Swingin' through ceilings, tumblin' on stilts, and a birthday surprise that nearly brought
death to "Fixer Upper." You never know what will happen when the cameras keep rolling!
While filming a segment for their new spinoff series "Fixer Upper: Welcome Home," Chip and
Joanna unknowingly walked their clients into a situation that looks like it would be more at
home on an episode of TLC's "Hoarding: Buried Alive" than on the Gaines' wholesome design
show. Joanna struggles to make her way out of a bedroom completely covered by debris and garbage.
"Okay, I've never seen anything like this!"
"It smells like urine in here."
While Jo speeds her way through the house, her clients can only follow behind,
laughing awkwardly at the situation. Chip then makes the terrible mistake of opening
the fridge to find a disgusting disaster that forces Joanna to leave the room gagging. Chip
was so astounded by the site that he even shared a photo of the refrigerator on his Instagram page.
"Babe, they were the original composters! What is this?!"
Later, as the couple gave their on-camera confessional, Joanna revealed that the
stench made her nose and eyes burn, forcing her to abandon the walkthrough.
"I just knew, that's like, caution, caution get out of house!"
In both a memorable and meme-able scene from Season 2, Chip decides to spice up
Demo Day by challenging Joanna to a karate kicking competition.
"We're going to have a karate kicking contest, me versus you, straight up.
Jo decides to give in to the Demo Day fun despite her usual no-nonsense attitude. In fact,
she goes all in, smashing through the drywall in her country girl boots and blue jeans,
giving the wall an impressive kick. Her enthusiasm immediately backfires, though,
as her foot gets caught in the drywall, and Chip, ever the gentleman, rushes to her rescue. As he
lifts his wife out of the drywall, he reminds us once again what true love looks like.
Once he's sure that Joanna isn't hurt, Chip readies his own attack. Joanna
warns Chip not to do anything stupid, but fans of the show know how futile that is.
Mere moments later, Chip gets a running start and flings his whole body straight through the
sheetrock. After a stunned silence, the camera catches Chip responding,
"I'm mostly okay."
Though it was played for comedic effect in the final edit, Joanna later admitted
in the confessional that she really was afraid Chip had seriously broken something.
On an episode of "Fixer Upper: Welcome Home," Chip gets a little too enthusiastic about
Demo Day. With her Homes and Gardens-approved design style, Jo is hoping to preserve as much
of the original house as possible. Meanwhile, Chip can't wait to get the destruction going.
Having noticed that there is a large window hidden behind a piece of drywall in the master bedroom,
Joanna decides to put a stop to the tomfoolery, which is always a losing proposition.
"I'm taking it out of your paycheck if you break this window."
"There's an 88% chance I will, but there's a 12% chance I won't."
Chip's calculations do little to calm her fears,
and Jo eventually confiscates his trusty hammer. Ultimately, it doesn't work,
though. After getting it back, sure enough, Chip breaks the window anyway.
While revealing a passion project of Chip's,
a minty green fixer-upper that the star bought on a whim, the Gaines
enlist the help of their second-oldest son Duke and their youngest son, Crew.
Upon the reveal of his dream home, Chip bursts into fake "tears," hamming it up
for his son and the cameras. Duke laughs as his dad attacks him with hugs and cuddles,
pretending to wipe his nose on the boy's black shirt, but when their smaller son toddles up,
things get a bit awkward when Chip tries to engage with Crew.
"Crew, do you want to live here?"
"No!"
While Mom and Dad may be seasoned professionals, there's no doubt that the couple didn't rehearse
with Crew before cameras started rolling. Thankfully, Crew seemed more excited about
seeing the inside of the house, so it seems like this worked out in the end.
In a terrifying clip from Season One, Joanna's birthday present to Chip causes unexpected
property damage — and emotional damage — when Chip nearly kills her by accident.
The born and bred Texan was so excited to receive a surprise Jeep for his 39th
birthday that the first time he gets behind the wheel, he makes a near-fatal mistake. Cameras
are rolling as the car unexpectedly lurches forward, almost hitting Jo.
The designer yelps as she jumps onto the grass. Though crew members rush
forward to attempt to stop the vehicle from crashing,
it's too late. Chip collides his birthday present right into the back of a production van.
When producers ask the couple later about the incident, Chip explains.
"I put it in first gear, so when I turned the ignition on,
the thing started bouncing forward, and I almost crushed my wife!"
