The Adam Carolla Project – Don’t try this at home!

One of my guilty pleasures is watching home shows – you know the ones, everything from home improvement and renovation to home buying and selling.

If you have ever attempted to renovate a home and run into all sorts of pitfalls and disasters, you will truly enjoy watching the catastrophes that befall poor Adam Carolla, on The Adam Carolla Project, which airs each Saturday night at 10 p.m. on the DIY network (Channel 166 or 1254HD on Brighthouse Cable here in Orlando). A replay of the last week’s episode precedes it at 9:30 p.m. You can also find the show "On Demand" on Brighthouse cable channel 306. The show originally aired in 2005 on TLC.

Carolla is a hilarious comedian – someone who has the gift of seeing humor in everyday real life situations. I’ve listened to him every now and then on his online podcasts, The Adam Carolla Show, where topics range from cars to celebrities. Not coincidentally, he also frequently discusses his own adventures in investing in real estate, obtaining loans, and dealing with the bureaucratic red tape of taxes and permitting. It’s hard to feel sorry for the guy – he’s a millionaire – so, instead, we listeners can feel guiltless laughing at his unconventional creative solutions to his problems.

Carolla is also an ordinary everyday type of guy, not pretentious, not a know-it-all jerk. He’s someone we can all relate to.

In the TV show, Carolla has decided to take on the self-prescribed challenge of buying a run down home in prosperous Orange County, California, renovating it using only his own money, and reselling it for a million dollars. The year is 2005 and the housing market is still peaking. After scouring the Los Angeles area, Carolla purchases his own childhood home where he grew up for about $740K from his father. His goal is to gut it, renovate it, and add on to it, increasing the value enough to resell the house for $1M.

That may sound like a ridiculous amount to get for a home, until you put the price in perspective. Here in central Florida, this could be compared to buying a traditional neighborhood home for about $220K and reselling it for $300K after fixing it up.

Carolla’s hired a bunch of misfits, his “band of unemployable idiots,” consisting of friends from high school, buddies he’s worked with in the construction business, even his nephew. His old friend Ray Oldhafer is the most comical – anal about using a level, while refusing to wear proper shoes, and instead wearing flip flops on the job.

Every episode, there’s some sort of calamity where someone screws up royally, and we get to hear one of Carolla’s seemingly hair-brained, yet somehow practical solutions to his dilemma. It’s very entertaining. I recommend watching with your buddies after a long Saturday tackling a honey-do list, while enjoying a nice refreshing beverage. Hearing Carolla’s problems will make your own seem less monumental, and you’ll rest easy that night, feeling a bit more intelligent and competent.