It’s time to get back to Hawaii time as HGTV brings Season 2 of Renovation Aloha. The popular series centers on Oahu born-and-raised renovation duo Tristyn and Kamohai Kalama as they flip properties in the vacation destination. Over the course of these 10 episodes, the couple raise their game with eyes on their most expensive project ever and a first flip tackled on the Big Island. Transforming these broken down properties can bring unexpected obstacles to overcome including black mold and even break-ins. This year they’ve leaned on their extended family, including 87 first cousins, more than ever to bring these homes back to life. 

The season premiere sees Tristyn and Kamohai purchase an abandoned 1950’s home sight unseen and without an inspection. When they do get into the property, extensive roof and floor damage is found. Not to mention junk cars strewn across the property. A 12-week deadline keeps the pressure on. Making matters worse, the flippers find out the duplex they renovated in the same neighborhood fell out of escrow, which will be a huge financial hit until they find a new buyer. Just another day in paradise. 

Here the Kalamas break down what’s to come. 

Going into the second season, how has life changed now that you are established HGTV stars? 

Tristyn Kalama: You can say it’s drastically different for sure.  We live on an island, so we can’t go to a grocery store without seeing people we know before television. Now that has exacerbated tenfold. 

Kamohai Kalama: We talked about if people were going to recognize us after the show aired. What ended up happening was our local community really loves the show. So, when we step outside our house, we’re going to get recognized at least one or two times. 

Tristyn: Even when we travel to the mainland since the show aired, being noticed on the other side of the country like Florida. It’s wild. It has changed for the best and in all amazing ways. We’ve felt support from everyone. We are so grateful. 

Kamohai: Tris and I talk about the biggest compliment we can ever get is when someone from our local community comes up tells us we’re doing an awesome job and representing Hawaii well. That means so much. 

What did you learn from the first season? 

Tristyn: I think we just double-downed this season on what we know worked. I think we found a flow. We never aspired to be on television, so Season 1 was brand-new territory for us. You can say we are more comfortable in front of the camera and with the ins and outs of what it takes to film a television show. That became easier. We’ve all learned to work together really well. 

Kamohai: That’s the main thing. Our business is our business. It’s what we do. What we do hasn’t changed, but what I think we did in the second season is elevated everything from first season. We have bigger projects. We do things on the second season that we never did during the first season. There is new surprises on that front. Then on the logistical side, just with filming. We had no clue how a TV show was made. Now that we have one season under our belt, we know what the TV show flow is. We know what they are looking for and been able to streamline things that took us a super long time. We can blow through things a lot quicker now. 

You take on your most expensive project ever. What was it about this one that made you want to tackle it? It seems like a high-stakes investment. 

Tristyn: Very high stakes. The largest price point and just magnitude of project we have ever taken on. This project means so much more to us because where it is. 

Kamohai: We don’t want to give too much away, but yes, it was a risky investment. Yes, in real estate, our job is to mitigate risk in all investments. This one for us, I don’t know if we are going to find a more special property for so many reasons. Where it is, what it is, what the exit strategy will be. There are just so many special things about this property. 

Tristyn: We’re excited for everyone to see it. I think it’s a two-parter, so it’s a big thing. 

Tell me about some of the challenges you face. One that stands out to me is the break-in. Have you encountered that a lot? 

Tristyn: It unfortunately wasn’t a first for us, but it doesn’t happen as often as I think some people might assume. It was unfortunate it happened at all. It’s something if you are in the construction industry for long enough and have multiple job sites, there are people who look to take advantage of that. You’ll see that play out in one of the episodes. 

Kamohai: It really doesn’t happen very often. But for us, this is terrible. At the same time it makes for good TV. You couldn’t play it out any differently. It was such a crazy situation. It wasn’t a small amount of things that got taken, which was nuts. You’ll see in the episode how it affects our renovation and everything with that particular house. That’s definitely a crazy thing that doesn’t normally happen. I hope it doesn’t happen again. 

Tristyn: You can only control the controllable. You saw the type of properties we tackle on Season 1. Here you’re gong to see a lot of properties that need a lot of love and aloha. We buy them, take it on with all that comes with that. The unexpected, the ugly and make it beautiful again. 

