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Living the dream

Family's vision of funky, hillside home becomes real - and reality TV

By Jay Dedrick, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published October 1, 2005 at midnight

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On a hill steep enough to be a ski slope, the Herrs' warm, modern home is bathed in the summer twilight. For nearly a year and a half, camera crews from HGTV and journalists from the Rocky Mountain News followed the Herr family, capturing the exciting - and often frustrating - reality of building a custom home from start to finish.

Photo by Ellen Jaskol © The Rocky

On a hill steep enough to be a ski slope, the Herrs' warm, modern home is bathed in the summer twilight. For nearly a year and a half, camera crews from HGTV and journalists from the Rocky Mountain News followed the Herr family, capturing the exciting - and often frustrating - reality of building a custom home from start to finish.

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BOULDER — The notebook that the future architect carries in his pocket is small, maybe 4 inches by 6 inches. The ideas inside, jotted down in thin red lines, are big. As big as a house. The house he and his wife have dreamed of for years.

In May of 2004, the couple are taking a hike, gingerly stepping over wild iris and cactus, their boots accumulating clumps of the red clay that colors the hillside. Deep green pine trees and tan and gray rocks complete nature's palette in this vivid valley north of town. The notebook is secure in a denim pocket.

The 30-somethings clasp each other's hands, smile, then share a private laugh. It's a peaceful moment:

There are no SUVs cruising downhill from mountain-home garages, no Spandex-clad bicyclists gasping for oxygen as they struggle in the opposite direction, no mule deer nibbling at tufts of grass — all familiar sights and sounds here.

The couple imagine a day when they can sit on the deck of their home, enjoy a glass of wine and soak up the last of the day's rays. Raising their heads to take in the views, they squint, working to form a mental picture of just how that house will look nestled into the land.

They smile, then kiss.

Videographer Michael Flueck gets it all on tape.

As it turns out, Christopher Herr and Tina Galgon-Herr are kissing some of their privacy goodbye.

They've agreed to allow HGTV — and its millions of viewers — to spy while they make their way from landowners to homeowners.

Daring blueprints are unfurled, and tape rolls.

Ground is broken, and tape rolls.

Budgets are busted, and tape rolls.

The couple's first child is born, and tape rolls.

The tale of the tape comes to television in HGTV's Dream House series, the latest installment of which premieres at 6:30 p.m. Monday (repeat at 10:30 p.m.). The 13 weekly, half-hour episodes invite viewers along for architectural meetings, budget-crunching, construction, moving in and decorating — from start to finish.

For the first time in the series' 10-year history, a newspaper is following the same project, and we'll take readers through the journey each week in the pages of Home Front. It's a partnership between HGTV and the Rocky Mountain News, both owned by the E.W. Scripps Co.

Readers and viewers also may follow the project online at RockyMountainNews.com and HGTV.com.

HGTV began seeking a Denver-area family for its Dream House series in early 2004, with hopes of locating a project in the foothills. Friends of the Herrs noticed a call for entries that appeared in the News' Home Front section, and passed it on to Christopher and Tina. They had watched programs like Dream House, imagined taking part would be fun and submitted a video entry.

After reviewing nine pitches, producers picked the Herrs. The couple met the producers' key requirements of being "interesting, approachable and engaging," and they planned to build a visually stimulating house. Boulder's funky feel and natural beauty also interested the producers, as did the Herrs' other ongoing project: a baby. Shortly after Denver-based producers with High Noon Productions started talking with the couple, they learned that Tina was expecting their first child.

Besides the promise of fun, what swayed Christopher and Tina? "We're getting exposure," Christopher says, "and we're getting money."

The network pays the couple $20,000 — half up front; half once the project wraps. "It helps us get there, no doubt about it," Christopher says. The exposure for Studio H:T — the fledgling architectural firm founded by Christopher and his business partner Brad Tomecek — could prove invaluable.

The reality series' cameras captured the fun and not-so-fun realities of building a custom home. Early on, budget surprises delayed the construction start from the spring of 2004 to late summer. The steep hillside location created logistical headaches for builder James Casanova and his subcontractors. With the construction window pushed into winter, weather delays grew common. And conflicts with neighbors and county regulators ramped up the stress level.

In the end, though, Christopher and Tina got what they wanted: their dream house, a defiantly modern structure that serves as a living billboard for Studio H:T.

Months before groundbreaking, Christopher already anticipates what his feelings will be once the product of his imagination has morphed from a notebook's red ink to concrete and steel, wood and glass.

"I'm thinking of this as the house we're in for the rest of our lives," Christopher says. "Once we put down these roots, I'm sure I'll have some reverent thoughts about my grandparents, who — without knowing it — set this thing in motion 41 years ago."

How'd they do that? The story starts today.