Local moms appear on reality TV show
By Sylvie Belmond belmond@theacorn.com

Two Moorpark mother and daughter teams will be featured on The Learning Channel reality television show "Trading Spaces" at 9 p.m. tomorrow, Sat., Feb. 9.

Participants on "Trading Spaces" switch spots for three days to redecorate a room in the other team's house using $1,000 and a lot of help from show designers, carpenters, producers and crew.

It all began last fall when Kim Hess talked her good friend Christine Reinhardt into auditioning for the home-decorating show.

Saturday's show is called "Rival Cheerleaders" because the friends' teen daughters are members of different cheerleading teams in Moorpark.

Not having seen the final cut of the episode, the mothers are a bit wary of how it's been edited to play out.

Since it's a TV show, producers do prompt participants a little, said Hess, referring to the cheerleading rivalry angle.

Nevertheless, both mothers said they enjoyed the experience.

"I had a blast. It was very exciting and the people from the show were a pleasure to work with," Hess said.

"The TV crew was a lot bigger than we expected," she added.

Hess gave a makeover to the Reinhardt family's living room with the help of her 13-year-old daughter, Rachel. Reinhardt and her daughter Taylor, also 13, in turn redecorated the Hess living room.

The process was often exhausting- not because of hard work, Hess said, but because of all the waiting and downtime while everything was set up and adjusted between filming sessions.

The threeday period included pre-show interviews, the redecorating, and major disruptions in family schedules since participants and their families cannot be in their own homes while the show is in production.

"The only thing that's difficult about this is that you have to rearrange your family schedule because no one can be in the house aside from the TV crews, producers and participants," Hess said.

Each mom is married with three children.

"The husbands took the motor homes, the kids and the dogs and went to stay at the Oak Park campground between Simi and Moorpark. They had a great time," said Reinhardt.

While the rest of their families enjoyed their time away from home, Reinhardt, Hess and their daughters stayed in the homes to work on the makeover project with the television crew and producers.

"It was a good bonding experience for me and my daughter," Reinhardt said.

Rachel is a cheerleader with the Moorpark Packers. She's in eighth grade at Chaparral Middle School. Taylor, an eighth-grader at Mesa Verde Middle School, cheers with the Moorpark Saints.

The girls have known each other since first grade but haven't maintained the strong friendship that their moms have with each other.

At the end of the three-day period, each family returned home to see how their redecorated room turned out.

Paige Davis hosts "Trading Spaces." The show will air again at noon on Sun., Feb 10.