Chip and Joanna Gaines Reveal Plan for Restored ‘Fixer Upper’ Castle: Will They Sell It or Rent It Out?
Chip and Joanna Gaines are the proud owners of a beautifully restored castle but what’s next for the unique historic Fixer Upper property? While Chip said they originally planned to sell it once they completed the project, he doesn’t want to have any regrets if he lets it go.
Chip and Joanna Gaines said they initially planned to sell the castle
Chip and Joanna purchased the Cottonland Castle and originally planned to sell it when they completed the renovation.
During an October 2022 interview with ET, the couple discussed what’s next for the beautiful castle featured on Fixer Upper — and well, they’re not sure.
Joanna said, “There’s two different answers here … I think we sell it.”
Chip added, “We bought it to sell it — that was the intention.”
Even so, Chip said he’s not sure that’s what will ultimately happen. “When I think about owning a piece of history … I mean, this is a project that I was pursuing for 20 years,” Chip said. “The reality is we need to sell it and we should sell it.”
He added, “But I wonder if it’s not one of those things 10 years from now you don’t look back and wonder, ‘Gosh, should we have kept it? What if somebody in the family wanted it?’”
Will they rent out Cottonland Castle or live in it themselves?
When asked what they’ll do with the castle, Chip said, “I don’t think Jo and I want to live here literally.”
They definitely don’t have plans to rent it as a vacation property or Airbnb rental either out of respect to the area residents.
“This neighborhood means so much to us,” Chip said. “I think it would be a disservice to the neighborhood if we turned this into kind of a commercial entity in that way.”
Chip and Joanna Gaines said this is the longest project they’ve done yet
After they bought the castle, the Gaines had a long road ahead of them. “This was our longest project by a long shot,” Chip said. “It was fascinating. This thing took on a life of its own and it took longer, it took more money. I would say that’s partly why we’re so proud of it now that it’s in the rearview mirror.”
He added, “But during the project, it was exhausting and tiring and complicated.”
Joanna said it took three years total. “We bought it, we planned a year of design, research, figuring out where we needed to get the materials, and then once we finally pushed go it was almost a year of construction,” she explained.
As well as being time-consuming, the project also was tough to budget for. “Jo and I are wildly efficient,” Chip said. “We’re typically on really tight budgets, tight timelines. This house would not allow for that. It wouldn’t allow for the budget that we created for it.”
