Why the Heck Did I Buy This House San Antonio tx

Kim Wolfe may have been victorious on Survivor Season 24 but her new HGTV show Why the Heck Did I Buy This House? is an entirely new challenge to tackle.

Wolfe rescues frustrated homeowners who want a style overhaul or need to entirely reconfigure their home layout to meet their current needs. She said the pandemic, plus a dicey home buying market has left homeowners either buying anything that fits their budget or stuck in a home that they’ve outgrown.

Kim Wolfe helps homeowners entering new life stages

Based in her hometown of San Antonio, Texas, Wolfe said there isn’t a shortage of homeowners who need help. Some families have added children to their homes. Or are now living with aging parents. “Or, now we’re both working from home and we only have one office or no office and we’re driving each other crazy,” she told Showbiz Cheat Sheet.

“There seems to be this whole laundry list of things that are falling apart for people,” she reflected. “So it’s really fun for us because I think we get to kind of come in and help triage the situation and get them back in a good spot. I just think spaces matter so much. So when we’re in our homes, they directly affect the way we feel every day. And in making those spaces feel beautiful and feel like a reflection of the people that live there, it just seems like super important work. So I feel excited and honored that I get to do it. And then it’s even more fun to do it on TV.”

She teamed up with ‘Survivor’ pal Chelsea Meissner on ‘Southern Charm’

Wolfe realized her confidence as a designer during an episode of Bravo’s Southern Charm. She redesigned Survivor pal, Chelsea Meissner’s home, and the design truly reflected Meissner’s spirit.

“My project doing Chelsea’s house was my first job kind of out on my own,” she said. “I had been working for another designer here in San Antonio before that. And so that was my first foray into seeing what I could do. And it was fun with Chelsea. Number one I know her so well. So that was easy for me, in a sense. It was almost like doing it for a sister. Then she just let me have creative freedom.”

“That is another thing that I am looking for with people that I want to work with because it’s so fun when you get to go hog wild,” she continued. “It felt so her, you know, cool … funky. She doesn’t care about traditions or what everyone else is doing. And that just made that project a blast. So I think that was a good jumping-off point for me. I look for those types of traits and people that I’m going to work with.”

Kim hopes to surprise more homeowners if the HGTV show gets another season

Meissner made a guest appearance on Why the Heck Did I Buy This House? and Wolfe said she’s loved her first season of the show. But she has big plans if she gets another season.

“I think because it was our first season and we were kind of like afraid of what we were up against,” she admitted. “We played it a little bit safe. We didn’t in so many ways. But there were some things that I would like some bells and whistles, things that I would have loved to do.”

She added, “I think one of the things I’d like to tap into for season 2 is we realize when you remodel someone’s house and they’ve paid for it, there’s just a certain measure of like, OK, awesome. But anytime you’re able to surprise someone with something that they weren’t expecting, it was just like a big, very joyful thing to do. So I think we’d like to somehow figure out how to get to surprise people more because that was just fun.”

Why the Heck Did I Buy This House is on Wednesday at 9 p.m. EST on HGTV.

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Starting Wednesday, March 30 Kim Wolfe will be knocking down walls and letting San Antonio shine via home renovations. The San Antonio resident and Survivor winner is the star of HGTV's new show Why the Heck Did I Buy This House?, in which she helps homeowners with buyer's remorse transform their space into something they're proud to own. While the focus is on the houses, Wolfe says the national show will give HGTV audiences a true look at the Alamo City.

Wolfe grew up in Midland, but says San Antonio is home. 

"I just love the city. We've been here 15 years now, it's the longest I've ever lived anywhere in my entire life," Wolfe says. "I'm a big fan of San Antonio."

She says the authenticity of San Antonio was a priority of early talks with HGTV. Wolfe wanted viewers to know there's more to the city than tourist attractions. She says the show is a full Alamo City-grown production, with local crews and contractors.

"It's just a real San Antonio feature," Wolfe adds. "I'm excited about that, getting to see all the familiar faces and people that we work with day in and day out, and then get to see the city highlighted and all the local businesses and vendors that we worked with."

Wolfe will see the final product with the rest of the HGTV audience when the show premieres. She's hoping some of the beauty shots of businesses on Hildebrand, like San Antonio favorite Las Nieves Fruit Cups, and The Junction on Blanco make it in the final cut. 

Wolfe and her team completed major renovations on seven homes in a 24-week period, from March to September 2021. All but one of the homes are located within Loop 410. She updated homes that were built between the 1960s and 1970s. 

"These were massive remodels. We had additions, garage conversions, they were really big projects," she says. "It was definitely not a cosmetic show, this is a major overhaul show."

While HGTV fans and San Antonio wait to see the city and Wolfe shine, this is not her first television appearance. She won Survivor in 2012 and then returned to the franchise for Survivor: Winners at War. Wolfe describes her life away from the camera as a "work vagabond," with a resume that includes work as a raft instructor and a bridal shop owner.

Her work in design started "organically" about 10 years ago. Rather than working with the original layout of a home, Wolfe encourages reimagination, like a dining room reworked into an office space. 

"If you allow yourself the freedom and the creativity to just really reimagine what's there, you can really create, whatever it is that you want for your home and for your family," she says. 

See Wolfe's ingenuity in action when the first episode "Dream Yard, Nightmare Home" premieres on HGTV at 8 p.m. local time.