Home Town, Season Three: The Hogues
Home Town is back on HGTV, and we are thrilled! This season features 13 all new families and homes in beautiful Laurel, Mississippi. We can already tell that season 3 is going to be the best yet, so we’re going to post recaps of every episode!
Not to mention, there are lots of Lott Furniture Co. pieces featured! That means you can shop the look you see on your TV and get your home looking like Erin and Ben designed it!
“Southern living means….a porch!” -Bill and Julie Hogue
On last night’s episode, we got to meet the Hogue family. (Party of 12, might I add) They are fresh out of Arizona, and moved here this past year, complete with 4 out of 10 children. The Hogues have become an absolute staple in our community– our Downtown especially.
Their food truck, The 5000, serves up artisan, Southwest-style street tacos, specialty fries, and the best dang grilled cheese on this side of the Mississippi River.
For this recap, we reached out to the Hogues for some extra tidbits on their Home Town experience! Throughout, enjoy some direct quotes from episode 2’s guest stars.
“We looked at five cities in four states. We knew for sure that we wanted to move to this side of the country, so we started exploring! An old house in a small town was a must. [Laurel] turned out to be the perfect fit for all we were looking for.”
LET’S TALK BUDGET
The Hogue’s first requests included an old, stately Southern home and a big front porch. And I think we can safely assume at this point that they also need a pretty great kitchen, with Bill being a chef and all.
So what are we working with?? $250,000
We’ve gotten lucky two episodes in a row for big budgets! (When we’re talking Laurel, of course.)
THE ROCKETT HOUSE
Our first stop on real estate day is the Rockett House. Newburn and Emma Rockett lived in the home over 30 years, and Newburn worked at Laurel Machine and Foundry. One of our most historic companies in Laurel!
The Victorian style home was built in 1903, and has lots of really neat, historic details on the exterior like a sunroom and a very intricately patterned screen door.
It’s a 2,500 square foot home with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths. (It also had an extra room that could stand as a fourth bedroom for one of the kids.)
Best part? It’s listed at $109,000. Way under budget.
As they tour the house, it seems like there’s just not much there. Not great condition, but not bad. The whole thing was very charming, but didn’t seem very “stately”, as per Julie’s request.
Although, the budget allows for some amazing Erin and Ben transformations and even some money left over, we’d like to wait and see.
Best features: The incredible french doors in the formal living room/foyer space and the antique fireplaces.
THE REDD HOUSE
Great neighborhood alert!
As Erin said, the Redd house is definitely on the most sought after street in Laurel’s Historic District. (Therefore, we’re already giving this house major brownie points.)
The Redd House gets it’s name from Roscoe and Lucille Redd, owners of Redd Music & Cigarette Company, who lived there for over 40 years.
It’s a colonial home that boasts a build date of 1890. Wow! More brownie points for historic value.
It’s significantly larger than the Rockett House, being 3,300 square feet with 4 bedrooms and 3 baths.
Our asking price comes out to $169,000. Which is quite a lot more than the Rockett House!
As we tour the home, we see some pretty interesting features scattered about. Outside, we see 2 concrete lions at the start of the sidewalk, upholstered walls, an iron raining inside, and most of all: beautiful fireplaces, grand staircase, and hardwood floors.
The character of the home is unmistakeable, and it has plenty of room for our family of 12. (Plus a great potential kitchen/family room area)
Although we come in a bit over budget, we have high hopes for the Redd House becoming the Hogue House.
Best Original Feature: The upholstered walls and wainscoting in the foyer.
THE AFTER
Before we go any further, we just have to say: this is one of our very favorite Home Town houses to date.
Erin and Ben did such a good job of incorporating personal touches to the family like including Bill’s grandmother’s clock and adding a chef’s kitchen, while protecting the original integrity of the home and highlighting the things that are reminiscent of Laurel.
We were just over the moon about the reclaimed “Laurel” wood in the dining table and the Laurel bricks laid in the kitchen floor. Not to mention the uncovering of the bead board and keeping the “mossy” lion on the porch!
And did you spot a couple of Lott Furniture Products? We can take credit for the fabric on their custom ottoman in the family room, and the charcoal arm chair in there as well.
Enough about our favorites though, for a second. We took the time to ask the Hogues what their favorite room was that Erin and Ben designed!
“Honestly, looking at the big picture, we would have to say the kitchen. We love that it opens into the family room to make one big giant space. We have a very big family and love to entertain friends. To have such a grand space where you aren’t tripping over one another is such a blessing.”
THE AFTER AFTER
Lott Furniture Co. was lucky enough to gain the Hogues as customers, as well as friends. All thanks to Home Town!
After the show, the Hogues stopped by our Design Studio to create some custom pieces for their brand new home.
“We had and have limitless amounts of faith in the Lott Furniture Co. Design Studio. In fact, we didn’t even see a few of the pieces. We just described what we wanted– that it needed to hold up to kids, grandkids, and the pool. It was so fun to just have things delivered without us having to put in the stress of figuring it all out on our own. We had a pretty tight budget after the renovations, so we included that as well and left the rest to the talented team at Lott’s. We were not disappointed!”
It was very special to us to get the opportunity to be involved with helping the Hogues find their perfect pieces to fit their style and needs, and most of all–to help bring them home.
Did you enjoy Home Town? What was so great about the experience?
We loved participating in Home Town. We are not very talented in the area of decorating, so it was perfect for us. We were able to share our desires for the home, our color palette and how our family operates. After that – we were able to walk away and come back seven weeks later and see how this amazing team executed everything that was in our heads into real life.
What would you tell a potential homeowner thinking about being on the show?
Faith! You need to have a lot of faith in the team. I (Julie) know that giving up control is very difficult. It’s a daily struggle for me. However, its a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I don’t think it’s possible to ever duplicate that much talent in one room again. Erin, Amanda, Blake, Sarah, and Whitney (I’m so sorry if I’m forgetting anyone) are fantastic individually, but put them together and its the perfection.
What do you value most about being a Laurelite?
A sense of community. I love that we are in a place that we know so many people and our kids are known. We often will run into people that will tell us, “hey, we just saw your daughters at the store.” I love that our kids are watched after even when they don’t know it. We love feeling like we have been a part of Laurel forever. This is most definitely our “Home Town” and we are blessed beyond measure.
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RESOURCES
-Haven’t seen the episode yet? Watch for re-runs on HGTV, or visit their website or the HGTV app to stream the episode after airing for free. Not to mention, you can find exclusive content here like photos, videos, and the new digital series “Erin’spired” and “Talkin’ Shop” with Erin and Ben.
-Want to know everything Home Town used in the Watts House, down to the paint color? Visit RTR Media’s resource guide after every episode to shop exact pieces and fixtures as seen on the show.
**** This is solely our commentary. Our opinions do not reflect on Home Town Season 3 Productions, HGTV, the cast and crew, or Scripps.
All gallery photos owned by Todd Douglas, HGTV.
