HGTV show to feature area couple buying cabin

As a former Miss Ohio USA, Sarah Newkirk is used to being in front of a camera.

But she still wasn’t quite prepared for her appearance on the HGTV series “Log Cabin Living.”

Like “House Hunters” and other shows on the cable network, “Log Cabin Living” tracks home shoppers as they choose from three properties.

In November, a “Log Cabin Living” crew documented Newkirk and her fiance, Cody Lawhorn, searching for a Hocking Hills cabin home. The results will air Saturday night.

“We thought we had an idea of what to expect, but the filming was much different than we thought; the process was much harder,” said Newkirk, 27, the 2015 Miss Ohio USA, who works for a Bexley urgent- care facility.

“You think you’re just going to walk through the house, like you normally would, and they would just follow you. But it’s not like that at all. There’s a lot of multiple takes.”

Bob Panian, the real- estate agent who represented Newkirk and Lawhorn, was similarly surprised by the effort the show required.

“We started bright and early the first day,” said Panian, with e-Merge Real Estate in Reynoldsburg. “We ran through every scene with at least three takes. By the second day, we started to nail it on the second takes.”

Newkirk was living in Grandview Heights and Lawhorn, a 29-year-old pharmaceutical worker, in Dublin when they decided last year to look for a home in anticipation of their wedding this coming September. They both love nature and wanted something rural, close to outdoor activities, with enough land for a garden and for less than $300,000.

“We had both been to the Hocking Hills area,” Newkirk said. “We just love the ... hiking and the hills. We were looking for something rustic in the country, a log home.”

They applied to appear on “Log Cabin Living” on the recommendation of a friend of Newkirk’s who had appeared on the show in Maryland.

The couple had already chosen their home by the time the HGTV film crew arrived, but, for the sake of drama, the episode shows them touring two other homes before picking the winner at the Hocking Hills Winery in Logan.

The show ends with the homebuyers moving into their new house. Usually, a friend or two are shown with the buyers, but Newkirk and Lawhorn had another idea.

“For the move-in scene, we had about 20 people there,” Newkirk said. “They all wanted to come over.”

The couple invited the same friends over to watch the show on Saturday night.

“We’re really excited to see it,” Newkirk said. “It was a fun experience.”

“School of Rock — The Musical.” The 2016 Tony nominee for best musical, score and book is composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s, author Julian Fellowes’ and lyricist Glenn Slater’s adaptation of the 2003 Jack Black comedy film about a struggling rock-singer/guitarist who rehearses fourthgraders for a Battle of the Bands.

“Waitress.” The 2016 Tony nominee for best musical, score and book is Grammy-nominated composer-lyricist Sara Bareilles and author Jessie Nelson’s inspirational comedy-drama based on the 2007 film about a waitress who dreams of winning a pie-baking contest to escape her small town and loveless marriage.

“Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical” (optional add-on). The 75-minute two-act is a family-oriented show adapted from the TV classic. (Palace Theatre, 34 W. Broad St.)

“The Phantom of the Opera” (optional add-on). The restaged version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Gothic mega-hit first visited Columbus in 2014.

“Chicago.” The Kander and Ebb musical about two women who get away with murder returns as the longest-running

American musical on Broadway. (Palace Theatre)

“An American in Paris.” Chosen for 12 Tony nominations in 2015 (including best musical and book) and winner of four (including best choreography), the show was adapted with many Gershwin songs by Craig Lucas (“Prelude to a Kiss”) from the Oscar-winning 1951 film about an American soldier-painter and a mysterious French girl.

“The Book of Mormon” (optional add-on). The encore run of the 2011 Tony winner for best musical returns with its provocative and satirical tale by the “South Park” creators (Trey Parker and Matt Stone)

“The King and I.” The recent Lincoln Center Theatre revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical centers on a British governess hired to tutor the children of a Siamese ruler.

and Robert Lopez about two Mormon missionaries confronting tragic realities in Africa.

Subscriptions to the five-show season, on sale now, cost $160 to $565, with tickets sold separately to the three nonsubscription shows. Call 1-800294-1892, or visit the Ohio Theatre box office or www.broadway incolumbus.com