Jack McBrayer Does His Best Blue Man Group Impression on ‘Zillow Gone Wild’
Jack visits a Tennessee home filled with DIY surprises, including a Blue Man Group-inspired stage setup.
This Tennessee home features a DIY stereo system created to look like one used by the owner’s favorite musical act, the Blue Man Group.
Love comes in many forms, and in Newport, Tennessee, it comes in the form of this nearly 5,000-square-foot estate, custom-designed by a husband for his wife. A self-taught builder, Rena’s late husband, Steve, “built this house for me,” Rena tells Jack. Even though Steve “didn’t even graduate high school,” Rena says he “wasn’t intimidated by anything.” Instead, he rolled up his sleeves and learned as he went. Much of the material used inside the house was even found on the property, showcasing Steve’s creativity and ingenuity.
Eighties-inspired colored glass brick creates a stunning focal point while letting light shine in.
The home sits on 25 acres and is built into the side of a hill. Despite its boxy, modern exterior, the interior is much more organic … literally. “Look at this staircase! It looks like it is just carved out of a tree,” Jack gasps as he walks through the front door.
The staircase alone was a labor of love, taking nearly three months for Rena’s husband to build.
“Ever since I was young, I always wanted a big staircase … and this is what he built me,” Rena shrugs. All of the wood used for this project was found on the property and turned into lumber at a nearby sawmill.
Steve’s love for upcycling did not end at lumber. “I would be remiss if I did not point out all this NASA equipment in your living room,” Jack says to Rena, pointing to the giant maze of tubing taking up an entire wall. It turns out that Steve’s other love (aside from Rena) was the Blue Man Group, a performance art-based musical group known for playing instruments made from recycled materials. As you might have already guessed, Steve was the kind of guy who “decided that he was going to build a speaker system that was inspired by the Blue Man Group.” And, by gosh, he most certainly did.
Steve didn’t just build a home that had jaw-dropping aesthetics — he also created a self-sustaining house that runs entirely on solar power. In fact, the 140 solar panels on the roof generate so much electricity that the owners have been able to sell electricity back to the power company, generating passive income every month.
A roof full of solar panels allows this home to run completely off-grid.
While the house certainly has a lot of sustainable design, it is simply too much maintenance for Rena to sustain on her own. “You [ever] try to clean 5,000 square feet?” she asks Jack. Fair point. As a result, Rena has made the difficult decision to put Handmade Haven on the market. While it may take a minute to find a buyer who loves the Blue Man Group as much as Steve did and also happens to have nearly a million dollars sitting around, Rena simply hopes that “whoever moves into this house will love it and enjoy it, just like I have.”
