My Story

Hi, I’m Tamara Day – host and designer of HGTV’s Bargain Mansions, CEO and Founder of Growing Days Home and Growing Days Design, and wife and mom to 4 kiddos! If you watch Bargain Mansions, you know that I buy and renovate homes in the Kansas City metro area to give them new life for today’s modern families. My trademark design style is “laid back luxe” which combines touches of glam with a cozy liveable vibe so your space is both beautiful and practical. I’m so excited you’ve found my website! Here are a few things you won’t want to miss.

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My family is my pride and joy, the reason I do everything I do and the biggest supporters behind this dream! My favorite part of making the show is when my husband Bill, and my four kids – Henry, Bobby, Thomas and Nora – get to be involved.

My passion for all things design came at an early age while assisting my dad, Ward (you’ve met him on the show) on all of his home renovation projects. You would think the years of hanging sheetrock as punishment for missing curfew would have turned me away from the industry, but no, I guess you could say it did just the opposite!

I married my husband, Bill, in 2000 and coincidentally, he had a background in flipping houses too!

In 2008, we bought our first true Bargain Mansion with the intention of making it our family’s forever home. It was 5,000+ square foot and let me tell you, every inch needed some serious love. We were going to hire out most of the work because my husband was working full time in the financial industry and I was busy chasing around three boys under the age of 3. However, this was right around the time the economy tanked, so I decided to do as much as I could myself. From sanding down the wood floor to tearing down the rotting walls, I did it. Everything. I’ve always had an eye for design, but it was during this process where I really developed and honed my design style and skillset and was able to participate in the construction side of things.

I spent months working 12 hour days, sanding floors and tearing down wallpaper with one baby strapped to my back and the others crawling in the playpen. Ha! It was all starting to come together, but we weren’t anywhere near finished. It was going to take a lot of money, effort, and shopping (my favorite) to furnish this home.

To stay on budget, I started going to estate sales with my three boys searching for diamonds in the rough. Our weekly routine was to spend Thursday-Saturday walking through estate sales and garage sales, buying a mixture of old and new pieces and then I would spend the weekdays painting/sanding in the driveway. Looked a little something like this…

This is where my passion for restoring furniture began. Even after our house was furnished, I couldn’t stop! I had a space at the local market and sold pieces there. Eventually, I had more pieces that I knew what to do with and outgrew the space. I started having open houses in my home where over 1,000 people would come through in a single weekend and could buy anything they saw on the first floor. This is where my business, Growing Days, was born. Not only was my business thriving, but I was growing our sweet family as well. I was finding that balance of what it was like to start a new business and be a mommy too. Growing Days just seemed to fit.

It was in 2013 when my sweet daughter Nora came along, our 4th kiddo. I loved where my business was heading, but I needed a break. I decided to take some time off from my vintage furniture and slow down to stay at home with the kids. It was exactly what I needed at the time. However, after a few months off, the phone started to ring. People were calling me and asking for help with their interior decorating and home renovations. Most of these people were those who had walked through my home during the furniture open houses! I started taking on some clients one at a time going at my own pace, but it didn’t take long before I had multiple accounts and was running a complete home renovation business. If you had told me that this business of mine would turn into the premise of a tv show on DIY Network, I probably would have laughed. Actually, I still kind of laugh when I think about it. 😉

Fast forward and Bargain Mansions is already three seasons in, plus we’ve moved over to HGTV Network! With 28 houses under our belt, it’s safe to say it’s been a whirlwind but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I love getting to work with my dad, Ward

My dad, Ward Schraeder, and I hard at work behind the scenes of Bargain Mansions.

Schraeder, on the show. I love getting to show future generations, and especially young girls, that you can be successful in this industry if you dream it. And I love having built my business into what it is today with multiple divisions – my retail store, Growing Days Home, my design business (in-person and e-design) and continuing to revitalize these old Kansas City homes through Bargain Mansions.

I always say it was luck that brought me this opportunity, but it’s equally important to be prepared so when luck strikes, you are ready! All of the years of hard work made it so I was ready to take on the challenge of HGTV. I never knew how big I could dream and here we are! Thank you for sticking around to be a part of this dream!

– Tamara