Friday, November 23, 2007

Dream House

I watched the finale of Dream House Chattanooga on HGTV last night. The story goes like this. An engaged couple bought a piece of land and decided to build a dream house. The girl’s dad is the general contractor and her brother is the project manager.

I only caught a few episodes, but from what I’ve seen I think the dad should’ve given them some tough love. They are a young couple with no kids. Yet they are building a 5-storey house with about 6,500 square feet of space. What do they need with all that space?

Whenever I watched an episode, I get the impression they weren’t really organized and on top of things. They were very indecisive. Like paint for the exterior. It must have taken half an episode of people asking them to make a decision. Also, they have no clear memory of what they decided on and kept no records. The girl thought the cabinets where not what she had picked a month ago, but then couldn’t really remember what it was that she picked. They were about $85K over their original $415K loan and couldn’t afford kitchen appliances.

The dad was saying that after 35 years of being in the business he’s never been late or over budget. So why now? Maybe because it’s harder to be firm with family and tell them things they don’t want to hear.

The daughter admitted that they should have listened to dad more, but they just want, want, and want. How true. Often times we are not even exactly sure what we want. Sure I think I would like a 6500 square feet house with a great view, but then I think of the utilities, the mortgage and the isolation.

The couple put the home on sale a month after it finished. It was just too much space and too much mortgage (hmmm…they probably should’ve known that when they designed it and took out the loan). The home is listed at $1.2 million so they stand to gain from it. But think of the time, effort, and the stress on the family during that one year of construction.

2 comments:

mariam said...

Wow. I agree that the dad should have put a stop to this. That much space for one couple?

I'm even okay with flaunting it if you can afford it but they clearly can't. Mortgage, real estate tax, energy costs.

Heck, just vacuuming the place would scare me.

Esme said...

I didn't even think about the cleaning. 6500 sqr feet of dust, OMG!