Tour Team Sarah’s ‘Battle on the Beach’ Season 5 Home

Renovation Island's Sarah Baeumler is kinda the queen of the coast. She and her husband, Bryan Baeumler, have revamped an entire Bahamas resort, competed in the first waterfront season of Rock the Block and, oh yeah, judged the last three seasons of Battle on the Beach. Could she walk the walk she’s been talking, though? To find out, she hand-picked a team of promising renovators — Steven and Angelina Jacobs, married parents of four from Waterbury, Connecticut — and threw her own (sun) hat in the ring as their mentor. To say they’re determined is an understatement: “I like construction, and I’m going to continue doing this until my fingers are all off, and then I’m gonna glue them back on,” Angelina promised.

“For Angelina and Steven, this is more than a game,” Sarah said. “They’re parents of four kids [and] they want to use this [prize] money to buy their first home. They have a lot of talent. They have a lot of grit, and this would change their life.”

Angelina, Steven and Sarah faced off against returning mentor, Rock the Block host and Season 3 winner Ty Pennington, who’d teamed up with a Nebraska renovation dynasty in the making, mother-daughter rehabbers Michelle Mueller and Sydney Lorence. They also faced another rookie team-whisperer, as 100 Day Dream Home star (and Rock the Block and Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge winner) Mika Kleinschmidt made her debut mentoring married Baltimore renovators Anna and Josiah Julian. All three teams did their best to impress newcomer judges Tristyn and Kamohai Kalama (Renovation Aloha).

This edition of waterfront warfare went down on the picture-perfect shores of Garden City, South Carolina, a centerpiece of the state’s famed Grand Strand of coastal destinations that welcome nearly 20 million beachgoers each year. With budgets of $100,000 and seven weeks to pour blood, sweat and sunscreen into the biggest Battle on the Beach rental properties yet, the teams had weekly opportunities to impress the Kalamas and win $3,000 in cold, hard cash. This year’s twist? They also had the option of doubling down instead and adding $6,000 to the $50,000 grand prize. Whoever increased their property’s weekly rental rate most dramatically would win it all. Read on to see how Team Sarah made waves in South Carolina.

After winning the option to renovate the house of their choosing (and assign the others to their competition), Angelina and Steven found themselves with a 2,300-square-foot, five-bedroom, five-bathroom property. Sarah counseled them to look for a home that could accommodate a second primary suite, which is just what this building promised, thanks to its extra-long living room. “This would be a really dope primary, being right on the main level and going right out to the main beach,” Angelina observed. Team Sarah budgeted $19,000 on a first-week transformation that would maximize functionality and create a memorable and high-demand rental.

Angelina and Steven developed a clean, neutral aesthetic with tone-on-tone textures and sculptural shapes. For $1,020, they framed out and drywalled a divider between the living room and the new first-floor primary bedroom, then splashed out on a fireplace with a shiplap surround ($930) to create a focal point in the new gathering space. The black-and-white coastal scenes they mounted through the room will look familiar to guests: Team Sarah took those photographs as they explored Garden City. “I love that,” Tristyn said.

“I’m interested to see what’s on the other side of this wall, because I want to make sure the decision you made here [to add it] makes sense,” Kamohai said.

This serene retreat might look soft and inviting, but its existence translates to cold, hard cash: this is the home’s sixth bedroom, thanks to the wall Steven and Angelina added to the first floor. “OK! I think it was a good idea!” Tristyn said.

“This is a major value add,” Kamohai agreed.

“Adding a bedroom on the main floor is practical,” Tristyn continued. “We travel with both sets of parents all the time.”

Did we mention the new bedroom has a dry bar and mini fridge? Team Sarah took the oceanfront resort design directive seriously. Even better, guests can brew a cup of coffee and head right outside via the room’s exterior slider. The Kalamas were impressed, but they wondered: Was the seating in the living room substantial enough to support all the guests this now-six-bedroom house could welcome?

“Yes,” Sarah said.

