By Sara Anne Donnelly
From the Fall 2023 issue of Maine Homes by Down East
Last fall, Portland prefab house designer BrightBuilt Home secretly filmed an episode of Celebrity IOU with stars Jonathan and Drew Scott — a.k.a. the Property Brothers — and the actress Glenn Close. “We called the show Voldemort,” BrightBuilt principal Phil Kaplan says. “Like, ‘He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.’” Producers of the HGTV show, which features celebrities gifting home renovations to loved ones, enlisted the company to supply a modular accessory dwelling unit (ADU) to install in the Eliot backyard of Close’s friend, Robin, as a surprise. Close and the Scotts chose BrightBuilt’s 500-square-foot, net-zero-ready Sterling model, and director Parlin Meyer worked with Hebron general contractor Maker Construction, South Paris manufacturer KBS Builders, and Hallowell’s LOGIC Windows & Doors to expedite the build, which had to be condensed from the typical six months to four to accommodate the show’s schedule. Close, who previously lived in Scarborough, selected finishes, such as a Carrara-marble vanity top, and asked Meyer to design a custom kitchen island with an invisible induction cooktop. The project went off without a hitch, save one hiccup. On demo day, while Close razed a backyard shed with an excavator, cackling like Cruella de Vil, passersby mistook the television crew’s equipment tents for something much more “Maine.” “We had many people walking up the driveway thinking it was a yard sale,” Meyer says.
Stream the Eliot episode, which aired in May, on Max or discovery+.
