HGTV’s ‘First Home Fix’ follows hosts Raisa Kuddus and Austin Coleman as they help new homeowners renovate and transform their homes without breaking the bank. Working from their vintage VW van, the designer duo helps in catering to young newlywed and millennial clients with their new home requirements. Raisa Kuddus is an artist and designer who works in the creative process of renovation. Austin Coleman, on the other hand, serves as the skilled builder and woodworker looking after the hands-on work of the transformation.
Entering the TV world for the first time, the designer experts have gained quite a number of fans from their exposure on the home renovation show. Austin Coleman is a finely skilled renovation expert whose fan following must now be curious to know more about him and his personal life. If you’re one such fan eager to know about him, too, here’s everything that we found out!
Austin Coleman: A California Native with a Passion for Sports
Born on December 14, 1983, Austin belongs to a loving family from Los Angeles, California. He is close to his mother Jeanette Coleman, father Freddie Coleman, brother Nick Coleman and extended family, including his cousins. However, he shares a special connection of love and inspiration with his father, who is a US Navy veteran. Austin often spent his childhood days exploring various beaches in California with his father while jamming to Bob Marley songs at the back of his dad’s VW bus. These are some of his cherished memories with his father, and so he always dreamed of one day owning a VW bus for his own family. Later, as an established professional, he fulfilled that dream and now takes along his dad for similar visits to the beach, thanking him for those amazing times.
Austin completed his graduation in 2006 from the University of Southern California with a bachelor’s degree in City/Urban Development and Planning. He also took up a minor course in General Business Administration and Management at the University of Southern California — Marshall School of Business. Furthermore, Austin is a professional athlete in action sports that mainly includes cycling, skating, and surfing. He developed a passion for the sport at a pretty young age and went on to pursue it even at international levels quite successfully.
Austin Coleman’s Profession
Austin Coleman began his career as a professional athlete and has been working as a professional BMX rider since the year 2000, even before he joined college. He has appeared in numerous contests and events such as ESPN X Games, NBC Dew Tour, ASA World Tour, and even in publications like Ride BMX Magazine, Transworld BMX Magazine, and Vital BMX Media. Austin’s name has also been affiliated with organizations like Maxxis Tires Int’l, BMX Freestyle Team, BMX Pros Trick Team, Troy Lee Designs, Woodward Camp, and Albes Bicycle Mail order.
Apart from his career as an athlete, Austin joined the real estate industry after getting fascinated with it while studying urban planning in college. He began working as the Development Principal in 2012 with the company RalliPoint, LLC in March 2012. His work is mainly in the areas of Residential Real Estate Rehabilitation, Design, Construction, Deal Structure, Project Analysis, etc. Thereafter, since joining hands with Raisa Kuddus, they began working as a team at blohk design and are now the artistic co-hosts of the HGTV show ‘First Home Fix.’
Austin Coleman’s Girlfriend
Apart from being partners in the project, Austin Coleman and Raisa Kuddus are also real-life partners and have been in a relationship for over four years. The beautiful duo met for the first time around the end of 2017 or the beginning of 2018, at an after-party in Salt Lake City, Utah. There was an action sports event where Austin served as the producer and judge of a BMX contest. The after-party of the event was coincidentally held at the design firm where Raisa worked. Raisa was the artist of a huge mural at the firm, which enchanted Austin so much that he went around the event looking for the artist.
“And even though I was supposed to be mixing and mingling with all the different athletes and such, I was transfixed by this mural,” Austin told HGTV. Eventually, when someone directed him to Raisa, he could not contain his excitement and immediately went ahead and asked her about the mural. Raisa, on the other hand, was also flattered that Austin was so interested in her painting in the midst of a sports event. The two got to talking and also danced their heart out at the party. Well, Austin did not miss a chance and dialed Raisa’s number just a week after they met, and the couple has been in love ever since.
Reminiscing the beautiful moment, Raisa told HGTV, “The first thing he asked me was ‘Did you do that mural?’ I was shocked because I had worked on the mural for so long and not one person asked me about it. I was proud of it but I wasn’t going to brag about it to everyone, so the fact that this stranger — this very cute stranger — was asking me about my mural … I didn’t have any words for the first five seconds.”
Both Austin and Raisa (who grew up in Pennsylvania), share some common interests of traveling, skating, and even as artists. They are the biggest admirers of each other’s work and hence make a good partnership even for the home improvement show. They enjoy traveling to various picturesque as well as unexplored places together and even get along well with their respective families. The couple now lives happily in Tustin, California, and we wish their bond and love for each other stays the same forever.
Read More: First Home Fix’s Raisa Kuddus: Everything We Know
