The hosts are confident they got the transformation right, despite all the extra challenges that come with renovating a town, not a building.
With the first season of Home Town Takeover set to thrust Port Alberni into the spotlight Sunday on HGTV, the hosts are confident they got the transformation right, despite all the extra challenges that come with renovating a town, not a building.
For one thing, residents were still living and working in the town as the renovations happened over the summer.
“We’d be standing there filming and all of a sudden realize there’s a collection of people around us, because they’re grabbing their groceries or they’re doing things,” said Sarah Baeumler, who co-hosts the Canadian version of the show with husband Bryan Baeumler.
“You have to remember, life goes on for the larger community at whole, especially when you’re working in public spaces.”
Bryan Baeumler likened the process to “performing open heart surgery,” because of the pressure of people watching and the fact that it “could be a monumental mess if we go in and screw up a town.”
Port Alberni was selected to be featured on the show out of more than 250 applications from small towns across Canada. The criteria was that the towns have populations of under 20,000 people and embody a strong sense of community.
Filming and construction started on June 10 and wrapped on Aug. 28.
The “takeover” consisted of various renovations to homes, businesses and public spaces, primarily in the Harbour Quay area.
Along the waterfront, the Harbour Quay’s marine building received a new exterior and patio extension, and individual businesses inside were renovated.
The show’s team also built new market-style kiosks in the quay area and a new bandshell for musicians.
One of the key projects was also renovating eight homes of those selected as community “change makers.”
The first episode features Gaelle, a local resident who cooks for and feeds those in need.
Bryan said he was moved by her description of how when she was younger, she didn’t have enough food to eat and wanted to ensure no one else had to experience that hardship.
“Not only is she breaking that cycle that she was involved in, but she’s ensuring she’s seeding for the future — she’s got her three kids involved,” he said.
The show renovated her home and expanded her kitchen and storage space so she could be more comfortable cooking and hosting large dinners there.
Her story is an example of how there’s something “really special” about the people in Port Alberni, said Bryan.
“They’ve really kind of locked into community and they’re like, ‘OK, there’s a problem here. Nobody’s going to knock on the door and fix it, so let’s go fix it,’ ” he said.
The duo’s adventure in television renovations started 21 years ago, when Bryan reached out to HGTV when it was owned by Alliance Atlantis and offered free construction labour in exchange for advertising for his construction company, Baeumler Quality Construction.
They soon offered him his own show, Disaster DIY, which debuted in 2007.
Fast forward more than a dozen shows and hundreds of episodes, and the duo got a call to meet with the content team at HGTV, who told them Home Town Takeover was coming to Canada and asked if they would be the hosts.
In the first episode, Bryan describes the Port Alberni makeover as “the biggest project of our lives.”
One of the challenges was simply getting all of the work done within 12 weeks, he said.
“It’s a real nightmare trying to keep everything on schedule and on budget with production standing on top of you.”