Should homeowners stay or should they go?
Love it or List It co-hosts deal with everything from redesign and resale, to coercing and counselling
If you consider yourself a home-reno show devotee, then you are likely familiar with the question: “So, are you going to love it or are you going to list it?”
Since 2008, no-nonsense designer Hilary Farr and veteran real estate agent David Visentin have been posing this very question to frustrated homeowners as co-hosts on the popular series, Love It or List It, which airs on HGTV, W Network and the Oprah Winfrey Network.
Each episode follows a family divided about whether to fix up their current home and stay, or purchase a new home and move.
Armed with a list of wants and needs, Farr gets to work reimagining and recreating properties in hopes of convincing families to stay, while Visentin sets out to find a new abode that checks all of the must-have boxes, all amid a playful exchange of witty, ping-pong-style banter between the pair. “I try to make them remember how they felt when they first walked through that door,” Farr says.
“They did love it once. At one point, they were as excited as anybody else when they bought their home. At some point, they got the money together and they stepped in and it was theirs. They probably addressed what they could afford to do and stopped seeing the deficiencies in the house and made it work the best they could. Then one day, they wake up and they’ve tipped over the edge because they’re standing outside the bathroom waiting their turn one time too many.”
Some properties simply need a refresh, a new set of eyes to reveal the hidden potential, whereas others require major renovations, from tearing down walls and digging out basements to relocating entire rooms. Some are in such terrible shape and overwhelmed by disorganization, it is difficult to imagine them ever becoming beautiful and functional. “We get complacent,” says Visentin. “We get used to living in the muck that we’re living in and we don’t really notice it until we really start to look around.”
Farr and Visentin agree that when there’s insufficient space in a house, it may be time to call in the movers and bid the place farewell.
In other words, a hot new designer kitchen or master ensuite won’t do much long-term if family members are still crammed in overall.
“There is the hassle and expense of having to move, but I think there’s a point when you have to accept that your home does not work anymore,” says Farr.
“If you have five children in a twoand-a-half bedroom house, that’s just not going to work.”
Even so, some of the show’s guests refuse to budge.
“Most of the time, it’s location,” Visentin says.
“It could be kids going to the same school. It could be them being used to the neighbours. It’s hard to compete with that. It’s hard to tell some- body, ‘No, that’s not important . . . the extra bedrooms and the extra bathrooms are what you really need.’ Some of the people we’re dealing with have been in their homes for a long time. The people that have been in there only a year or two, they’re easier to sway, but the ones that have been in there 20 years, it’s like pulling teeth, even if they’re still dealing with homes that don’t really meet their needs.”
Getting conflicted couples on the same page isn’t always possible, and Visentin and Farr are no strangers to being the targets of terse, emotional mudslinging.
“Every designer will tell you that marriage counselling is part of the job,” says Farr.
“You are two separate people. And now you’re being asked to make strong choices. All I can do is guide people with a certain degree of bossiness. At some point, I will have to give in.”
This means if the husband insists his great grandmother’s oversized trunk has to stay, then “you have to find a place to put it. You just do.”
“Melding two aesthetics is difficult but it can be done,” Farr says.
“It’s a really delicate balance. You just try to keep the marriage together. I don’t always succeed at bringing harmony into the picture.”
Farr believes even the roughest looking spaces can be reworked and given new life.
For do-it-yourselfers on a budget, she advises visiting furniture and decor stores that have designers on the floor to help.
As for quick and easy refreshers on a slim budget, Farr suggests adding pops of colour with accent pillows and throws, updating paint colour, lampshades and area rugs, and switching knobs on kitchen cupboards to make a space look new again.
“There’s always a way to save a house,” Farr says. “There’s always a way to make a house beautiful and function.”