As longtime "Fixer Upper" fans will know, it's not uncommon to see Chip wielding drills, hammers,
and saws or even kicking down some drywall with nothing but his own booted foot and
some determination. However, fans might be surprised to see that on one occasion, Chip
actually had to enlist some help with the task of installing a client's heavy new kitchen doors.
Even more surprisingly, instead of calling for Saul "Shorty" Sanchez,
Chip's beloved sidekick and the man he's even called his "brother" on Twitter,
Chip instead recruits Joanna to try her hand at some manual labor.
But as soon as she starts helping, Chip immediately begins mocking her drill skills.
"This is ridiculous, babe. Put the screw in the hole!"
It's the usual gentle teasing, but some fans may have felt that he set her up as
the butt of the joke by having her help in the first place. Chip claimed in the confessional,
though, that it wasn't just for show.
"I actually needed an extra hand. I mean those doors are stout!"
Chip Gaines is known for his goofy personality and roughhousing on the
set of "Fixer Upper," but on one occasion, he might have taken it a little too far.
After a long day of renovation, Joanna finds her husband sitting atop the
unfinished second-level portion of a home in progress. Chip then sets up his terrible idea.
"Do you know how when you've had a hard day,
you just wanna kind of look back and admire your work?"
"I do know that feeling, Chip."
Chip then decides to jump off in order to get a better look at the house. Joanna naturally
questions this logic and pleads with him not to jump, no doubt worried if he'll be able to
stick the landing without jeopardizing all their hard work, or injuring his famously weak ankles.
But too late. As he propels himself from the half-finished second story, Chip swings his
body directly into the camera equipment. Whether it was an actual crew member who took a hit,
or just some fancy hardware, we'll never know, but the collision between Chip and the camera
shook the house hard enough for viewers to see debris falling from the ceiling!
When Chip asks if anybody in the area happens to be good on stilts, you know you're in for trouble.
This time around, Jo finds herself watching on as Chip tries his hand at living the life of
a "sheetrock guy," hopping up onto a pair of drywall stilts. With the help of a few of the
professionals, Chip is able to hobble around the house, gripping onto the ceiling for dear life.
He eventually makes his way into the front yard, where, just as Jo predicted,
he finally takes a tumble. The unscripted nature of the moment becomes clear when
Chip continues to lie face down in the grass for a moment too long, laughing at himself,
and Joanna tries to duck away from the cameras to hide her laughter.
After the hilarity of the situation has died down and
the couple is being interviewed for the camera confessional, Jo admits,
"Any project Chip is in, it's like there's something in the air that
makes him want to do something really stupid."
From what we know of their love story and by the sound of her laughter,
we'd say she wouldn't have it any other way, and we wouldn't either.
In a very memorable season 2 episode, Chip and Joanna unexpectedly designed for their youngest
client. While renovating a house for Whitney and Martin Gaspar, the couple gets the news
that Whitney has gone into labor 2-weeks early, throwing a wrench in their original timeline.
While the Gaines knew their clients were about to have a new addition to their family, they
hoped to have the Gaspar's new home completely renovated in time for the baby's homecoming.
Despite the professional stress Baby Gaspar's early arrival no doubt caused, missed deadlines
and late shiplap shipments couldn't keep Chip and Joanna from making a sweet stop
by the maternity ward. Still, Chip was focused on making sure the baby had a house to live in.
"It's going to be really close. We're going to push as hard as we can."
Joanna, for her part, only has eyes on the Gaspars' new bundle of joy.
She faux-sobs while holding the baby in her arms, saying,
"This is gonna make me want another one!"
Her wish would come true only three years later,
with the Gaines' own surprise arrival of baby Crew, their fifth child, in 2018.
Though the COVID-19 pandemic pushed back production on "Fixer Upper: Welcome Home,"
that didn't stop the Gaines family from jumping back into their renovation
adventures. They just had to do it using some unusually awkward production values.
While renovating their very own Waco, Texas farmhouse, Chip decides to bust out his cellphone
to record a DIY walkthrough with Joanna. Though the couple are undoubtedly seasoned television
performers, Chip's cameraman skills are a little shaky. In a revealing and relatable moment, Joanna
warns Chip to stop zooming onto her face and messy bun, throwing her hand up in front of her face.
Not the smoothest move, Chip!