Home to Keep is a home improvement reality TV show from HGTV Canada. The premise of this show is that the host guy goes around to real people's homes (who have applied to be on the show) and fixes the problem area/s of their home with the help of his designer/contractor friends, so that instead of having to move, they have a Home to Keep. It's a really fun, neat show if you like interior design shows, which I do.
The general format of each show goes like this:
- Family has a problem area in their home. Awkward, too small, no storage, etc.
- Peter comes in, talks to them and assesses what needs to be changed.
- He gets the realtor to find them a similar house where they've done something unique and exciting with that room, and shows it to the family to give them ideas of what they could do with their problem area.
- Peter and the contractors get to work.
- Peter and the interior decorator, Liz, choose the look and materials for the area.
- repeat #4 & 5 as needed.
- Peter and Liz decorate the finished room/s.
- Reveal.
- Peter invites the realtor back to show her what they did. She always loves it.
This show, which is half an hour long, moves at a clipped pace through the renos (that's HGTV-speak for renovations). It moves briskly along without spending any time on drama the way an American HGTV show would, even though renovations and changing layouts etc. would organically lead to possible conflicts and problems. Sometimes in the end the couple will casually mention they weren't sure about some change when it was presented to them, but they always say it worked way better than they thought it would/they love the change, etc. The families don't really seem to be involved in the decisions, but that's par for the course in these types of home renovation shows.
What I don't like and would change is that there is no big reveal to the family. I want to see their surprised faces when they see all of the team's hard work! This is probably the biggest difference between this and American renovation shows. US shows are all about the big reveal and tears, etc. The reveal is for us, the viewers, and shots of the before and after are interspersed with footage of the family using their new space and talking heads of them saying how much they love the changes. I also don't like that they show us brief clips of the finished rooms before the end of the show, probably as they go to commercial. I would save it all until the end. I do like that Peter himself also takes on small projects, such as sanding and repainting small pieces of furniture, reupholstering seats, etc.
Overall, this is a fun, interesting show that I love to watch while relaxing. The Canadian accents and friendliness are so soothing, and this show is way better to watch at night than any of my many murder mystery shows as there is no suspense. It gives me lots of great ideas for home projects, and I love it.