“Without a shadow of a doubt, she said yes!” Tristyn laughed.

Last but not least, Angelina showed off her creative side in service of the home's all-important first impression. She devoted a whole day’s worth of work to an abstract, dimensional staircase and hallway design with hand-cut, interconnected wood trim ($170). “I can see her labor of love, so kudos to her,” Tristyn said.

Ultimately, the Kalamas judged the homes on their booking power, functionality and design — and Team Sarah was awarded the competition’s first $3,000 prize.

“The amount of value you added by adding a bedroom is undeniable,” Tristyn said.

“That could be the difference in a family booking the space or not booking the space,” Kamohai added. Angelina and Steven’s renovation was off to an excellent start.

Angelina and Steven loved all the light their dining room’s funky custom window provided, but they weren’t as enamored with how dated it felt. They planned a contemporary replacement that would suit their resort-chic renovation style, then mapped out an updated footprint that would replace the two tables with a banquette and sub a flow-friendly island in for the awkward peninsula.

There was no missing the slab of Angelina’s dreams when Team Sarah shopped for materials. This Olympus leathered quartzite ($6,180) has touchable texture that makes the space look and feel like a million bucks. The new island’s upper tier features a dramatic waterfall edge to accommodate barstools and maximize views of the gorgeous stone, and the lower tier offers ample cooking space for guests at the range. Crown molding and paneling details integrate the hood and the upper cabinets. Sleek pendants above the island and countertops match the brushed-steel appliances and impart resort-chic style.

The dining nook’s view of the South Carolina coast is the principal vista in this home, but the arch Angelina and Steven created in their kitchen ($650) and lined in colorful, tropical wallpaper is almost as easy on the eyes. The kitchen’s floor-to-ceiling cabinet suite ($12,080) rises to flank the arch on either side, giving the space a pleasing symmetry and luxurious feel that will grab renters’ attention online. “This is such a pretty kitchen,” Angelina said.

Angelina and Steven crafted a floating desk and a paneled nook in the previously blank area beside the new appliance suite. Paneled to create tone-on-tone dimension and topped with a picture light, this station is the perfect one-stop shop for Wi-Fi information, neighborhood pamphlets and house rules for future guests.

The lackluster dining table in the home’s sun-filled, window-clad picture nook is now a wraparound banquette that creates a properly welcoming space for a very large party. This integrated room even feels better underfoot, as Angelina and Stephen pulled up three overlapping layers of grimy linoleum and carpeting and carried all-new plank flooring throughout the home’s main level.

Tristyn loved the gorgeous leathered-quartzite island as much as Angelina did: “I really love this countertop and the waterfall edge. I just have to touch it!” she exclaimed. “I think it’s a great choice. It fits well with their overall aesthetic, it’s fun, it’s exciting [and] it’s usable."

She and Kamohai didn't love the team’s game-time decision to wall up the large, outdated window instead of committing $5,000 to reframing it, as the choice sacrificed natural light. “I do think we could have had some recessed lights in here that could have ran throughout the space, because it just would have brightened it up a little bit more,” Tristyn noted.

Like the kitchen and dining spaces Angelina and Steven had just finished transforming, the existing principal bedroom offered serious square footage for building in amenities to attract vacationers. Once again, water views were the main attraction, so they decided to create a sitting area that would make the most of that asset.

Team Sarah extended the restful, understated palette they established in their home’s other spaces, then installed floral paper to create a colorful focal wall behind the bed. Tasked with rehabbing a timeworn piece of furniture and incorporating it in their design, they repainted and refinished a faceted credenza that added much-needed storage to the suite. A pair of contemporary pendants layer the lighting design at either side of the bed, while textural, muted linens make the space feel rich and restorative.

Angelina and Steven reimagined the vaulted, sun-drenched sitting area as a serene spot to unwind after a long day at the beach. Comfort here is all about Atlantic-inspired, textural fabrics: an area rug, a loveseat and accessories reflect the dunes’ layered beiges, and the armchairs evoke the ocean itself. A classic, glass-topped rattan coffee table provides a perch for beach reads and beverages.

