4 New Hampshire homes that were featured on HGTV
Over its 30-year history, HGTV has featured a handful of homes in New Hampshire. Check out these four.
You walk into the radiology department waiting room, filled with nervous people about to undergo X-rays and scans, who have fasted since the night before without the benefit of caffeine. But glance up and there’s a television screen with images of happy homeowners watching their tired dens magically transform into posh and peaceful sunrooms. It’s an HGTV program that won’t offend, and might very well soothe and inspire even if your home is nothing more than a one-room rental studio.
For 30 years, HGTV, short for Home & Garden Television, has been a viewer’s favorite and happy place for domestic aspiration and inspiration. The reality cable station has a huge audience in waiting rooms and beyond. The station is broadcast to over 72 million Americans, including super fans in New Hampshire.
Currently, the channel broadcasts 116 shows that help viewers find, renovate, and maintain their living spaces and even have a chance to win their own dream house. Over those three decades of broadcasting, some New Hampshire homes, homeowners, and craftspeople have been featured on the popular channel. Here is a list of those episodes, most of which can be watched on cable or streaming services.
1. “From Boston to New Hampshire”
Show: “House Hunters”
Format: This show, which has been on the air for 25 years, follows individuals searching for a new place to live. A local real estate agent shows three homes to buy or rent, and by the end of the 30-minute episode, they have chosen one.
Episode: Season 239 Episode 7: “From Boston to New Hampshire”
Aired: October 1, 2023
This episode featured Emily and John, a newlywed couple living in a small condominium they own in the Jamaica Plain neighborhood of Boston. Emily is a pediatric dietician who works in the city, and John is a financial planner. They’re ready to buy their first single-family home in a more rural setting but within commuting distance of Boston. They chose to look in the Nashua, New Hampshire area.
Emily sets her sights on the suburb of Amherst, which she calls “an extremely quaint, cozy, beautiful New England town” where she and John can start a family. She wants a home with a lot of outdoor space, “New Hampshire charm and character,” but not too far from neighbors. John wants a modern-style cabin with a central wood-heated fireplace and few needed renovations, far from neighbors. They want a house on approximately two acres, and their budget is $600,000 to $700,000.
Enter Salem, New Hampshire, real estate agent Salah Amrani, who guides the couple through the episode and eventually their new home in what he calls “a highly competitive housing market.”
He shows the couple three homes. The first is a 2,300-square-foot, three-bedroom, cozy Cape situated on a 1.2-acre lot next to a Christmas tree farm in Amherst, with a one-hour commute to Boston. The second house, listed for $615,000 on the edge of town, spans 2.5 acres and features four bedrooms, three bathrooms, and is situated in a more secluded wooded area, with minimal needed renovations. Finally, Amrani takes the couple to Pelham, to a 1995 Colonial house set back in the woods, with no visible neighbors and two and a half acres of land on sale for $649,000. In each case, we hear what the couple likes and dislikes about each house, as well as the questions they have for the real estate agent.
At the end of the 30-minute episode, after watching the newlyweds’ decision-making process, they chose the Amherst Cape, which they bought for $525,000—$25,000 less than the asking price.
2. “Blended Bliss in New Hampshire”
Show: “My Lottery Dream Home”
Format: The show, hosted by designer and HGTV star David Bromstad, features lottery winners who have just won a bundle of cash and are looking to buy their dream home. The host shows the family three homes that fit their newly boosted budget, as well as the essential features they want in their fantasy residence.
Episode: Season 12 Episode 8: “Blended Bliss in New Hampshire”
Aired: August 26, 2022
In this episode, Becky just won $2 million on a $10 scratch ticket. Becky lives in a 1,000-square-foot home in Burlington, Massachusetts, that doesn’t even have enough space for a dining room, but she managed to raise her three children there. Her fiancé, David, a mechanic and handyman, has two children of his own. The couple decides they want to find their dream home in New Hampshire, where they can have room for their five children to live and visit, and access to walking trails.
The show starts with Bromstad driving through Nashua, admiring its 19th-century mill buildings and quintessential New England main street. “It’s the second time I’ve been here,” said Bromstad. “It’s so cute and you get more bang for your buck than buying a home in Massachusetts.” He meets with the couple at the Greenleaf Restaurant in Milford and discusses their dream home, for which they’d like to spend around $350,000 and stay in the Nashua area for an easy commute to work. The couple wants space, access to nature, and a place where Becky’s fiancé can tinker and do renovation projects.
He shows them three properties, including a three-bedroom, 2,000-square-foot condominium in Nashua with a $339,000 price tag, a 761-square-foot, four-bedroom, one-bathroom townhouse in Mont Vernon for $285,000, and a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath, 1,462-square-foot townhouse in Merrimack for $325,000.
The viewer might think they know which the couple will pick, but that’s often a surprise. Becky and her fiancé forgo the larger homes with few or any necessary renovations. Instead, they choose the smallest home with the most access to nature, which is in need of the most home improvement projects, both of which they are looking forward to doing. They reveal their decision to Bromstad sitting at the Riverwalk Café in Nashua. “Now I just need to learn how to buy things for myself,” said Becky, who took it as a sign from her late grandmother that the constellation, Cassiopeia, was shining above the house when Bromstad showed it to them.
3. “Got Bored and Bought a Farm”
Show: “Farmhouse Fixer”
Format: “Farmhouse Fixer,” an HGTV show, follows Jonathan Knight, of New Kids on the Block boy-band fame, and designer Kristina Crestin as they renovate old New England farmhouses. Knight, an avid restorer of antique New Hampshire farmhouses, meets with homeowners to determine what they want to restore and establish a budget. The viewer is then taken through the home to see the extent of the renovation, while meeting safety and historical standards.
Episode: Season 1 Episode #1 “Got Bored and Bought a Farm”
Aired: March 3, 2021
This first episode features a 1735 Cape Cod farmhouse in Hollis, purchased by Kevin and Lisa Beals. The house retains its original structure, a barn, and two additions that are attached to the barn. Before they can move in, the home needs extensive renovations. In steps Knight and Crestin, who declare that the part of the foundation is so sunk in and decrepit, they’ll have to tear down half the structure—a big project that unfolds over the one-hour episode. We also watch as the hosts turn an old tool shed into a chicken coop and a potting bench for the couple who are looking forward to gardening and raising chickens.
“I love a good old farmhouse,” said Knight. “To me, being on a farm is a way of life. It’s the real deal. Old farmhouses are disappearing from the landscape, but these are American treasures that should be saved.”
4. “Camp Revamp”
Show: “Farmhouse Fixer”
Episode: Season 2 Episode #1 “Camp Revamp”
Aired: June 17, 2024
The New Kids on the Block singer bought a 1938 12-acre, 10-cabin lakeside property in southeast New Hampshire (rumored to be on Lake Onway in Raymond) for glamping and a country getaway. Knight, 56, said he was drawn to the site by nostalgia for his grandparents’ summer camp on the shores of Lake Erie. Before setting out on tour with New Kids, he began renovating the property with his husband, siblings, and mother, hoping it would be ready for guests by this summer.
Knight’s nostalgia for those pine-scented, wood-paneled summer cottages ignited the same feelings in HGTV viewers, especially those in New Hampshire, who were anxious to sign up for time at the rustic resort. But the work wasn’t finished before Knight had to go on tour, and the opening was delayed.
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