THERE is another home improvement program on television. Not again, you might say. It is called Instant Dream Home, not to be confused with Dream Home Makeover.
If that is not confusing enough, there is another show and its title is Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (because there are editions where faces, not homes, undergo makeovers).
Is there a shortage of catchy titles? I am being flippant. Instant Dream Home, after all, is a heartwarming addition to shows that address the basic human desire to possess an abode, where a family, to use a cliche, can make dreams together.
What is a product if it does not have a competitive advantage? Instant Dream Home has this in its promise to overhaul, redesign, restructure a house in 12 hours. This deadline is at the core of the program—to finish a house in a day. There are many factors going for Instant Dream Home. One of these is the novelty of addressing situations in ordinary homes in less fancy addresses. Compared to Dream Home Makeover, for instance, it is more common in Instant Dream Home to find houses with decrepit parts and grounds left unattended.
From the point of view of audiences from less affluent countries, there is less feeling of wastage when a house is rid of its broken furniture, like in Instant Dream Home. In other home improvement shows, we grimace when old serviceable floors and carpets are removed and thrown into trucks for disposal.
In one episodeof Dream House Makeover, for example, a couple has sought the services of Shea and Syd McGee of Studio McGee because the interior of the house they recently acquired was arranged in such a way that they could not enjoy the exquisite view outside. The design studio proceeds to alter the luxuriously appointed living room and kitchen. Nothing of this sort happens in Instant Dream Home, where prospective homes are all badly needing repair.
One more exciting thing about Instant Dream Home is the process of selecting the recipients of these generous projects. A nominator brings to the attention of the production team a particular home and family. This nominator is responsible for taking all the members of the family from their home early in the morning at 7 and kept away somewhere far from their place till 7 in the evening. We of course give the program the benefit of the doubt in how they are able to maintain the whole grand endeavor under wraps. Unless the nominating person is part of the family, no one from the house has an idea that when they come back, they will be surprised by their house, its facade either replaced or painted with an outstandingly different color.
After 12 hours, the family goes back to a changed house where the living room has grown bigger because walls were shifted, or to a lush garden that did not exist before.
In an episode of nine home-schooled children, a “schoolbuilding” was built right in the backyard. In another episode, a mini pool and a basketball court were set up behind the house.
Outside the renovation and repair, there is a factor that makes Instant Dream Home memorable. This is the choice of recipients of the boon. The first episode is an eight-hankie presentation without really trying. Titled “Mission: Renovate Buitekant,” it involves a family of three, with a baby about to be born. The home is a small two-bedroom bungalow that has belonged to Beth-Anne, the mother, for some 40 years. By the time of the renovation, Beth-Anne has lost her vision. Her daughter, Ruby-Beth, lives with a partner. The mother, in particular, has been known to lead an active life, joining cause-oriented meetings including advocacies for racial justice, a sense of civic duty inherited by her daughter. The person who nominated them believes they need to be the receiver now because they have been givers for a long time.
For every renovation, there is a focus on a design which is dubbed “Special Project.” In this case, the project is aimed at Beth-Anne’s welfare. The team builds a garden with gravel and plants composed mostly of herbs. The team calls it “the sensory garden.” When Beth Anne steps on the gravel, she would immediately feel that she is in the garden and the herbs will give off scents to draw her in further. It is a simple solution but one that has something to do more with being human than achieving any desired aesthetics.
One of the surprises for the couple in this episode is how the team, given how cramped the whole bungalow is, develops a functioning space for a nursery.
Responsible for the massive renovation for each episode is a team of designers and hundreds of crew taking over the house after the owners have been reported or sighted as having left the premises. The design team, led by Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black), has Erik Curtis (carpenter), Adair Curtis (interior), Nick Cutsumpas (landscaper), and Paige Mobley (special project).
With seemingly less focus on design aesthetics, one would think the renovation will simply be slapdash (there are reviews that seem to question how stable the repairs are). That impression is a bit unfair. In many difficult situations, the team, especially head carpenter Erik, who also taught 3D design and woodworking, manages to provide solutions that are extraordinary—and maybe expensive. One of these is a small “school’’ hoisted up by a giant crane over the house itself to be planted in the backyard. Nothing beats the time a helicopter is employed to bring heavy glass windows to serve as part of a roof. The glass windows open to a terrace above the house, made for a gay couple, one partner a firefighter who loves his mother dearly.
There is a great lesson we should not miss in this program, and that is the value of good planning. Weeks before the actual implementation of changes, the team meets at a warehouse where they simulate the conditions similar to the beneficiary house. They rehearse and practice with all kinds of interventions.
Instant Dream House, which has landed in the Top 10 list of most-viewed titles in various territories, is streaming on Netflix.
Image credits: Netflix