'Fixer to Fabulous': Dave and Jenny Marrs on How Being in Business Together Helps Their Marriage (Exclusive)
Dan and Jenny Marrs are the perfect team. The Fixer to Fabulous stars are in the show's third season and more excited than ever. The show follows the Bentonville, Arkansas, residents as they remodel old homes to match each homeowner's personal style and need, and HGTV viewers cannot get enough.
Jenny is the designer of the pair, while Dave focuses on craftsmanship. They've restored over 300 homes and continue to do so while balancing a thriving marriage, five children, and a farm they live on where they raise their beloved animals. On top of all that, the Marrs' are also quite charitable.
Pop Culture spoke with the longtime married couple about their love of renovation, creating homeowner's dream homes, and how they make their marriage work while working together 24/7, all while managing their farm.
PC: So tell us about what viewers can expect from this season and what makes it exciting for you?
DM: I think of seasons that we've done, I'm most excited for Season 3. And I think mostly because of what we've done, with this one, we have so many different house styles and so many great stories with the homeowners. The casting producers this year, knocked it out of the park with just feel-good stories. And so it was just fun because, I mean, you're always giving someone back a house that you've put a lot of your heart and soul into, but it makes it that much more, that much greater when they've got a good story to go with it. Don't you think, Jenny?
JM: I know that it's the same. I just think it's, we do get an opportunity this season to share more of our story, our family story, and then the homeowners' stories as well, which is really awesome. I will say that. Yeah, I agree.
What's been the most impactful process for you guys from all of the previous seasons or even this season? What's been the home that you've done, or the family that you've worked with that's had the most lasting impact on you guys?
JM: My mom's favorite thing is to get everyone together and it doesn't happen as often, of course, as she would like, or any of us would like, just because everybody's so busy. So it was, outside of the show, it was an amazing memory, an amazing experience, and the fact that it was on the show that we were able to preserve that memory through video, it was really cool. So yeah, I would say that would be, for me.
Viewers are obsessed with real estate shows and home renovation shows. What's you guys' favorite part of the renovation process?
JM: I would say for me, my favorite part is at the end, when we start staging and styling and bringing everything together, just seeing the process actually come to life is definitely my favorite. But Dave would say something different, I bet.
DM: I think right when you first start, there's that excitement about starting a project. And so I'm a demo guy. I love doing that. I love just smashing into a historical wall and wondering what I'm going to find. And so I think that's what makes us work so well together is I really like the beginning phases and when I'm starting to wear out towards the end, Jenny's engines kick in and she takes over and then we get to work on ... or she gets to kind of take over and make it beautiful.
What advice would you guys give to people who are looking to get into the business or who are already in the business, but may be struggling from time to time? Because it can be challenging.
DM: That's a tough one. Jenny and I, we're very unique because we've been building houses for 15 years before we started this show. There are so many headaches with finding subcontractors and all that stuff that you have to go through when you're starting a business, we were already through that phase. And so I think if I was giving someone advice to start building, it would be: Just find someone that is good in the game that's already been doing it a long time and you're learning from them. And I think that's building success, and people love to share that kind of stuff. I truly believe people will give of their time to someone that wants to learn.
JM: I would just do it, like practice. Practice on your own home, see what you like, talk to people, find out what they like. I think the way you do this job well is to really understand the needs of homeowners, to understand the needs of a home and how a home should function well because I think first and foremost, that's the most important thing. It can be beautiful, but if it doesn't function and serve your family, then it's not really a home.
You guya really seem to have a good balance. You really seem to work very well together, obviously, but for other couples, a lot of people say you don't mix business with marriage. What do you guys find to be the secret of working together and still maintaining a happy marriage?
JM: I think for us, it's nice to have each other to understand what our day is like and to have the other person who really gets what we're doing. So for us, it's nice that we work together because it'd be really hard to do this on our own without the other person and having long days, and just really understanding the stress and all of that.
But as far as balancing it, I think that - trying to shut it off whenever we can, we really try to carve out intentional time with our family where we're not working or dealing with work, or we do a little weekend getaway, that sort of stuff. I think just really being intentional about what your priorities are and refresh with our family and our kids and soccer games and all of those things, like when our kids have something, that's the priority. And if you start to let those things slip, then that you're not living in within your own boundaries and your own priorities and keeping your priorities straight. So I think we do a good job reminding each other of that.
DM: But it is a constant struggle all the time. I mean, I think every adult in America, that's your biggest struggle is with time? Oh, working together. Working together is great with her. But I was just going to say like, with the timing and everything, we all struggle with allocating the right amount of time to our kids, to our work, to, and working together with Jenny, we actually understand the demand that it takes. And so it works for us. I don't know, it's weird to work with your best friend and then go home and talk about the same projects, and with kids, and so Jenny and I are together so much, but it's great. I wouldn't have it any other way.
I've noticed that there's a surge of interest for people really starting to embrace farm life and even beyond just raising animals and taking care of animals and people who may be animal lovers, there's this huge interest in people who want to grow their own foods and live on the farm and really pay attention to what they're putting into their bodies and kind of have control over that. What do you guys find to be the perks of the farm living lifestyle, for you guys?
JM: I think definitely having whole real foods to eat that are healthy is awesome and that's something that's very important to us, but we also love having animals and having the responsibility of taking care of the animals for our kids. We love having the space for our kids to run outside and build forts and use their imagination and be creative, all of those things. I think there's, I mean, it's a lot of work. It seems just fun, but it is a lot of work, but I think the lessons that our kids learn from the responsibilities that they have with the farm and we all have, I think are really important.
And we also feel like it's really fulfilling and rewarding to have our animals and our garden and our berry farm and all of things. So for us, it's just part of our life and something that we're really appreciative of. We know that not everybody has that. So we love it though.