Something to build on for Dorchester’s Renovation Husbands
Self-taught designers who built a big Instagram following for their own home renovation won $56k on HGTV’s ‘Battle on the Mountain’
In an Instagram story this week, Dorchester’s Renovation Husbands, worked on their own home while listening to a Harry Potter audiobook. The self-taught home renovators earned some extra home-project money — and the chance to relax with Hogwarts — after winning $56,000 in a six-week home-remodeling contest in Colorado.
Last week, Stephen and David St. Russell became the first winners ever of HGTV’s new series “Battle on the Mountain.”
“We proved to ourselves that we could do things in that timespan. It’s unrealistic in reallife, but we proved we could do it,” said Stephen, 33, in a recent phone interview from Dorchester.
The challenge? Three couples were assigned homes to renovate in Breckenridge, Colo. Each had a $100,000 budget, a network star as a coach (the St. Russells were coached by Rico León of “Rico to the Rescue”), and six weeks to renovate an entire house.
The goal? Raising the property value of the home the highest.
The St. Russells brought their $826,800 startvalue home up 41.19 percent to win the $50K grand prize. Because they won two room minichallenges along the way — $3K each for best kitchen/dining room and main suite — they left Colorado with a cool $56,000.
As self-taught renovators, they found the experience “validating,” David said.”We’ve never had that experience of [being critiqued] — I mean, we’re critiqued in the comment sections sometimes — but not like this,” David said, making Stephen laugh.
The couple, who met at Longmeadow High School, started renovating their Dorchester Victorian home around 2017. One Instagram post led to another. The husbands quit their jobs to renovate. Today, a quarter of a million people follow @renovationhusbands’ New England home projects on Instagram (along with some 300,000 on TikTok)
While they were in Colorado, they closed on a 1974 Midcoast Maine cabin.“The winnings are probably going to go back into that project,” David said.
Experts who evaluated the finished home included Ty Pennington, Alison Victoria, and Massachusetts native Taniya Nayak.
“I can’t stop staring at this kitchen,” Nayak said in the finale.
“Oh I love it,” said Pennington, walking into the airy guest bedroom with climbing wall. Would they do another show?
“It’s hard to say,” said Stephen. “It was one of the most challenging things we’ve ever done.”
“I think the prize money would have to be higher,” David said with a laugh. “To be put under that stress and microscope was not easy. We’re glad we survived.”