As HGTV filmed Steven and Angelina Jacobs scrambling to renovate a vacation home in just seven weeks on the shores of Garden City, South Carolina, the couple — one of three duos competing on the new season of “Battle on the Beach” — were quietly experiencing homelessness.
On June 11, 2026, the Connecticut couple provided an update on their situation to local outlet The Hour, revealing that they have finally settled into their own space. Their family moved into an apartment they’re renting in Waterbury two weeks before the show’s fifth season premiered on June 1.
The Jacobs Are Competing for a $50,000 Cash Prize on ‘Battle of the Beach’
A revamped edition of HGTV’s “Battle on the Beach,” now airing on Monday nights, features three network stars — Ty Pennington, Sarah Baeumler, and Mika Kleinschmidt — as they each advise a renovation-savvy duo trying to boost the rental value of an outdated beach home. Each duo has a $100,000 budget to transform their getaways, and the contestants who increase their home’s potential rental price the most will receive a $50,000 cash prize.
In the opening moments of the first episode, Angelina said that if they won, “We’re gonna hopefully buy our first house ’cause we actually never had one!”
The Jacobs, who’ve been together for 18 years, have been married for 11 and have four kids, per The Hour. Their main source of income has been Angelina’s construction business, She Buildz Things, which she founded in 2018, often leaning on her husband and kids to help with projects.
“I definitely didn’t go to school for this,” she told The Hour, “I taught myself most of this, and then when it came to designing and picking things, I’m just a ‘wing it, does it look good’ type of thinker. We’ve done roofs, we’ve done full gut remodels, bathrooms, flips, flooring, painting, interior and exterior, power washing, everything, like we just do it all. There’s no limit to what we do.”
But when the Jacobs were cast on Team Sarah on “Battle on the Beach,” they were facing great financial strain, unable to afford their own place to live. They told The Hour that they’d moved their belongings into a U-Haul truck and often slept on a couch at Angelina’s brother’s home.
“We were driving back and forth to jobs,” Angelina told the outlet. “We didn’t tell nobody. …We kept it to ourselves and just kept on going, kept on saving the money.”
The Jacobs Moved Into a New Apartment Weeks After ‘Battle on the Beach’ Finished Filming
Season five of “Battle on the Beach” was filmed in March and April, but the Jacobs told The Hour that they were still without a home base for a month after filming ended. They did, however, finally get to move into an apartment on May 18, which was also Angelina’s birthday.
Typically, contestants on reality competition shows are paid a stipend for each episode they film, per Collider, so even if the Jacobs didn’t win the whole show, they could have made enough to afford their new apartment.
They also won the first week’s challenge, transforming their home’s living room, staircase, and entryway, which came with a $3,000 cash prize. As they celebrated, Angelina got choked up as she told producers, “This win is very important, because we’ve been going through our own situation, you know … sleeping on other people’s couches. So this money will literally help us be more comfortable.”
Angelina and Steven called it a “one-in-a-million” opportunity on the show and told The Hour they learned a great deal from Baeumler that will be helpful for their renovation biz.
“Sarah taught us a lot of different lingos that we didn’t know before,” Angelina said, “so that we could be well versed when speaking and not calling everything ‘a thing.'”
The Jacobs would love to be invited back for another competition series, too, Angelina said, noting, “I’ve explained to my producers and all the other producers to give us a call for any type of redemption shows or all-star shows or anything like that. Whatever I’m allowed to do and able to do, I’ll do. I’ll travel. I’ll go to Canada with Sarah. I’ll do it all.”
Potential She Buildz Things clients in Connecticut can reach out to the Jacobs via email or call 757-914-4091. “Battle on the Beach” airs Monday nights at 9 p.m. Eastern time, with the season 5 finale airing on July 13.
