HGTV’s Mike & Denese Butler Get Candid About Major Life Changes

It’s alive! Alive! Mike and Denese Butler are back on April 2 for Season 2 of their hit HGTV series Fix My Frankenhouse. The fearless couple tackle more Boston area properties as they bring them from scarily disjointed to cohesive functionality for families. Between Mike’s mad scientist-like reconfiguring skills and construction experience and Denese’s eye for style and design, they bring a one-two punch in bringing old homes into modern times. 

The Butlers have become regular fixtures on the network with not only this show but also bringing their renovation skills to 100 Day Hotel Challenge. They lent a hand for an outdoor lounge on the Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt show. In 2019, Mike and Denese moved from Jersey City, New Jersey, to Boston with their three boys, Ellis, Felix and Luca, to be closer to family. Now, Mike and Denese work with their dads, master carpenters John Butler and Peter Doyle, to make each project stand out. 

For the season premiere, the two work with a couple whose 1970s property is complete with mismatched kitchen cabinets and a dangerous “stairway to hell.” The couple also grapple with Mike’s decision to leave his corporate job to jump full-time into growing the home renovation and design business. Here the busy husband and wife colleagues open up about what’s to come personally and professionally. 

Since Season 1 has aired, how much has life changed for you two? 

Denese Butler: I feel like our life has changed significantly because our team has grown. So that means we have to have more established processes and run a tighter ship here. I feel like that is the biggest way our lives have changed. 

Mike Butler: I also quit my corporate job and went all in with the business. That was a major risk-reward. 

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How has that big decision changed your dynamic? 

Denese: What you’re going to see in episode 1 and the rest of the episodes is a complete balancing act between making major decisions with these houses, with our family life and ultimately just working with these wonky homes. There is just a lot happening. 

Mike: On my side, it allows me to have more time with the family. So, I’m not walking out the door at 6:30 a.m. to get to my corporate gig. I get to help out with the boys, drop them off at school and go to job sites. Pick them up after. It has been rewarding. 

How has this impacted your relationship now that you’re around each other more and the stakes are higher?  

Denese: The stakes are definitely higher. I feel like our relationship has grown. We’re going to have been married for 13 years on April 21. The good news is it still feels like yesterday, even though he has quit his job full-time. At the same time, I feel like working together and seeing each other day-to-day, we definitely learned how to have time to talk about work and family. That doesn’t always work that way. I feel like problem-solving happens a lot quicker in the field and at home. That is something we learned to do very quickly, especially knowing we work together we are around each other all the time now. 

How have the kids adjusted to this new normal? 

Denese: I don’t even think they know. I don’t think they realize. 

Mike: I think they are just excited that they will be dropped off or picked up by myself or Denese more regularly. That’s something they look forward to now. 

Denese: I also feel like we’ve been very intentional, even in Season 1 and before TV, about being in our kids’ lives. I don’t think they really recognize it because we make every effort possible to always be present in the midst of filming and running the business. 

Mike: That and we have a good village behind us. We have people who help out including our parents, friends and other family. 

Denese: It definitely takes a village. 

You mention your family. Your dads help out with projects as well. What did they make of everything? How is it working with them in Season 2? 

Mike: Both the dads are in their retirement years now, so when they help out and work with us it’s limited scope now. They are enjoying the reward of working hard all those years. They are comical. I’ll tell you that. They also give you their opinion. 

Denese: I feel like our dads are very proud of us. Moving forward and taking this big step. They are always praying for us and wanting the best for everything we do. 

How did you reflect on last season? 

Denese: I think we reflected on a solid year. 

Mike: We took some time off because this was all new for us. There were a lot of lessons learned that we implemented in Season 2. I think the biggest thing was we took vacations this time around, which was huge for us. It didn’t feel like we were on the grind all the time. 

Denese: With the help of our team, it definitely allowed us to take those vacations because that wasn’t something we didn’t have before. Now we had a chance to stop and smell the roses. 

You were also on the 100 Day Hotel Challenge, so you’re officially part of this HGTV universe beyond your show. Is there anyone you looked to for guidance, to lean on or found inspiration from because they have gone through what you’re going through? 

Denese: It was really cool to befriend Brian and Mika. They are an outstanding couple. I love their drive and what they do. Scott McGillivray is another gentleman who is based out of Canada. He is a wealth of knowledge. There is also Lauren Makk. All of these individuals are just a wealth of knowledge. It was just a really cool opportunity to sit and have dinner with them and talk and learn about their experience and share war stories about being in the renovation world. Overall, they are incredible people who are near and dear to our home. 

What can you tease about what we’re going to see this season? 

Mike:  Everything from dangerous metal spiral staircase to structural beams…

Denese: A kitchen with no cabinets. A kitchen with a bathroom directly next to it. The list goes on. It’s Frankenhouse. It’s a house that doesn’t make sense. 

What are some of the challenges you face? 

Mike: One house in Abington had a sanitary pipe going right down the kitchen. We had to get creative and figure out how to relocate. That was one of the biggest challenges we came across. 

Denese: On the design side, there was a house in Norwell, because it was so big there was just a lot of detail I needed to really think through to flow seamlessly, not only with the new floorplan but aesthetically and doing it with what the client wanted. 

Mike; One of the last ones, which is one of our favorites, is in Upton where we had to merge a 1700s home through a 2000 Alaska style home, new build. It was about merging the two worlds together. It was a big undertaking and a big design challenge for Denese as well. 

There also seems to be moments of frustration. How do you weather through those instances? 

Denese: Construction is unpredictable. I feel like when you are in a high-stress environment of course things tend to heat up in the kitchen, literally. I feel like you may see some of that in the episodes. You may not. You’ll just have to stay tuned. 

What do you want to say to viewers when they are deciding about a Frankenhouse or wanting to make changes like the ones we see in these episodes? 

Mike: Don’t be scared to buy a house that doesn’t work. It can be fixed or reorganized. We live in a Frankenstein house ourselves. We put in our sweat equity and renovated spaces. As you live in a house, you get used to it. Then over time you want to improve it. 

Denese: Additions aren’t always necessarily the solution. It can be a matter of reprogramming the functions of a house. The kitchen, the living room, the bathroom, the bedroom. Consider it like Tetris. It’s trying to figure out how to move these things around and making them all fit in the house. An addition is not always necessary. 

Mike: Function and light is huge. Once you solve those, everything kind of falls into order. 

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How is it for you to not only help these families on the show and viewers, but also open up your life the way you have? 

Denese: It is a very vulnerable experience to be in to share what we’re going through. However, at the end of the day, it’s real. Being real allows us to connect with our clients. Other than that, there is this layer of trust. We are in a unique position to be able to have these gifts to help homeowners make their houses a home and a place they actually enjoy and want to live in. 

Mike: One thing you’ll hear us say over and over is we consider these homes our homes. We wouldn’t recommend something we wouldn’t do in our own home. By taking that stance, I think a lot of people understand that we’re going to do the job. 

Fix My Frankenhouse premiere, April 2, 9/8c, HGTV