Behind the scenes of our House Hunters International episode: the AVL day

If you haven’t heard, HGTV filmed an episode of House Hunters International all about the time when Lina + I moved to Uppsala, Sweden. Eeeeeek!

[Watch the episode online (US residents only) –> here]

It was an amazing experience, and since the show has now aired for the first time, we though that it was time to give you all a little peek into our first day of filming!


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On the day of our filming in Asheville, we got up, got dressed (we did our own makeup and hair) and headed to our favorite brewery for the first part of our filming day. At the brewery we were going to do two things:

– film our interview (that is shown at the beginning of the show and tells our story)

– taste beer with friends (‘cuz that’s what we love to do). Beer is part of our storyline, of course. And, if you know this, you know how much we love craft beer.

The entire time, we were treated absolutely amazingly, by the HHI tv crew and by the people at Highland Brewing. I mean, the brewery opens at 4pm, but they opened at 9am for us, allowing us to use their space and have a free beer tasting/just free beer in general the whole time we were there, up until lunch. Of course, Lina and I did not drink any beer until we were done with  the almost 2 hour interview that we filmed. I mean, we were so nervous, I considered it. But, then I thought it might not be good to be a bit tipsy in our big backstory interview. Hehe.

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me and our asheville director. she’s feverishly trying to figure out how lina and i can get some color in our wardrobe. all we wear is black. hehe. (which the director admits that that’s what she likes to wear too. ha!)

Well, we got all mic-ed up. Had sound checks. Lighting checks. Finished our wardrobe changes. And had runners to take care of whatever needs we had. During the interview the director sat beside the camera + asked us questions about our life.

We answered then, but often had to do multiple takes because we laughed, or forgot what we were saying, or said the wrong information. It was all so awesome. And fun! The director was one tough ass lady. But, soooo nice and so good at what she does. The lighting and sound guys were just as kind as they could be. And Highland Brewing treated us like stars! I mean, we couldn’t have asked for a better beginning to this experience.

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After the interview was over, we headed to the tasting room to meet up with our friends for some beer. The director planned things out, and then it was time to film our beer tasting session. By now, we may have been a teeny bit tipsy. Or just totally relaxed. Who knows. Or both. In any case, after lots of sips of beer, a ton of laughs, sweating like crazy people in the 90 degree (F) summer sun, we wrapped the first part of the day. Check!

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Then it was time for lunch out with the crew at a place we recommended. HGTV treated us to lunch every single day we filmed, which was a fun perk!

After a mid-afternoon summer downpour, we went to film at our friend’s art studio. If we thought we were hot in the morning, we had no idea how it would be at the studio. We had to keep the door shut because of the noises outside (for filming purposes), so all 7 of us in the studio were baking + sweating, yet still laughing. And it was so amazing to have our friend, Andrea, be a part of the day and to get to feature her amazing art.

[Visit her studio online –> here. Or in person at the Pink Dog Creative studios in the River Arts District.]

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me and andrea!

After we left Andrea’s place, we headed to the middle of downtown to do some B roll (that’s filming slang for “shots around town, transition shots, etc.”). That was crazy, since it was obvious that we had a filming crew with us, walking around us, in front of us, behind us, and a director telling us what to do. So. Freaking. Surreal.

And then, by about 5 pm we were done!

We hugged the filming crew goodbye and headed out to dinner with friends – more local beer and local food at one of our favorite restaurants in Asheville to celebrate an incredible day!

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So, one day under our belt – and a month before it would be time to do the filming in Uppsala! Filming in Asheville took only one day, but filming in Uppsala would take four. Of course, there would be more in Uppsala because that’s where we were moving to.

Stay tuned… the first post of behind-the scenes stuff in Uppsala coming soon! And videos too!

xoxo. liz.

2 thoughts on “Behind the scenes of our House Hunters International episode: the AVL day

    1. Hi Hannah! I’m so excited that you are excited! 🙂 It was really crazy amazing to have a chance to have a show made about us… we never would have dreamed it. Hope you were able to see the episode! Thanks so much for your comment. xx

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