A Star is Born

No, I don’t mean ME!  Our house had a role on a television show! It was for a Canadian series called Real Houses of…. on the W Network. The premise is each week viewers get to see inside real homes across different areas of the United States and Canada. Ours was Real Houses Of Santa Barbara, which of course makes sense.  By “real”, they mean no cookie cutter houses. It also meant that they don’t do any staging, hair, or makeup….you’re on your own!  The houses range from Mediterranean mansions to midcentury modern ones like ours. The idea is that they are all unique in some way.

How, you might be thinking, did a little house in Santa Barbara find it’s way onto a Canadian television show? About a year ago, I received a call from someone who said she was a producer in Canada and had found the house on a local website (SB Digs) and tracked me down.  While she was explaining the premise of the show, I was barely listening because I thought this had to be some kind of scam.  I told her I would think about it and could I get back to her? Of course, as soon as I hung up the phone, I Googled her and yes, she was a real person AND a producer.  She was from Canada but had recently relocated with her family to Venice, CA.  Hence, the Canadian/US connection.

After discussing it with my husband, I gave her the green light. This was back in September 2014. Hearing nothing for months, we went ahead with the planned installation of our new hardwood floors, to be followed by a huge landscaping project. The floors had turned into a much more complicated process than anticipated (as discussed on this blog post.) When we finally wrapped that up, we started our front landscape project which called for digging everything up, pouring concrete pavers, laying a gravel area, and of course replanting. Our yard looked like a demolition zone.  Lo and behold, the producers called and said they would be shooting in Santa Barbara at the end of January. That gave us less than 2 weeks to finish everything.  The landscape guys and I were literally putting in plants the day before the shoot. We needn’t have been so worried because they didn’t use any of that footage! Geez!

The crew of four guys arrived at 8:30 am and the shoot went until 6:00 pm. To say I was nervous was an understatement. We had a picture perfect sunny California day….but hot for January!

I would have been sweating if it had been 40 degrees let alone 80! The worst part was having to interview and answer questions WITHOUT looking at the camera.  I just couldn’t tear my eyes away from that little red light!  Those poor guys had a ton of patience.

By midday, the speaking parts were done and I felt much more at ease….even more so when they asked if I would invite a friend over to get some shots of us sipping wine. A bottle of wine and a half later, we were finished and I was COMPLETELY relaxed!  All of that for what would amount to 6-7 minutes of air time!

Our episode aired September 29th in Canada. I was beyond nervous. The house looked amazing on tape and while my family said I looked natural, “dork” was the word that came to my mind.  Funnier still, was the way the show was narrated. I came across as an exhibitionist (the outdoor shower with no door, along with the quintessential redwood hot tub) and someone who likes to drink a lot of wine! (evidenced on tape and by my expansive collection of corks). But after all, The Little Glass House was the star of the show and she shined!

Some photos from the shoot (All photos W Network unless specified):