Saturday, January 03, 2004

By Kevin Kirkland, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Brad and Lynn Oberg's house will debut in prime time tonight. But the Cranberry couple admit they operate better at a later hour.

"We tend to be late-night people," said Brad Oberg. "We make decisions at midnight."

	Brad and Lynn Oberg's home on Gallant Fox Lane in Cranberry will be featured on "Home IQ," a new show on DiY, HGTV's sister network. (Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette) Click photo for larger image.

Producer Jason Gurskis was able to convince the Obergs to put off some choices until the next morning, so he and his crew could capture them on tape, along with practically every other step in the construction of their 3,808-square-foot home in Cranberry's Ehrman Farms plan.

At 8:30 tonight, the Obergs and the rest of the world will get to see their beginning of the extensive home-building process on "Home IQ," a new show on DiY, HGTV's sister network.

Gurskis, a New Jersey native, moved to Cranberry in the summer of 2002, back when the Obergs' 1 1/2-story contemporary home was nothing more than a graded, empty lot. While a remote camera mounted on a pole out front documented the home's rise, Gurskis and his TV crew shadowed the Obergs, builder Hank Swierczynski of Hendolhurst Homes and an army of subcontractors as they made blueprints a reality.

Gurskis has edited more than 1,000 hours of tape down to 26 half-hour episodes that show in detail what it takes to build a custom home.

"I wanted people to be able to follow the story, see the problems and choices, get a behind-the-scenes look at construction," he said.

One thing Gurskis decided he did not need for this show was the usual well-coifed talking head.

"We thought the show would flow better with a little narration and key sound bites from the Obergs, Hank and the others. You don't need a person to tell the story," Gurskis said.

Though the Obergs had never done television before, both are polished public speakers with lots of off-stage theatrical experience. Brad is a set designer and Lynn a costumer for productions at Pine-Richland High School, where their daughter, Mandy, is a senior.

Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette The 3,800-square-foot home includes a "four-seasons" room. Click photo for larger image.

But a bigger reason that they're cool on camera may be their home-building experience: This is the third house the couple has built together. Also, Brad is chief technology officer for IBACOS, which specializes in high-tech home-building.

As a result, their house is packed with the latest in construction technology, including AQUAPEX plastic plumbing, Icynene insulation and an H/VAC system equipped with energy recovery ventilators. IBACOS also monitored the project and assisted DiY in creating a package of video clips, resources and other information on the Oberg house on its Web site, www.diytv.com.

The home, which cost about $500,000 to build, has four bedrooms, 4 1/2 baths, a great room, media room and a "four-seasons" room off the deck.

Brad Oberg said everything in the house works as expected and, thanks to fiberglass air ducts and other innovations, it's even quieter than he had predicted. His concern that the whole-house sprinkler system would be ugly turned out to be unfounded.

"This is the first house we've tried sprinklers in," he said. "There are 54 heads throughout the house. They end up fading out of sight."

	Brad Oberg tiled the kitchen backsplash. He also laid the pavers in the dreveway and walks. (Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette) Click photo for larger image.

In addition to his building background, Oberg is a very handy homeowner. He tiled the kitchen backsplash, built several retaining walls and laid the pavers in his driveway and walks.

Lynn Oberg is pretty handy, too, acting as her own decorator. Inspired by a family trip to Italy four years ago, she chose a Tuscan-style palette of terra cotta, golds and greens for the first floor. She is also stenciling grapevines on one of the walls, supplementing vines and faux finishes painted by artist Eileen Barron of Pine.

Lynn created a foam board for each room, pinning on it paint chips, fabric swatches and magazine photos of decorative effects she liked. The TV crew followed her to four tile stores as she searched for just the right combination of ceramic, polished and tumbled marble tile to accent the foyer. To save money, the couple opted for a rectangular tile arrangement rather than medallions.

The self-taught decorator took a few chances. In the kitchen, for instance, she had Manor House Kitchens mix Corian and granite counter tops and use different colored KraftMaid cabinets on the island than in the rest of the room.

She almost regretted letting her daughters choose the colors in their respective bedrooms. The workmen called older daughter Jena's room the "happy room" for its lime green color, but her mother wasn't pleased -- at first.

"It's really bright. She was going for 'Nantucket beach house,' with white wainscoting underneath," Lynn said. "Once everything else went in, it looked better. Now it's growing on us."

By the time the couple moved in in April, they had become used to the ever-present camera. Only twice did they have to ask that it be turned off.

Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette The dining room opens into the foyer in the Obergs' home. Click photo for larger image.

"They always say that building a house is one of the most stressful things a couple can do," Lynn said. "Of course it was an argument over a stupid thing, just a couple of things."

Gurskis said he had expected more fights during construction, especially when glitches occurred. One problem, an 8-inch discrepancy on the building plans, haunted the crew all the way from the foundation to the wall-framing to the roof.

"No one fought. Not Hank, (project foreman) Greg Allen, the tradesmen, Brad and Lynn or the consultants from IBACOS. They were able to talk things through and come up with solutions," he said.

So the Obergs have nothing to worry about when friends and acquaintances see the show. Lynn laughed when two friends who had been on TV warned her that they might now be recognized by strangers.

"We thought at first that we would be on just a few episodes," Lynn said. "We hadn't really thought about it."

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