HGTV

Oh, the excitement. It's March 18th and later on tonight HGTV will be revealing the winner(s) of this year's Dream Home in Colorado. Somehow, my mom got me to enter the darned contest practically every day for two months. I know I'm not going to win, yet I can't help but remember how unnaturally lucky I always was as a young person and just how fun it WOULD be to win. In reviewing past Dream Homes which have been given away, I much prefer those from Texas and North Carolina for their overall design and setting. This one in Colorado has a wonderful appearance from head-on, but the ads have all been VERY careful not to show that another house is practically 10 feet away on the left side. LOL! Likewise, there are two great rooms in the front with impressive views as well as a small deck or observation lounge on the second floor.... but when you really look, the rest of the rooms all feel dark and, at least from the online photos, appear to have a limited number of relatively small windows. Still, there is enough panache to the design to make me like it. Especially when one does not have a place of their own to live in! From THAT wonderfully bleak perspective, it's a WONDERFUL house! =)

Hmmm... what to do if I won it. Obviously, the first thing I would do is change locations for a while and see how it is for a season to a year. Quite an adventure, yes? I wonder what people in Colorado are like. I've done my share of traveling. Are they stoic (depressed) like people from Maine? Are they generally good people with simple lives like in Des Moines? Given the area, I tend to think they would all be out-of-towners... and as one myself, I'm sure I can imagine how the locals feel about outsiders: tolerable by social standards, but still darned annoying.

And.... of course.... would I be able to keep the GMC vehicle which would come with it all? Common sense says: duh! The old Yankee in me still feels quite the grudge against Chevy / GM over their indelicate handling of very simple yet amazingly persistent warranty problems with my Corvette. I swore I would never give them another dime of my money, and while I would not directly be paying for said GMC, it would still be supporting their business. It probably speaks volumes that I would rather soldier on with my trusty cheap old Crown Victoria with 111 thousand miles than risk my life in another GM product. My buddy Ryan works for a machine shop nearby which produces pins used by GM in the production of the new Corvette seats. His company suggested a three-step process to making the pins since it would make them stronger and add just cents to the bottom line, but GM declined and opted for a two-step process. Wouldn't you know it? New Corvette owners ran into problems with the seat locking mechanism (when you adjust the back angle forward or back) breaking and dropping back. Only after it becaome a "common" occurrence on the Corvette forums with owners complaining did they finally opt for the 3-step pin. At least, that is how the story was conveyed to me. Pure genius.

Having just gone and re-read the last paragraph, I suppose I would have to rid myself of the GMC. I could use the money to get some new tires for the Vic. =) Talk about earning loyalty points. On the one hand you had the Flagship GM vehicle and American Icon that is the Corvette. Literally on the day I took delivery it had problems which originated from the factory. Minor stuff though, and I had a new dream car so I was still overjoyed. But in three years of ownership it took someone like myself who was a GM die-hard and turned him into a GM hater. Literally, in the final 18 months of ownership the car spent roughly 9 months either: at the Chevy dealer waiting for repair, going BACK to the dealer before even leaving the LOT, disabled in my driveway waiting for parts to be delivered to the local dealer, or just broken and sitting there with me not willing to drive it for fear of the thing trying to kill me..... which it finally DID try to do in the end. So here's this big flashy car that everyone dreams about, but it turns out to be a POS. Then there's my Crown Vic, which I bought when I was in management as a clean, classy vehicle which was not overstated for my position. Easy maintenance, ready parts availability, and just a big comfortable All-American land yacht. I bought it used, obviously after being submerged either in a flood or an accident, but everything was in good shape. I used to put an average of between 60 and 100 miles on it a day going 90mph the whole way, depending on which building I was working at. The only problem I've had with all that abuse was a water pump early on and a few coils which I replaced in 3 minutes. Other than that, its due for some new pads and rotors which are in the trunk and waiting for a warm weekend day to be installed.

Ford earned some MAJOR loyalty points from me with this car, especially in light of the GM fiasco and their negligent repairs and customer relations. I guess they would have been an easy act for any other manufacturer to follow!

Anyway.... would love to win that house! Would LOVE to win that GMC! ;) But with my luck recently it'd go to my sister (no offense, Shelley, and good luck all the same!) or some family who will turn around and sell it to make a few bucks. Time will tell. I'm crossing my fingers for everyone I know who entered the contest. Good luck! I hope it makes some positive changes for you, and if you sell it... use at least a little of the money to do something positive for someone else. =)