Posted: Fri, 7 Aug 2009 02:07 PM - 9,298 Readers
By: Nicole Villalpando
In late July, HGTV's "Bang for Your Buck" swooped into Austin to film three outdoor living spaces.
The show, which will air this month, compares the three $95,000 remodels. Show designer Monica Pedersen and local real estate agent Jason Hill of Austin City Living will determine which homeowners got the most in resale value for their money. The show is on Fridays at 8:30.
The three sets of homeowners don't know the results yet, but during the filming, they did watch some of Pedersen's and Hill's feedback. Then the show filmed some of the homeowners' reactions.
The three properties are all very different, Hill says. They are all very beautiful, he says, but "when you looked at return on investment, there was some question raised."
Hill, who has been selling real estate since 2006 and whom you might know as a former anchor of KVUE's morning news, cannot disclose the winner, but he does say it was close.
"Sometimes you are surprised at how the numbers come back," he says. "But just because you spent a lot of money, it may not be the greatest thing when you go to sell the house."
Associate producer Jenna Friederich says the three homes were chosen because "frankly, their outdoor living spaces were phenomenal." The show also wanted homeowners who were passionate about the renovations.
The show found the homes through the local chapter of the National Association of the Remodeling Industry, which asked its members if they wanted to submit their projects.
The three spaces chosen are a backyard near Rollingwood with a bocce ball court, Ping-Pong table, horseshoes area, an outdoor kitchen and dining space; a watery oasis near Mesa Drive and Spicewood Springs Road with a pool, hot tub, grotto, slide and a covered grilling and eating area; and a Hill Country setting in the new Crystal Falls neighborhood of far Northwest Austin with an infinity pool, a hot tub, bar and an amazing view.
John Martin of Straight & Level Construction submitted Katie and Richard Willis' backyard near MoPac Boulevard and Bee Cave Road.
The Willises went from an overgrown yard that wasn't very functional to a space that entertains their friends, their two teenage boys and all of the boys' friends.
On the weekends, the family also does most of its cooking in the outdoor kitchen.
The two days of filming were nerve-wracking, says Katie Willis. "There were 15 people watching us react and you're trying to be clever and you wanted it to be good for them."
Some of the feedback they did receive: There should be grass, and a water feature would be nice.
Richard Willis, who works as a health-care consultant, says there isn't enough room for a pool, and they took out the grass to have a low-maintenance backyard.
The backyard will be part of the local remodeling association's tour Oct. 24-26. It has already won awards from the association on the local and regional level. The yard was finished in late 2007 in time for a New Year's Eve party.
Ted and Cynthia Regnier's backyard near Spicewood Springs Road features a revamped pool, a hot tub, waterfalls, a water slide, a new covered porch and a grilling area. The Regniers owned the house for 18 years when they moved to be on Lake Austin. After a few years, Ted Regnier says, they decided they weren't "lake people." They bought the house back in 2005 and had Audino Construction Inc. redo the entire house and the backyard.
Now they use the space all the time. Ted Regnier, who insures volunteer fire departments, reads the paper out there every morning, and the grandkids and neighborhood kids all use the pool and water slide.
"Let's just put it this way: I'm always going out there picking stuff up," Regnier says.
The feedback they received: There should be an outside sink, and the patio cover should be cedar.
Regnier says putting a sink by the grill would have required changing the elevation of the patio, and there are three sinks nearby. When they redid the patio, they removed all the cedar for a more modern look.
"The owners wanted something more of an upgrade," says Mark Audino, vice president of Audino Construction Inc. "We put in African mahogany tapered columns with stone pedestals. Basically, cedar was dated and funky."
The house and its outdoor space won national and regional awards from the remodeling association.
The owners of the third outdoor living space did not respond to requests for an interview.
