HGTV Urban Oasis Recap: Craftsman Gets A Makeover And It Can Be Yours

How would you like to win a house and prizes with over $600,000? You’ll have to move to Knoxville, Tennessee and pay a lot of taxes and homeowners insurance, but this house might just be worth it. If you can get past the pink front door that is.

HGTV’s 2017 Urban Oasis is ready for its new owner, and last night we got a full look at the whole process of how the house was transformed from start to finish.

Host Egypt Sherrod welcomed us to Knoxville and let us know that they narrowed their search down to two houses to become the new Urban Oasis house.

The first choice is a 1920s craftsman with 3 beds and 2 baths. The house is priced at $235,000.

The craftsman has a lot of interesting woodwork (that will never survive the reno, so forget it exists. There are a lot of weird things about this house, but the weirdest of all is the fact that it has three kitchens and one is basically in the middle of the living room. Three kitchens? Wait. There’s actually a small apartment attached to the back of the house with another kitchen. FOUR kitchens.

Egypt continues showing the house but has to stop so she can almost throw up over the “rancid” carpet in the house. There’s not much that can be saved from this house aside from the craftsman architecture.

On to house Number 2. I’t’s a 1916 victorian with 3 beds two baths. It’s priced at $220,000.

The victorian has the dreaded curse of not an open floor plan. It’s pretty choppy, but does have the original hardwood floors. The kitchen is sort of updated, but the layout is very weird. The house is just really laid out oddly, overall. You have to walk from one room to to get to another. So weird. So much of the floorpan would have to be reworked, so Egypt is worried about the price and time it would take to make that house work.

So which one will make the best Urban Oasis? House Number 1, of course. It’s time to check out the new layout. The architect and contractor meet with Egypt to discuss the new floor plans. And we don’t get much of a look at their plans, but one thing is certain: they’re definitely going to get rid of three of those kitchens.

It’s demo time and there was some serious demo. Parts of the roof was destroyed, they knocked out walls, removed cabinets — lots and lots of cabinets. I mean FOUR kitchens! After two weeks, demo is complete. It’s time to rebuild. The entire house was basically gutted, so rebuild is definitely the correct wording here.

Designer Brian Patrick Flynn joins Egypt by and he’s not so sure what he thinks about the house upon first glance. By the time he walks through, he changes his tune and says he is the most excited he’s ever been about a house in that condition.

It’s time to check out Brian’s design plans. He wants to go with slate blue on the outside and then he will carry through the blue throughout the house, but in different hues of the color. I like blue, but that sounds like a lot of blue. I’ll hold my judgments.

After the colors have been decided, the house is ready to be furnished. Brian gets to work with the furniture company clearly sponsoring the show and jump ahead to the 26-week mark and the house is done! And it’s pretty amazing.

There are some things I don’t love about the house, however. I just don’t like the pink door. All the other colors on and in the house are amazing, but I can’t get behind the pink door. I’m also really confused why there’s not an actual living room or family room. I guess the sitting area right by the front door is considered the living room, but it’s weird and not very functional. And there’s no couch! Oh, and I also hate the huge wicker pendant lights over the island.

What I love the most about the house is that expensive hallway. I also love the master bath. The floor to ceiling tile is stunning. My favorite room, however is probably what they’re calling the bunk room. The screened-in porch with the patchwork tile on the fireplace is also pretty sweet. I could see myself hanging out there a lot. So who needs an actual living room?

I’ve decided that I’m going to win this house. I’m going win it, move in, and immediately paint the front door and tear down those pendant lights in the kitchen.

And even though I’m going to win, you can still enter to win it yourself at www.hgtv.com/urbanoaisis. Good luck!