“I just don’t trust myself with a power tool, especially right now,” says Pamela, a neighbor/team member on an upcoming “Trading Spaces” episode. “I’m dangerously premenstrual.”
This is the allegedly new and improved “Trading Spaces”? Bubbly host Paige Davis is out, and confessional narratives are in. The series goes “hostless” on Saturday, adapting yet another format in its five-year history.
Set in Santa Fe, the episode centers on Pamela and Andy, who occupy separate houses. They’ve also been dating for 3 1/2 years.
“The idea of doing a room in [Andy’s] house makes me just a little bit anxious,” says Pamela. With help from her roommate, Monica, they upgrade a rec room/art studio at Andy’s. He and his buddy, Don, make over Pamela’s cluttered bedroom, which might be problematic because its built-in shelves were designed by her late husband.
To top it off, carpenter Faber Dewar might have to abandon the project because his fiance is about to give birth.
It sounds more like “Desperate Housewives” than a home-improvement show.
Just a few months ago the show was overhauled to focus on the designers and homeowners, as well as giving them a chance to double their $1,000 budget. In the course of so much retooling, including the “Home Free” contest — in which homeowners competed to have their mortgages paid off — and specialized episodes such as makeovers of Scottish castles, “Trading Spaces” has lost direction. Crew members’ migration to solo projects hasn’t helped, either.
Back in Santa Fe, designers Frank Bielic and Genevieve Gorder and carpenters Dewar and Amy Wynn Pastor guide the projects.
Homeowners and team members offer commentary and engage in what seems like staged chitchat.
Occasionally, though, some statements hit closer to the truth.
“I have no future in the home-improvement industry or as a house painter,” says Don, weary from the day’s work. “I would say that television is out, too.”
That’s one less person who will get his own makeover show.
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Carmel Carrillo is assistant editor of Real Estate. You may contact her at ccarrillo@tribune.com, or write to her at Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611.
