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Dave and Jenny Marrs are the house renovating couple behind the hit HGTV show “Fixer to Fabulous.” The couple focuses on the historic homes in their part of northwest Arkansas, particularly in and around downtown Bentonville. The show has had two seasons to date and season three is set to premiere on November 16, 2021, according to Premiere Date.
“Fixer to Fabulous” debuted in 2019 and introduced us to Dave and Jenny Marrs, their five kids, their staff, and their many, many, many pets (including Larry the llama). Since that time, fans of HGTV just can’t get enough of the Marrs clan and the heart they put into their home renovations.
Here’s what you need to know:
1. They Met at Work
Dave and Jenny Marrs met in 2002 shortly after they both graduated from college and were working for the same company — albeit in different states. Dave was from Denver, while Jenny was from Orlando. They were both working for Newell Rubbermaid, Dave told About You. The early days of their relationship were long-distance, but before long, Dave decided he wanted to become a general contractor and build homes. Growing up, he built log cabins with his father in Colorado. “I thought I didn’t want to build anymore. So, I did the corporate world for two years, which was enough. It allowed me to meet Jenny… But I just got sick of it,” he said.
By the time Dave had gotten sick of the corporate world, Newell Rubbermaid had moved him from Denver to Bentonville to Chicago to Austin, the outlet reported. When he decided to start building homes, he thought Bentonville was the perfect place to set up shop. Jenny told him she’d give Arkansas a try for a few years. “We were just going to be here for a couple of years and go back to Florida. I think, like a lot of people do here, we came for a stint and realized how great a place it is. This is home,” Jenny said.
During a trip to Paris, Dave and Jenny visited the Eiffel Tower at night. He got down on one knee and pulled a ring box from his pocket, HGTV revealed. “In what can only be described as an out-of-body experience, I watched as he fell to one knee and held up a small box containing my engagement ring. I screamed and grabbed him by the neck, partially choking him while crying,” Jenny recalled.
2. Jenny Marrs Was Dave’s ‘Sugar Mama’
Dave and Jenny Marrs moved to Arkansas in 2004, one year before they married. Dave started Marrs Developing and Jenny kept her full-time job in sales and marketing. In an interview with About You, Jenny said, “I studied advertising and [public relations] in college, and I’ve done marketing and sales. I’ve been creative all my life. Dave started this building business when we moved here, and I started helping him along the way. I was also working in the vendor world. We were broke, and I had a real job. He was just starting, so I was the ‘sugar mama.’ After eight years, I left my job and joined him full-time in 2012. “
Jenny had no formal background in design, but as Dave’s company grew she found herself pitching in more frequently on the design end, House Beautiful reported. She found she loved expressing her creative side. On her website, she wrote,” I’m a wife and mama who loves all things creative. I am a designer, writer and passionate advocate for community transformation, family preservation and orphan care around the globe.”
HGTV audiences are glad Jenny started designing. HGTV’s “Fixer to Fabulous” page wrote, “From dilapidated front porches to squirrel invaded attics, there’s nothing this husband and wife team can’t make fabulous!”
3. They Are Reluctant HGTV Stars
Before HGTV, before renovating homes in Bentonville’s historic core, they were building new homes in the Bella Vista area of town. Then the housing market crash of 2008 put an end to that. The Marrs’ company just barely survived that, About You revealed. They refocused their business on renovations and several years later, HGTV came calling.
In the spring of 2016, somehow, someone at HGTV got wind of the work Dave and Jenny Marrs were doing in Bentonville, Arkansas and they were approached about filming a “sizzle reel” to show the network. Jenny thought the initial email they received was spam. In an interview with Arkansas Online, Dave said, “We originally said, ‘No.’ We didn’t really have an interest. And I was just worried. I was thinking, ‘Small town? They’re going to try and portray it as this backwoods thing.”
Dave and Jenny warmed to the idea a bit when they found out the producer assigned to them had gone to Rogers High School in Bentonville, the outlet reported. Still, going from concept “sizzle reel” to a series order is a big leap and it doesn’t happen that often. It did for Jenny and Dave though! She told Arkansas Online, “We really did not think that was going to happen.”
4. Dave and Jenny Have 5 Children Including One They Adopted From The Congo
Dave and Jenny Marrs had twin sons Nathan and Ben when they began discussing adopting a child. In an interview with People, Jenny revealed that they’d always felt in their hearts that adoption was something they wanted to do. “I feel like God put [it] on our hearts that she was ours and right when you knew, it was just like, ‘Yup.’ It was a key in a lock,” Dave said.
So 11 years ago, they looked at a variety of international adoption programs. In November 2012, they came across the profile of a little girl in the Democratic Republic of Congo and knew she was their daughter. Unfortunately, the path got a little complicated along the way. They officially adopted Sylvie in August 2013 and traveled to the Congo to meet her, hoping she could go home with them soon after. However, in September 2013, the government of the Congo shut down — which meant no adopted children could leave the country. They were devastated. And Jenny was pregnant with their daughter Charlotte and it was a high-risk pregnancy, so Dave had to travel to and from the Congo alone, People revealed.
The Marrs lobbied their congressmen, they waited outside the U.S. Embassy in the Congo. They even tried to contact the Vatican. They did everything they could to try and bring Sylvie home. Sylvie was finally cleared to join her adoptive family in Arkansas in July 2014.
Today the Marrs family is made up of Dave and Jenny, twins Nathan and Ben (11), Sylvie (9), Charlotte (7) and Luke (2).
5. They Help Orphans Across the Globe get Job Training
Dave and Jenny Marrs partnered with North Carolina-based Help One Now to provide aid in the form of job training to orphans across the globe. Between that and their Bentonville blueberry farm, the Marrs “not only provide our Northwest Arkansas community with fresh, locally-grown food and a beautiful event venue space, but we will teach orphaned children across the globe how to do the same in their own community,” revealed the Marrs’ blueberry farm website. “…our farm will provide resources to train and empower teenagers and young adults to transition into adulthood with the skills that they need to succeed.
Additionally, the Marrs’ blueberry farm funds The Gatehouse Project in Musha WeVana Village in Zimbabwe. The website reveals that this program offers training in “agriculture & livestock, wood & metalworking, business management, textiles, cooking and even technology to over 80 orphaned and vulnerable children.”
Dave and Jenny Marrs focused on blueberries because the crop will continue to produce fruit year after year if they are properly cared for. Dave said, “We aren’t looking to solve long-stemming issues of hunger and poverty with a short-term investment. We are committed to the long haul with these kids. We want to sow seeds of truth and righteousness and love. The fruit that will result will be long-lasting: eternal.”
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