with her.
- We went on a walk with her in the stroller.
- We played with bubbles.
- We played with blocks.
- We played with a soccer ball.
- We played the piano.
- We looked for and prepared snacks.
Lily was such a good sport. She loved all the nice gentlemen that worked with us (Keith, Shawn, & Tom). And, I think that they loved her too. They kept on remarking on how adorable she was, and easy to work with. They loved her little smirks and personality and not being shy for the camera - or looking straight into the camera either.
We then went and dropped off Lily at another babysitters and headed out to do other shots around town.
We started by visiting Ciska's Ice Cream Shop and eating a lot of Hazelnut Ice Cream.
While we were filming at her Ice Cream shop we had a gaggle of girls come and ask us what we were filming for. With a dead straight face, Michal looked at them and said, "The Bachelor - hometown dates." Upon which all the girls got out their phones and took pictures of us, with us, and around us. And then they commenced at texting and letting all their friends know "who" they had just run into. I wonder how disappointed they will be when they find out that Michal was just joking.
Next our crew headed to lunch at "The Filling Station" on Fourth Street. This was the hardest part of filming period. We had to eat and talk about what we wanted in a house. Since we had to do several takes, we had to "restart" eating our meal - so that it would look consistent in the shots on television. I was so, so full - and it was so, so much food. And in the end... they didn't even end up using any of these shots for the show! Then, someone (ahem... Keith) had the bright idea to do it all over again eating dessert in front of the fireplace, while a fire was going.
A) I was already full
B) It was already hot
C) The restaurant was full of families and couples enjoying their meal - and then all eyes were on us. You know how hard it is to act casual when everyone in the restaurant is looking at you and taking pictures of you with their phones? I'll tell you - it's hard! It makes you extremely self conscience.
I was slightly glad when we were done and got to walk around downtown talking about our "expectations". But I was sad because we were informed that we weren't able to hold hands or show any PDA (Public Display of Affection) due to the producers rules and regulations. Bummer.
We concluded the day getting a few more shots of us with Lily doing the same things in case she was more cooperative or the editors liked the second shots more.
We called it a night and thought... if that's day one... and the hardest day... bring on the rest! This will be a cakewalk.
Then we were introduced to -
Day 2 (July 20, 2014):
The home in Lewisville
This is the day we filmed the house that we actually "picked". (It was edited that this was the last house we saw, even though it was the first). This day was the hardest for me. I had the hardest time filming this house. Probably because there weren't many things that I didn't like with this house, but you can't just like everything or else there is no suspense for the show. The crew kept on teasing me about how my "disgusted" face looked so fake and how I needed better lessons in acting. Truth be told, the only things I really was "disgusted" with about this house were the walls and the lack of a pantry (even though they are easy fixes in a home). Which, played out nicely, because that's exactly what they edited to appear on the show. I think its because it was natural for me to not like those things and that's why it ended up showing. There were so many positives that, I'm sure, it was really hard for the editors to pick-and-choose which they decided to show.
Day 3 (July 21, 2014):
The New Construction
I loved this home even more... except for the fact that it was really quite far away from Michal's work (even further than the Lewisville home). And for this reason, it was in an area we weren't interested in purchasing a home, so it was an easy "NO" for us. Had this home (with the same price) been closer to Michal's work, or in the same ward boundaries that we were living in, I really would have pushed hard for a big yes from Michal. But looking back on the home, even though it was a beautiful move-in-ready type of home... the craftsmanship wasn't that great and there weren't very many fine finishes that made the home really pop and stand out as exquisite and beautiful. I feel like when you are paying that kind of money for a really nice home, it should look... well.. really nice and a lot of things just looked "cheap" or like corners were cut.
^^ Us taking a lunch break.
^^ Exploring the home.
^^ Doing sound checks and action/emotion shots.
^^ Doing personal OTF's (On the Fly) interviews
Day 4 (July 22, 2014):
The Home with a lot of Character.
