Chat Live With Designers During Today's Airing of 'Showhouse Showdown' in Cranberry

HGTV fans will have the opportunity to chat live with designers Alisha Gwen and Joe Berkowitz when the Cranberry Township episode of Showhouse Showdown premieres at 2:30 p.m. today.

HGTV and Stone & Co. Entertainment partnered with Heartland Homes in August The show also

In addition to chatting with the designers on the Heartlands Homes website, anyone who participates in the chat will be entered to win an iPad. For information, visit more the Heartlands Home website by clicking here.

In each episode of Showhouse Showdown, two professional interior designers take over two newly-built houses with mirror-image floor plans. Local designer Gwen and Berkowitz, of Philadelphia, will compete head-to-head by creating five signature rooms in each house using identical $130,000 budgets and on the same seven-day schedule.

Keeping the stakes high and the designers on track will be host Bob Guiney, from ABC’s The Bachelor. In the end, there is an open house, and one designer will be crowned the winner based on the votes casted by the area residents.

“This is not like anything you have seen on HGTV before,” said Kevin Oakley, director of marketing for Heartland Homes. “This is not just about picking paint colors and moving in furniture. These designers are involved with the house from day one of construction and have complete freedom to change whatever they want. Windows, walls, cabinets – it’s all up for grabs.”

The rooms range from a kid-friendly family play room to a mood-setting master bedroom retreat, and embody two very different creative visions. The episode is titled, “Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Showdown: The Black Wall vs. The Play Room.”

Area residents also will get another chance to meet ‘Bachelor Bob’ and the designers in person next week.

Guiney, Gwen and Berkowitz will be at the Mystic Ridge model home (located off Garvin Road) at 1:30 p.m. on March 9. The first 100 people in attendance at the event will have a chance to win $25,000. Doors open at 12:30pm, and the re-broadcast of the episode will air at 1:30pm.

About five episodes of Showhouse Showdown already have aired on TV. Cranberry's episode was the eighth to be filmed and was expected to premiere in October. Due to competition during the Monday night television lineup late last year,

The episode shot in Oakmont, featuring designers Christine Jones and Lizzie Bennett Farley, is scheduled to air Saturday, March 31. For more information and details about a premier party, go to www.HeartlandCustomHomes.com. Click on the video above for a preview of the Cranberry and Oakmont episodes.