A North Carolina couple is suing the producers of Love It Or List It, saying the show left them with a house that was shoddily constructed. The Raleigh News & Observer says that Deena Murphy and Timothy Sullivan agreed to participate in the hit HGTV series under the guise that they were considering a move to a rental property with their teenage foster children. The problem, according to the suit against Big Coat TV and Aaron Fitz Construction, was that the show’s principals—designer Hilary Farr, real estate agent David Visentin, and contractor Eric Eremita—are “actors or television personalities playing a role for the camera,” not people who “played more than a casual role in the actual renovation process.” While this shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s ever suffered through Farr and Visentin’s bullshit “no, you are” banter, it’s still mildly disheartening to hear. 
 
 For the episode, which aired in April 2015, Murphy and Sullivan were asked to deposit $140,000 into a fund with the production company, who would later use that money to pay Fitz and other subcontractors. According to the suit, the couple voiced its concerns about Fitz, saying it had below-average reviews on Angie’s List, but they were ignored. Over the course of the renovations, only $85,780.50 was disbursed to Fitz, leaving the couple wondering where the rest of their money went. The suit also questions how Big Coat can operate as a general contractor, a role it’s not licensed for. 
 
 Murphy and Sullivan are also claiming that Love It Or List It is even more of a scam than it generally seems, with the couple saying the show never used a licensed architect to develop plans for their house, and that they were never shown houses that were actually for sale in North Carolina—or for sale by any licensed North Carolina real estate broker. They also say any work done on the show was work that they’d previously made plans for with another company, Werx-Design Build. 
 
 According to the suit, the actual work done on the house was “disastrous,” leaving the home “irreparably damaged.” Duct work was left open, leading to vermin entering the house, and the couple complains of “low-grade industrial carpeting, unpainted surfaces, and windows painted shut.” 
 
 As the News & Observer summarizes, “Big Coat’s purported agreement,” the lawsuit contends, ‘admits that it is in the business of television production, not construction. ... The homeowners’ funds essentially pay the cost of creating a stage set for this television series.’” 
 
 Maria Armstrong, Big Coat’s CEO and the show’s executive producer, says that the company intends to “vigorously defend what [it] consider[s] false allegations.” 
 
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 A North Carolina couple is trying to pull back the curtains on a popular home renovation reality show. 
 
 Deena Murphy and Timothy Sullivan are suing the production company for HGTV’s “Love It or List It,” claiming the hit show turned their dream home into a nightmare. 
 
 The lawsuit against Big Coat TV and one of its contractors alleges the couple were “victims of shoddy work and unfair trade practices” that left their floors, windows and other parts of their home damaged. 
 
 RELATED: 'Fixer Upper': What it's actually like to be on the home show 
 
 The show’s premise is to renovate a family’s home while the owners contemplate moving into a new home. But the couple's lawsuit may provide too much of a peek behind the reality television curtain. 
 
 TODAY The program's hosts, David Visentin and Hilary Farr 
 
 “One of the things they're doing in this lawsuit is kind of blowing the secrecy off of reality TV,” said TODAY legal analyst Lisa Bloom. 
 
 In their lawsuit, Murphy and Sullivan describe Big Coat’s business model as “skewed.” They said they gave the production company $140,000 for renovations, but only about $85,000 went to the contractor. They claim the production company used the remaining funds “for the production of its series.” 
 
 TODAY North Carolina couple Deena Murphy and Timothy Sullivan are suing the show's production company. 
 
 In a statement to TODAY, the couple’s attorney said the company’s incentive was “to make decisions that favor the television show but not the homeowners.” 
 
 RELATED: 'Fixer Upper' Joanna Gaines shares her spring cleaning checklist 
 
 The “Love It or List It” production company disputes the allegation. 
 
 “We believe that this claim is in no way supported by any of the facts of the case, and we will be defending ourselves vigorously in this matter,” it told TODAY in a statement. 
 
 TODAY sought comment from the contractor listed as one of the lawsuit defendants but did not hear back. ||||| If you watch enough HGTV, as God knows we do, you become certain that the hardest parts of any home renovation are the bathrooms and the kitchen. They’re always saying it on those makeover or real-estate shows, that there’s a lot of unseen costs buried behind the tiles and backsplashes, lurking under the tubs and butcher-block islands. And, yes, those rooms are expensive and difficult to redo. But they’re not the hardest parts. No sir. As any real home reno expert can tell you, the most challenging aspect of home reno is, of course, installing an elaborate lighting system in your 40-room French chateau and three outbuildings and then getting sued over it. Just ask Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie! 
 
 Yes, unfortunately the War Machine star and the First They Killed My Father director are dealing with that classic crisis of home repair. According to The Guardian, Pitt and Jolie were sued this spring by French designer Odile Soudant, who was hired to design an elaborate lighting scheme for the property but says that gradually payment ceased, with no cause. 
 
