‘Home Town Takeover’: Erin & Ben Napier Talk ‘Emotional’ Season 3 & Unexpected Challenges

Ben and Erin Napier are taking their talents to central Florida for Season 3 of Home Town Takeover where they’ll work their magic on the town of Sebring. The HGTV power couple will tackle more than a dozen renovation projects over the course of four months. Of course, with so much work to do on transforming these homes, local businesses and public spaces, they can’t do it alone. 

It’s why the couple have assembled some of their avengers from the HGTV and Food Network universe  including:  Rock the Block‘s Bryan and Sarah Baeumler, Down Home Fab‘s Chelsea and Cole DeBoer, Renovation Aloha‘s Kamohai and Tristyn Kalama, 100 Day Dream Home‘s Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt, Hot List‘s Chef Mika Leon, Help! I Wrecked My House‘s Jasmine Roth, and Revealed‘s Veronica Valencia. Throughout the six episodes, this all-hands on deck effort leads to filling those empty storefronts, mobilizing the lakeside community to bring change and activity back to the Sebring streets. Among the projects tackled over the four months are adding colorful murals and gazebo to the main park, revamping a Cuban cafe and theater. 

First up, the Napiers bring Dave and Jenny Marrs (Fixer to Fabulous) aboard to help provide a facelift to a soda shop and historic home of a local kindergarten teacher which serves as the unofficial landmark welcoming people to the town’s circle.

Ahead of the premiere, we caught up with Ben and Erin, who opened up about their emotional experience and how it made Erin cry.

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What made Sebring stand out to do Season 3 there? 

Ben Napier: There has not been a callout since the very first one because we got thousands of towns. 

Erin Napier: Something like 6,000 towns applied. We’ve done three of the 6,000. There are a lot of options every year to consider for Takeover. HGTV chooses the town. We were super excited it was in Florida because when you grow up in Mississippi, Florida is where you end up going on vacations. There was some familiarity there that we didn’t have with Wetumpka or Fort Morgan. Even though we have never been to central Florida, where Sebring is. 

Ben: I’ve actually been to a town nearby for my one “vacation” I went on as a child. My dad had to deliver a truck to this place near Sebring. I had been to that part of the country. I don’t remember much about it, other than we stayed in a Florida motel with a swimming pool. That was the greatest vacation I’ve ever been on to that point. 

Florida is a nice destination. 

Ben: It’s…

Erin: Sunshine and oranges. 

Ben: It’s quirky. 

Wait…so you’re saying you haven’t been to Disney World? 

Erin: We’ve never. Ben has never been to Disney. I went when I was 11.

Ben: I’ve never been to Disney. 

Erin: We like old Florida. We spent a lot of time in St. Augustine and that area. The parts of Florida we love the most are the undiscovered parts that are not the theme parks or the beaches. Even though they do theme parks and beaches really well. 

Ben: Yes, they are very good at that. Florida has figured that out. This part of Florida has almost been forgotten. It’s like the vacation land of yesteryear. That was sort of the theme for our crew when we were making the show. That we were telling the story of yesterday’s vacationland. It was how do you reintroduce the world to a place they used to visit. The truth is Sebring was built as a vacation town. A resort town. It was planned as one of the only cities in the world, at least within our universe, built on a circle. It’s planned out that way. It has a race track. There are lakes, orange groves. It’s this fascinating town people just quit going to. 

How was the process compared to the other two seasons? 

Ben: I think what stood out was the amount of work we could do. With Season 1, we were figuring it out. What can we do? What can we not do? Season 2, we had our baby Mae in the mix. That was a whole new time. We weren’t sleeping. We were trying to figure it out. 

Erin: I was surprised at how less challenging this season was compared to the first two because our girls were older. 

Ben: Anyone who has little kids knows how much it affects everything you do. 

Erin: It colors your whole world. 

Ben: We don’t travel anywhere without the girls. Then it’s, “We’re traveling to Fort Morgan, Colorado.” We have to bring our entire family. We have to bring our sitter with us. We have to bring grandmother with feedings and all this stuff. We have to have a high chair in our hotel room we’re staying at. 

Erin: It gets easier. 

Ben: Yeah, it is easier now. Our girls can swim. We’re going to Florida. Season 2, Dave and Jenny were there as much if not more than we were there to help us carry the load. Their kids were older. They are a little more adjusted. We trust them. By Season 3, our kids are a little bit older and we can take it over again. 

Erin: We’re also super familiar with our construction team and directing. It opens doors and makes things easier. It was less challenging in a lot of ways, but we were surprised to find more damage on the facades around the circle. We updated all the facades on the circle. Some had more issues than we anticipated for sure. 

Hurricane damage, that’s a problem that doesn’t go away. How did you account for that when you’re rebuilding or renovating a place? 

Ben: That was actually a learning curve for us because we didn’t realize. In Florida, it’s required by law and part of inspections, you have to build for hurricanes. They don’t call it hurricane-proof. They call it hurricane-resistance. So, everything we did had to reflect that. They overbuild everything by our terms. Laurel, Mississippi, we’re affected by tornadoes. Hurricane Katrina made it to us, but most of the time, we’re okay. In Florida, they’re constantly getting hit by hurricanes. They build for that. It’s not something we expected. Then also the flip of that is, they’ve had so much hurricane damage over the years that a lot of the houses and buildings we were working on had been changed so much because that guy bought off the hurricane and rather than building it the right way, it was cheaper to do it this way. Now it’s causing problems, so we’re having to fix that problem. Those were unexpected things for us. 

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What can you say about what you go through this season and the finished product? 

Ben: Our family had so much fun making this show we did not want it to end. There is a moment where Erin and I got emotional. 

Erin: I was crying my eyes out. 

Ben: We didn’t want it to end. For that to be work and for us to get paid to do this, it’s all a blessing most people don’t ever get to experience. I hope that all shows through this show. 

As someone who lives in Florida, I need to go see what you guys have done. 

Erin: Yes, go! It will be fun. 

Ben: You’ll have a good time. It’s really fantastic. 

Erin: You’ll need to go get a drink at Sebring Soda. 

Home Town Takeover premiere, March 9, 8/7c, HGTV