HGTV Fixer Upper

This post is about one of my favorite shows of all time - HGTV Fixer Upper.  The owners of the show are the Christian couple Chip & Joanna Gaines, of Waco, Texas.  They are realtors but mainly what their show is about is the renovations of their clients' homes.  Whenever they get a client, a single or a couple, they have the clients come up with a budget - the budget includes the purchasing of the house as well as the renovation costs.  And as the clients are driving to the first home Chip & Joanna show, they exchange their ideas of what they want in the home - lots of land, big kitchen, etc.  Chip & Joanna show them three houses, and then the clients select the one they most wish for.  Sometimes the clients must try to get their chosen house for less than the asking price in order to still have room left in the budget for the renovations.  After the house has been purchased, Chip & Joanna begin renovations - both on the interior and exterior.  Some of the houses need just a few things done, while others need to be almost completely re-done.  A good portion of the renovations include things that the clients want, not necessarily things that absolutely need to be done - for example, Joanna likes to open up walls between living rooms and kitchens to make it feel more open; she also likes to install French doors in many places so that more natural light will flow into the house.  On this show, it seems that Joanna is the stylist and Chip is the "worker" - combining these two talents together make a great team.  As Joanna mentions a few times, she likes to do a little "side project" on each home.  She will recommend to the clients three options for this project, and they will choose the one they like the best.  Especially at this step in each episode, you will notice Joanna's Texas-talk, "y'all."  After everything is done, Chip & Joanna drive the clients to the home, forcing them not to look, to close their eyes.  Then they lead them out of their Suburban, and let them open their eyes to see two huge boards with a picture of the house before the renovations on those boards.  After Chip talks about what the house was before and what it is after, Joanna says the clients' first names, followed by, "Are you ready to see your fixer upper?"  The clients love Chip & Joanna's work.  After showing them the entire renovated place, Chip compares the value of the house before the renovation to the value after.  Each episode is closed with "Welcome home!"

If you are able to access Netflix through a Roku box, you can watch it without going onto cable or satellite.  Just search "Fixer Upper" and you should come up with it.  They show only 13 episodes on Netflix but you'll find more on HGTV - I believe they appear on TV every Tuesday night.  If you do decide to give this show a try if you haven't already, I hope you really enjoy it just like me!