A few weeks shy of their first wedding anniversary, Jeremy and Jessica Rock wound up on an adventure that was simultaneously fun and stressful: taking a 26-hour road trip so they could be filmed gutting and renovating a tiny, old cabin in 30 days with a $20,000 budget.
The Rocks, who live in Highland, Utah, were somewhat last-minute additions to the new reality TV series “Cabin Wars: Flip It to Win It.” The show, which will begin streaming on YouTube in April before it heads to other streaming services and possibly major networks, involves the renovation of outdated cabins on a newly acquired campground in Robert, Louisiana, a small town about an hour north of New Orleans.
When a team dropped out not long before filming, Jeremy Rock, a realtor in Utah who has previously worked with the new owner of the campground, learned about the show. It’s not the kind of opportunity his wife, Jessica, would typically seek out — she said she likes to stay in her comfort zone — but they had a lot of encouragement from friends and family.
“Both of our moms are just so sure that we are meant to be famous,” Jessica Rock, 27, told the Deseret News over the phone.
So that’s how, in their first year of marriage, the Rocks got a crash course in time management, budgeting, home improvement, networking and keeping your cool in high-pressure situations.
“It was probably a risky choice, but it worked out for us,” Jessica Rock joked. “I think we did a really good job for people who have no idea what they’re doing.”
The ‘Cabin Wars’ outsiders
“Cabin Wars” wraps five seasons of filming on Saturday. The Rocks, who are still on the Louisiana campground, said they were the youngest competitors on the show — and by far the team with the least experience.
But to their surprise, they said, they have a shot at winning their season — and the $40,000 prize. They’ve received a lot of encouragement from locals, who recently walked through an open house event and cast votes for their favorite cabins. Public online voting is running through Saturday, the final day of filming when the winner will be revealed.
“We went into this thinking there was basically no shot that we would get anywhere near the other teams, so I think it’s really cool that we’re even in the game, honestly,” Jessica Rock said.
Most of the “Cabin Wars” teams were local, so the Rocks were the outsiders of the show. This made networking and getting deals and discounts on resources a bit tricky — Jeremy Rock, 28, said stretching each dollar of the $20,000 budget was one of the biggest hurdles.
As a realtor, Jeremy Rock knows what sells. But getting into the nitty gritty of it all — down to the framing and the types of tools needed and the size of the screws — was a different beast. Jessica Rock, who does graphic design for Seagull Book and said she knows very little about the renovation world, joked that she always bought the wrong thing anytime she was sent to Home Depot on her own.
Jessica Rock also had to keep up with her full-time job remotely throughout the month of filming. Although her job was flexible, the situation meant that Jeremy Rock was doing much of the heavy lifting — literally. A couple of their friends flew out to help with the renovation, and the Rocks even got help from competitors who had recently finished filming their own season of “Cabin Wars.”
Every bit of help was appreciated, because for the Rocks, it all came down to the wire.
Down to the wire
“That is not a pretty cabin,” Jessica Rock thought when she got her first glimpse of the roughly 350-square-foot bright yellow cabin with turquoise accents.
A lot of work needed to be done, including electrical and plumbing. Contractors were provided for each cabin, which didn’t come out of their budget, Jeremy Rock said. But everything else was in their hands, and they quickly got to work. Aside from the stipulation that the cabin had to be able to sleep six people, the overall look of their cabin was up to them.
“We basically ripped out all the walls and ceiling and completely changed everything,” Jeremy Rock said. “Nothing was left when we were done swinging those hammers.”
The days were long. The Rocks typically started each morning around 7 or 8, working for 12 hours and up. While they had their designated filming days with a crew, they were also given GoPros so they could document their day-to-day obstacles.
And there were quite a few.
On their first night they accidentally broke a window. Jeremy Rock said he got injured three or four times, including when he put his hand through a nail.
But the biggest moment of doubt — the one when Jeremy Rock said he was ready to pack his bags and go home — came a few days before the deadline.
Although the vision for their cabin often changed as they went along due to budget and time constraints, the Rocks were particularly excited about a skylight they planned to install. It took a while for the order to come through, but it finally arrived during the last week of filming.
Around 9:30 p.m., a few nights before the open house, Jeremy Rock cut a hole in the ceiling and got ready to install the skylight.
And that’s when he had a terrible realization: The skylight was the wrong size.
As the final hours of the contest ticked by, the Rocks stared at the “massive, gaping hole” in the cabin ceiling. People who passed by would ask what their plan was, or suggest getting rid of the skylight and putting drywall over it. But that made Jeremy Rock even more committed to making it work.
They got the right skylight two days before the open house. During those last days, they started working around 6 a.m. and would finish up anywhere between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. The stress of it all reminded Jessica Rock of finals week during her college days — but even more intense.
The Rocks said people must’ve picked up on their stress. During the last couple of days, a lot of people stepped up to help them — even competitors from their own season.
“I am not a competitive person, but if I were to be on a show, I would want it to be like ‘The Great British Baking Show,’” Jessica Rock said. “It really wasn’t quite as charming as that show, but I think there was the same feeling where we were kind of rooting for each other. We didn’t want each other to fail. They helped us and we helped them, so that was cool.”
‘Proud of what we did’
Win or lose, the Rocks are feeling grateful for their emotional “Cabin Wars” roller coaster.
As they prepare to head back to Utah and celebrate their first wedding anniversary on March 23, they’re proud that the obstacles that emerged from their episodes stemmed from the renovation process and not the adjustment that comes with married life — “I think they were hoping we would give some drama, that we would bicker a lot,” Jessica Rock joked.
Overall, the Rocks know there are things they could’ve done better. But they’re proud of how they navigated a steep learning curve in such a short amount of time to create a space people will hopefully enjoy in the years to come.
“For us to actually be proud of what we did was all I wanted,” Jessica Rock said. “My goal was, I want to be able to leave here and think we made something that we’re actually proud of. And I think we accomplished that.”