 The project—labored over by a staff of 17, including “architects, designers, lighting and acoustic specialists, and even an optical engineer to calculate the angle of the sun’s rays on the chateau”—went on for months, and payments were steady. But then Soudant, who had not signed a formal contract, stopped receiving money and could not pay her staff. This was all a part of larger delays surrounding the massive Chateau Miraval renovation, a project The Guardian said had been described as “pharaonic.” 
 
 Back in the spring, a French court ruled that Pitt and Jolie’s Chateau Miraval company owed Soudant 565,000 euros (about $663,000 at today's exchange rate), which included compensation for the harm done to Soudant’s standing in her industry. Soudant tells the Guardian that she may have won some money in court, but she hasn’t gotten credit for the project, and is still fighting for that legal recognition, which is why she only now decided to go public with the story. 
 
 Pitt's representatives and another architect on the project have disputed her claim for credit. “We respect the Court's decision resolving this long running, standard dispute over payment of invoices,“ a spokesperson for Pitt wrote via e-mail. “This narrow ruling does not address any copyright issues involving [lighting] designs developed by Brad and has no connection to Chateau Miraval.“ 
 
 A source close to the situation added that the court ruling did not determine that Soudant wasn’t paid, and in fact she was paid in full. 
 
 Intriguingly, some e-mails sent by Pitt to Soudant were included in the lawsuit, and the The Guardian has obtained them. In one e-mail, Pitt wrote, “Odile, I need you. Come here please. I need you to finish.” This was after Soudant says Pitt stopped paying her. When tensions rose and Soudant stopped all work on the project, Pitt wrote, “I don’t know how things happen in France but in the United States, friends don’t attack friends. I’ve been nothing but a fan of your work. Do not attack. Let’s finish the project and be proud of it. The work is too good to end on a bad note. Life is too short, my friend.” 
 
 Pitt followed that up with “Don’t waste time with legal action. Follow your artistic journey and don’t worry about the rest.” 
 
 Which, sure, we don’t know the exact context of that e-mail, but a guy spending a kajillion dollars on the lighting system at his multi-building French estate telling a working designer to not worry about the money and just focus on the art is . . . a little rich, non? 
 
 Anyway, if you want more gory details, go read The Guardian’s piece, or the original report from Libération if you know French. It’s a tragic tale of thwarted ambition, of a failed working relationship. And it’s a story of vanity that is perhaps a bit familiar to those living only a few hundred miles from Versailles. 
 
 But our main takeaway is that it’s always what you don’t expect with these home projects. The slab of marble for the countertop cracks. The original hardwood is in worse shape than you'd hoped. Your multi-million dollar lighting system stalls because the Parisian designer you hired to do it is suing you in a French court. It’s these common, and yet undeniably frustrating, snags that keep some people away from fixer-uppers. 
 
 But they are not insurmountable! You can get the marble guy to give you a new slab. There are some really nice laminate floor options now. You can pay your money in French court and then move on with lighting your chateau and other buildings with someone else. I promise, these will all seem like minor hiccups once you’re settled comfortably in your house, wandering through your 40 rooms as you make your way to the motorcycle track you’ve built, with the way perfectly lit the whole time. 
 
 But if he’s still worried, Brad Pitt should call Mike Holmes. He’ll know what to do, I’ve no doubt. 
 
 Update, 6:25 P.M.: This story has been edited to include a statement from a spokesperson for Pitt and an additional source. 
 
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– When Deena Murphy and Timothy Sullivan wanted to renovate their Raleigh, NC, rental property, they didn't want a DIY project, so they did what they thought was the next best thing: signed up to have an HGTV show do it for them. But per a lawsuit the couple has now filed against Big Coat, the production company behind Love It or List It, as well as the local contractor who overhauled the home, they were left with "disastrous work," including holes in the floor and windows painted shut, the Charlotte Observer reports. The suit also alleges the "reality-TV" program is "scripted, with 'roles' and reactions assigned to the various performers and participants, including the homeowners." And the show's hosts, designer Hilary Farr and real estate agent David Visentin, and its resident general contractor? "Actors or television personalities … [who don't play] more than a casual role in the actual renovation process." Per their contract with Big Coat, the couple deposited $140,000 that would be used to pay Aaron Fitz Construction and its subcontractors. About $85,000 was distributed to Aaron Fitz during the overhaul, even though Murphy and Sullivan say they expressed concerns about mediocre reviews seen on Angie's List. The rest of the money got pumped into producing the show, the couple claims, reports Today.com. They say the show is "even more of a scam than it generally seems," as the AV Club frames it. "The homeowners' funds essentially pay the cost of creating a stage set for this television series," the suit says. A statement from Big Coat's CEO says the company will "vigorously defend what we consider to be false allegations." (This DIY project took six months to make and much less time to eat.)