photos courtesy of ThomasDigitalPics.com

HGTV dreamHOME 2006 Tour

      We were not certain that a visit to the dreamHOME would be possible, however we located an Internet link at the last minute and we embarked on our trip with reasonable certainty that we might be able to actually see the home.

      On Saturday, March 4, 2006 we left early from our hotel (SpringHill Suites, Asheville) feeling relatively confident that we could locate Lake Lure near which the home is located.  We had seen a Lake Lure exit sign along west bound I-40 on the previous day and w headed east on I-40 to find it.  But, as bad planning usually pays off badly, we found no such sign on the east bound side and decided a little map reading might be in order.

      We determined that we were about 80 miles off in the wrong direction, but my better half found a pleasant secondary route to make up some of the time that we lost.

      Half, or $10, from each ticket sold gets dispersed between three local charities (technically making at least that much tax deductible).   Benefiting are the Boys & Girls Club of Transylvania County, the Lake Lure Lion's Club and Hospice of Rutherford County. They told us that they anticipate more than 40,000 paid visitors while the dreamHOME is available for tours between January 2 and April 7.

      A makeshift foyer let to the main tent where a couple of tables were set up.  There appeared to be a lot of literature at this location, but we were distracted by anxious greeters who took our tickets, signed us in and ushered us into the main tent.  We were handed an 11-page HGTV Dream Home Fact Sheet.  (As a marketing professional, I noticed that the official way to refer to HGTV's dreamHOME is a combined word with "dream" in all lower case and "HOME" in all caps.  Many of the handouts and signs at this location ignored the format and printed Dream Home as two words in various forms of capitalization.)

Inside the tent. the air was warmed by giant heaters and a box of hot Chick-fil-A sandwiches arrived for hungry patrons just after we arrived.  At one end of the tent, a short list of refreshments were sold as well as T-Shirts, commemorative disposable cameras and mugs.  A few makeshift booths were set up by local artisans or the local charities benefiting from the ticket sales. The booths were not all that captivating and I was surprised that HGTV did not motivate dreamHOME sponsors to set up displays for product demonstrations.  I was also surprised that items such as DVDs of the HGTV dreamHOME specials

were not sold.  It may have been a great idea to have DVDs signed by HGTV celebrities raffled off for the local charities too.

      There was one TV in the back of the tent that appeared to be running HGTV segments about the dreamHOME, but when I walked by the video did not seem to be working properly.  In our opinion, there should have been at least two large screens operating, but at least there appeared to be plenty of chairs to sit . . . and to wait.

After about one half hour of waiting, we were summoned.  A chance to pack two people into one of their vans enabled us to leave earlier than planned.                 It was hard to tell, but I am guessing that they had only 4 to 6 vans operating.  They all were relatively unmarked except for the fact that they were rented from Enterprise rent-a-car.

It occurred to me later that I really was not that certain which side of the home was the front and which was the back.  HGTV has always shown the side of the house shown at right to be the rear of the home, however, it is the first view of the home as it is approached.

One must drive around to the other side of the home to park.                         At left, our van approaches what is portrayed by HGTV as the front of the home.

      As the vans pull up, visitors disembark one by one and gather in the home's outdoor living space.  Everyone is welcomed by a Grey Rock marketing professional and given easy-to-abide by guidelines for touring the home.  For the most part, they are to remain on the carpet runners and to not remove any items.  Above, visitors have received their welcome speech as well as some initial information regarding the natural materials used to build the home.  Visitors then proceed toward the direction of the exercise studio beneath the master suite.

We registered to win the dreamHOME once a day every day according to the terms of the sweepstakes.  But as much as we fantasized about winning the home, we wondered why a lot of practical questions were not answered by HGTV.                   One such question was the amount of land that the house sat on or the size of side yards.  Although the home reportedly sits on an approximately 1.75 lot, most of the lot is sharply sloped.

      The image above is a view of the left side of the home.  The fence surrounds a generator which presumably would be removed when permanently connected to underground electricity.

We were also curious about storage.  If this were truly a dreamHOME, there would be ample storage for holiday decor, outdoor equipment, between age clothing for children, memorabilia, etc.                      We did find more storage than we expected, but still not enough if this were to be someone's year round home.  At right is one of several storage areas we found.  We have no idea what the bank of wall switches are for in the closet.

We believe that most people will find all of the rooms in this dreamHOME to be more of a size nightmare.  Entering the office is almost a joke while trying to get past a comfortable chair to sit at the work station.  Many a drink will undoubtedly be spilt here.  To their credit, the project room offers more computer work space, however, that space would be badly needed if the entertainment features of the home were to be utilized.

My computer system alone would not fit on this desk.  I have a tower PC, laser printer, inkjet printer, scanner, stereo speakers, electronic postal scale and much more.  In fact, we currently have two fully equipped home offices in our home.  A dreamHOME of ours would allow for that kind of space.

