HGTV Heads East of the River

• July 29, 2010
• 10 Comments

by Mark Wellborn

1214 U Street SE

The first home to be featured on the DC season of HGTV’s My First Sale will not be a Federal row house in Georgetown or a two-bedroom condo in Logan Circle, but rather a renovated home in Historic Anacostia.

The home may look familiar to some as it was featured on UT a couple months ago. Owner David Garber (the brains behind blog And Now, Anacostia) spent eight months rehabbing and renovating the property, and now gets the chance to show off his work to a national audience.

The production company for the show approached Garber about featuring his home after reading hi blog and learning about the renovations that he had completed. After two auditions, Garber and his agent Darrin Davis got word that they were in.

Kitchen

“The filming is ongoing, and won’t end until the house is actually sold,” Garber told UrbanTurf. “So far there have been about three full days of filming, and on one of those days we were required to bring a change of clothes to make it seem like it was a new day.”

The first day of filming involved covering the pricing of the home, as Davis pointed out the positives and negatives and the two settled on a price of $289,800. The following segment filmed the staging appointment as Susan Campbell of Lemon Tree Staging explained what should be done, and the furniture was delivered. The most recent taping was of the broker’s open house.

Living Room

The change of clothes mentioned above was just one part of the illusion that is reality television, as Garber also told us that he did multiple takes of each scene and had to reenact key events that weren’t filmed when they actually took place.

“It’s easy to fall into the habit of acting like the show is scripted because we are fed possible lines like ‘so, I think I need to drop the price,’ ” Garber said. “But I won’t lie, it can be fun.”

Bedroom

Despite the formulaic aspects of the show, Garber is happy to have the opportunity to show off the Historic Anacostia neighborhood, and some of the things that have been done to the house to make it more attractive. For example, he got a grant from the city to do sustainable/native landscaping at the house, a process he thinks will be a great teaching opportunity for a national audience.

Garber’s agent Davis has been equally satisfied with the experience.

“When David approached me with the idea I was interested, but not sure about the show because I’d never seen it,” Davis told UrbanTurf. “I realize now that it will be a great opportunity to let viewers know that despite what you’ve heard or seen on the news, this neighborhood is a great place to live.”

This article originally published at http://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/hgtv_heads_east_of_the_river/2320

10 Comments

1. Yay Anacostia said at 1:54 pm on Thursday July 29, 2010:

   I am thrilled that the rest of the country will get a chance to see this area of DC that has changed a lot in recent years.

1. Mary said at 2:39 pm on Thursday July 29, 2010:

   That’s great! I love his blog and the great photo essays about Historic Anacostia. It’ll be neat to see how the program turns out. Plus, I think it’s fun to see DC programs set in recognizable DC neighborhoods, as opposed to one my stretch of the exurbs.

1. Mary said at 2:42 pm on Thursday July 29, 2010:

   er, “one more stretch of the exurbs”, that is.

1. Darrin D. Davis said at 4:54 pm on Thursday July 29, 2010:

   Thanks for this great article on this great property! I’m hopeful that this show is just another step showcasing the positives of east of the Anacostia River neighborhoods to the rest of the Washington metropolitan area and country.

   Darrin Davis, Broker/Owner
   Anacostia River Realty

1. AnacostiaFan said at 8:24 am on Friday July 30, 2010:

   Wow, the house looks beautiful! If only I were looking to buy…

1. Lisa said at 9:18 am on Friday July 30, 2010:

   Susan Campbell of Lemon Tree Staging did a beautiful job furnishing and decorating the house to help it sell. Very nice!

1. Kathleen Clarkson said at 10:20 am on Friday July 30, 2010:

   Susan Campbell did a lovely job staging the home.  The colors, the elegant simplicity - Ms. Campbell, I may have to translate your style - to my home.  Spectacular job.

   Kathleen Clarkson

1. L Green said at 12:22 pm on Friday July 30, 2010:

   Great job!  Hopefully the local news will pick up the story and showcase the positives of Anacostia.

1. Leo said at 10:04 am on Saturday July 31, 2010:

   This is a very nice article hi-lighting the possibilities for Anacostia.  Beautiful home!  Kudos to the owner for a job well done.

1. Doug Francis said at 6:55 pm on Monday August 2, 2010:

   Really nice photography especially the right side of the kitchen photo where a plant eases the edge of photo… well done. Hope they show plenty of those floors on TV!

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