Rehab Addict

              In many ways I have a love/hate relationship with home remodeling shows.  I love to see what people do to their homes, but what people do to their homes drives me absolutely crazy.  Constantly, houses with old character are being taken apart to make them open concept with stainless steel appliances and granite countertops.  Beautiful wood trim gets painted and bricks are also either painted or completely destroyed.  More often than not these shows make me want to scream, which is why my viewing of them is very limited.           

                Finally I have found a show that I am perfectly happy to watch often and all the way through.  It is Rehab Addict and the host, Nicole Curtis, does not have any interest in turning her houses modern.  Instead she works to turn the house she is working on back to what it was when it was first built.  This is not always easy, but Nicole understands the beauty of the original home and will do whatever she can to make sure it does not get thrown away.

                I will say that despite her best efforts, there are times where Nicole is not 100% successful in her goal.  This usually happens when it comes to painted woodwork.  It would be extremely time consuming and expensive to strip all the paint off of the woodwork, even though Nicole would really like to.  I don’t know how many times she has stated her disappointment in seeing painted woodwork.  There are also health risks in stripping paint.  If the woodwork was painted with lead paint, it could be dangerous to try and strip it off.  While I love seeing natural wood, I understand why Nicole would not want to deal with the hazards of lead paint.

                For the most part, painted woodwork is really the only place where Nicole hits a roadblock in her endeavors.  There are other things here and there.  I think one time there was a problem with a radiator and another with old garage doors, but for the most part Nicole is very successful with salvaging what is in the house.  The interesting thing is that often Nicole is able to save the unique qualities of the house with simple fixes.  The tile on the floor may look like it needs to go, but Nicole gets on her hands and knees and cleans it back to what it is supposed to be.  Actually, a lot of the things Nicole saves are done with either cleaning or small patches.  It’s fascinating to watch her turn what most would throw away into useable and unique again.

                Another great thing about the show is Nicole doesn’t just do things, she also explains to the viewer how to do them.  She’ll talk about how much the fix is versus a replacement and show that a lot of things she does people can do themselves at home.  I’m hoping people pay attention to these parts because they could save themselves a lot of money if they follow what Nicole says, and they will keep the integrity of their home. 

                No matter what difficulties Nicole runs into with her homes, they always turn out beautiful. I would love to see one in person to get a close up view of all that she has done. The people she works with are really good at what they do and it would be great to have the opportunity to really examine their work. Some of the skills these people have are difficult to find anymore and I am happy that Nicole has found people with them. It really does make a difference in turning the homes back into what they are truly meant to be.