Douglas Wilson Fan Site - UPDATES (September 22, 2003) HAPPY 38th BIRTHDAY TO DOUG!!! ------------------------- APPEARANCES ------------------------- Saturday, Sept. 27, 2003 - 10:00 AM Book signing Meet Doug! Doug will be signing books and autographs at 2708 Live Oak Court in The Oaks in Castle Rock, CO (east of Lake Gulch Road off Plum Creek Parkway) on Sat. Sept. 27 from 10 AM to 1 PM. Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2003 - 7:00 AM Today Show on NBC Doug will be promoting the upcoming Trading Spaces $100,000 episode. Friday, Nov. 7, 2003 - 6:00 PM Humane Society Fetching Ball Doug will be hosting the 4th annual Fetching Ball dinner/auction fundraiser for the Champaign County Humane Society — and he's bringing Hildi along as another special guest! Doug hosted the event last year and it was the most successful in the organization's history. Prizes will include two $4000 gift cards from Home Depot and a 2004 Honda Civic. The event runs from 6-10 PM at the Hawthorne Suites hotel in Champaign, IL. Tickets are $75 each and must be purchased in advance; call 217-344-9314 to order. http://www.cuhumane.org ------------------------- PUBLICITY ------------------------- Interview with the homeowners of Doug's "Prison of Love" bedroom (Columbus: Shelby Ave) a few months afterwards. They haven't changed a thing! http://www.thisweeknews.com/thisweek.php?edition=common&story=thisweeknews/091803/pwl/News/091803-News-313073.html A look at 10 Trading Spaces room redos, including Doug's "Back to Brazil" living room (Indiana: River Valley Dr). http://houseandhome.msn.com/Decorate/SlideShows/TenTradingSpacesLivingRoomsSlideShow0.aspx ------------------------- GALLERY ------------------------- Doug's photo and bio on the Contributor's page of the October 2003 House Beautiful. He created three concept designs using Ralph Lauren paints for a magazine article. http://www.wingfieldfans.org/douglas_wilson/fangirls/screencap.asp?type=pic&pictureid=70&title=Miscellany ------------------------- ENCOUNTERS ------------------------- More of Nini's pictures from Doug's appearance at the Lowes in Dickson, TN. http://www.wingfieldfans.org/douglas_wilson/fangirls/enc_pictures.asp?catid=10&fan=Nini ------------------------- Breens 'totally love' kitchen renovated by Trading Spaces By Diane Querey Querey.com (Aug. 13, 2002) NEWTOWN, Pa. -- Barb and Jamie Breen, close friends of Mike and Jill Querey, "totally love" their kitchen, which was renovated by Trading Spaces, the popular The Learning Channel show, this past weekend. Querey.com creator Diane Querey caught up with the Breens Tuesday afternoon on their cell phone as the couple was headed to the Jersey Shore for their vacation. Although they aren't supposed to give interviews on the subject of being featured on Trading Spaces, the Breens granted Diane the exclusive for the benefit of Querey.com visitors. Trading Spaces is the popular TLC show where two sets of neighbors swap keys to transform a room in each other's home. They have two days, a set budget, and they're not allowed back into their own homes until the moment of truth. The design Breen, who jumped up and down and screamed when she saw her new kitchen, is one of the two most excited homeowners in Trading Spaces' history, according to reports. Barb described the kitchen's new design as "contemporary country." "I got new floors and countertops, I got my cabinets painted, I got a new color scheme in my window seat and cool pillows," Barb said, causing Diane to wonder if Jamie owns anything in the Breen's kitchen. "We also had this half a wall that divides the kitchen and the family room, you know, like a 3-inch wide useless kind of thing," Barb said. "Now it's like a bar, with columns on either side." Barb said Frank painted her cabinets three different colors. The upper cabinets are all one color, the drawers are all another color, and the lower cabinets are a third color. "Frank also handpainted around the top where the wall meets the counter. He did real typical Frank type things. He made plates with fake food out of plywood, and drilled a hole in a fork, knife and spoon on the wall. He did a lot of really really cool stuff." Barb noted that they got really good deals on the supplies they used to redecorate both her house and her neighbors' house. "We got a lot of extra accessories, including a chandelier," Barb said. Barb said her neighbor Vicki Dillon's family room, which she and Jamie worked on all weekend with Vern, had a "contemporary cottage twist." The room now features a custom-made, built-in entertainment center along one whole wall. The room's renovation also included new paint and wainscoting. "They also got a custom-made rug, a sofa, chairs and pillows," Barb said. "Vern was really cool." The process According to Barb, the whole process was "really really fun, and a lot of hard work." The Breens stayed up doing their "homework" until 5:30 a.m., and got one hour of sleep before returning to the trenches. "We got the raw end of that deal," Barb said, noting that the Dillons got to bed at 11:30 p.m. Barb said the food left a lot to be desired. "I was not impressed by the selection," she said. "They didn't have any celebrity chefs with them." Jamie, who said that his publicists have been bothering him ever since the shoot ended, said he didn't have much time for Diane's interview Tuesday. "I've got a few other interviews lined up after this, so