Joanna Gaines and Chip Gaines sitting at a dinner table smiling

Joanna Gaines Was Upset With Chip Gaines for Making a Renovation Without Telling Her

Chip and Joanna Gaines work well together, but Chip made a renovation in Cottonland Castle without telling Joanna first. Here's what happened.

by Lauren Weiler

Published on November 6, 2022

2 min read

Where is Chip and Joanna Gaines’ castle?

Joanna Gaines and Chip Gaines | Nathan Congleton/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank

Chip and Joanna Gaines live in Waco, Texas, where Cottonland Castle is located. Joanna found the project idea extremely intimidating, but she knew Chip wanted nothing more than to take it on. “The first time Chip drove me by the old abandoned house, I watched his eyes get big, and I could see excitement building as he looked up at the castle’s muscular gray walls, stone tower, and imposing front door,” she wrote on the Magnolia blog. “I knew in that instant that this place had found its way into his heart.”

After driving by the castle often, the couple took the plunge and bought it in 2019. “Chip likes to say that I’m a ‘slow yes,’ but I can’t help but wonder how often I’d be a ‘hard no’ if it weren’t for his resolve to see past the current state of something to what it could be,” Joanna wrote.

Ultimately, the couple hoped to restore the property back to its original state, which proved to be a much bigger undertaking than they originally anticipated.

Joanna Gaines was upset with Chip for making this renovation

If you've driven down Austin Avenue in Waco, then you are all-too familiar with Cottonland Castle, or "The Castle." It is Chip and Jo's latest 'Fixer Upper' and you can check it out in person! https://t.co/1Tf0qg3txr
— KCENNews (@6NewsCTX) September 9, 2022

Chip and Joanna Gaines work well together on their projects. But they don’t always see eye to eye. According to Realtor.com, Joanna wanted to save the narrow-plank hardwood floors in Cottonland Castle. Unfortunately, Chip realized the floors couldn’t be saved. He ended up ripping out the hardwood floors without first telling Joanna. The unwelcome surprise disappointed her.

“The big surprise was having to move all the wood floors on that main level,” Chip explained. “But I haven’t had the heart to tell Jo about that just yet.”

After Joanna saw what occurred, she asked Chip why the original hardwood was removed. “Well, they’d been sanded down for a century, incrementally, until the tongue on the tongue and groove was then exposed,” he told her. “So, we couldn’t sand it down again. Now we’ve got some hardwood floors coming to replace them.”

Luckily, the couple moved on with the project and successfully compromised.

The couple revealed their struggles in working together in the past

Chip and Joanna Gaines have been working together for years, and they’ve talked about their difficulties in the past.

“This is a very hard thing to do, to work together with someone you also have a relationship and a family with,” Chip said, according to Good Morning America. “I would argue that, at the end of the day, we learned early that we’re a lot stronger and we’re a lot more powerful when we’re pulling together as opposed to pulling against each other.”

Chip also noted the “secret” to their marriage is having “solid, mutual respect.” “Lots of hard work goes into this, but at the end of the day, I think if you can get to a mutual place of respect, you can change the world.”