Home Improvement Tips from Television Shows – Good or Bad?

House & Home Articles - Remodeling / Home Improvement

Home improvement programming on cable these days ranges from the typical show on HGTV where they find run-down homes and turn them into charming starter homes to Discovery channel’s Norma Vally, the Toolbelt Diva that teaches women to take charge of their home improvement destiny. Are there great programs out there that take the time to provide good tips on how to beautify or repair the home?

Sure there are. Are they often lacking important details that only a good book or course can teach? That’s true too. Whatever it may be that you’re doing to your home you may need multiple sources of information and it will depend on you as to which one works the best.

Learn By Watching a Home Improvement Professional Do the Work

Instead of buying a book at a do-it-yourself store, try recording that program that teaches you how to tile a kitchen countertop. Can anyone say TiVo? Or, if you don’t have TiVo and have no idea how to work your VHS recorder, you can often buy the DVD. It is much easier to learn by seeing other’s doing the work. Watching a pro go through all of the steps required hang cabinets is going to be much more effective than trying to figure it out from a pictorial representation in a book. TV home repair shows practically deliver person-to-person advice. The professional looks you in the eye and shows you exactly what you need and how to use various tools. Any gaps that are missing can often be filled in by a conscientious expert at your local home improvement store.

Not Usually a Stand-Alone Source for Advice on Home Repairs

To fit within the span of less than an hour (allowing for commercials) all of the intricacies of building a dwarf wall greenhouse is just impossible. You will get the general idea but there will be details and advice that you will need to seek from a professional or someone handy enough to point you in the right direction. Additionally, many people concentrate better when receiving personalized advice or even simpler terms found in a textbook. You may also want to watch the program many times to make sure you understand the “bigger picture” before embarking on your home improvement journey.

So Many Do-It-Yourself Home Repair Shows…

From Discovery Home to HGTV, from Design U to This Old House, there are so many do-it-yourselfer shows offering everything from how-to’s to what-we-did’s. And that’s just on cable. Then there are the digital networks, which work primarily over the Internet and actually deliver a more interactive product than a regular TV show can. There is one in particular called the DIY network, a popular digital network, delivering many series on home repair, remodeling and other related programs. It is not only available online but also reaches 35 million households on satellite TV and cable.

In the end, the right DIY book, a few TV tips, and the advice of a contractor or seasoned handyman might be just the right combination for home improvement success.

About The Author:
Adam O’Connor, HomeFixPro.com

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