Contest for free HGTV home in Ann Arbor starts soon!

It's beyond exciting for those of us stuck in the sticks of Ann Arbor to enter the HGTV Urban Oasis Sweepstakes in hopes of winning a lovely, totally redone home FOR FREE—right in the heart of the city. The sweepstakes starts in just a few days, running from 9 a.m. Oct. 4 to 5 p.m. Nov. 22. To celebrate the contest's launch, HGTV is airing a special episode at 11 p.m. Oct. 5.

You can enter once a day to win this $650,000 "cozy, Craftsman-style home" that's been overhauled and beautified over the last year. Just yesterday, Sept. 20, HGTV let in the media to explore the home. And it is more gorgeous, quirky and high-end than even its biggest fan—that would be me—expected. 

MLive did a spectacular job photographing this gem. Take a look:

For this Urban Oasis project, HGTV picked a ramshackle house in the Water Hill neighborhood, home of the yearly Water Hill Music Festival, just west of downtown and north of Miller Road. It's full of Arts-and-Crafts-style homes from the '20s like this one at 730 Spring St.

For design, the network hired a Plymouth, Michigan, firm, Studio Z Architecture, which did a fabulous job refiguring and outfitting the home in clean, imaginative, ways. For instance, the tiny, dark living room now opens to almost two-story ceiling with a dormer that floods it with light. The kitchen is sleek and industrial yet homey. I particularly liked that the  master bathroom walls are totally tiled, floor to ceiling, in cool aqua-green. 

The renovation was done by Ann Arbor's Maven Development, 544 Detroit St, and students of the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources and Environment did the landscaping. (Do see the students' flickr album of the project.)

Regular viewers of HGTV, which is famous for its home giveaway contests, revel in the episodes that show the progress on its yearly sweepstakes homes. Of course the odds of winning are astronomically high—no doubt close to the Lotto odds—but it's fun to dream. And why the heck not enter? Someone's going to win. And if you don't enter, you can't win.

If you're a dreamer, too, you can use the link in the story below to sign up for reminders to enter the sweepstakes every day. All they need is your email address. 

This slideshow highlights how far this home has come. The before and after photos are amazing!

HGTV's legalities: "No purchase necessary. Open to legal residents of the U.S., age 21 or older. Void where prohibited. Sweepstakes starts at 9 a.m. ET on 10/4/16 and ends at 5 p.m. ET on 11/22/16. Odds of winning depend on number of entries received. For full official rules, visit www.HGTV.com or send a self-addressed stamped envelope to: “HGTV Urban Oasis Giveaway 2016” P.O. Box 53305, Knoxville, TN 37950. Main Sponsor: Scripps Networks, LLC d/b/a Home & Garden Television."