<p>Sabrina and Edward Fong, and their two children, Nicolas, 12, and Jessica, 9, are the proud owners of the "Tree House," which was recently featured on an episode of HGTV's "Beachfront Bargain Hunt."</p>

There is a moment midway through season one, episode nine, of the reality series Beachfront Bargain Hunt when Sabrina Fong; her husband, Edward; and their two children enter — apparently for the first time — a rustic, cabin-like dwelling, just north of Cannon Beachs Sunset Boulevard.

Sabrina Fong scans the living room appraisingly and declares, Its my kind of place!

But what the viewers at home arent supposed to know is the reason the place seems built specially for the Fongs:

In reality, the family had only just finished renovating it, having purchased the four-level home in early 2013 through Gearhart RE/MAX agent Marianne Pittard.

Last fall, the Fongs starred as themselves in the 22-minute episode A View to the Beach, in which Edward and Sabrina re-enact a fictionalized version of their recent home-buying experience.

When the episode premiered on HGTV Dec. 8, the Fongs watched it excitedly from their primary residence in Northwest Portland.

None of us had ever done this, so we were definitely not sure what to expect, said Edward Fong, who works for FEI, a Hillsboro company that makes high-tech microscopes. It came out better than I expected.

In the show, the couple shops around for a weekend getaway, preferably one with an ocean view, on a budget of $350,000.

Now thats a pretty tall order, as anyone familiar with property values in Cannon Beach will attest to.

Normally, the prices for beachfront homes in town start at roughly $600,000 and go up from there, according to Jeff Etchison, a principal broker at Duane Johnson Real Estate, who also played himself in the show. And as the narrator explains, some climb as high as $5 million.

But with Etchisons help, the bargain-hunting family tours four homes in town before deciding to purchase the Tree House — their real-life 1,478-square-foot beach house situated above the tsunami inundation zone about half a mile from the beach.

Its not oceanfront, Etchison said. But it did have an ocean view.

On TV, the Tree House ends up costing the Fongs $365,000. It cost them that amount in actuality as well, though they bought it for $305,000 and subsequently spent an additional $60,000 on renovations, Sabrina Fong said.

Behind the scenes

Shot from Oct. 17 through 20 by Magilla Entertainment, which contracts with HGTV, the production wasnt scripted per se, but it was staged.

We understood the intent, and we were fine with that, Edward Fong said. It took us months to settle on this place, and they cant do that in a four-day shoot.

Nonetheless, some authenticity did manage to creep into the filming.

When the Fongs visit the other three potential residences and pretend to consider buying them, they really are seeing them for the first time — the camera is capturing their genuine reactions to units at the Sandcastle condos, the Tolovana condos and the Crows Nest, a three-bedroom, two-bath house.

Likewise, in the scene where the Fongs explain their housing criteria to Etchison at The Wayfarer Restaurant and Lounge, that truly was the first time for us meeting Jeff, Edward Fong said.

Interestingly, the crew filmed that pivotal scene on day three, Etchison said, but it appears as one of the first scenes chronologically.

Nicolas Fong, 12, became intimately familiar with the hurry-up-and-wait cycle inherent in film acting.

It could be frustrating at times, he said. It was like: onstage nervous, offstage bored.

And when shooting outdoors in Oregon, one must often wait for the rain to stop and the fog to clear.

When the weather is cooperating, Nicolas 9-year-old sister, Jessica, can be seen cartwheeling on the sand near Haystack Rock.

It was fun, Jessica remembered. I liked when we went to the beach.

What she didnt like was when she worked hard to perfect one of her scenes only to discover that it didnt make the final cut.

As the crew warned Etchison and the Fongs from the beginning: After this experience, they would never look at TV the same way again.

Its so true, Edward Fong said.

Now theyre all painfully aware that whenever they see characters move from point A to point B, even in so-called reality shows, they probably had to go through the motions several times, if only to film the action from multiple angles.

Once you turn a camera on, all bets are off, Etchison said. A lot of times, wed have to do a scene two or three times to get the pace right.

Even something as simple as walking on the beach could pose a challenge.

Wed walk too fast, and then wed have to recreate it and walk a little slower, he said. Sometimes youd stumble over words, so wed have to go back and redo it.

You feel kind of funny at times, because you do make mistakes, Etchison continued. But we all did that. We all made mistakes.

One things certain: Etchison and the Fongs have gained a greater appreciation for all the effort that goes into film production.

Now I can see why these movies take, like, five years in the making, Edward Fong said. It took us four days to get 20 minutes of usable footage.

Post-production

Sabrina Fong said she and her husband agreed to participate in the show to give Nicolas and Jessica an idea of what filmmaking is all about.

Because she and Edward tend to be more technology-, finance- and business-minded, they hoped the show would provide artistic stimulation for their children.

It was a great experience for the kids, she said. The production team, theyre really nice.

Sabrina Fong, who has worked as a stay-at-home mom since Nicolas was born, recently built a website to advertise the Tree House: cbtreehouse.wix.com/home

The family, which mostly visits Cannon Beach on weekends, currently rents out the bottom levels of the Tree House. They also own a third home in San Jose, Calif.

The Fongs, who were paid $500 for their time, remember their Beachfront Bargain Hunt excursion fondly and without regrets.

Its a good conversational piece around the neighbors, Sabrina Fong said.

But unlike Etchison, who happily said he would do it again, the Fongs would probably turn down similar offers in the future.

We are not actors. We dont act. I dont like to act, Sabrina Fong said with self-deprecating amusement. If youre a movie star, you have preparation … But (with reality TV) you dont have time to prepare. You have the worst part of the deal.

Neither she nor Edward feel they somehow missed their calling, even though Etchison said he thinks the Fongs did a marvelous job.

Im not going to quit my day job and go into acting, Edward said, chuckling.

Reruns of A View to the Beach show often on HGTV.