The master bedroom is as tiny as it appeared to us on television and on HGTVs web site.  We own two antique dressers that we would never give up and it would be a challenge to fit them into this room along side a queen size bed and two end tables.  Admittedly, the access to the porch is appealing, but we fear the door would be inaccessible if we placed furniture in front of it.  Also, our dreamHOME would have an ample size sitting area attached to it.  This one does not.

All of the bedrooms are small if this is truly a dreamHOME where people hang pictures on walls and have more to call theirs than a couple of vases and changes of clothing.  The Sky bedroom is so small, that decorators had to place shelving in front of a window (notice no window treatment on the corner window).

There are plenty of luxurious bathrooms in this home and each one is beautifully tiled.  On the down side, we found substantial cracks in the grout in most if not all of the bathrooms.  Undoubtedly these cracks will be filled for the new owner as part of a walk through, but it requires no imagination to realize that this may well be an ongoing problem as the house's abundance of natural building materials settle and swell in the dramatic changes of climate.

The tall windows throughout the home and the window treatments that go along with them are striking, but they also represent a lot of persistent care to keep them looking clean and fresh.  One volunteer at the house pointed out that anyone that can afford the home, should find no problem affording the labor to keep it clean.

      At below left, a bank of electronics is located next to the hot water heater.  I am not sure how someone plays a CD or DVD without running across the home to this location.

      At below right, are two air conditioners.

      Although the dreamHOME is "free" to the sweepstakes winner and there is a bundle of cash as part of the prize, the reality is that this home would not truly be affordable to most of HGTVs audience.  We were told that property taxes alone for the home currently run $20,000 a year.  That's more than our current mortgage payment alone.  We suspect that as beautiful as the all wood interior is, it is also a costly surface to keep treated; not to mention impossible to patch properly when an interior redesign is underway.

      We didn't ask about local schools because our only son will return to his home in California following his stint in the Army.  But, we could see no practical way a school bus would get close enough to raise children year round.  Serious shopping is a minimum of an hour away and a mall would take much longer.  Forget the impulse to have a pizza delivered or to catch a matinee that starts in twenty minutes.

      While there are bedrooms in the home catering to a lot of children, there is no yard around the home to speak of.  We found no practical spot to spontaneously play softball or for the older kids to skateboard or roller blade.  There appears to be no real estate to build a pool or even a swing set.  The home comfortably stows two vehicles in the garage, but access is too steep and there isn't enough practical places to park trailers or RVs.

      In our opinion the 2006 HGTV dreamHOME will be a great summer place for a very rich family that actually lives elsewhere.  The dreamHOME is not a place to raise children year round nor an appealing place for an older couple to retire.  We find it very difficult to believe that anyone will actually do much more than vacation to this home.  There are no lucrative jobs to commute to from the home and there are limited resources within an hour's drive on a clear day.

      I called the visit to the 2006 HGTV dreamHOME sobering and my wife labeled it as an illusion killer.  Never mind the fact that the potential winners have to have been already notified as we toured the home and that the odds of winning overall are overwhelming anyway.  The fact remains that even if we won, we could never live in the home.  As with past HGTV dreamHOMEs, the winners would still have to find their dream home while selling their HGTV winnings to afford it.

      It would be nice if HGTV really built dream homes that appealed to an audience that looks forward to Design On A Dime and My First Place.  Such a home would account for excellent schools, viable employment venues within an hour's commute, oversized bedrooms with seating areas, walk in closets, decked out home theaters, dual roomy home offices, low maintenance materials and a reasonable property tax base.  Other real world needs would be generous storage, an all-equipped work shop and a minimum three car garage.

      Don't misunderstand us.  We love this home and we would fruitlessly toy with the idea of living there if we won the home.  We understand that people with an income bracket closer to that of Donald Trump's are more financially qualified.  They are just as deserving to win the home as we are.  Their views as to whether this home fits an ideal of a dreamHOME may drastically differ from ours.  To them, this may be an ideal investment property and they may hire a local management company to lease it out throughout the year.  In fact, we believe Grey Rock's assertion that there is a short list of people ready to buy the property from the sweepstakes winner.

      All that said, we just think that this home appeals to a very narrow target market while being labeled as a dreamHOME to a broad HGTV market.  HGTV might be more accurate to label it a "dream vacation home", a "dream investment property" or a "dreamer's second home".  While it would be a dream to win the home, it is impossible to think of it as our "dreamHOME".

Images courtesy of ThomasDigitalPics.com.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:

Contact datj@icwhen.com for information regarding adding a link here.

Click HERE to Print This Page

Click HERE to Return to Main Menu

photos © Donald A. Thomas, Jr.