Harrisons await their HGTV debut

Published 12:59 am Saturday, September 12, 2009

NATCHEZ — Bradley and Genny Harrison will make their national television debut at 11 a.m. Sunday when their house, The Mellen House, appears on HGTV’s “My House is Worth What?”

The Harrisons’ home will be the third Natchez home featured on the show in recent weeks.

“They spent a whole day at each house to basically show about seven minutes,” Bradley Harrison said. “They spent a lot of time doing this and that and going here and there getting to know a lot about Natchez.”

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The show explores three houses in three different areas of the country and grades the renovations and upgrades throughout the house. Ultimately, the show’s appraiser tells the homeowner what the house is worth.

The Harrisons added a master bedroom-master bathroom suite, office and a garage to the backside of the house.

“The premise was that we wanted to do some more renovations on the house and we wanted to know if the house was worth it,” Harrison said. “We were looking at adding an outdoor barbecue or kitchen area.”

Before the Harrisons purchased the house, the former owners had done extensive renovation to the house.

“The house is 215 years old and they basically had to gut it,” he said. “It took them about three years to renovate it.”

Harrison said the show’s appraisers were impressed with the additions the Harrisons completed as well as the restoration done by the previous owners.

“They were impressed with the new master suite and loved the kitchen,” he said. “In the dining room and parlor there are a couple of mantles from the Hudson Bay Company from the 1600s and they really liked those.”

And though, he cannot release the appraisal amount until after the show airs, Harrison said “it worked out well.”

Harrison said he will be sure to be watching when the show comes on Sunday.

“We’ve got some friends coming over to watch with us,” Harrison said. “It should be fun.”

Natchez Realtor Sharon Sharp will be featured on the show.

The Lawrence House, owned by Mike and Gayle Henry was featured on Aug. 16 and the Peter Hunter House, owned by Eric Williams, was featured on Aug. 29.

HGTV is channel 52 on Natchez CableOne listings.