try to make it quick," he said. Jamie also said he enjoyed having production assistants at his beck and call throughout the weekend. "I could just snap my fingers and get whatever I wanted," he said. "It was a beautiful thing." "Saturday was a lot of work -- we worked all day and night," Jamie said. "Then Sunday was just mayhem. There were a lot of times when I felt highly unqualified for some of the jobs, so I'd just kick back and have another water." Jamie also noted that he and Barb felt "totally sequestered" in their neighbors' home, since most of the carpentry work was being done in their backyard, and they couldn't go out for fear of getting a sneak peak at their redesign. "Sunday was really intense," he said. "The crew was very serious about getting things done, and doing so within the budget. There was no cheating." Jamie said that when it was over, he felt a sense of relief, but felt best when both couples were happy with how their rooms turned out. "It would have sucked if we'd busted our a**es on their room and ours turned out like crap," he said. "But we all got most of the elements we wanted, so it worked out well." Barb said she was especially delighted that she got to use power tools. "Jamie said I was really good with a nailgun," she said proudly. The stalkers According to Barb, there were fans of the show camped out in front of her house for the two days the show was being shot. "It was somewhat disconcerting having all these strangers lurking around," she said. "Then on Sunday night they all came into the house to see the finished product. It was strange." Barb's friend Jenn Weir and her fiance Adam were among those who lurked around the house on Sunday. "Adam and I went up to Barb's on Sunday to see the finished product," Jenn said in an email Tuesday. "When we got there they had yet to finish taping so we sat around. Much like those scary freaks in the pictures. Except we had chairs given to us by a Trading Spaces person (on Barb's orders), so we were one step above the freakish riff-raff." The cast Both Barb and Jamie said that the entire cast was very nice. Barb noted that Vicki Dillon got to spend more time with the hunky carpenter Ty Pennington than Barb. "I didn't get a whole lot of Ty time," Barb said. "But he was extremely cool. He got his picture taken with the van, and girls would scream every time he walked out of the house." Barb said they even had to re-shoot one scene because Ty walked out of the house at the end and the screaming was caught on the tape. Jenn Weir also witnessed Ty being extremely cool. Several teenyboppers, dressed as if it were prom night, were among the riff-raff gathered outside. One of them approached a crew member and asked if they could see Ty. According to Jenn, the conversation went something like this: Teenybopper (TB): [wringing her hands incessantly] Umm, like hi. Like do you know when Ty will come out?
TS: Nah, he's back there working and he's pretty busy. TB: Well, like, it's my birthday and me and my friends are supposed to meet my parents for dinner and we're, like, rully, rully late and we were wondering if we could meet Ty?
TS: I'll see what I can do. The crew member went behind the house and fetched Ty, who approached with his shirt off, glistening with sweat. "I was blinded momentarily," Jenn said. "Then he put his shirt on and came up and talked to the girls for like a good 10 minutes. People took pictures, he signed autographs. I was impressed by that and I don't even like him. He's very skinny (but very cut) and has an oddly pointed head. He looks taller on tv." When asked if Paige the hostess is as hot as he'd expected, Jamie carefully replied, "She's very attractive. She's a lot like her character on TV - perky." Jamie also said that most of the crew is from the Philadelphia area, so many of their family members visited, which seemed to put everyone in a good mood. Weir also witnessed other cast members, and had the following report: "Mindy Paige Davis Page is exactly what you'd expect. Spunky and bordering on annoying. Whereas she looks pretty skinny on TV, she is pretty cut -- like all muscle. Vern is adorable. I touched him. Frank left as soon as the taping was over." The Breens also got to meet Doug the designer, because the crew came in early on Friday for a photo shoot. "Frank and Vern were great, then Doug came in, and I swear is every bit the a**hole he is on the show," Barb said. "He came in the house with an assistant and a suitcase, and he couldn't change in the powder room like everyone else. I mean, he was funny in a way, but I was so glad he was leaving. He's got a very Manhattan 'I'm too cool, you're a peon' attitude. But we got the best of both worlds -- we got to meet him, then he left." The blue shirts The Breens got to wear blue smocks during the taping, which only 25 percent of Querey.com voters predicted (see related article). Jamie said he was pleased they got blue shirts. "Barb wanted red, but I didn't," he said. "I'm an autumn, so I was concerned that red wouldn't work for me." When the show will air The Breen-Dillon episode of Trading Spaces will air on Saturday, Sept. 28, at 9 p.m. on The Learning Channel. Additional photos will be posted on Querey.com as they are made available. Meanwhile, some worry that Barb will never get over the excitement from the past weekend. "I have no idea how she will ever come down from this," Jenn Weir said Tuesday.