‘Farmhouse Fixer’: Jonathan Knight and Kristina Crestin Talk Challenges of Renovating Older Homes (Exclusive)

When you think of New Kids on the Block, home renovation doesn’t come to mind. But with longstanding member Jonathan Knight, he knew that he needed a plan B when the group split in the early 90s, and home renovation was what he turned to. He’s showcasing his skills, and love of old homes in the HGTV series Farmhouse Fixer. He works alongside designer Kristina Crestin. Season 2 premieres Wednesday, August 24, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. In the series, Knight renovates centuries-old New England properties into exquisite modern homes, all while keeping the original charm, with Crestin’s help.

PopCulture.com spoke with both Knight and Crestin about what to expect in Farmhouse Fixer Season 2. We also discussed his transition from music to the renovation business, what makes his partnership with Crestin work, tricks in the renovation process, and much more.

PC: So Jonathan, everybody knows you from being in the iconic group New Kids on the Block. Can you tell us a bit about your transition from boy band mania to being in the home renovation business?

JK: When I was a kid, my dad was a contractor, so I used to go to work with him. In the beginning, I hated it, and then I really just learned to enjoy it. So in 1994, when New Kids broke up, I kind of needed to reinvent myself and just jumped into flipping houses.

Have you found that there may be any similarities between the two industries? Because entertainment and home reno, they appear to be on opposite ends of the spectrum.

JK: But they’re actually very close as well. It’s an art form, and like I always say “When we get on stage every night, we’re there to make the fans happy and bring joy to their life.” So it’s the same, I think, with renovating houses. Just giving people that joy and excitement that they have a new space.

Do you also find that you’re at an advantage because clients are jumping for joy when they find out they get to work with Jonathan, from New Kids on the Block? Are they more excited? Is it easier to sway them to work with you guys?

JK: I think Kristina actually brings a lot of joy to that. Her expertise – she’s been doing this for years. I think a lot of times, people may be a little skeptical when they know it’s me. Because I think a lot of people don’t know how long I’ve been doing this and how many houses that I’ve fixed up.

Kristina, I want to get into your expertise a little bit because the show focuses on older homes and keeping some of their original characteristics. How do you go about deciding what stays and what goes and what are some of your non-negotiables in keeping certain aspects of an older home? Is it like, ‘OK, the fireplace is a must-have.’ How do you go about deciding those things?

KC: Our projects, it really comes down to what the homeowners are after. Some homeowners want to be close to period-authentic. Some homeowners just don’t care, and they love the idea of an old home, but they’re more focused on modern living.

So it’s almost having to take a step back, and I think what is design is when you’re working with a homeowner, we have our own preconceived notions. But if they’re after an open plan and that’s what they’re going to do to this house with or without us, it’s about trying to work through with them what’s the best way to achieve that in this house based on their goals. The early on process is a heck of a lot of learning about truly what they want and then trying to honor what they’re after. If they’re going too far to a point that makes us a little bit nervous, if they’re not going to be good stewards of this home, I don’t think we’ve really run into anyone yet. John, you can tell me if you’ve got nervous with anyone. I don’t think we’ve run into anybody yet who wanted to do something that made us uncomfortable about where they were taking these older homes.

In a time when the economy appears to be unstable, there’s a lot of talk about a recession. What advice do you give to your home renovation clients to keep renovation costs down?

KC: This is a real tough one because we’re in New England, we’re north of Boston, and the renovation costs are extremely high up here. I will say one of the dirty little secrets about older homes is it’s not affordable to renovate an older home, especially if you don’t have the skillset and sweat equity that you can put all the hours in themselves. So I mean, Jon, would you tell me if you agree with this, but we’re in a unique situation where the homeowner can’t be involved because they’re doing the TV thing. So they can’t be there saving money painting, they can’t be there saving money doing other things. So there aren’t a lot of places to save when you need to renovate what you need to renovate. What’s your point of view, Jon?

JK: That’s a tough one. I always tell my friends to buy what you can afford and even if it’s not your dream home, just get in there, and it could be a stepping stone to something better. But I mean [as far as keeping costs down], I think paint goes a long way in decorating and it can change the look of a room, and it’s cheap. If you can paint, then you can go in and paint your kitchen cabinets and swap out the hardware. Or there are a lot of ways to dress up a house without really doing a major renovation. If that makes sense.

