DIY: Making us better, or just entertainment?

As my roommate was getting ready to go out for Halloween last night, I was watching a new episode of “Holmes Makes it Right” on HGTV. For those of you who don’t know, Mike Holmes is a home improvement contractor who works primarily in Canada to fix problems made my other contractors. A person who has been played (for lack of better term) by a contractor, home inspector, or anybody else in the trades, can email Mike Holmes and explain their story. Mike will then show up with his crew and fix everything in your house that needs repair- for free. Unlike other shows such as Leave it to Bryan, Decked Out, and Income Property, which require the owner to foot the bill at the end of the renovation and reconstruction.

Holmes has had many shows of the same variety: Holmes on Homes, Holmes Inspection, and Holmes Makes it Right. In each of these shows, Mike Holmes works with his core team of about 10 people, including his son and daughter.

There are other shows of the DIY nature on HGTV and other television networks, but the thing I’ve realized about Mike Holmes, and the reason I can watch a show about construction with such enthusiasm is how he presents the construction on air. Most television hosts of DIY shows will tell you how to do things, ie) first you do this, and then you do this. Mike Holmes teaches you how to learn about this stuff. When he’s checking the ventilation in a room and notices there’s no air flow, he opens up the ceiling, brings in one of his workers and says “look at this, what do you see?, tell me what’s wrong and how it should be fixed”. He lets his team think for themselves and learn to search for and recognize the problem on their own. This is helpful not only to his team, but for those of us who are watching from home. I know things about things that have nothing to do directly with my life, but I imagine if you opened up a ceiling in a room that wasn’t getting heat, I could tell you why not and how to fix it!

So here’s my question, with shows such as Holmes Makes it Right, Decked Out, Income Property and so many others: are we, the untrained folk, getting any better at DIY projects around the house? Are we learning from these shows and becoming more competent? Or do we watch for pure entertainment?