Our show will air tomorrow night at 10 pm EST - woo hoo! I've lost over 25 lbs since they produced the show last July so I'm a bit worried to see how I look!
Please send any show comments to me at: susanspeaks@bellsouth.net
We just got back last week from Las Terrenas and we made a major improvement: we had the floors of the villa covered with beautiful white ceramic tiles--- It made a huge difference! It was a big mess for 5 days, but totally worth the time (and pesos!)
Steve grilled alot on the outdoor grill, including fresh red snapper he bought on the beach that morning--
I'm plotting my return this summer when I will get some cheap-but-safe dental work done!
January 19, 2009
The show's air date has changed! I last reported our show would air February 24th; however, I just learned that was the date the show is being "sent" to HGTV and it will actually air Tuesday, March 24th! We return to Las Terrenas March 6th and I'm counting the days!
December 22, 2008
Steve and I visited Las Terrenas over Thanksgiving and made MANY improvements to Casa Pura Vida. We now have Cable-TV with 22 channels (including CNN and TNT), DVD player, High-speed Internet and a great HOT shower! :)
We hired a wonderful gardener named Ismael (pictured with me at right) who will look after our "jungle" and will also take care of our pool. And our new carpenter (Clive) built us a daybed and table and is now building us cabinet doors for the kitchen. Each time we get new renters we order new improvements!
One reason we love Las Terrenas so much is because of the new friends we've made there. Clive's 10-year old grandaughter, Martina, came to watch him build the daybed and though she speaks no English and I speak VERY little Spanish, we had a great time swimming and playing on my laptop (I turned her on to Barbie.com!)
Martina is pictured at right on Clive's motorcycle which she gets to drive!!
But, our FAVORITE person is our property manager Steve Huffine ("Huff"). There's NO problem Huff can't handle and, frankly, we couldn't do any of this this without him. He's married to Nancy a wonderful Dominican woman who plans weddings and other special events and is a talented landscaper and horticulturalist. We plan to have Nancy add even MORE tropical plants to our 1/4 acre property.
I stayed a week by myself at Casa Pura Vida and felt very safe because it is walled and gated (pictured).
Each afternoon I'd meet Huff and his friend Paul at the beachfront Palapa Bar after their daily ocean swim (notice I said "AFTER their swim! :) I'd then walk along the beach into town and visit with other new friends at "Kelly's" --a restaurant owned by an amazing Canadian woman. Again: it's the people that make Las Terrenas so special!
If you'd like to visit Las Terrenas, we're renting our house (when we're not there!) for $500-600 week and we've already received GREAT REVIEWS from our first two guests. Please read them here:
http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p202857
November 20, 2008
Many of you have asked, "when will the show air?" Well, I just received the following email from Donna with Pietown Productions: “The tentative air date for your show is February 24, 2009. This could change so keep checking the HGTV website for any updates.”
Woo hoo! We're really happy because Donna also said it was taking some of the shows they shot more than a year to air!
Steve and I are going back to Las Terrenas this Sunday, Nov. 23 and I'm staying through Dec 10th (Steve has to return to Louisville for some "important" basketball games!)
Hopefully I'll be able to hook up my laptop to the Internet and I can stay in touch with y'all- Casa Pura Vida is now rented a total of 8 weeks, through mid-February, 2009.
This is the rental link: http://www.homeaway.com/vacation-rental/p202857
I'm going to start planning "Gals Get-Aways" for next year-- Stay tuned for details!
August, 26, 2008
Steve and I were in Las Terrenas (Dominican Republic) from July 29-Aug 6 and most of the time we were either taping House Hunters or getting our new house READY for the "one month later" segment. But the whole experience was terrific. Producer Michele, sound tech Stuart and camerman George came from L.A. and were real pros. They were so good at their jobs, they made what could have been totally tedious, actually alot of fun! Miguel (cool guy from Las Terrenas) was the production assistant.
Each scene required several takes to make sure the sound and lighting were PERFECT. So it took almost six hours to shoot EACH house!
They first taped us at Casa Pura Vida (the house we were actually buying for $170,000) and we had to "curb our enthusiasm" and point out the negatives.
The next day we taped at House #2 which was miles from anywhere, cost $60,000 MORE, no private pool and it was way too big; but we had to pretend it was a real option!
Now, House #3 was really nice! It cost $50,000 more than our house, but it was brand new and had 3 bedrooms on two levels-- I freaked Steve out by asking if we could buy this house instead! But once we returned to Casa Pura Vida, I realized we had definitely bought the best property :)
Saturday night, after all three "potential" houses had been taped, we all met for dinner at a wonderful restaurant and then went dancing! Las Terrenas has great, casual nightclubs right on the beach with no cover charge and everyone dances, especially after a couple Cuba Libres (rum and coke)!
We spent Sunday fixing up our house with all the decorative stuff and linens we'd brought from home- We'd had the red floors painted light blue while we were taping the other houses--what a huge difference that made! And I just picked tropical flowers from our own backyard to add instant color-
Eventually we'll add a second bathroom and really fix-up the pool area and yard, but this was all we could do in three days!
The last shot was the final "Welcome Party"- Our fantastic realtors Danny and Bruce came, along with Sonia, who I'd met that week and is already a great new friend! House Hunters gave us $50 for refreshments and we had small sandwiches, fruit and lots of El Presidente beer!
Sonia also brought a plate of home-made butter cookies. After we stood next to the pool for the obligatory toast to our new home, the camera was finally turned off and it was a "wrap!"
The producer says it will take 6 months to edit the episode, so the show won't air until next year :( But (like my sister Kathy says), "the joy is in the journey," and we had a wonderful ride!
Here's the link to our rental page if you want to visit! http://www.Homeaway.com/202857
Thursday, July 24, 2008
This is my first-ever blog so I can keep all you House Hunters fans posted on our experience.We actually leave in 9 hours to return to Las Terrenas to shoot our episode so this first posting will be brief;
First, what everyone wants to know: how did we get to be on the show! When we went to the Dominican Republic in February to look for a vacation/rental house, our realtor said, "House Hunters is looking for an American couple to be on the show."I almost fell off my chair because I'm an obsessive House Hunters viewer! I can recite all of Suzanne Wong's opening lines!So, we sent the segment producer with Pietown Productions a short "audition video" of Steve and I showing our home in Prospect, Kentucky and a week later we learned we'd made it!!
There are four "acts" in each episode and they taped "Act One" a month ago here at our house and now we go back to Las Terrenas to shoot Acts Two-Four.We receive $1500 stipend (I knew you were wondering about that!) and all the fame we can handle -ha!
We bought the house as an investment to offset our tanking IRA's and plan to rent it most of the year to the many Europeans who visit Ls Terrenas (mostly French and Italians). We'll visit it ourselves a few weeks each year (I just can't leave Sally, our dog, very long!)
The following link has our first pictures of Las Terrenas and new house.Click each "thumbnail" for a better view and captions.Here are pictures of our house.
SPOILER ALERT: Yes.....we already know which house we're buying before we shoot the show--don't tell anyone!I will write again and post new pictures when we get back to the states-:) Susan
