In 2012, Wolfe spent weeks in the wilderness and won Season 24 of “Survivor.”
In 2020, she returned to the famous franchise for a second shot at winning the show.
These days, she’s busy helping out homeowners who are suffering from serious buyer’s remorse.
With her newHGTVseries “Why The Heck Did I Buy This House?”
finally in full swing, we had the opportunity to ask Wolfe all about it.
How did you initially get into interior design?
We moved 16 times before I went to college.
It got in my blood, and that [was] 12 years [ago].
We’ve been going from there.
What was your first thought when you got the call to have your own design show?
The thing with Chelsea was so fun.
It turned out really cool, like her.
What made you want to say yes?
[Laughs] I tend to say “yes.”
I don’t think a lot about logistics, which drives my data analyst husband pretty crazy.
I’m always like, “Yeah, that sounds fun.
Let’s do that,” not realizing exactly what I’m biting off.
It’s always a “yes” for me.
I’ve made so many mistakes.
I’ve tried so many crazy things.
Some of them go well, some of them don’t, but I’m never sorry.
We’re always learning from it, and it’s always an experience.
It’s really like dating.
When you’re looking for a house, you kind of overlook all the things.
You hear and see what you want to hear.
You tell yourself the story that makes you feel most confident and comfortable putting in that offer.
It’s typically a huge purchase and the biggest purchase people have ever made in their life.
Yeah, it can get scary.
And then figuring out, “How much do we have to spend?
Where can we triage, and then where do we have to start over?”
And getting a game plan, and starting.
It was a total disaster, green carpet, paneling, and all.
It’s the whole process, committing to the process.
This is our Season 1, so I had never done this experience this way.
They were a part of the process, and so this was unique.
And it’s like, “Ta-da!
Here’s your house.”
And they’re like, “We hate it.”
That definitely did not happen, so it was great.
All across the board, the houses turned out fantastic.
Our homeowners were just wonderful people, rock solid people.
We had a great experience, and so it was a win.
The episodes can’t capture every step of the renovation, because it can take weeks or even months.
I haven’t seen the episodes yet.
It was hard for me to know.
I’ll be watching live along with everyone else, so I don’t know what they have shown.
It’s a hard thing to get.
I’ll be able to answer that better at the end of the season.
What made you two decide to start working together?
We had these seven projects going on for the show, and I needed help.
He’s been working in data and analytics.
He came along to help me.
He took a leave of absence for filming, and then it became a permanent situation.
It’s a really funny mix of our personalities coming together.
[Laughs] I’m interested to see how that goes on screen.
How does he feel about being on TV now, too?
I don’t think he knows how to feel.
Lots of good moments, for sure, and I need him so badly.
He makes us a legitimate business.
That’s for sure.
Honestly, this is just as hard as “Survivor.”
Overall, how has competing on “Survivor” affected your life?
Well, I think for sure it opens doors for me.
That’s the thing that I look back at.
It’s been this novel, you know?
Will we ever see Kim Wolfe compete again on Survivor?
[Laughs] No, definitely not.
I feel really confident that I’m done.
But I would not go back, and I had a real moment of clarity about that.
Something would have to dramatically shift within me to want to go back out there.
You’re stuck, so I want to make a run at remind myself of how that feels.
“Why The Heck Did I Buy This House?”
premieres tonight at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HGTV.
