'Home Town' season 2 premiere recap: Get your renovation fix

There are sweeping drone shots of downtown Laurel. Erin and Ben Napier talking off-camera about who they are and what they do, as we see them being a cute couple around town. I know “Welcome home” is the slogan for “Fixer Upper,” but that’s what came to mind watching the season 2 premiere of “Home Town.”

Every week we’re going to recap the latest episode of HGTV’s hit, which is set in Laurel as the Napiers renovate historic homes. Let’s get to it.

The homeowners

Jim and Mackenzie Hurt just moved to town from out East, and Jim works at the paper company.

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Wait, Jim works at the paper company?

There’s no mention of kids but they want a three-bed, two-bath home with a master suite. Their budget is $187,000, including the house and the renovation.

(This is one of my favorite aspects of “Home Town” versus other HGTV shows: The budgets are normal and no one is looking for their McMansion.)

More: Laurel is the bustling backdrop to HGTV's "Home Town"

House No. 1

The McKibbens House has an awning that is droopy and a front porch that is guarded by windows. Erin says they’re going to work on that. If you’re new here, the Napiers are always going to focus on the porch. If Chip and Joanna Gaines are going to put shiplap in your house, then Erin and Ben Napier are going to give you a cute porch.

Inside it’s pretty bad — the carpet is the color of faded Hawaiian Punch. There are built-ins, but they need some work. The kitchen is a gut job, there’s no master bath and they lack the third bedroom. All in all, Jim and Mackenzie do not seem enthused.

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House No. 2

The Ramp House is up next. It has better curb appeal, with a wrap-around porch and stained glass windows. Erin says they’ll paint the outside and raise the porch to the level of the front door, and Ben says they’ll put in a driveway.

We go in and things look better than they did over at the McKibbens house — there are existing hardwood floors, tall ceilings and a fireplace that looks into two living areas. The kitchen is bad (another spoiler if you’re new to HGTV renovation shows: The kitchen at best needs new cabinets and appliances and at worst resembles your grandmother’s kitchen if it was turned into a bomb shelter for 15 years) — but there’s weirdly some expensive marble installed.

Ben says they’ll take it out and use it in the master bathroom, which seems to at least be passable and connected to a master with fresh paint. This feels like someone did a halfway home renovation. There are issues, but it’s not awful.

But the house also costs more, and with the renovation it’s going to go about $5,000 over the Hurts' budget. On “House Hunters,” they’d somehow get the house for $30,000 below asking price. On “Property Brothers,” Jonathan and Drew would shrug off budget concerns. On “Home Town,” $5,000 is a big deal.

The renovation

Jim and Mackenzie tell Erin and Ben they’re going with the McKibbens House during a meal at the Pearl Diner (which I had lunch at recently, and oh god those collards, you guys).

The plan is a brand new kitchen, including butcher block counters and a custom banquette that will remind Mackenzie of the one she grew up sitting on and maybe make her a little less homesick.

“I want this house to be the cure for that,” Erin says later.

They’ll push the wall in the master bath into the guest bedroom to make room for an en-suite, frost the French doors so it creates a potential third bedroom down the line, pull the awning off the roof and open up the porch.

The adventures of Ben Napier

Ben always seems to get into something in the middle of a renovation, and this time it’s finding a bat (a call-back to a season 1 episode where a house was full of those little guys).

He’s terrified, calls a buddy and the two of them use a piece of cardboard and a net to get rid of the baby bat. Which is only weird because Derek, the exterminator (I guess) is in the house looking for other bats at the time. Love Derek — there’s no other bats, other people did all the work and he presumably gets paid. He’s living life.

Thing(s) my wife now wants

There’s two this week. Ben builds a pair of porch swings with tongue and groove he found in the house, and my wife’s jaw drops. She wants at least one. We look, and Laurel Mercantile, the Napiers’ store, is selling them. They’re out of our budget, and also already say sold out. Sorry.

And then Erin and her friend put wallpaper in the built-in. This seems weird to me, and self-defeating — wouldn’t it be hidden by the stuff you fill the built-in with? But I catch my wife eyeing our built-in suspiciously. Uh oh.

The reveal

You’re not going to believe this, but Jim and Mackenzie love the house.The banquette brings Mackenzie nearly to tears, the colored concrete tile in the bathroom is stunning (and different) and it all just seems to fit them.

We finish the episode on the porch, swinging along and talking about money — they got the house for $105,000 and the renovation cost $75,000, so they’re actually $5,000 below their budget. Good for them.

Join us at 3 p.m. on Tuesdays for a Facebook Live chat about "Home Town," sponsored by Miskelly’s.