Nicole Curtis
APPEARING FEBRUARY 22
By STEVE STEPHENS
Dispatch Media Group
Nicole Curtis, star of the hit DIY and HGTV show “Rehab Addict” has been renovating old houses even before her show premiered in 2010.
Curtis, 43, will appear Feb. 22 at the Spring Dispatch Home & Garden Show presented by Ohio Mulch.
Ahead of her appearance, The Dispatch recently spoke with her by phone from her hometown of Detroit, where she’s still rehabbing homes, during a break in her busy schedule. (The interview has been edited for length and clarity).
Q: What will you be talking about at the Home & Garden Show?
A: We like to turn it into a little party, with a lot of Q&A. My fans have invested a decade in our show. It’s been really fun to meet so many of them in person. We like to just talk and hang out.
Q: What originally drew you to old homes?
A: I always loved old houses. My grandparents’ idea of a fun Sunday was driving through old neighborhoods and looking at the houses. When I was a kid in the ’70s and ’80s, (in Detroit) no one lived in a lot of those old city properties. But I was fascinated by those huge castle homes. I thought I was going to be stuck in a boring suburban home.
I just wanted what I wanted, and I wanted a big old house. Now I own a bunch of them.
Q: I see that you recently restored a house your grandparents built and lived in. What was that like?
A: That was crazy. The family house, that they’d had to sell years ago, came up for sale and I had the ability to buy it.
I was pregnant at the time, my life was very chaotic, and it was a massive project.
My grandparents were against it.
I asked, “Why not, Gramps?”
“Well, you know it needs a new roof.”
It had been empty for years, there was so much to do, but my dear old gramps was like, “Damn girl, it needs a roof!”
The first people to walk through that house when it was finished were my grandparents. My grandpa cried. He had built it with his own hands and he thought it was gone forever.
The fact I could put that together for them was great. Unfortunately, I lost both of them in the past few years.
Q: You’re the author of a memoir, “Better Than New: Lessons I’ve Learned from Saving Old Homes.” What was it like writing a book?
A: That was complete torture. For someone who is a complete procrastinator and puts everything off, deadlines are hard to meet. My publisher said no one ever put together a book in this manner.
At one point, I was literally cutting pictures out and pasting them to show what I wanted.
“Can’t you do this on Adobe or PhotoShop?”
No, I can’t. It was anything but easy, but it was fun telling my story.
I went from someone who was broke to someone in my position now. It wasn’t an overnight success, but was one I never saw coming.
Everyone was expecting me to write a design book. No, that would bore me.
And I cannot say “thank you,” enough. Every single person who has watched our show has changed our lives, mine and my crew, for the better. I’m so excited to still be rocking this.
