HGTV stars Ben and Erin Napier set out to show people what it’s really like living in a small town.
Ben and Erin star in “Home Town” where the couple works to restore historical homes with found materials and old textiles in their own hometown of Laurel, Mississippi.
“People just have it in their mind what it is to live in a small town and what it isn’t,” Erin told Fox News Digital. “And I hope that the more you watch ‘Home Town,’ the more you see that you can live the dream.”
“You can have your hot sauce and salsa farm in the middle of town, and you can build a school for children who are underserved. You can do anything in a small town. And that’s the story that’s so fun to tell for us.”
Erin and Ben have been together for 20 years. The couple met in 2004, while 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 had been selected to be interviewed for the yearbook and Erin was appointed to work on the photoshoot portion. The two spent the next few days spending time together and working on the yearbook.
“By December 13, [Ben] had met both my parents,” Erin wrote on Instagram. “He had no money, no prospects, and they knew that and they both loved him instantly anyway and said so – they’d never even pretended to tolerate any boys before that. We’d been inseparable for 6 days. His shirts all had my lip gloss imprinted on the chest because I wasn’t used to hugging someone so tall yet.”
“We never stopped talking. We had 19 and 21 years to catch up on, and there was no detail too trivial. Ben says his mom told him ‘you marry the one you never want to stop talking to.’ So 6 days after meeting, and 2 days before we would be on a one month Christmas break apart, he told me ‘I think I’m in love with you.’ and I said ‘I’m in love with you too.’ ‘I’m going to marry you,’ he told me – ‘Yes. That sounds perfect,’ I told him.”
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.
The latest season features a “lot of firsts,” according to the couple.
“The first six episodes are something we’ve never done before,” Erin explained.
“That’s big,” Ben added. “I mean, we’re going to tear down a house. There is a house that we thought we could fix.There is a garden and greenhouse coming. There is a school that 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 noted. “We’re still learning every single day. Learning how to do our jobs well and be the best parents possible is always the biggest challenge.”
Ben and Erin share two daughters – Helen, 6, and Mae, 3. Sometimes the couple is joined by Helen at work, according to Erin.
“She comes to work with us after school most days and I have the feeling of being where I am supposed to be,” she wrote on Instagram in May. “We’re having our cake (doing work 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 be with us too,” Erin added. “Trying so hard to soak up these conversations with her, her ideas and thoughts and questions. Missing her babyness but head over heels in love with her grown upness that’s just starting to come into focus. Just out here being twitterpated with motherhood at the moment.”
“Home Town” premieres Dec. 29 on HGTV.
