The highs and lows of our contest makeover

Let me just start out with the highest of the highs. The Agena family has been an absolute dream to work with, sincerely. They truly deserve this $30,000 living room makeover. They’ve risen to every challenge, they’ve done the homework I’ve asked of them, they’ve been learning and applying what they’re learning, and making time for our schedule, all while working full-time and managing a busy household with four young, active kids.

As for the lows, being overwhelmed pretty much sums it up. For six years I’ve remodeled and fully furnished homes, so I know what it’s like to juggle schedules, act as a general, and keep the job and crew going. But boy, has this one been challenging!

Not only have I been acting as project manager to keep job and crew going, see that things get done on time and all the sponsors are happy, I’ve also been cramming a top-to-bottom living room remodel into seven weeks, mapping out a script, and coordinating the job schedule with a shooting schedule in order to turn this entire makeover into a one-hour TV show!

Aaaarghhh! What a nightmare! One person’s ready to move to the next step, but we can’t, because we haven’t filmed or photographed it yet. And by the time we’re ready, they’re not.

And throughout it all, I’m teaching the Agenas design and décor lessons to help them achieve their dream space.

But when they’re telling me how much they’re enjoying it and how much they’ve learned already, I know it’s worth it. And in the end, when the show airs on KITV, I know you’ll agree with me.

But until then, I. Am. Stressing!

See you next week!

OMG, I can’t begin to tell you how crazy things have been! We’re a week into videotaping our $30,000 Style My Room makeover show, and the Agenas have been an absolute dream to work with.

They’re positive, can-do personalities, which is perfect because they’ve dealt with all four kids coming down with stomach flu, a super-early appearance on KITV4, full-day excursions to scope out flooring, lighting, window treatments and furniture, and repeated invasions by an army of contractors and videographers—all in one week. I’m going to let them tell you all about it—you can follow their blog right here at this website, by going back to the homepage.

Right now I’m in a whirlwind of packing for a family trip to Lake Tahoe. I promised Darrell and Nicki that for the next five days, there’ll be no blogging or e-mailing! No skiing either, for me anyway. Say what you want, I guess I’m just not a natural! While everyone is on the slopes, my plans are to curl up in front of the fireplace with a mug of hot chocolate and some magazines to drift through … and before I know it, I’ll be back, fully recharged and ready to go!

Here’s hoping those of you with Spring Break plans are looking forward to some well-deserved R&R with your families. And to everybody out there, Happy Spring!

And … rolling!

Our grand prize winners, the Agenas, had known for a week that they had won our Style My Room contest. No one can say grass grows under our feet: we started production on our one-hour Style My Room Makeover special yesterday, the very day The Honolulu Advertiser announced that the Agenas had won.

We set our call time for 9 a.m. Because we were invading a family’s home, we decided not to set a crazy-early call time like some of the days during production of our DVD last year. The Agenas do have four young kids, after all, and we didn’t want to cause too much commotion on a Sunday morning in their quiet neighborhood.

Our crew consisted of two video guys, our director, James, two grips (lighting guys), and of course Lissa, Kara, Melissa and myself—talk about a full house!

We shot the first segment outside on the sidewalk, and were probably the talk of the neighborhood. Cars slowed down to watch, neighbors came walking by, everyone wondered what all the commotion was about.

We shot the rest of the morning inside the house, which would have been a little bit cooler if not for all the lighting we had. The kids were great. Sarah, the youngest, was really cute. She kept going around yelling, “…and … Action!” I don’t know where she got that from, because James doesn’t say that! But it was very funny.

Once their part was done, Jo Ann’s mom and brother came to pick them up, because we knew they would soon get bored with our rigid schedule.

We are a low-budget production. There’s no hair and makeup person—well I guess there is: me! And we don’t have a great lunch table with all the fixins. Papa John’s had to suffice. Everyone ate on the fly, whenever they had a moment of down time.

The final shots of the day were done outside, by the infamous clothes line where we ambushed Jo Ann with the great news. This is where we filmed the “confessionals,” where Chris and Jo Ann got to share their thoughts on all the happenings. They were actually put up on little crates to get more of the background greenery into the shot. Lissa was just out of the shot, asking the questions, and we brought out diffuse lighting to make everybody look good.

Stay tuned—this is the first of my behind-the-scenes reports as we stay with the Agenas through their living room makeover.My, my, the things that go on behind the scenes!