Konya Hendricks Schuh, star of A&E’s “Betting on Beloit,” says her renovation crew has pulled some strange things out of the city’s most run-down houses this season, including a piece of vintage ladies’ lingerie found buried in the drywall.
Schuh told Fox News Digital the discovery happened while her husband, Matt, and project manager Pete Woodkey were demolishing a house for Season 2 of the show. “It was more bizarre, definitely not sentimental, but we’re in the drywall, ripping drywall off, and there was … ladies’ vintage lingerie buried — so they pulled out this little lacy number and that was pretty surprising,” Schuh said.
Not every find has been odd. The team has also turned up pieces of Beloit’s history, including old newspapers, photographs and boxes of family memorabilia in an abandoned attic. One former homeowner, Schuh said, had won “a lot of awards … 75 years ago from Beloit Corp.”
“So just kind of rummaging through all of that was a pretty cool experience,” she said.
Betting on the city
Schuh, the daughter of billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Diane Hendricks, says the show is about more than fixing up individual houses. She and her family are trying to reverse decline in specific Beloit neighborhoods by targeting the properties dragging them down.
“The houses that we buy are truly the worst in the neighborhood. That really is what our mission is … the houses bringing the neighborhood down,” Schuh said.
Asked whether she sees the work as rebuilding the American dream for a new generation, Schuh said, “Absolutely.”
Her husband, Matt, a plumbing contractor and former home builder, works alongside her on the renovations, while her nephew, Connor Fox, handles real estate for the family’s projects.
Schuh said the broader goal is to keep people from leaving Beloit for bigger cities while also drawing new residents in. “We want people … and our talent to stay here in our town and not move away to bigger cities or more metropolitan areas, but then we’re also really working hard to attract new talent and new families to Beloit,” she said.
A bigger bet this season
Season 2 has raised the financial stakes for the family. Their largest project to date, a Dutch Colonial once used as college housing, is listed at $975,000 and remains on the market.
“But I love it, and it was a great house to work on. I’m super proud of it,” Schuh said.
She described the ultimate goal as turning neglected, run-down properties into homes worth being proud of. “Making these old houses that need serious love, and then we tackle those — we really ultimately try to make them really the prize of the neighborhood and really something to be proud of,” she said.
“Betting on Beloit” airs Saturdays at noon ET on A&E’s Home.Made.Nation programming block, with episodes also available the next day on A&E’s website and on demand.
