People have asked us about our experience with House Hunters so I thought I would tell you all this way to make it easier for everyone.  I just wanted to wait until it aired.  

So we found out we were moving last October so around the beginning of November we were watching House Hunters with my mom and wondered how we could be on the show.  We looked it up online and we just had to send an email to the show telling where we were moving and a little about our family.  

We never heard back. 

Eric and I went to Sweden for a couple days the beginning of December to find a place to live.  There is a housing shortage here in Lulea so we were on waiting lists since October but we got to the front for two apartments so when we went in December we were able to look at our two options.  They were both beautiful apartments but we chose the one closest to downtown. 

Eric moved in in the beginning of January while Owen and I stayed back.  While he was gone and went to Sacramento to spend some time with my sister and her family when the show emailed me back.  They asked us some questions like if we had found a place, if we had moved already, etc. I told them that we already found a place and Eric was already over there living in it and Owen and I would be joining him in February. I was so surprised when he said that was perfect because all House Hunters is is a recreation of us looking for an apartment.  He told us to make a video of us introducing our family and talk about why we want to be on the show and talking about our family.  

When Eric got back from Sweden his brother, Matt, came over and taped us. It was super awkward. 

We sent it into the show and then a producer called us and set up and phone interview.

We had a phone interview.

Then the producer called us back and asked us when we're moving and when they could come to Utah to shoot our back story.

It all happened to fast. 

They came out a couple weeks later to shoot our back story. 

They came to our home, which was practically empty because it was just a couple days before we moved.  We were stressed to the MAX because we had a ton to do before we moved so we were a little annoyed about it.  

And then we just got more annoyed because of the director that came from New York to shoot us. 

Of course I bought a new outfit to wear for the show right? Well, we got to the house to shoot the morning of (we were staying with my parents because we had already sold our furniture and shipped our stuff to Sweden) and the director said, to both of us, that we had to change into something for colorful.

Mind you - we were not living at our house so the only clothes we had there was our pile of clothes going to DI.  Well he wouldn't take no for an answer so Eric changed into a wrinkly dress shirt with holes in it and I changed into a T-shirt that was WAY too small.  

AH it was so bad. 

Eric getting all "miked" up

They took over our living room

Everything took forever with this director.  He didn't like what we said or how we said things so he would ask us a question and we would answer it and he would say, "ok say it again but say it like this ___"

It was really hard to be ourselves.  Plus, everything took twice as long.

We were way annoyed and a little mad that we decided to do it and even considered cancelling doing the rest of it. 

He also never got back to us about anything so that day he asked me if I got a team together to go play volleyball - but of course i hadn't because I didn't know until the day of (sorry those of you I texted and stressed out).  

We ended up just going to my parents for a dinner.  We were really relieved it didn't show my dad busting out his sparkling cider and making a toast. 

They even came in the car with us to tape us in the car - they didn't show any footage from it though of course. 

It took all day.  From 9 am until about 6.  By the end of it we were exhausted and frustrated.  But we were getting paid for it so we just needed to suck it up.  

So a couple days later, on February 25, we moved to Sweden.

Our shipment from home got there around the 11th of April but we knew that House Hunters was coming to film our apartment in a couple weeks and they would have to take everything out so we didn't hang anything up or get anything out.  

The week before they were supposed to come the producer called us and said that they couldn't find any apartments to tour for the show (i told you, a housing shortage) so if we knew anyone in Lulea that would let us tour their apartment and of course they would pay them.  We asked a few of our friends and got it squared away.

The end of April they came and we were kind of expecting the worst.  

 Not to mention, April isn't the prettiest time to come.  The snow was melting and everything was brown.
Its beautiful in the summer because EVERYTHING is green and its beautiful in the winter because everything is white.  I hope you guys can come see it then.

The day before we were supposed to shoot our director called, a woman from England, and she wanted to come over and visit.  She was SOOO nice!  She just wanted to talk with us and get to know us a little bit and talk to us about our schedule and what we were going to do all weekend.  

They were there for 3 days straight (all day everyday) and they had every minute planned. 

It was so nice to meet with her though, we loved her and knew that this time around, it would be different. 

The first day we toured our friends apartment (house number 1).  They actually wanted to stay in their apartment for it so we toured their apartment while they were in the next room.  It was weird but funny.  I was scared to say anything bad about it, but it really is a great apartment. 

We also met with our realtor in the freezing cold.  They just found him and asked him to be in the show. He doesn't show apartments or rentals at all and, of course, knew nothing about the apartments we went through. And he was kind of crazy and would just swear all the time.  I think the director got kind of annoyed with him because he would just mess around. 

 And Owen and I went to a little children's museum thing (we spent like 4 hours there and they only used like 10 seconds of film from it).  And it was all VERY scripted. So awkward. As you can tell, we're not the best actors. 

The second apartment we saw was, of course, ours. They hired a trucking company to come get all of our stuff and put it in the truck for a few hours while we shot and then put it all back.  We'll there must have been some communication problems because they didn't come with a big truck so they just put everything in our room from downstairs and everything upstairs, they just put into a corner.  

our room was really packed to the ceiling with our stuff.  It was insane.  They still didn't move some stuff and just said the apartment came with it.  Like the island, when I said this is nice that it has more counterspace, we bought that from Ikea and put in there, it didn't come with the apartment. And that random chair in the living room, and our kitchen table.  They just couldn't move it anywhere. 

The day after we shot at our apartment they were coming back to shoot the "2 months later" shoot so we had one night to set up our entire apartment.  I wish I would've had more time because our apartment is so much cuter now than it was 7 months ago. 

The third apartment I thought was absolutely adorable.  They had to say that there wasn't parking in order to add a con because I seriously LOVED that apartment.  Of course it wasn't for rent and it didn't come furnished.  It is someones apartment. But I loved it. 

By the way, all the prices and parking stuff is all made up.  They had to make everything up to make sure each apartment had some pros and some cons to make it more interesting. 

The decision scene.  The most scripted of all. 

You can definitely tell from this scene that it was all scripted and that we're terrible actors. 

The told us that after made the decision we had to high five or kiss or something. 

Um..no thanks. 

The day after we shot at our apartment they were coming back to shoot the "2 months later" shoot so we had one night to set up our entire apartment.  I wish I would've had more time because our apartment is so much cuter now than it was 7 months ago. 

See...

Owen's play room - which was supposed to be the closet upstairs.
Its a great playroom.

Overall, it was a good experience.  They turned 4 whole days of shooting into a 25 minute episode and they did a great job. 

Mostly, I'm very grateful that our friends and family got to see so much of where we live! That was definitely the best part! 

Oh, and we get a DVD of it that we get to keep forever to remember our time here!

Thanks everyone for watching and all the love you've shown to us! We're so grateful that you were able to get a taste of where we live! 

Now, COME VISIT US!