‘Fixer to Fabulous’: Dave & Jenny Marrs Open Up About Tornado Hell and ‘Emotional’ New Season

It’s a new year and new season for Dave and Jenny Marrs HGTV’s hit series Fixer to Fabulous. The construction-design power couple rolls up their figurative and literal sleeves to help more families in their hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. They’ve leveled up once again in pulling off these transformations. This year was especially emotional after a slew of tornadoes ravaged the area where some projects became less about just aesthetic upgrades but also necessary with these twisters bringing nothing but devastation.

Among their most challenging efforts is a 24-hour challenge to build for St. Jude. During the season premiere, the Marrs work with a military couple who endured an unimaginable loss. They’re looking to give their outdated home a contemporary feel while also paying tribute to their family. The two have to manage deadlines for clients and also be present parents for their five children, not to mention keeping the farm and businesses running.

Here Dave and Jenny Marrs open up about what’s to come.

What was the feeling going into this season? This one seemed like a particularly emotional one.

Dave Marrs: We’re always pushing ourselves and being pushed by the network and the production company to figure out new and better projects that keep viewers coming back. We did a project for St. Jude’s that was an entire house, kitchen, bathroom, exterior, all of it in 24 hours. That was a great challenge for Jenny and me and our company to see if it’s something we can do. Also, doing it for a good cause. That was one of the many projects we did. It was a busy season. They always seemed to get busier, but it was good. We had some great projects.

Jenny Marrs: I actually am trying not to do bigger. I always want to try to do better, but we don’t need to do bigger because they always seem to get harder every year. This year we tried not to have too many giant projects, but we had 12 tornados hit our town in one night. It really impacted so many families across our community. With that, a lot of our projects changed. We actually started a remodel and did the walk-through and were about to start when a tornado hit. We went from doing a kitchen, living room, and bedroom to completely renovating the entire house and bringing it down to the studs. There was a hole in the roof and a tree through it. That was one of several that were involved with the tornados. The tornadoes coming through really changed the season for us as far as the scale of projects.

Helping in those really kind of drives home what you all do on a deeper level.

Jenny: As a community, we stepped up and cared for one another. We were out in the days and weeks that followed helping families with cleanup whose homes had been destroyed. The storms really affected our entire community. For us, it wasn’t an option. Of course, we will come help and do whatever we can for these families to get them back in their homes. The family we work with in this situation has young kids.

For us and our family, the tornado was incredibly scary. Our youngest had a real fear of storms and had nightmares afterward. We knew how hard it was on us as a family. Our home wasn’t destroyed. We had damage, but not destroyed. We really wanted to go above and beyond for these families, especially for the kids. We had one family who had three little girls and lost everything. We not only wanted to renovate their home so they have a home but also bring something joyful and exciting and fun to look forward to being back home to replace those bad memories with good ones. There was another layer of wanting to help beyond just structural changes.

During the season premiere, you work with veterans who faced the unimaginable of losing a child. How was it working with them?

Jenny: There were so many elements of this family’s story that were impactful. It was an emotional one for them. They were in the military and moved so many times. This wasn’t the house they absolutely loved or the place they thought they would stay forever until they lost their daughter. That was the last house their daughter was in, so they didn’t want to move as that home holds memories for her. That was the idea for the renovation.

We wanted to make it work better for them because they’re going to stay there. It was a challenge to honor their daughter’s memory and not change everything but also give them everything they wanted. They both wanted different things, so that was a challenge. Overall it was a challenging and emotional project but they were a great couple and wonderful to work with. It’s always an honor for people to invite you into their family’s story and that’s what we got to do. It wasn’t just renovating their house but being a part of their story. A really hard story, but with some beauty in it. It was all-around emotional.

Related

'Home Town' Stars Ben & Erin Napier Talk 'Weird' Family Life, Strict Rules & Date Nights

What are some of the interesting requests you receive this season? I saw a “catio” in the teaser.

Dave: It’s what Jenny said in that we are coming into the family’s story and what’s important to them. The catio is a prime example of that. The homeowner, her life’s mission is to foster and to help animals in need. Most people, myself included, would never think of adding something like that to my home. But it’s not my home. It was something that was important to her and impactful to her. We did it. Another family was the victim of the tornado and the house was destroyed. They bought the house because of all the trees and beauty of the lot. After the tornado, there wasn’t a tree left standing. We took some of the trees that were down and took them down and milled those. We created something for the kids and parents we used in the house.

It’s a memory of what was there. Creating spaces out back that give shade and mimic what a tree would do for your house. It was unique and different in each instance. In the St. Jude build, we made an entire backyard pool area with disc golf and raised platforms for a family that had gone through a lot of struggle over the past several years and needed a break. I love that kind of stuff because you get to be part of a lot of these stories and be really creative.

Fixer to Fabulous premiere, January 7, 8/7c, HGTV