View all Class in the spotlight ArticlesSubscribe to the Class in the spotlight RSS Feed View all This Week ArtcilesSubscribe to This Week RSS Feed View all The Arts ArticlesSubscribe to The Arts RSS Feed View all Class in the Spotlight ArticlesSubscribe to Class in the Spotlight RSS Feed View all Sports Features ArticlesSubscribe to the Sports Features RSS Feed View all Professor of the Week ArticlesSubscribe to the Professor of the Week RSS Feed
the campous chronicle features footer
The Campus Chronicle Artifact Header
Poetter Hall was purchased by the SCAD founders in March 1979. Classes began in September of that year.  
The Campus Chronicle Artifact Footer

Trivial Pursuits

Trivial Pursuits
 
Alumni share home with HGTV

HGTV filming
Photo by Ben Dashwood 
Angela Burson (left) and Greg Eltringham discuss their home on camera March 8 for a new HGTV program, “National Open House,” which starts this summer.

By Monique Bos
Published: Friday, March 24, 2006

This summer, Greg Eltringham, a Savannah College of Art and Design professor, and his wife, Angela Burson (B.F.A., painting, 1993), will join the ranks of SCAD alumni whose living spaces have been featured on HGTV.

The couple’s home will be showcased on “National Open House,” a new series slated to launch in May. “The show compares homes within the same area and similar price ranges,” Eltringham explained.

In addition to his and Burson’s renovated Victorian house in the historic district, homes in Ardsley Park and Oatland Island will be featured on the Savannah segment, scheduled to air in late June or early July.

“National Open House” creators Pie Town Productions located the couple through their realtor, Katherine Oxnard, who had applied to host the Savannah episode. She wasn’t chosen for that role — Eltringham said someone with a Southern accent was selected instead — but the producers “liked her and liked her house, and asked about other people she might know,” he explained.

Eltringham earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting from SCAD and teaches in the foundation studies department. He and Burson met at SCAD and have been married since 1991.

“I used to live a block away from where we live now,” he said. “It’s kind of freaky.”

Last summer, the couple and their two children returned to Savannah from Missouri, where they had been living. They purchased their home in June.

“We renovated a house in Missouri, so we didn’t want to have to do it all again,” Eltringham said. Nevertheless, they’ve made improvements to their new house: “We added a fence in the back, bricked the patio, built cupboards, and did some cabinetry and woodwork,” he explained. “We just finished doing the backyard. When we moved in, there was just a chain-link fence with barbed wire … We put a lot of time into getting our house together. It was nice to show it off.”

On March 18, the HGTV film crew taped the house, as well as comments from Eltringham and Burson.

“My wife is very into keeping the house looking good, so we didn’t have to do a lot of preparation,” Eltringham said. “We’ve done films with friends, so it wasn’t that strange. In the context of living here, it seemed pretty natural.”

The interview gave him the chance to talk about his alma mater and employer. “They asked about SCAD, so I was able to talk a little about the college,” he said. In addition, “They asked us goofy stuff like, ‘If you had a slogan for Savannah, what would it be?’ I think I said, ‘No one’s in a hurry.’”

However, the interview also highlighted for them the reasons they chose their home.

“The questions made us think about why we were here, what we liked about the house,” Eltringham said. “We like the space. It’s the first house where we have more than one bathroom, and with two kids, that’s been a real pleasure.”