• Baylor couple’s HGTV series, ‘Fixer Upper,’ begins tonight

    Fixer Upper example

    Believe it or not, the photos above are of the same house. On the left, the before; on the right, the after — as in, after Baylor alumni Chip and Joanna Gaines got their hands on it.

    The Gaineses are the hosts of HGTV’s newest show, Fixer Upper, which debuts tonight at 10 p.m. CT. You might have caught the show’s one-hour pilot last spring; it has since been picked up for series, following Chip (BBA ’98) and Joanna (BA ’01) around Texas — including many Waco-area homes — as they put their renovation and design expertise to work.

    Joanna and Chip GainesHere’s HGTV’s summary of the show: “The first rule of real estate is location, location, location, but what happens when a buyer’s only option in the right location is a house with dreadful design and a clunky layout? We say buy it — then fix it! Fixer Upper pairs renovation, design and real estate pros Chip and Joanna Gaines with Waco/Dallas, Texas-area buyers to renovate the wrong house that’s in the right location.”

    The house above, for example, is in the heart of Waco, less than 3 miles from the Baylor campus, and belongs to Baylor assistant soccer coach Chuck Codd and his family. The Codds purchased the 1927 home from a sheriff’s sale in 2011, and thanks to the Gaineses, were able to restore it to the beauty you see on the right. The story of their home’s remodeling is one of those that will be featured on Fixer Upper.

    Sic ’em, Chip and Joanna!

    [If you like shows like Fixer Upper, chances are good you’ll like the sorts of things we pin on our Pinterest boards like “Baylor In Your Home.” Check it out!]