SARAH & BRYAN BAEUMLER

Island of Bryan & Leave It To Bryan

By Jay Cooper

One of my favourite TV shows on HGTV is Island of Bryan. It didn’t start there, as I’ve been following Bryan’s decade plus television career with other shows. This lastest extremely entertaining show has you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next. But the Baeulmers are still a family standing solid and proud. Watch for Season 4 coming soon.

Jay Cooper (JC): Good Morning you two! So excited to have a chat.

Bryan Baeumler (B): No worries this is great.

JC: Have to say up front I know next to zero about reno’s or building although I did put our new dishwasher in which took a lot of you tube videos and a lot of swearing (laughs).

B: I mean, that’s how we renovated the hotel (laughs).

JC: Have you had a chance to check the magazine out?

B: Yes of course. We love it, it’s great and the Kawarthas is home to my favorite ice cream of all time, Kawartha Diary. Chocolate Chip and Chocolate Peanut Butter. If I could live on that stuff that would be it. We also have been all over your cottage country there and it’s just such a beautiful area.

JC: Where are you guys right now?

B: We are at home right now outside of Milton. We flew in for meetings next week in Toronto.

JC: You come back from your island, which in itself is a bit of isolation, and stranded at times.

B: Exactly. I think a lot of people in Ontario are feeling like they’re on their own island at this point (laughs).

JC: Bryan, your bio reads like something out of a fiction story. At 14 you were a handyman, then you graduated University for Political Science & Business. Then you started an air cargo brokerage. Next, beloved TV star, Gemini Award winner, husband and father of 4. And you continue?

B: Well, so far (laughs). I’m going to add pilot to that very shortly. It’s been an interesting and winding kind of journey to get to where we are. Some days I look in the mirror and go, how the hell did this happen with the kids and the shows, really everything, but it’s been fun. S: I think we know how the kids happened sweetie, as that’s a whole different kind of thing (laughs).

JC: Now Sarah you were a camp counselor, yoga instructor and a designer?

Sarah (S): I’m not a yoga instructor. It was dance, actually classical ballet. I owned a dance studio in Oakville for years and it was and is my passion. Now that I’m getting older I do yoga and pilates but put a ballet bar in front of me and that’s when I’m the most happy.

JC: How did you two meet?

B: We don’t want to go there and we don’t have any photos of that either (laughs). We actually met in high school and saw each other in the neighborhood and it was ten years later that we reconnected through an email.

S: Wasn’t quite ten years, sweetie. We’ve been together a long time. I met Bryan when I was 14 (laughs).

B: No, but we met 10 years later. There was no canoodling back then. She was a minor-niner and I was a senior.

Photos by Adrian Smith

JC: Bryan, how did you progress into the world of TV from air cargo?

B: I took a year off and moved to Vancouver and was planning on going to law school. I had done my apprenticeship hours from contractors in Ontario. I was doing some work on houses and condos out there while still seeing a need for the sea/road cargo, which could be moved much quicker by air. So I started my brokerage company while waiting to go to school. I just decided the office life wasn’t working and the hammer and tool belt kept calling me back, so I abandoned my law school aspirations and moved back to Toronto to take Renovation Technology at George Brown. I went to school and hung my own shingle out with Baeumler Quality Construction, with myself and one helper and never looked back, it just grew from there.

B: The TV opportunity came 5 years later as we had grown the company to 6 employees. I was watching reno shows and seeing trades work on them for the host and thought they’re getting advertising, and it’s a great marketing vehicle, so I started reaching out to production companies. I offered all the construction labour for free in exchange for advertising on the show. I then had a meeting with a producer and they must have recognized my handy, smart ass mentality. And the next thing I knew I was sitting across the desk with the head of network content and was asked, “How would you like to have your own show”. The idea that they would hand me work, pay me to do it, film it, edit it to make me look good to my target audience was too hard to pass up.

B: After 3 seasons of Disaster DIY, the show was going well and they wanted to renew but I hadn’t had a chance to capitalize on the advertising from the show. We were living in a 1950’s bungalow, full of mold with a 1960’s furnace and we had 2 children by that time and I thought, if I don’t build my own house or fix this one I’m like a shoe maker with bad shoes. This incredibly popular show has a host that lives in a dump and I need to focus on that and expand the business. I pitched the idea to the network to film through the build of our new home, which became House of Bryan.