Angelina knew she wanted to devote the majority of the week’s renovation budget to revamping this bathroom. Though the initial plan was to leave the shower, toilet and vanity in their original positions, she pivoted to a layout change ($3,870) that reimagined the whole room. “As soon as you walk in, you’re walking into a toilet, so we need to shake things up a bit and move things around,” she said. “Here’s my idea: we flip it so you walk in to see your new, beautiful shower instead of the toilet. This also allows us to move the vanity so the door won’t bump you while you brush your teeth.”

Updated with a far sleeker vanity, floating shelves and curvaceous new accessories, the bathroom is now easier on the eyes — unless you’re Sarah, who was shocked to learn that the team had made costly, game-changing structural moves without consulting her. Angelina and Steven’s design choices suited the space, but its layout was worrying. Would the Kalamas appreciate Angelina’s boldness or be horrified, as Sarah was?

Tristyn and Kamohai loved the light that filled the bedroom, though they hoped for more touches of visual interest like the wallpapered accent and the faceted credenza. “This room feels grand. It feels inviting,” Kamohai said.

In the bath, their reactions echoed Sarah’s. “We’re all about reworking a layout, but in that specific case, it didn’t work,” Tristyn said.

“When you walk in, you’re just hit with the shower, and because you moved it that way, the bathroom felt awkward. It felt small,” Kamohai added. “Aside from that, I loved the tile choice [and] I loved the design!”

For their fourth week of renovating, Team Sarah faced both a dated upstairs bedroom and a major personnel change. Collaborating, adapting and delivering under pressure are the name of the game on the beach, so the judges shuffled the teams to force everyone to do just that. They sent Steven to work with Josiah on Team Mika’s house, and Michelle came over from Team Ty to join Angelina. Got all that?

Angelina initially planned to demolish the awkward bump-out closet to add much-needed elbow room near the bedroom and bathroom doors, but she feared its removal would decrease the house’s value. She planned to slim the closet instead, then center the bed in the room and create a sitting area beside it.

With Michelle’s help, Angelina created a padded headboard ($160) with smoky upholstered panels that contrast with the room’s pale walls and gauzy curtains. The coastal tones that carry through the rest of the house peek through here in the area rug and textural bedding, and a pair of tinted-glass cylindrical pendants define the sleeping and sitting areas. The room’s all-purpose appeal found favor with the judges: “I do like that it doesn’t feel like it’s super specific in here and relegated to just a kid’s room, so you provide options [and] you still get the heads in beds,” Kamohai said.

This serene sitting area pinch-hits as a bedroom bonus, thanks to the foldout bed in the loveseat. Sheers on the nook’s three walls of windows let vacationers make the most of all that sunlight without feeling like they’re joining in on the neighbors’ retreat (and vice versa). The Kalamas appreciated the bonus berth concealed here. “This definitely is a big space [and would] be able to accommodate at least four,” Kamohai said.

After reframing ($70) and drywalling ($70) the closet to create a narrow storage space, Angelina and Michelle created this feature wall to its left. Sarah advised them to carry slat wall paneling ($340) all the way across the wall and the closet to make the door invisible and turn this surface into a new focal point for the room. “This is so cute!” she said with satisfaction. “And I’m so glad we listened to Sarah with putting [the paneling] on the entire wall.”

More-is-more paneling was a judge-friendly move, too. “I’m just like yup, immediately touching the walls,” Kamohai said. “Anytime you can add a little feature that wows a guest that you might not have in your own home [you benefit].”

“It’s definitely fun, I like that part,” Tristyn agreed. “I [just] don’t know about it sticking out like this right when you come into the room, you know?”

The fifth week of competition brought another curveball: Team Sarah would be expected to renovate two of their bathrooms and cut costs on one of their remaining guest bedrooms. For the space pictured here, they were tasked with spending just $2,500 on a complete transformation.

