HGTVReviews 606

I've been watching HGTV for five years now and I love every one of their shows. Most of all, like many people, I love, love, love their home giveaways. They do four per year: Dream Home, SmartHome, Blog Cabin and Urban Oasis Giveaways. The homes are gorgeous and so well-designed, and are usually accompanied by a new car, cash or both. And, we're not talking low cost cars, but Acuras, Lincolns, GMC SUV's, etc. Everything HGTV does is first class and that includes their lineup of shows. From Property Brothers, Flip or Flop, House Hunters and Love it or List it to Rehab Addict and so many more, they're all excellent and such fun to watch. And, they also have numerous other cash contests year-round. I enter them all and just know that winning is just around the corner. Maybe you should, too!

6 years after buying a very expensive built in custom panel refrigerator, the computer motherboard failed. Kitchen Aid 's response was that the factory was destroyed by the tsunami in Japan and that there are no replacement parts available. After numerous phone calls and negotiations, Whirlpool (Kitchen Aid) offered to sell us another at the same price our local retailer would! Look elsewhere! They do not back up their products!

After living in our home for three years, we decided it was time to decorate. Having no aesthetic sense, the promise of software that lets us try changes without making them was very exciting. It works, kind of.

There are two products included in the box, one where you upload pictures and change colors of carpet or flooring, another where you actually create 3d models, without uploading pictures. I have primarly used the 3d modeling software.

With around a dozen hours invested, I have created a semi-realistic model of about 80% of our home. Now that it exists, changing things out works well enough to justify the twenty eight bucks I spent. An interior designer is $70 an hour, so I am fine with the time investment.

I wasn't so sure about buying this product based on some polarized reviews on Amazon. Seemed everyone either loved the software or didn't like it at all. Well, I took a chance, and I'm really glad I did.

The HGTV home design software is a great value. It beats making mistakes with costly home improvement errors, and I found I was able to plan out my entire project from start to finish, right down to the costs of materials.

I think some people are under the misconception that you just push a few buttons in a program like this and the construction project more or less gets done for you. That's just not going to happen. There is a bit of patience required for any of these programs, I'd imagine. It's the power that they offer that make them just a little complex. I know because I've used other ones before, too. But it's well worth the reasonable learning curve - like I said, especially in this economy, where I can't really afford to get it wrong and make mistakes.