Lights, Camera, Build It!

Back in our July/August 2023 issue of Aberdeen Magazine, we featured local handyman Mike Re in our Get to Know section. Since then, some exciting opportunities have opened up for Re and his business Building Bros. Right before Thanksgiving last year, Re was informed he would be participating on a new reality TV show called Cabin Wars: Flip It To Win It.

“The show is being filmed in Louisiana,” Re said. “A college buddy of mine lives there, and he told me about the show. I just had to audition, and I got picked.”

Cabin Wars will be coming to Amazon Prime later this spring. The competing teams have 30 days to completely renovate rundown cabins into luxury glamping spaces – all on a $20,000 budget. The cabins are at Adventures RV Resort in Robert, Louisiana.

The show, which is being produced by Servio Capital, will be filming five seasons at the same time. Each season consists of 3 teams competing against each other for a $40,000 cash prize. Re said that the order of the show’s seasons has not been decided quite yet.

Filming began on January 10 and finished on February 10. After filming, Cabin Wars held an open house and invited locals to check out the newly refurbished cabins before the voting period began.

Re has recruited Chris Galvin of Galvin Construction and Jackie Ulmer as his teammates. Galvin works on larger contracting projects and Ulmer has been helping friends and family with interior decorating for several years now.

“All of the cabins are pretty close together,” Re said. “We’re going to be pretty close to the competition. One of the cabins is only about 12 feet away from us.”

Ulmer said that there are several cabins on the property and that teams will be working on similar styled cabins.

The cabins have a few requirements that each team needs to meet. In addition to being fully furnished and decorated, the cabins are required to have a kitchen area and need to be able to sleep six guests. After filming, the cabins will be available for campers to rent.

“It’s not just about meeting requirements,” Galvin said. “Families have to want to go to the cabins we design for them.”

The team had 30 days to remodel their cabin. Mike Re recorded the process himself and provided video updates about their cabin on his Building Bros Facebook Page.

While the show provides each team’s budget, it’s up to them to secure their supplies and tools. The team flew down to Louisiana in December to check out the location and cabins.

“We’ve been putting in a lot of work with our plans,” Re said. “There’s not enough time to get the planning and the construction done in 30 days, so we’ve been meeting up twice a week to go over everything.”

Re said that once the 30-day countdown begins, the way they use their time is up to them. He noted that Galvin had a few long 12-hour days in store for them. It has also been a pretty big learning experience for all of the team members.

So far, their biggest challenge by far has been stretching their budget.

“When you count the interior, exterior, and furniture, it doesn’t go very far,” Galvin said.

Like many other reality shows, Cabin Wars is leaving the winners of each season in the viewers’ hands. All voting will be done online on the Cabin Wars Facebook and Instagram pages.

Voting began on February 24 and will end on March 3. Re said that they hope to get support from all of us back home in Aberdeen.

“We’re very excited to represent Aberdeen on this project,” Ulmer said.

Re and his team have been documenting their Cabin Wars journey on the Building Bros Facebook page.

After running his Get to Know section in the July/August issue of Aberdeen Magazine, Re said that there was a tremendous spike in callers asking about Building Bros’ services.

“Whenever my phone rings, I ask how they heard about Building Bros,” he said. “There was a tremendous spike in calls after the story ran. People kept mentioning Aberdeen Magazine.” //

More information on Cabin Wars: Flip It To Win It can be found on their website, linktr.ee/cabinwars.