A VISIT WI TH SARAH & BRYAN
HGTV stars open up about learning curve in creating island resort
Whether we choose to watch t heir show on TV, or have an opportunity to stay in their first- class Bahamas island resort, there is no question Bryan and Sarah Baeumler’s stars are on the rise.
Season 1 of Island of Bryan became the highest- rated series on HGTV in Canada, building on the Baeumler franchise, which includes previous TV series: Disaster DIY ( 2007- 2011), Leave it To Bryan ( 2012-2017), House of Bryan ( 2010- 2015), Bryan Inc. ( 2016-2018) and Island of Bryan Season 1 and 2.
In Season 1 of Island of Bryan, viewers watched Bryan and Sarah Baeumler leave their home and business behind and move their family to an undeveloped island in Bahamas in order to renovate and restore a rundown beach front resort.
Season 2 picks up where Season 1 left off; after a roller coaster of construction, the resort’s grand opening date is set just a few months away. With the budget maxed out and more at stake than ever, Bryan and Sarah will have to tackle the seemingly impossible in order to transform the property into their spectacular vision.
Island of Bryan, Season 2 airs Sundays at 10 p. m. ET/ PT on HGTV Canada, and through all challenges chronicled on the show, viewers learn how difficult — and rewarding — the journey can be.
Regardless, Caerula Mar Club is officially open and ready for business as of February.
Bryan and Sarah Baeumler recently spoke to Postmedia on location at the Caerula Mar Club resort on South Andros Island in the Bahamas.
Q Did you know what you were getting into?
Bryan: We had no idea. I think we had a very, very dark pair of rose-coloured glasses on. The idea of adventure, the idea of a project — I call it the “back nine” of my life after turning 45 — this romantic idea of moving to the island and fishing every day and diving every day, lay on the beach every day, it’s been a journey, it’s been a struggle.
There was a learning curve with bureaucracy, with doing business in another country, the logistics of travelling and operating in three different countries, with a Canadian business, finding our spot with the locals, our place in the fabric of the island and the stresses that it brought upon us were monumental. We did not anticipate all of this.
Q I recall a scene in Season 1 where you were literally stretched out on the ground, completely exhausted and looking like you could not take it anymore.
Bryan: There was that scene, and there was the swearing and the smashing of a hammer, we had to cut a lot of that out. There was another scene where I said to Sarah, “I’m done” and walked away. That being said, I wouldn’t have changed it for the world.
Sarah: It’s the experience, the life experience. You will never know how you will be changed or how you will be affected, your emotional growth, the growth of your children. And I think as much as you think you can plan for those things, you can’t know what to expect. It’s always a surprise.
And even when we look around here now on the island, whenever someone sees a table, all the struggles that we had just to get that item here and landed.
Bryan: This incredible romantic idea of packing up a car, driving to Florida, getting on a boat, going to an island and making this happen. But there is all the everyday stresses compounded by — are we going to run out of money before we finish this? And as a father and a provider, all these fears — are my kids going to be safe, are we making a massive mistake? There is all that.
But I think through the people we met and the experiences we had, we have met people with absolutely nothing and nothing to lose, and that is a healthy exposure for ourselves and our kids.
What if we lose this, we will have to cut back, and then you see people who just need a job for a week to put food on the table. It is a very grounding experience.
QHow would you compare renovating this, and how is this different from renovating a home or a cottage as you did on your previous HGTV series?
Bryan: It’s doing 80 homes or 80 cottages on an island that is inaccessible. It is monumentally more challenging for so many reasons, just environmentally we have extreme heat and humidity, we have salt in the air corroding our pipes and equipment.
On my way here, I was told two air conditioning units have salted up, are garbage and need to be replaced. There just so many different environmental factors, and the logistics alone are a monstrous part of operating in a country that is so inaccessible.
Sarah: It’s the human element in all those projects that doesn’t compare to this project. The experiences that we were able to showcase on TV and perhaps spoke to the viewer was not just the project itself but the human side of it, about doing it with our children, about all these individuals who we had just met created in essence a family on this island.
