We are so excited to announce that Cathy Everts of Eagle, Idaho is the winner of HGTV Smart Home 2025 in San Antonio, TX — a grand prize valued at over $1.1 million!

When Poonam Moore, the designer of HGTV Smart Home 2025, gave her the unbelievable news, Cathy reached for her son Drew’s arm exclaiming, “I’m going to fall over … I can’t believe it!”

After several very hard years, including losing her beloved husband in 2020 to cancer and currently caring for her ailing 92 year old mother, Cathy seemed truly shocked to be hearing some good news for a change.

The Set Up

A few weeks ago, a producer messaged Cathy’s son Drew and his wife Tiffany asking them to get in touch. While extremely skeptical, they decided they had nothing to lose, so they returned the call and soon learned the exciting news about Drew’s mom. From there a plan was hatched!

Normally, the winners are surprised in their hometowns but this time around, the situation was a bit different. Cathy’s mother is ill, so Cathy has been staying with her in California for weeks at a time. With no idea of when she would be returning to Idaho, the decision was made to bring the news to Cathy in California.

Drew, who commonly travels for work, told his mom that he would be in nearby Los Angeles and would extend his stay to visit with her and his grandmother without arousing any suspicion. The morning of the surprise, Drew told Cathy he would pick her up for lunch and take her to a nearby restaurant. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Cathy, a camera crew was waiting for her at the restaurant!

Initially, Cathy dismissed the ‘very smiley’ woman who came over to her table just as she and Drew were sitting down. “I thought I was being solicited," she said. "I didn't recognize Poonam right away!” That was until Poonam used her name. “When she said ‘Cathy’ I thought, ‘how does she know my name?’, and that's when I knew something was up!”

Something was indeed up as a camera crew swarmed the table to capture the entire surprise in real time.

Once Cathy digested the news, Poonam took her outside where a brand new Mercedes-Benz GLC SUV, decorated with a big white bow, was parked. Cathy wasted no time getting behind the wheel to check it out. “It’s beautiful!” she beamed. Poonam wasn’t done though, and after coercing Cathy to get out of the car for a few more minutes, she also presented Cathy with a check for $100,000! “Holy moly,” said Cathy with her hand to her heart as she tried to process even more good news.

Listening to Her Winner’s Intuition

Cathy has been entering for a chance to win HGTV giveaways for close to a decade and said, “My God gut told me I was going to win a few years ago … my God gut is 99.9% as long as I don't overthink it. So when I didn't win that year, I said ‘I'll just see what happens.’”

In the time since, a lot changed for Cathy. She and her husband of 35 years, Dan, moved to Texas where they were excited to retire. But it was only a few years later when Dan was diagnosed with cancer. Sadly, Dan passed in 2020 and Cathy made the decision to move to Idaho to be closer to her son Drew and his family, even though she loved Texas and hoped to return someday.

Imagine her shock when she learned the house she had won was located only a few hours away from where her husband was laid to rest. Fighting back tears, she told us that she was always, “planning to go back there … this is a God thing. He knows I was struggling since Dan died."

A House Full of Joy

Aside from the serendipitous location, the house is the perfect place for Cathy to enjoy retired life. The approximately 3,000-square-foot three bedroom, three bathroom HGTV Smart Home has a main floor primary bedroom suite overlooking a spacious backyard — plenty of room for her 11 grandchildren to run around. They can also enjoy the amazing features of the house, like the private basketball court, the upstairs media lounge and the open concept living, dining and kitchen spaces. “This house is so cool!” said Cathy.

Cathy, who her family says can fix “literally anything,” loves to watch HGTV shows like Renovation Aloha, Fixer Upper and Castle Impossible, saying she “absolutely loves when they show how homes are torn down and put back together."

When she saw this home, a top-to-bottom renovation, she signed up for the daily reminders and said she was diligent about entering everyday, telling us, “you enter on HGTV and Food Network and I always do both first thing in the morning." Even though she won’t have to fix anything here, Cathy says she can’t wait to get to San Antonio to see the house in person. “God keeps saying you gotta have joy and he gave that to me today."

Congratulations, Cathy! We hope this house brings you so much joy.