The majority of the conflict in home renovation shows comes from the homeowners balancing their wants, their budget, and practicality. When it comes to specials where the home-building or home-renovating celebrity is building or renovating of their own place, however, there’s no longer any mention of budget. Wants are only occasionally balanced with practicality.
Fixer Upper: Colorado Mountain House is no exception wherein Chip and Joanna Gaines buy and renovate a house in the Colorado mountains to be closer to skiing in the winter with their five kids. The retreat features three buildings to renovate: the main house and two guest suites. The main obstacle I recall involved Chip and Joanna’s desire for a massive, two-story, wood-burning fireplace, a want that would typically be completely unattainable on an average budget. The catch? On the ground floor, the best spot for the fireplace was to the right of the best spot on the second floor. In the end, they still built the massive, two-story fireplace. They just also built another massive, one-story fireplace next to it and nixed a French door.
Another interesting choice they made was to convert a large walk-in closet to a bunkbed room for 3-4 of their kids rather than designating separate spaces for them. It was a neat room despite it defying the common homeowner desire to give each kid their own space, but I suppose this is more of a vacation home than a permanent residence.
It looks like a cool place overall… but let’s never speak of how much any of this costs.