Before they could battle it out on the beach, Michelle Mueller and Sydney Lorence of Seward had to find their way onto the set of HGTV.
The mother-daughter home renovation team won “Battle on the Beach,” a series that premiered June 1 and ran for seven consecutive Mondays on HGTV. It is also available on HBO Max. Set in South Carolina, the show featured three two-person teams competing to flip a rental home with a $100,000 budget.
The journey started with a long-held passion, an Instagram account and a casting process that gradually changed from a dream to a reality.
Mueller had been renovating homes for years. She began flipping houses after she and her husband purchased their first home.
“We started out just fixing up our own homes. We lived in them two to three years and sold them, then went to the next one and fixed it up,” she said. “As we got a little bit older, we were able to do it without having to necessarily live in them.”
The Muellers owned Cornerstone Interiors & Design in Seward for 24 years, which also lent itself well to flipping houses.
The business also meant Lorence, a 2012 graduate of Seward High School, grew up around home renovation.
When Lorence and her now-husband purchased a home to flip, her parents helped with the renovation and taught the couple the skills they needed.
“I realized my love for it at that time, and so that’s kind of where my journey began on seeing potential where others don’t,” Lorence said. “So, together, here and there with my parents’ help, we have renovated like six houses. We’re on our seventh right now.”
Lorence eventually began sharing her do-it-yourself projects and renovations with family and friends through an Instagram account, @diysquid.
The account grew to 270,000 followers, and content creation became Lorence’s full-time job.
That is where “Battle on the Beach” came into the picture. The show’s casting team discovered Lorence through her Instagram account and encouraged her to apply.
“It was kind of one of those things where you don’t really think it’s actually going to happen, and so we just kept moving along in the process, and we’re like, ‘Oh, okay, we’re really doing this,’” Lorence said.
Eventually, the mother-daughter duo found themselves preparing to compete on national television.
The two tried to brainstorm design ideas and concepts ahead of time, knowing they would have to make thousands of decisions in a short amount of time. For example, Lorence mentioned the option of doing transform windows before the show, and they ended up installing them on the show.
“We also tried to get a game plan on what each of us would kind of focus on, so we could try to have less of us butting heads once we got there,” Lorence said.
The pair did not know what house they would be renovating until they arrived on set, making it difficult to plan specific projects ahead of time.
“Once you get there, you might as well throw all those ideas out the window, because you really have no idea what you’re up against,” Mueller said.
Years of renovating homes together gave them a foundation. But “Battle on the Beach” put those skills — and their mother-daughter dynamic — to the test in a completely new setting.
Next week’s edition of the Seward County Independent will feature a more in-depth look at the competition.
