Do you take this house?
They do, on `House Hunters'
If you missed HGTV's "House Hunters" episode this week featuring Troy and Denise Schroder — in their third charming appearance — you missed a big hoot. A bunch of hoots, actually.
The Realtor couple, agents with Keller Willams Realty Elite, 5629 N Classen Blvd., made it seem like a "home movie," indeed, as we tagged along on their loosely scripted adventure of shopping for a new home.
They wind up buying one of their own listings, a doll of a Victorian-style house in Yukon that Denise fell in love with years ago. In fact, she called it The Dollhouse, a lover's pet name picked up for the show. Pet name? Hey, she said she loved the house so much she wanted to marry it. Hoot!
It's OK! The house is 21, built in 1998. Hoot!
She must have loved it. Left unsaid in the show is that Denise and Troy have owned the house for eight months, which they managed to keep a secret from almost everyone. Remember, it's "reality TV," which means purportedly unscripted, which means loosely scripted/ad libbed, with people "portraying," which means "depicting," themselves. Wink. For fun. Hoot!
I mean she really must have loved the house, which is a hoot because in the show, Troy is the one all but pledging his troth to the place, and Denise is playing the hard sell — because she didn't have it listed for sale for long at all before they bought it.
She tried to spurn its wooing. She did put it on the market. It was the Listing of the Week in the Real Estate section on Nov. 18, 2018. But it was too much:
"The 5,180-square-foot home at 4105 Lake Drive has four bedrooms, five baths, one half-bath, two studies, two dining rooms and four living areas. The home has cathedral ceilings, storage and natural light flow throughout, and newer whitewashed wood floors downstairs.
"The kitchen has brick flooring, a pantry and highend appliances. The master suite features a striking view, a large walk-in closet, Roman shower, jetted tub, plus a private nook with exit door to the third-floor widow's
(walk). Secondary bedrooms connect to a bathroom. The wraparound covered porch and multiple overlooking balconies look onto a lush lake. The home has an outdoor kitchen, in-ground pool and hot tub, and a grand cedar arbor."
And she really, really does love the house, now remodeled to correct some things she probably genuinely objected to in the show. When she first got the listing, she posed in front of it wearing a wedding dress and holding a giant mock wedding ring, for a video and photos. Hoot, hoot, and hoot!
That "twist," and the backstory to it, didn't make the final cut for the show, as Denise explained Friday in an email.
"The twist to the show was that I had shot some photography for an eighth grade girls dance 10 years ago at this dollhouse," she said. "I have loved this house for so long and it was my dream listing. ... For the open house, I put on my wedding dress and (made a) video: 'You'll love this house so much you will want to marry it!' And I had my big party store diamond ring on. I had always dreamt of living in a house like this.
"I can remember that feeling walking up the walkway to come take pictures here 10 years ago thinking I could never live in a place this magical or incredible. After I did the video in my wedding dress right before the open house I walked back in the front door and the seller said to me, 'You love this house so much, you should buy it.' I just shrugged it off, then a few days later we were in negotiations to buy this house, lol! And we are living happily ever after in this landmark home in Yukon, aka, The Dollhouse!"
There was one sad hoot: Denise's 17-year-old kitty, Phoebe, was in some scenes. She crossed the rainbow bridge before the show made it on TV.
"My late kitty was a scene stealer and did not make the final cut," Denise said. "And me in my wedding dress in front of the house was truly the finale moment of the