“I mean, it is a good space and they have a stunning space outside, so I’d like to keep it bright,” Angelina mused. She planned to extend the coastal palette she and Steven had already developed elsewhere in the home, then give this room a bit of a nautical feel. Faux wainscoting would give the walls a high-end architectural detail, and a two-tone paint treatment would give the space a distinct personality.

Adding crown molding and wainscoting ($250) to the guest bedroom and replacing the grubby carpeting with the same contemporary wood flooring Angelina and Steven deployed throughout the rest of the home makes the bedroom feel fresher and more welcoming. More of Team Sarah’s black-and-white photography on the wall behind the new upholstered headboard adds a much-needed sense of place.

The same muddy greige wall color that made the guest bedroom feel gloomy rather than beachy carried into this bathroom, where a tragic popcorn ceiling and an outdated prefab shower cried out for updates. With the judges’ feedback in mind, Angelina and Steven budgeted $5,300 for a renovation that would feel much more functional than the primary bath they’d already completed.

Team Sarah transformed their second-floor tub area by installing gorgeously veined stone tiles, then adding an LED inset to an all-new niche ($70). Angelina made a point of tackling the flooring herself: “Tiling the bathrooms gives them more of an upscale vibe than if we’d taken the quick and easy option of LVP,” she explained, “and I’m doing it all myself because I love bathrooms and I’m just excited!” With a chic new vanity and organic accents, this bathroom is now family-friendly.

The long, skinny Jack-and-Jill “salmon bathroom” on Team Sarah’s first floor was an unsatisfying bathing spot for the two bedrooms it served, and it was an awkward offshoot of the living room to boot. “What if we split the room in half?” Steven asked. “Like, we could get two bathrooms out of this.”

“Let me just envision this right now,” Angelina replied. “Let’s say right where you are with this existing plumbing right here, we put the shower, creating another wall so all of the space back there can be a half bath.” Her bathroom imagination was off and running, and she knew she could add major value and functionality by turning one bath into two.

Steven and Angelina invested $500 in abstract wallpaper that serves as the perfect backdrop for their next-level powder room. The new space’s pedestal sink greets first-floor visitors like a site-specific sculpture, and a sleek contemporary sconce and mirror complete its transformation. This is the bathroom appeal Team Sarah has been itching to channel since this competition started.

The transformed space on the other side of that new wall features a devastatingly chic new shower stall framed with graphic cement tile worthy of a hip coastal resort. Gleaming white subway tile makes the stall feel bigger than it is, and creamy white paint rescues the bath from its sordid salmon past.

Tristyn and Kamohai appreciated Team Sarah’s efforts in their $2,500 transformation challenge, but the room still felt a bit empty; given its size, they reasoned, might it have accommodated another bed and additional accessories?

The two bathrooms that became three, however, were smashing successes. “Definitely winning back the trust, 100 percent!” Kamohai said. Tristyn loved the large-scale veined tile in the upstairs bath and pronounced the little pedestal in the downstairs powder room the “coolest sink situation I’ve seen in a long time.” These big changes were unquestionably for the better, and Team Sarah earned their second win.

Angelina was tearful as she and Steven claimed their $3,000 in winnings: “I’m just really happy, because I really love bathrooms!”

The sixth and final week of interior renovations brought one last design challenge. For this bedroom, Angelina and Steven were expected to create a picture-perfect space that would attract attention online and layer their design with ultrafunctional additions that would make this a multipurpose space. “What about a gym, an in-home gym?” Steven suggested.

“I would love a gym on vacation — that’s a great idea!” Angelina replied.

“I don’t really want to get completely rid of a bedroom, because you could still advertise this [house] then as six bedrooms, which is incredible,” Sarah advised them, “but now you can also say it has a gym, giving a ton of impact from the marketing perspective.” The plan was in: They’d be building a gym that doubled as a sleeping space to maximize heads in beds.