Kamohai: The cool thing I think about our show is that a lot of people might see real estate as a transaction. The fact of the matter is our business is about people and relationships as well as the actual construction. The second season you’ll see more of those kinds of relationships. When we’re buying houses, the stories behind them and then if we can incorporate those people into the people. Normally that happens in our business. So we do that here as well. 

Tristyn: You’ll also see more family, so we’re excited for you all to be brought in deeper into our family dynamic. 

Will we see more members of the family this season?  

Kamohai: When you do come from a humungous family, you can only imagine what those 87 first cousins do in everyday life. We haven’t been able to incorporate all of them into Season 1, but we’ve introduced some new family members who have some crazy skills and do some awesome, creative things into Season 2. 

What’s great about what you all do is there is a lot of time and care put into everything. You go into these spaces that often have belongings and you go through it thoughtfully before just blindly throwing it away. 

Tristyn: I feel we could probably spend a day talking about what real estate means to us. We always say it’s more than just four walls and a roof. It’s where people have lived life and created memories. For new families coming into those homes, a lot of times it’s the largest purchase anyone will make in their lifetime. It’s a place of refuge. A place where people can dream and cry. It’s really about making sure designing a space where you can envision families being there, spending time there, curating memories that can last a lifetime. The process is always about paying respect to that and leading design and construction from that place. Especially, when you’re talking about the land relationship here in Hawaii and the cultural impact it has. 

Kamohai: Some of these neighborhoods and communities are the tightest as if they were family. They are not family per say, but they’ve been there for generations. We’re getting these houses with a bunch of stuff in there. To your question, we have to go in there and think both what to keep, donate and throw away. It all comes back to the relationships we’re building with the people we’re buying the houses from. That is the most important thing. On the show, we don’t buy ever house off the MLS. We’re cultivating these relationships and making sure these homeowners are getting everything they want out of the house. Then when Tris and I go in there making sure that if we find something or we look through and think it could be special, we pay it forward and put it back into house for the new family. We’re doing everything we can to do that. 

You expand into your flipping into the Big Island of Hawaii. How did working there compare to other places? 

Tristyn: Every island is unique and different. Oahu is the most populated and a huge metropolitan. When you go to the Big Island, everything is laidback, more relaxed with a lot more land that you’re working with. You’re dealing with the challenges we have in Oahu, but times 10. 

Kamohai: Everything is different in the construction world, so it’s harder to find contractors. Everything is more expensive. The really cool thing is from the outside looking in you have this view of what Hawaii looks like. The fact we get to go to another island where the landscape is totally different. You’re going to get to see beautiful lava flows. It’s the same state, but the island is totally new and feels new. 

Tristyn: It’s still growing. We feel so honored to showcase another part of the beautiful place we were both born and raised. 

Now in the HGTV universe, you’re set to be in the upcoming season of Rock the Block. What can you tell us about that experience? 

Tristyn: Rock the Block was an experience. It was a lot of fun. Nothing like it. 

Kamohai: Yeah, we were not prepared. We saw this as an opportunity to showcase what we do on a broader scale. Rock the Block has a huge audience. At the same time, we were able to cultivate friendships and relationships with other people doing what we are doing. 

Tristyn: All the HGTV talent are great people. We had a blast filming with them and getting to know them and spending time with them. Honestly, being in Utah was not bad. Kamohai and I have a deep connection to Utah. Hawaiians go to snow to play where everyone else goes to sunshine to play on vacation. We end up going to Utah once a year to play in snow. So, it felt like a second home for us. 

Kamohai: I think it was really cool too to do something we had never done before. We had never been in such a pressure cooker with such tight deadlines battling against people who are so talented. This season is cool because it’s veterans versus rookies. Alison [Victoria] and Michel [Smith Boyd], who has one before. They’ve been on a lot of times and have experience. We’ve learned so much. We’re really proud of what we did up there. It was a really cool experience. 

Tristyn: We’re excited for the world to see it for sure. 

Renovation Aloha, Season 2 premiere, February 18, 9/8c, HGTV

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