Ever wonder how reality TV shows manage to completely demolish a home and rebuild it into both beautiful and functional form within 60 mins or less?
So do the people who have to live in them afterwards.
- When a reality-show television producer says “Trust me,” run.
That’s the lesson Gary and Sharon Rosier of Lemont Township say they learned when Fox Broadcasting’s “Renovate My Family” promised them a new and improved home designed to accommodate their recently paralyzed son, Steven.
Instead of a handicapped-friendly home that made their life easier, they got a shoddy wreck of a house that latest estimates say will cost $350,000 to fix, the Rosiers’ attorney, Mark Belongia, said.
“Essentially what they did is build a movie set,” Belongia said.
Wiring remains exposed; door knobs are round, impossible for Steven to grasp; a dryer is vented into the home rather than out of it; smoke detectors don’t work; plywood covers basement windows; siding and plumbing was improperly installed; the furnace has no foundation and is stuffed in a crawl space and sod was installed directly over limestone paving, Belongia said.
“They didn’t care (that it was impossible for the grass to live). All they needed was for it to be green for the episode they shot of the people coming home,” said Belongia, who filed suit on behalf of the family Wednesday in Cook County Chancery Court.
Hollywood can build realistic sets with the best of them, but as we well know, the difference is that the sets are usually - within a couple of hours of completion - incinerated by invading robots, not actually
lived in. Caveat emptor.
Gattigap
Threaded Mode