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'Designers' Challenge': The Kitchen That

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 April 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Pam Firmin, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

Apr. 4--Katrina

T

alk about a designer's challenge!

HGTV's picture-perfect kitchen makeover at the Woolmarket home of Dawn and Todd Hansen, originally scheduled to air on Oct. 6, 2005, turned out to be just a dry run after Hurricane Katrina put 5 feet of water inside the house and two trees on top of it.

The Hansens are now in the midst of returning their $50,000 Katrina-wrecked kitchen to its pristine "Designers' Challenge" condition. What viewers will see on TV when the long-postponed episode airs at 3 p.m. Sunday was created and taped before Katrina.

"We know how to put it back together," Dawn Hansen told the Sun Herald shortly after the storm.

The home improvement show is a weekly half-hour series that follows one homeowner per episode through the decision of selecting from among three designers' room renovation plans, created just for the homeowner. Viewers watch as the chosen designer brings about a new look for the room.

Coast designers who competed for the Hansens' renovation job are Debbie Batia of Merchiston Hall in Biloxi, Vicki Rhodes of Rug Decor & GCO Flooring in Gulfport, and Herb Moore of Herb Moore Interiors in Ocean Springs, all allied members of the American Society of Interior Designers.

As is typical with home improvement shows, it's all secret until TV unveils the magic. The designers may talk about their ideas but not who won and what was ultimately done.

"Herb and Debbie and I are involved with each other in ASID," Rhodes said, "and joked that whoever got it, we all would help. And we did."

Some aspect from each of their plans was incorporated in the finished room, Dawn Hansen said.

"This has been going on for two years," she said. "Fortunately, we haven't failed to see the humor in it all.

"After Katrina, (the producer) said they were going to go ahead and show it on its planned date. Two weeks later, they called and said they were taking it off because it was a sensitivity issue following the storm. I don't know who had the issue; we didn't. The designer didn't."

It was finally scheduled for Thursday, April 6, then bumped to allow a new summer show called "Landscapers' Challenge" in its prime time slot.

Work on the kitchen was completed in September 2004, and the final walk-through was in October 2004.

The way the show works, Hansen said, "is the homeowners set a budget and pay for everything, but we got a lot of items free or discounted in exchange for credits on the show, so it turned out to be a nice way to remodel for a lower cost. The designer did the shopping.

"One of the biggest benefits of actually doing it for the show," she said, "is we had the privilege of three designers' ideas. Kitchens are expensive and sometimes when you do it yourself, it costs you more in the long run for all the trial and errors."

They budgeted $50,000 for the renovation, though she would have been happy with $30,000.

"But they encouraged that figure," she said. "They said it makes for a better show, the more you can afford.

"But of course!"

She puts the retail value of the kitchen at somewhere around $70,000, if they had to pay for it all themselves.

In their Katrina-forced makeover, they are going back to the original suppliers and in some cases, paying more. In other cases, they are getting the same price breaks as they got for the show.

Kitchen cabinets are going to cost retail this time, she said, but the appliances were discounted through Sears the same as for the remodel, and the paint was still free. Insurance coverage makes up the difference.

Today, Dawn Hansen said, "I have a makeshift kitchen in my new 'Designers Challenge' kitchen.

Debbie Batia, Merchiston Hall Galleries, Biloxi

My vision was to make it a very comfortable, open and usable kitchen for a growing family, utilizing all available space, making it somewhere everyone would like to be. They have two young daughters and wanted a kitchen the whole family could eat in, do coloring in, do a lot of baking. I wanted to make it the main room in the house and the most comfortable room in the house.

Vicki Rhodes, Rug Decor & GCO Flooring, Gulfport

Dawn and Todd Hansen are avid "Designers' Challenge" watchers. She went on the Internet, found out the show would be traveling and she entered their kitchen. It was very outdated. She's a do-it-yourself-type person and had done a lot of the rest of the house herself, but didn't know what to do with the kitchen. She entered. They selected her.

All three of us (designers) are allied members of the ASID. Once you say you're willing to participate, (producers) sent videotape of the Hansen kitchen. We each got one meeting when we could measure and talk. We weren't allowed to say "How do you like this?""What do you think about that?" like you normally do with a customer. We had to go in and listen.

You can see it

What: "Designers' Challenge" featuring three Coast designers and the Biloxi kitchen of Dr. Dawn and Todd Hansen.

When: 3 p.m. Sunday on HGTV. It will be rebroadcast later on in a prime time slot.

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Debbie Batia, Merchiston Hall Galleries, Biloxi

My vision was to make it a very comfortable, open and usable kitchen for a growing family, utilizing all available space, making it somewhere everyone would like to be. They have two young daughters and wanted a kitchen the whole family could eat in, do coloring in, do a lot of baking. I wanted to make it the main room in the house and the most comfortable room in the house.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

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Source: The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.)

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