Sometimes it pays to be the ugliest duckling — $150,000, to be precise. That’s the value of the makeover that Vermonters Brooklyn and Dylan won Wednesday night on Season 7, Episode 6 of HGTV’s “Ugliest House in America.” Over a period of six weeks — or 30 minutes in TV time — the couple’s aesthetically assaulting, circus-themed eyesore in Vershire, dubbed the “Mishmosh Hodepodge” in an earlier episode of the show, transformed into a functional and stylish mountaintop dream house.
Drag the handle from right to left on the photos below to see the transformation.
“I’m so happy and so excited not to have to do this all by ourselves,” Dylan told the camera with a huge smile.
“I peed a little bit,” Brooklyn admitted, after host Retta and designer Alison Victoria dropped the big news, along with a stream of confetti. (HGTV did not provide the couple’s last names.)
As the host and couple toured the rehabbed house, the designer explained her overhaul from the outside, including adding more subdued colors and a new patio. After dumping the orange and blue entryway for something, well, tasteful, Victoria moved on to the “party bathroom,” which she converted into a refined powder bath, “with one mirror instead of 100.”
In the living room, gone are the art-project bird railings, sunken floors and hemorrhoid-inducing concrete seating, replaced with a single-level floor plan that allows actual furniture. The kitchen stayed put, but designer Victoria added all-new cabinetry, appliances and a disco ball-themed cooking hood.
The thatched-roof tiki hut ceilings in the main bedroom and bath were swapped out for real ceilings and walls, decorative stained-glass windows, and a walk-in closet with a private outdoor deck and new hot tub. The main bath got a fresh vanity, tub and standing shower.
Not all of the heretofore hideousness ended up in a dumpster. The monkey-themed kitchen cabinets were repurposed into hallway mirrors. And the dead trees in the living room were reincorporated into what Brooklyn described as a “fairy forest house,” complete with a hobbit-sized hideaway under the stairs for the kids.
“This is way more than I could ever imagined,” Dylan said. “It’s incredible.”
Not to quibble, but there was one questionable design decision: all-white furniture in a house with three young boys? Is this a preview for the next HGTV spinoff, “America’s Worst Stains?”
