Knoxville HGTV giveaway home sports new renovations, local flair

As a part of HGTV's Urban Oasis 2017 home giveaway sweepstakes, a local house has been renovated and infused with Knoxville flair.

The revitalized 1925 bungalow, located in the 4th & Gill area, is fully furnished, has three bedrooms and two baths and is approximately 1,850 square feet.

"As the designer of HGTV Urban Oasis, it's important to make sure there's local flair inside the house to add personality and connect the actual property to its surroundings," said Brian Patrick Flynn, HGTV Urban Oasis 2017 interior designer.

Valued at more than $600K

HGTV announced its Urban Oasis 2017 giveaway in March. The grand prize package is valued at more than $600,000 and will be awarded this fall, and the sweepstakes also includes an additional $50,000 provided by national mortgage lender Quicken Loans, according to a press release.

The sweepstakes entry period to win the home will go from Oct. 2-Nov. 22. Those interested may enter the national sweepstakes twice per day online.

HGTV will air a one-hour special on the home at 7 p.m. Oct. 4 on HGTV.

'A nod to Knoxville'

When approaching the interior design of the home, Flynn said he wanted the inside to be fashion forward, fresh, bright and incorporate soft colors. 

The home's rooms have walls of white, light blue, green, grey and some wallpapers. Its exterior is dark blue with light pink and white accents.

Flynn also incorporated different characteristics of Knoxville into the home including a Sunsphere painting, a screened in porch with a flat-screen TV to watch Tennessee football games, a massive sign on its detached garage saying "Visit 4th & Gill. It's Swell" and a kitchen inspired by farm-to-table living.

"The kitchen is a little bit more in the farmhouse world, the idea of farm-to-table living," said Flynn. "I've spent probably the past three months on and off here in Knoxville, and I've noticed this is a huge restaurant town, especially downtown, and it's very impressive that all of the food at all of the restaurants that I've been referred to are farm to table, so the kitchen is another stand-out feature because it has plenty of storage. It has also plenty of seating, but ... it's big. It's open, light and airy."

Flynn said the house's layout is flexible in case students end up living there.

"Also because we're in a college town, a lot of the furniture that ends up being in here is a little bit more loose and friendly and flirty and feminine," said Flynn. "I've noticed that there are a lot of people renting over here that are students, so the whole layout of some of these things allows it to be flexible."

'We completely gutted it'

HGTV, in the fall of 2016, selected the Knoxville home to be part of its Urban Oasis 2017.

Sara and Sean Martin of Open Door Architecture in Knoxville said they looked at the home in October before it was picked to see if it was feasible for the sweepstakes.

Then, they came up with a new floor plan for the home.

"Since we work in older homes and we're doing a lot of these renovations to older homes, the name of the game for us is 'Keep the character and open it up,'" said Sara Martin.

Demolition and rebuilding for the home started in December 2016 and continued until the end of May, according to HGTV Urban Oasis 2017 Project Manager Scott Branscom.

"Well, we completely gutted it," said Branscom. "Like most older homes, you find out the floor plans don't really work with the way Americans live today, so we go in, and you find the typical things. There's not enough insulation. The windows are old or bad. Some of the framing is not in the best of the shape. The floors are out of level, so we worked on that constantly to get to the next step, so we have to do that ... to make sure that this is a safe, livable home, and those were some of the things we had to do up front."

Tillman Companies of Knoxville served as the construction company for the project and worked with Branscom. Owner Allen Tillman said he and his team had to rebuild some of the interior walls and ceilings because they were crooked, and rebuilt the home's back porch.

Outdoor additions and renovations included new paint, new landscaping and the addition of a detached garage and fire pit. The home also has updated electric wiring, heating, air conditioning and water heaters, according to Branscom.

Why Knoxville?

Scripps Networks Interactive Media Relations Specialist Matt Kothe said the Scripps Home Promotions team decides which city will feature the Urban Oasis home sweepstakes. 

"(Urban Oasis) started in 2010. So the original concept was high-rise apartments in major metro areas, so they did them in Boston, Miami, Atlanta, places like that, but in 2015, they actually decided to redo the contest a little bit to focus on bungalows like this in ... smaller metro areas, so they did it in Asheville in 2015, Ann Arbor last year, and this year is Knoxville."

Knoxville's Fourth & Gill neighborhood was a perfect fit for Urban Oasis, according to Kothe.

"I think that we here know that it's a really up-and-coming place," said Kothe. "There's breweries and restaurants and all kinds of shopping coming in and lots of people moving here, so again because of that, I think it really perfectly fits the idea of Urban Oasis. We love these places that are not huge, but they're kind of revitalizing. There's a lot of people doing this kind of work here, so Knoxville fits it to a T."