I'll be honest, when I pulled up to see this home. I hated it. It was on a busy road, there was no back yard, the garage/basement was disgusting. But when I walked into the main living area of the home I fell in love. It was a great, charming home. Just not really new... and not one I wanted to put work into to make the kitchen "mine" and the bedrooms "mine". There were two (possibly three) bedrooms on the main floor and two on the upper floor and I didn't like the idea of being separated from my children and so it made it hard for me to like this home. Plus, the basement was really, ultra, uber gross! It had bars in the windows, moldy looking corners, and the lighting made me feel like I was in a dungeon. It was really awful. Everything about the inside of the main living areas of the home was awesome, but then you walked into the basement and you just got the heebie-jeebies. It was a place I wanted to stay far-far away from. I really hated it. There were several reactions or things that I did in this home trying to be dramatic and funny - and they caught them on film. I had no idea we were filming, I was just being over-the-top melodramatic. And... what do ya know, it was picked to air! My acting skills aren't so bad after all - ha!
As we concluded filming this house, our film guy (Shawn - who we called Patrick Swayze) taught Michal the basics of filming... and let him do some experimentation work with the camera. He was shocked at how heavy it is and how you have to be in shape to follow your subjects around and get all the right angles. I think Michal makes a mighty fine camera man!
The return (August 10, 2014):
When the crew returned to film us all "moved in" to our new home, I'd just been in the home for a mere 4 days. I was even more pregnant and unable to move or unpack a lot of things, so I had an angel sent to help me: Katlyn. She picked up all the heavy items and was such a great organizer that we were able to tackle two rooms at the same time. Then when Lily would take a nap, she'd continue to work on the house while letting me sleep with Lily. I mean - that is seriously an amazing friend! Anyway, I was trying to arrange to have my whole house put together - and while I felt like I did a good job - we were still without a kitchen table, a couch, and... well... pretty much we had NO furniture in the home. So the filming options were slim. We had to stand up for our conclusion interview (which was no problem). After the interview was done, the rest of the filming was revolved around Lily and including her in about every shot. We tried to include her by:
- playing with soccer balls outside in the backyard
- going on a bike-ride in the street
- helping Mommy cook French toast
- showing the crew how she went up and downstairs
- showing the camera man her different body parts
Filming this day was really low-key and not stressful at all. And it went by so quickly. We were done in half the time I had anticipated.
 |
| Katie, Michal, Shawn, Keith, Tom |
My thoughts overall:
I was so, so very terrified that they would make me look picky and negative throughout the whole process, but I am very pleased with how all the editing turned out in the end. They got a nice array of us disagreeing, agreeing, liking, and disliking aspects of all the houses. I was scared we would look silly, awkward, unnatural, or out of our element. And we did look those ways! And I think that because we looked so "shell-shocked" it added to the humor of the show. I just kept telling myself, "Who else gets to document their first home purchase on national television? This was all done in fun and we had a great experience." Of course, I am my own worst critic - but that being said - I felt that being able to laugh at myself and just taking everything in jest, made the show so much more enjoyable and entertaining to watch. I watched it with one eye open and one eye closed - but if I watched the show trying to find all my mistakes and what I did wrong - then I would have found all my mistakes and stressed over what others thought of me. This was a fun experience and I want to remember it that way, so I had to just laugh off all my faults or what others said of me.
Thoughts since the show aired:
- Since the show whenever Michal and I go anywhere together, we at least get stopped once by bystanders asking either: a) that we looked familiar and how did they know us? or b) questions all about the show because they recognized us right away.
- We have even had the FedEx guy who has been dying to deliver a package to us so that he could tell us that he saw us on the show and brag to all his friends that our house is on his route.
- We have had positive and negative reviews on comments online, but it is what it is and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I just think that people who know us and our experience are the only opinions who really matter.
- We have had 2 newspaper articles published about us:
here and
here.
- On March 9, we received our very first piece of "fan mail." That is due to a mistake that the second article made. They published the street we lived on in the article, and then showed a picture of our house (which had the number on it). So put two and two together and you have our address. I was quite upset about it because I have to be cautious for the next few weeks - but after that I think everything will settle back down to normal. I've even had some sleepless nights afraid people are going to break into our home since they know the layout (as seen on TV).
- Maybe our next adventure on TV should be "The Amazing Race" (I'm just saying').