KC: To your point about painting in some homes, we’ve painted just the trim a color, all of the trim of color, and it’s amazing how transformative to do something that simple. Good point, John.

What about farmhouse-style homes do you guys love the most?

JK: Oh man, what don’t we love? They don’t make houses like they used to. It’s funny because when I first started my real estate career, I was doing new construction, and it was just vinyl siding, and it just got to a point where the houses had no soul. It really bothered me so much that I was just like, “I can’t do this anymore. I want to just go off on my own without my previous business partners and find old houses and fix them up.”

One of the things that I was interested in, was because Kristina, you spoke about this a little bit when I asked you about keeping renovation costs down. You said that it’s difficult to do that specifically in your area and then specifically with older homes. When I watched the first episode of this season, the farm home that you guys renovated was built in the 1700s. I’m always curious to know what the people in your industry think, especially on these home renovation shows, about old versus new. What do you guys feel is better? Jonathan, you just said that you were so tired of being in the newer modern home renovation area, and you wanted to do older homes. There’s a lot of gentrification, and it seems like they’re building homes in three months. So when it comes to sustainability and long-term renovation, what do you guys find is better, old versus new?

JK: A new house is built so differently, and I think the shelf life on a new house is [shorter].  A lot of these new houses aren’t going to be around in 300 or 400 years. Just first of all, the wood in an old house is that old-growth wood that is super strong. I don’t know, there’s just something about an old house that’s just built with craftsmen of a different era. It just makes me sad when you see a house go up, and it’s just vinyl windows and plywood particle board. If that’s what they want and that’s what they can afford, more power to them. It’s just something I am not a fan of.

What was the most challenging renovation for you guys to do this season? Is there a renovation that’s stuck out?

JK: I think they’re all pretty challenging. The thing with an old house, it’s like you start taking down plaster wall and then you find out that there are termites or carpenter ants got to it. So there are a lot of challenges with an old house that you really don’t know what is going on behind the walls that are 200-300 years old. I think those are the challenges when we come across a problem where the old cast iron pipes are cracked, and it’s something that the homeowners didn’t expect. Now all of a sudden, we’re like, “Guess what? Your plumbing needs to be redone,” and that just adds to the budget.

KC: I completely agree with that point because I don’t think we ran into a lot of structural issues. But I would say that there wasn’t anything epic in Season 1 where we had to take that entire connector down, if that’s kind of the question. We didn’t run into something that epic it’s just all the unforeseen, massive structure when you open up the walls, and you didn’t see that coming and that why hopefully people have contingency money.

What’s your guys’ favorite type of renovation to do? Do you like to completely gut it out, or are you also happy with doing just a few updates here and there?

JK: Sometimes you have to gut some rooms just because it’s more cost-effective, but that’s where me and Kristina always are very cautious about making sure that what we put back looks like it’s authentic and that it’s been there for hundreds of years. It’s really a case by case.

What do you guys think makes your business relationship so successful?

KC: Balance. No, is that a fair statement?

JK: Love. I think what makes our business relationship work is, I think love, and respect. I think the fact that we both are so passionate and we have a very similar aesthetic when it comes to renovation.

KC: I agree on all those fronts because it’s interesting working with John differently than working with clients. There are just some things that like I’m put together, and I’m dying to share the ideas that came to me, and knowing that you have a kindred spirit to go through all this with and share this with, I think makes all the difference. Sometimes clients aren’t on that same page of joy when you suddenly solve a design problem or something. So there’s something really neat, not only working for these homeowners and helping their dreams come true or making a renovation happen that they just didn’t know how to make happen, there’s joy in that. But outside of that, the relationship together keeps all this going and makes it fun to do.

Going back to NKOTB, John you recently performed alongside New Kids on the Block, with another Boston supergroup, New Edition, on the AMAs. Fans are waiting for a full tour. So this is a two-part question, how amazing was the mashup? And are there talks about if it’s possible for you guys to tour together?

JK: We’ve been talking about that for years. I think eventually it’ll happen. We did it with the Backstreet Boys and I never would’ve thought that we would’ve done that with them. We did the AMAs, and then we’ve had BBD (Bell Biv DeVoe) on our shows in the past, most recently last fall they performed with us at Fenway, and it was so great performing with them. We were both formed by the same producer, we’re from the same neighborhood in Boston, and we’ve been through a lot of similar experiences, so yeah, it’s great. We’ll see what happens.