Photo: annie schlechter
In 2004,theFixer to Fabuloushostshad just moved to Bentonville, Ark. to start their life together, after dating long-distance for 18 months. Dave, a contractor, and Jenny, a self-taught designer, took a leap of faith, leaving their corporate jobs in Chicago and Nashville respectively, in order to try their hand at house flipping.
Soon, the couple, who nextstar in season 2 ofHome Town Takeover(premiering April 23), were living in a rental house with a truck they bought off eBay and wondering if they’d made a huge mistake.
“We couldn’t afford anything else,” Dave tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “We quit our jobs. We had nothing.”
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They quickly realized they needed at least one steady income to survive. With one car to share, Dave recalls, “Jenny would call me and say, ‘Hey, I got an interview!’ And so I’d have to leave the job site, go home, and she’d go to the interview.” Eventually, she landed another office gig and “she became my sugar mama for six years,” Dave jokes.
“Ten years” Jenny corrects. “Basically I kept a real job so that we had insurance, and someone to sign loans for the houses while he was building.”
Dave admits there were about two years where things “got a little hairy,” but says, “You learned to save in the really good times, so it can take you through those valleys.”
Despite the hardships, the couple looks back on their earliest days together fondly. “We were so broke, but we had the most fun,” says Jenny.
Eventually, they started working together on renovations and custom home builds and Jenny was able to leave her job to help Dave full-time.
To make it happen, they broke one of the cardinal rules of remodeling: don’t live in a house while it’s under construction. “We’d move into a house, [renovate it], and then if somebody wanted to buy it, Dave was like, ‘Sorry, Jenny, pack back up. We’re out,'” she recalls.
But as a young couple, the constant upheaval suited them just fine. “It was just always hopeful. There wasn’t this extreme pressure to support a family. It was like, ‘Yeah, we’ll figure it out. It’s just us,'” she says. “I think we have always had an approach to life of just being open-handed with everything. Whatever God has for us, that’s what’s going to be. Sometimes it’s scary, but we have faith.”
“We said, thank you, we appreciate it. But we’re good. No, thanks,’ " says Dave.
They agreed to film a sizzle reel with low expectations. “We figured, why not? Who’s going to want to watch us? Let’s do it one time,” says Dave. That turned into a pilot and then a full season of what would becomeFixer to Fabulous.
source: people.com
