If you're a Fixer Upper fan, then you probably have about a bajillion questions you'd love to ask Joanna and Chip Gaines after each episode. Like, where did that couch come from? How did this lucky couple get on the show? Can I move to Waco and get a home makeover too? What happens to the rest of the rooms in the house? And of course, what happens to all of the client's furniture that they had in their old home?
Well friends, we have answers! Rachel Teodoro, the blogger behind Holy Craft, recently chatted with Fixer Upper season 3 client Jaime Ferguson from the "A Big Fix for a House in the Woods" episode. In her interview, she shared some incredibly insightful details about her experience on the show, and what it's really like to be a client of Chip and Jo.
Below are a few of the things that surprised us most, but to find out more about Jaime's experience on the show (Did the Fergusons regret turning down the house that
eventually became the ? Just how accurate are those renovation
budgets? Did Jaime become best friends with Chip and Joanna?!) head over to Holy Craft.
1
Getting on the show happens really fast.
Jaime heard back from the casting agency almost immediately after applying to be on the show, she told Holy Craft. "I applied to HGTV and heard from the casting agency the next day," she said. "After that it was a quick, big, exciting blur consisting of a Skype interview, written questionnaire, and some phone calls and meetings."
2
The clients don't get to keep all the furniture seen in the reveal.
Most of the furniture you see in the homes on reveal day is "staging furniture," meaning it's just there to make the space look nice. After the reveal, clients can purchase what they want to keep in their home. But this can be challenging for clients who just spent thousands of dollars on the renovation. "When it came time to pack up all their beautiful staging furniture, Kyle and I had to decide what we really loved because our budget at that point was pretty spent," Jaime told Holy Craft. How could anyone pick just a few pieces from an entire home filled with beautiful furniture and accessories?
So what does the house look like after the HGTV cameras (and the borrowed furniture) have left? See the before-and-after pictures of this cast member's house on Holy Craft.
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3
They renovate your ENTIRE home.
During a typical reveal, the episode features around three to five room renovations, but what you don't see is that the Magnolia team works on the entire home (or at least, they did in Jaime's case!). The other rooms in Jaime's house that didn't make it into the episode only required cosmetic upgrades, like new carpeting, paint, and fixtures.
4
The reveal day is a long day.
When the episode airs, the reveal is edited down to a few minutes at the end of the episode, but on the actual reveal day, clients are filming all day. Jaime told Holy Craft that their reveal day filming started at 8 a.m. and went to 4 p.m. No wonder Chip acts so silly all the time—he's probably exhausted and slightly delusional from long days of shooting (but we love you Chip, and wouldn't want you any other way).
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5
But Joanna is willing to work with your furniture, too.
That being said, Joanna will use and incorporate furnishings you already own. Jaime said Joanna worked with some of her favorite pieces including a blue buffet table, a gray and black dresser, a neutral sofa, and some accessories, like a mirror and wall art.
6
Those reveal posters are HUGE.
You know those "before" photo posters that Joanna and Chip place in front of renovated homes to ensure clients are surprised when they see their new home on reveal day? They look pretty big on TV—they are able to hide a house on the other side, after all—but apparently, they're huge. Like, too big to even fit into a home. Jaime said there was no way they could keep it because there would be nowhere to store it.
Find out more things you didn't know happened behind the scenes on Fixer Upper at Holy Craft.
Jessica Leigh Mattern
Web Editor
Jessica Leigh Mattern is a web editor and writer who covers home, holiday, DIY, crafts, travel, and more lifestyle topics. Prior to working for Country Living, she wrote for several lifestyle and women’s magazines including Woman’s Day, Cosmopolitan, and Redbook