QCan you describe how this experience changed you both, and also your family? Bryan: We literally lived and worked on the job site 24/7, our film crew, our construction crew. At home at the end of the day, you get in your car and go home. Here, we say, “see you at dinner in 10 minutes and afterwards on the beach.”
Sarah: Our kids are growing up in this environment. The film crew was part of the meals, the construction crew was part of the meals, our children were part of the meals, and for them, they saw a very different dynamic.
It wasn’t mom and dad after a day of work, they were part of the whole process and it was up to them to make these relationships. Some of their friends were adults working on the project and it was the local children as well. Bryan: At home, as much as Canada is such a multicultural melting pot, here you take your kids to this island with dirt floors on their homes and daddy is away fishing for three months, and comes back with a couple hundred bucks. But nobody complains.
You wonder how your kids are going to react, and then you watch all four of your kids go, ‘Hey, they’re kids and they run and kick the ball around.’ It’s incredible. There’s zero judgment. There’s a kid, I want to play with that kid. It’s really cool to watch how well-grounded the kids have become.
QGoing forward, what are your plans for the resort, especially in the area of extra activities?
Sarah: We started with the spa, but it’s our belief that we really want to see what people will like. The fitness centre is open, the spa is open, but it’s understanding what people are looking for. Bryan and I spent a lot of time on the water, whether it be paddleboarding, kayaking — that’s what we enjoy — so we are making sure those amenities are there. But we don’t see this as a resort where things are motorized. We are not about the tour every hour on a jet ski.
Bryan: We also don’t have $150 million to have all the amenities pre-built, it’s a cart-and-horse scenario. We provide a place to stay that is a completely different experience than that cruise ship with 5,000 people on it, and people packed on a beach. This is where you stay to explore the island.
We are planning a fishing and diving operation, we are building a yoga pavilion, we have a fire pit. If you want to walk 30 miles on the beach and not see a single footprint, you can do that here. There are some excursions here, the Blue Holes, the Bat Cave, the Bay of Pigs. You can absolutely do anything here.
Sarah: Or, you can sit here and do nothing….
QWhat about your design and decor choices; I notice a very neutral colour palette and not at all the beachy tones you see in a typical resort?
Sarah: When we first arrived, we spent quite a few months just living here. We took a few months just to settle in as a family and that was an important part of my inspirational time, to get to know the island and understand the people.
The more time we spent here truly exploring everything, I think my perspective on how to showcase it changed. We learned a lot about the history of the property — 50 years in existence — we look at the architecture, and this building as a whole has had such an impact on the island for these 50 years.
It didn’t feel right to come in and start ripping it all apart or bulldozing it, we really wanted to respect the look and feel for it, and bring it up to the next level.
The biggest conversation we had was at the pool and I remember telling Bryan “I don’t want a colour,” and he said, “What do you mean you don’t want a colour,” and I said, “Look at the ocean, I can never compete with that ocean.”
So we did a natural stone with a sand finish. You look 50 feet more and you see what Mother Nature truly intended it to be like. Everything should have to take a second seat to what is out there. Look at the palm trees and the colour of the forest; that’s what does all the talking on this island, and that’s what we played off.
QWhere are you at now? Are you going to take it easy, maybe chill for a while? What about the future for you and Caerula Mar Club. Will you stay involved? Bryan: I certainly see myself spending more time, but not all of my time, here. We still have a lot going at home, we have a new development company, a ‘net zero’ company that will redefine ‘ house proud.’ I’m lucky, I get to travel a lot. Everywhere I go, I want to be excited to go. As for the home shows, I think it’s important to travel across Canada and connect with the people who are watching the shows and who are in the industry we are in. Sarah: All of our businesses in Canada are still going as well, and that’s been part of the balancing act as well. And that’s still our home. But first, we are going to take a proper holiday.