HGTV stars Ben and Erin Napier set out to show people what it’s really like to live in a small town.
Ben and Erin star in “Home Town” where the couple works to restore historic homes in their hometown of Laurel, Mississippi with found materials and vintage textiles.
“People just have this idea of what living in a small town is and what it isn’t,” Erin told Fox News Digital. “And I hope that the more you watch ‘Home Town,’ the more you’ll see that you can live the dream.”
“You can build your own hot sauce and salsa farm in the middle of town, and you can build a school for kids who are underprivileged. You can do anything in a small town. And that’s the story that’s so fun for us to tell.”
Erin and Ben have been together for 20 years. The couple met in 2004, when Erin was a sophomore in college. Erin had a crush on Ben before they officially met, as she previously shared in a series of Instagram posts.
Ben was chosen to be interviewed for the yearbook and Erin was assigned to work on the photoshoot portion. The two spent the next few days together working on the yearbook.
“By December 13th, [Ben] “I’ve met both of my parents,” Erin wrote on Instagram. “He had no money, no prospects, and they knew it and they both loved him instantly anyway and It was said that she had never even pretended to tolerate a boy before. We were inseparable for 6 days. There was an imprint of my lip gloss on the chest of his shirt because I was not yet used to hugging someone so tall.
“We never stopped talking. We had 19 and 21 years to figure it out, and no detail was too minor. Ben says his mother told him ‘You marry the person you’ll never want to stop talking to.’ So 6 days after we met, and 2 days before we were to be on a month long Christmas break, he told me ‘I think I love you.’ And I said ‘I love you too.’ ‘I’m going to marry you,’ he told me – ‘Yes. ‘It feels perfect,’ I told her.
Years later, the couple’s TV show “Home Town” first premiered in January 2016 as Ben and Erin work to restore the town of Laurel, Mississippi.
According to the couple, the latest season includes “a lot of firsts”.
“The first six episodes are something we’ve never done before,” Erin explained.
“This is a big deal,” Ben said. “I mean, we’re going to tear down a house. There’s a house we thought we could fix up. There’s a garden and greenhouse coming. There’s a school we’re building. It’s a lot of stuff.”
The biggest challenge for Ben and Erin this season was learning to balance work with parenting their two daughters.
“We’ve never been parents before,” Erin said. “We are still learning every day. Learning how to do my job well and be the best parent I can be is always the biggest challenge.”
Ben and Erin have two daughters – Helen, 6, and Mae, 3. According to Erin, the couple is sometimes joined by Helen at work.
“She comes to work with us after school most days and I feel like I’m right where I need to be,” she wrote on Instagram In May. “We’re having our cake (doing things we love) and eating it too (feeling like a stay-at-home mom).”
“I can’t wait until Mae is a little older so she can safely come and live with us,” Erin said. “Having these conversations with him, trying very hard to absorb his thoughts and ideas and questions. Missing her babyhood, but loving her grown-up self, which is just beginning to come into focus. Motherhood is being discussed on Twitter right now.
“Home Town” premieres Dec. 29 on HGTV.