Taking charge of design for the week, Steven spearheaded the creation of a “Murphy gym” that unfolded from a cabinet he and Angelina designed and stained. Stabilized and outfitted with a full complement of lifting equipment, plus resistance bands and free weights, their one-of-a-kind installation provided everything renters would need to continue their workout regimens on vacation. A Murphy bed ($850) on the adjoining wall unfolds when the gym isn’t in use to convert this space back into a bedroom. Team Sarah also made sure this room’s surfaces could handle a proper sweat session by installing sturdy LVP flooring ($850) that’s easy to clean.

Conscious of how the Murphy bed and Murphy gym carried visual weight in the bonus room, Angelina and Steven installed mirrors to maximize natural light and chose pale accessories to offset the cabinets’ dark stain.

“[It’s] super unique,” Kamohai said, “and I mean, I am a workout person; that is definitely going to cause me to want to stay here.”

“Aesthetically, it’s not that interesting or pleasing on the eye,” Tristyn countered, “because yes, they are two bulky dark wood boxes.”

“But I think that this room really isn’t about design; it is really functional and appealing to the workout guy, like me,” Kamohai continued. “Yeah, I really like it!”

“The dual purpose is a win for sure,” Tristyn conceded.

For their final days in South Carolina, Team Sarah headed outside to tackle their home’s exterior spaces. With a beach-level deck, a porch and a balcony out back — plus the carport and streetside front door all awaiting transformation, their agenda was packed. They had just over $14,000 of their budget left to address it. Reasoning that the first-floor porch was too small for a proper outdoor dining area, Steven and Angelina decided to add functionality to the larger space right on the beach. At Sarah’s suggestion, they would invest in repainting the whole house a serene olive green color that would set it apart from other homes on the block.

With all-new curb and coastal appeal, the house is now an unquestionable standout. “This is so pretty!” Angelina said. Their $10,000 investment on exterior paint was a savvy one — and an inspirational one. “I got a name,” he continued. “‘Olive the Coast,’ [since] we are on the coast.” Their home’s public persona for would-be renters was taking shape.

Angelina and Steven created a sleek name plaque to introduce their home (and its contemporary resort character) from the streetside entrance at the top of the stairs. Powder-coated steel outdoor furniture and accessories with cabana striping elevates the indoor-outdoor living they developed on the porches and decks.

Team Sarah removed benches on two sides of the beach-level deck to create ample space for a well-shaded dining table. They then used that gorgeously-silvered wood to create a privacy wall behind an all-new outdoor shower, positioned perfectly for returning beachgoers. “This is so cute! We saved a lot of money using this wood exactly the way that it came off [the benches],” Angelina said.

With dining furniture down on the beach-level deck, Angelina and Steven had ample room to develop a generous, multi-functional space on the shaded deck above. They arranged more of the patio furniture they used on the front porch ($510) to create a seating area around a contemporary fire pit that serves as a coffee table during the day, then mounted a 55-inch outdoor television that doubles as a partial privacy screen.

At the other end of the first-floor deck, Team Sarah created a grilling area beside the indoor dining noon. This outdoor portion of the kitchen enjoys the best of both worlds: It’s accessible via the slider to the indoor kitchen’s resources, and it’s just up the stairs from the outdoor dining area on the beach-level deck.

Conscious of how the home’s carport doubles as an informal covered porch, Angelina and Steven created additional adult- and kid-friendly lounging and play spaces in the sandy spaces on either side of its concrete pad. Conscious of how amenities draw in renters, they also purchased a pair of retro cruisers for taking spins around the neighborhood.

Tristyn and Kamohai appreciated Angelina and Steven’s widened beach-level deck and the well-hidden solar lights tucked beneath its railings for dining after dark. “My only concern out here would be if this is going to be able to withstand weather on the not-so-good days,” Kamohai noted. He loved every bit of the deck with the outdoor television, however: “I would use this space a lot,” he said.

Tristyn applauded the house’s new hue. “I think a refresh on paint goes a long way, and I’m a sucker for green,” she admitted.