It all depends on where you live. I live in the sticks in rural USA. I could easily get all that done for $50-60K depending on what finishes I chose.

Wow. Fantasy Land, for sure. I have no idea what informs the costs they come up with. Maybe wholesale costs only? Meaning, no labor, permitting, mark-ups, design services, shipping, general contracting or costs for skilled tradespeople. I'm imagine their financial model is informed solely by ratings and not the costs associated with a remodel. I'm not sure exactly how the television industry works, but I think high ratings allow them to charge a premium for advertising, which is what pays their bills.

Anyway, totally misleading. I haven't watched it in years, but when I did, I thought they had some fun ideas.

Oh, I didn't think about location, shead. Maybe that's the key.

It always sounds OVERpriced to me on HGTV. Arizona, Texas and the midwest are more affordable than California and the east coast obviously. Depends on location. Whenever I watch the one they film in Canada I'm blown away by how much things cost.

Just realize that this is "entertainment", not a "how-to" show. It wouldn't be nearly as "entertaining" if the owner was told that the cost of what they wanted to do was more than the value of their entire house, would it!

How is this possible when I recently was quoted my master bath gut reno at 45K-50K for mid range quality items?

Yeah, that sounds incredibly high to me. You're talking about a bath renovation that costs 1/3 the value of my whole house, which is a 2400 sf middle-class, solid brick ranch. Location, location, location.

I’ve participated in one of the shows. They use all “volunteer” labor, which doesn’t count in the fiction. And much of their products are comped as well. In fact, their budgets and timelines have no relationship to real life at all. They are always insanely low. And they do occasionally get caught not doing things the correct permitted way.

50K is very easy to spend on a 5-6 pc master bath. Just the tiled shower portion alone,done correctly, is7-12K. And that’s not anything elaborate. Just correctly waterproofed and the work done by the licensed and insured.

Interesting that many of the products are comped. It makes sense, though, especially if the supplier receives some benefit - such as name recognition on the show or a discount on advertising.

I quit watching years ago ... unrealistic hype, & everything ended up looking like every other renovation.

I live in southern California, and the renovation shows are always knocking down walls in asbestos-laden 1960s-era tract houses. These houses undoubtedly have asbestos in the popcorn ceilings, drywall, and vinyl flooring, I know this because I've had all of these materials tested in my own home. Having a professional abatement company come in and do the demolition is not cheap.

My favorite is the house buying shows when a semi-pro surfer and a part time preschool teacher are looking at real estate and their budget is 750k. It's not just one or two couples...it makes me laugh.

IMO because they never do nice work, only patch stuff

Everything is about location. Where I live a $1.500,000 house on a postage stamp sized lot is either a tear down or a complete to the studs remodel.

Just to be clear Canads housing costs are a lot different than the US for a few reasons first all of our exterior walls are 2x 6 not like a lot of the US builds where 2 x 4 are used. We all have at least double paned windows with mostly expensive heating systems. Like any place else on earth it depends where you live how much something costs. There is no way a reno that size would be 50K even if you went with all used materials and cheap student workers. Even an Ikea kitchen witll proably cost 10K by the time you are finished.