Being the builder chosen to build the homes featured in a season of “Rock the Block” is an instant and dramatic boost in prestige.
But does that make it worth it?
The answer from Season Six builder Hamlet Homes might surprise you.
Hamlet Homes was the Utah builder contracted by HGTV to build all four homes in Grantsville just outside Salt Lake City, Utah.
Tami Ostmark, the owner of Hamlet Homes, sat down with Utah podcasters Frankie and Jess for a 90-minute conversation about the experience.
And when the hosts asked her if she’d do it again if HGTV asked, her answer shocked them.
“You’re not the first person to ask us that question, and actually they have. We had a small, brief, little conversation. We build in Utah and Idaho… Idaho Falls.. and in kind of the early stages before we knew what we were getting into, it got brought up like ‘hey if we ever wanted to go to Idaho… would you guys want to do it?’ And I will say, in the beginning, the excitement was there. Before we started building the homes and going through this, we kind of looked at each other and thought ‘Ok, that would be good for our brand in Idaho too, maybe we’d consider that. Today? NO.”
‘RTB’ Builder Details How She’d Change Things
Tami Ostmark describes being the home builder for season six of “Rock the Block” as “very taxing on our team.” And she says if she had to do it over again, she’d do things differently.
“There’s a lot of like, ‘if we knew then what we know now’ we would’ve maybe done things differently on our side. We would’ve wanted a little bit more management into what was going on, and budgets and stuff… I always tell people homebuilding and TV, those two things don’t mix.”
“This was not a normal process, this does not happen. No home builder would build a home like this ever,” Tami explained. “All of our processes were thrown out the door.”
‘RTB’ Builder Says She Planned Her Own Behind-the-Scenes Coverage
The season six “Rock the Block” builder was also surprised by what she couldn’t post on social media.
“The network allowed me to have a photographer and videographer on site the whole time.. so I have a ton of behind-the-scenes footage… We had planned on releasing a behind-the-scenes episode after every episode aired. We had them all done.. I released my first one right after the premiere, and the next day I got told I had to take it down from the network,” Tami told the podcasters.
“The reason was my content was competing with their content, and I get that. But I thought ‘this is just more exposure for the show.’ So I was kind of blindsided by that,” says Tami.
HGTV finally allowed Hamlet Homes to release a few of the behind-the-scenes videos just days ago. But only with strict guidelines on what they could and could not show. You can watch those on the Hamlet Homes YouTube channel here and here.
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‘Rock the Block’ Season 6 Builder’s Shocking Perspective