B: Then, more Disaster DIY, then Leave it to Bryan, then House of Bryan 2, Bryan Inc., House of Bryan 3, more Leave it to Bryan (laughs).

S: I think the interesting thing sweetie, when we started House of Bryan, there was this thought from the network, because it was very new and filming someone’s personal home wasn’t what HGTV was at the time. Coming in and doing a kitchen or bathroom is one thing but a whole house was more of a documentary. We just said shoot it how it happens with the good, the bad and the ugly as it does get stressful at times and of course the budget. I look at HGTV now and the content has changed, as that show was a step in a different direction for the network and us.

JC: Working with your spouse on TV has got to have its challenges?

B: It adds another level that’s for sure (laughs). Multiple levels of complexity when you live together, work together, film together and broadcast your life to the world. It’s been an interesting path to navigate for sure. But it’s not all unicorn’s and rainbows, is it sweetie? Both: (laughs)

JC: I would think that these experiences have made you a stronger couple?

B: They say it’s a razor thin line from one side to the other and I think it helps sharpen the blade a little bit, right Sarah? (laughs)

S: (laughs) I think back to our childhoods. Both of us have parents that work with their spouse in the same business and I think there is a different level that does help strengthen and solidify your marriage. Both our parents have been happily married for over 50 years and we understand you can weather those bumps which makes you stronger when you do that together.

JC: On Leave it to Bryan at times it was a little unnerving to watch as the guest weren’t that pleased with what you picked to fix. (Both laugh)

B: I think we only had one homeowner that was very unhappy. People say to me, that was allfake, but not a single homeowner knew what we were going to do. They pitched us 3 rooms, their budget and what they wanted most and if it made sense I did it. I had no choice and went with the bathroom and when she came home she was not happy. We have to do what we can afford. I think everyone going into a reno has a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. The devil is saying you need a home theatre and the angel says your roof leaks or there is mold in the basement. People know what makes sense but we don’t always make the best decisions.

JC: On to Island of Bryan. What in bloody hell were you guys thinking? (laughs)

B: It was Sarah’s idea. (laughs)

S: It was not. Once again, it was an organic idea where we spent time traveling with the kids in the Bahamas and venture a little farther to a new island to find a new place that’s quiet and remote. We decided to explore South Andros. One of the stops was a dilapidated hotel called the Emerald Palms with a little wooden for sale sign out front. We toured the property and we felt this amazing energy there and asked ourselves “should we do this” and there really wasn’t a good answer, so why not? And that was day one.

B: You know, it was one of those things where we’re just staying on the treadmill and yes, it was a crazy idea but lets upset the apple cart, move to a beautiful spot and bring a film crew with us. We pitched it to the network and they said “you are crazy” and we’re not interested, but our response was “well we’re doing it anyway”. They begrudgingly agreed and it became wildly popular and I think partially because people slow down to see a car wreck on the side of the road. Some people watch to see how far this goes before they fall on their faces while others watch because it’s aspirational and who doesn’t want to throw their life in the air and move to a beautiful island.

JC: You have had a ton of unexpected surprises that were not in the plan.

B: Way more things were against us then we thought. Like location, logistics, the weather, hurricanes, the pandemic, you name it. A project like this is death by a thousand cuts and get to the finish line before that last cut. We’re in the high 900’s now (both laugh).

JC: Is it really you’re money for this project?

B: (Both laugh)I wish the answer was no but we self financed and leveraged. This is us as we don’t have other investors. People have said HGTV bought you a resort, must be nice and yes that would have been nice but not true. JC: It’s your own Gilligan’s island - literally?

S: We have debates of who’s who from that show.

B: Well, Sarah, you’re Mrs. Howell…

S: Careful (laughs)

B: Some days I’m the professor, skipper, Gilligan or Mr. Howell. I think it’s more like Fantasy Island. (laughs)

JC: Are there any other shows on the network that you critique?

B: I didn’t realize there were any other shows but ours on HGTV anymore. (Both laugh)

JC: Because there all named Bryan. (laughs)

JC: Any last words?

B: It’s been a rough couple of years for people and we’re no different as we have our shit days too. We are very grateful for the viewers that follow our journey and hope they continue to do so.

To book your vacations go to www.caerulamar.com It’s as close as you can get while feeling you’re as far away as you can get. www.caerulamar.com Instagram @bryanbaeumler @sarahbaeumler