For the Deming family of Bayfield, a move from town to a more rural setting landed them on a national television show.
Amy and Brett Deming and their two daughters, Katie and Emily, recently moved from in-town Bayfield to rural La Plata County.
Their real estate agent, Justin Osborn, received an email through a trade group asking for people to appear on "Log Cabin Living," a show on HGTV.
"It's not a cabin," Amy Deming said of their new home. But being a fan of the network's real estate shows, they thought it would be kind of fun, so they agreed to filming their search for a home. The show's criteria was for people in their 20s through 40s looking for a home costing less than $1.5 million.
"We thought, 'when will this opportunity come by again?'" she said.
HGTV has several shows featuring consumers searching for homes. The typical format is they meet with a real estate agent, view three homes and weigh the pros and cons of each, then choose one for purchase.
The show takes the wish list of the house hunters "and they kind of make you stick with it," Deming said. For the filming, they looked at three properties in rural La Plata County. The Demings' prerequisites including staying in the Bayfield School District and having a larger home with rural acreage.
"It was super interesting," Deming said. "It was fun. It's a long day." Filming took place over four straight days, with two days lasting 12 hours, and two more eight-hour days.
Their daughters were in some of the activity scenes, but were attending school while they were looking at houses.
"It was cool to see how they take pictures," Deming said. There are a lot of still shots. The crew followed them into a room, then they had to shoot it again from another angle so they could film the couple's reactions to the rooms as they entered.
In addition to being an HGTV fan, Deming said she's just interested in real estate in general.
"I like to watch the shows and look at different floorplans," she said.
The Demings like to hunt, fish and spend time outside, so they weren't sure how a big-city camera crew would react to life in rural Colorado, but the crew was from Montana.
"They were super down to earth," she said. They also didn't object to the Demings' home decor of antlers and animal mounts.
The episode of "Log Cabin Living" featuring the Demings will run at 9:30 p.m. Saturday on HGTV.
