HGTV stars Ben and Erin Napier set out to show people what life in a small town is really like.
Ben and Erin star in “Home Town,” where the couple work to restore a historic home using found materials and old textiles in their hometown of Laurel, Mississippi.
“People just have an idea in their heads of what it's like to live in a small town and what it's not,” Erin told Fox News Digital. “And I hope that the more you watch 'Hometown,' the more you realize that you can make your dreams come true.”
“You can build a hot sauce and salsa farm in the middle of town, you can build a school for underserved kids. You can do anything in a small town. And that's what we do. It's a really fun story.”
Erin and Ben have been together for 20 years. The two met in 2004 when Erin was a sophomore in college. As she previously shared in a series of Instagram posts, Erin had feelings for Ben even before they officially met.
Ben was selected to be interviewed for the yearbook, and Erin was assigned to handle the photography portion. The two spent the next few days together working on their yearbook.
“By December 13th, [Ben] He also met my parents,” Erin wrote on Instagram. “He had no money and no prospects. And they knew it and loved him right away anyway and said so. They had never even pretended to tolerate boys before. We ended up being inseparable for 6 days. My lip gloss was stamped on the chest of his shirt because I'm still used to hugging someone this tall. Because there wasn't.”
“We never stopped talking. It took us 19 and 21 years to catch up, but there was no small detail.'' “You're going to marry me,” she says. So, six days after we met, and two days before we went into a month of Christmas break, he said to me, “I think I love you.” And I said, “I love you too.” “I'm going to marry you,'' he said to me – “Yes.'' That sounds perfect,'' I told him. ”
Years later, the couple's TV show Hometown, which follows Ben and Erin as they work to rebuild the town of Laurel, Mississippi, premiered in January 2016.
According to the couple, the latest season has “a lot of firsts.”
“The first six episodes are something we’ve never done before,” Erin explained.
“That's huge,” Ben added. “So we're going to be tearing down houses. We're going to have houses that we thought we could fix, we're going to have gardens and greenhouses. We're going to have a school that we're building. It's a lot.”
Ben and Erin's biggest challenge this season was learning to balance work and raising their two daughters.
“We've never been parents before,” Erin said. “We still learn every day. Learning how to do our jobs well and be the best parents possible is always the biggest challenge.”
Ben and Erin have two daughters, Helen (6) and May (3). Erin said Helen sometimes joins her in the work.
“She comes to work with us after school most days. I feel like I'm right where I'm supposed to be.” she wrote on Instagram In May. “We are having our cake and eating it too (while doing a job we love) (feeling like stay-at-home moms).”
“I can't wait until May is a little older and safe enough to spend time with us,” Erin added. “I try so hard to talk to her and absorb her ideas, thoughts, and questions. I miss her baby-ness, but I'm obsessed with her adult-ness, which is just starting to come into focus. I'm just here tweeting about motherhood.”
“Hometown” will premiere on HGTV on December 29th.
