HGTV stars launch lifestyle book in Windsor – Windsor Star

Kortney Wilson left Windsor with her parents when she was an infant, but that didn’t stop the television star from choosing the city for her first-ever book signing.

The 40-year-old presenter of the hit HGTV series Masters of Flip travelled to Windsor from her home in Nashville, Tennessee Friday to launch the book she wrote with her husband and co-host, Dave Wilson. More than 100 people gathered at the Indigo in Devonshire Mall the next day to meet the famous couple.

“We’re dual citizens, but you can’t take the Canadian out of us,” said Kortney, with a Tim Hortons cup in her hand. After leaving Windsor at just three months of age, Kortney grew up in Sudbury, and later moved to Kitchener before travelling to pursue a career in music. She and Dave, who was born in Ottawa, have lived in Nashville for the past 21 years, first working as country musicians, then as professional house flippers.

The couple wanted to launch their book of lifestyle tips entitled Live Happy in Canada before it came out anywhere else, Kortney said. Although the book officially hits stores Tuesday, their Canadian publisher, Harper Collins, let them release it three days early in Windsor, where Kortney’s parents returned to, and where her sister, aunts, uncles, and cousins also live.

“I do definitely have a bucket list — writing a book wasn’t even on it, so this is something I didn’t really even dream of,” Kortney said. “When this opportunity came to us, I was like this is amazing, to be able to add something and check it off, but to have our whole family here for the first one is kinda cool.”

Live Happy contains just over 300 pages of pictures and tips on home décor, family, food, marriage, and more, but it’s not meant to be a strict guide, the couple said. Rather, it’s a compilation of things that have helped them to live happy lives as a husband and wife duo, and as a family with three kids: Jett, age 14, Sully, age 12, and Lennox, age 9.

“We didn’t really want to put out a house-flipping book because we’re house flippers,” said Kortney. She and Dave flipped their first house in 2004, just after Jett was born, she said. In total, they’ve turned 125 run-down residences into beautiful homes. “We do it every day, but we feel people have already got a glimpse into that part of our lives.”

“This was so unique to me, because I’ve never used the words author and me in the same sentence,” said Dave, who typically specializes in contracting, while his wife does realty and design. “It’s the first time in a long time I’ve been excited about a new project. I wasn’t expecting to be excited about it.”

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Season four of Masters of Flip, which the couple is in the process of wrapping up, will be the show’s last, they told the Indigo crowd Saturday. In the spring, they’ll begin another new project: a new show in which they renovate other people’s houses — and spend other people’s money — instead of buying, flipping, and selling the houses themselves. The title and location of the new show have yet to be finalized, Kortney said, but she told the crowd she’d like to work on some homes in Canada. Several members of the audience immediately raised their hands to volunteer their houses for renovation.

“Our eye is always on the next project,” Kortney said. “That comes from I think two creative people wanting to grow. But right now we’re in the middle of this book and I couldn’t be more excited.”

The fourth and final season of Masters of Flip airs on HGTV in April.

Live Happy comes out Canada-wide on Tuesday, February 19, and in the United States May 7.

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