Jasmine Roth thrives in chaos. Between raising two young daughters, relocating her design business from Huntington Beach, California, to Park City and hosting season five of Help! I Wrecked My House, the HGTV star has more on her plate than ever. For Roth and her husband, Brett, that energy was the driving force behind uprooting their lives and starting fresh in a new state. “It almost feels like I’m back to 2012 when I first launched my business,” Roth says. “I’m in start-up mode again, and I love it.”
Made for the Mountains
After 15 years in California, Roth and her family made a break for the mountains. “Park City has always been our happy place,” Roth says. She and Brett vacationed in Utah many winters ago, long before the move felt possible. In 2015, they purchased a small condo, which Roth renovated during a particularly bad snowstorm, filming the process for a YouTube video she planned to share with family. To her surprise, it caught the eye of HGTV, ultimately leading to stints on Hidden Potential, Rock the Block and Home Town Takeover before Help! I Wrecked My House debuted in 2020.
The soon-to-be family of four also made the move in August 2024 to be closer to relatives. “Moving while pregnant … I would not recommend,” Roth laughs. Thankfully, her in-laws live just 13 doors down in a house Roth built for them, and her mom is nearby in an apartment. “As soon as my mom was set up and the movers dropped off our things, my body was like, you’re having this baby,” she says. Darla, her second daughter, arrived a month early.
Firm Foundations
Back to host the fifth season of Help! I Wrecked My House, Roth takes on client “wrecks” through her company, Built Custom Homes. The self-contained episodic series follows Utah homeowners who have DIY’d themselves into a corner and need a lifeboat. Problems range from simple drywall patches to foundation issues and electrical nightmares. Roth and her team take the reins while also slowing down to teach homeowners new skills. “I never want to portray things to be way easier than they are,” Roth says. She prioritizes equipping homeowners with knowledge of when to ask for help and how to maintain their upgraded abodes.
When accepting projects, Roth says it’s less about what makes good TV and more about whether the family is truly ready for it. “We look for clients who feel stuck and see us as their only path forward. It’s equally as important to note that they have to be in a place to afford it,” she explains. While viewers often question if HGTV foots the bill, Roth dispels that rumor, confirming that homeowners always pay their own way.
In addition to client work, the show simultaneously follows Roth’s personal life. When she and Brett decided to move, they purchased a partially framed home and took on the challenge of finishing it with a baby on the way. A year later, the residence is still a work in progress. “We live here, but the exterior is still getting finished. The yard looks terrible,” she confesses.
Roth also tackles designing rooms for both daughters on camera — a nursery for Darla and a bedroom for 5-year-old Hazel. “At first, Darla was in a bassinet in our primary bedroom, and the nursery was basically a storage room,” Roth explains. Hazel, meanwhile, had strong opinions of her own. “She was my toughest client this season,” Roth confirms. “She gave me a run for my money.” Hazel also considers herself a host of the season. When fans say hello to Roth, she chimes in, claiming, “It’s my show too!”
Building New Bonds
One of the season’s greatest challenges is building new relationships with local contractors and trades. In California, Roth had partnerships that spanned years, many of which were faces viewers had come to love. “Everybody’s always like, what happened to Scott [Cross]?” says Roth, referencing a general contractor featured in past seasons. “I miss him a lot, but he’s doing just fine. We were just texting the other day.”
In a new locale, Roth not only needs to find contractors she gels with personally and professionally, but she also needs people who are comfortable being in front of the camera. “It’s like dating,” she explains. “We have to match contractor skills to clients, and not everyone is a perfect fit for my or the client’s vision.” On-screen presence matters, but not in the way people think. “I look for people who are the same, whether the camera is rolling or not. I want them focused on the wreck itself. But also, don’t stand in front of the camera with the back of your head blocking the lens,” she jokes.
Utah’s real estate scene also shapes numerous storylines. The greater Park City market is competitive and fast, continuing to surge. Buyers who think they’re purchasing a starter home sometimes find themselves still there 15 years later, which influences various needs each project requires. “The wrecks I saw in Utah were unlike anything I’d seen before,” Roth says. A great deal of creative problem-solving has been required.
If taking on wrecks and designing her own residence weren’t enough, Roth was also tied up in finding a new headquarters for Built Custom Homes. As many Utahns know, corporate rentals in the mountains are scarce and highly competitive, making purchasing a space the most viable option. On screen, viewers see Roth’s journey to acceptance that finding her headquarters would be a more time-consuming and energy-intensive process than expected. “My current setting is definitely an indication of how far I’ve gotten on finding a new headquarters,” Roth says, as she tuned into our interview from her primary bedroom.
Designing at Altitude
California casual is the design style Roth is known for, so moving to the mountains has been a fun challenge to her typical repertoire. “I’d call it ‘mountain family,’” says Roth, when asked to describe her work in Utah. It’s a contemporary look that doesn’t lean too far into classic mountain design — meaning less antler chandeliers and more natural textures.
“Function always drives my decisions, no matter what the style is,” she says. A house is meant to work with the family that uses it, and that remains a throughline no matter where in the country her clients reside.
To emphasize the setting, Roth enjoys using natural wood and slabs sourced locally. “Those feel timeless, whether it’s a beach design or a mountain design,” she says. She also sees kitchens trending away from the all-white era. “I still love white kitchens, and you can quote me on that! But there’s a time and place, and we’re moving toward wood cabinets and tan countertops. It’s what I have in my own house.”
The cold weather alone can dictate design choices, especially for winter sports enthusiasts. “I’ve been designing a lot of functional mudrooms,” Roth notes. “Families here come in with boots, skis, sleds and wet gloves. It’s chaos unless you plan for it. I try to keep it functional and beautiful at the same time.”
Behind the Scenes
When she’s not working with clients, Roth’s ideal winter day is a family morning on the ski slopes. With a wagon full of kids and adult snowboarding gear, they walk from their doorstep to the gondola at Park City Mountain Resort. The group does a few laps on the bunny slope so Hazel can warm up, then Brett and Roth peel off for the Jupiter Bowl, leaving the kids with grandma in the lodge. Strapped into her Gentemstick snowboard, purchased during a trip to Hokkaido, Japan, Roth finds joy in disconnecting and enjoying the mountain.
The ski-in, ski-out restaurant Summit House, located off the Bonanza Express lift, is a spot Roth knows well. The resort approached her to cosmetically refresh the design after learning she had relocated to the area. “It’s not the lodge Brett and I got married in, but it is the most historic ski lodge on the mountain,” Roth says. She and Brett tied the knot at Mid Mountain Lodge in the fall of 2013.
Come summer, her board is packed away and free time is spent in neighborhood parks and green spaces. “We just spent our first summer in Park City, and it was equally as great as the winter,” she says. “It is called ‘Park’ City … I should have known how great it would be!”
Setting an Example
Roth’s brand mantra, Build Your Happy, began as a working phrase in a team meeting. “Happiness is often seen as a destination, but it’s a lot of incremental moments,” she says. “You’re literally building it.” The line stuck because it marries her professional career with her belief that happiness is a journey. The phrase is featured on a collection of T-shirts, hats and drinkware. Roth frequently shares the mantra with her 650,000 Instagram followers and receives inspiring stories from fans expressing gratitude for the community she has built.
As someone who wears many hats, Roth leans into her own messaging when she needs to reconnect. “I try really hard to be present no matter what I’m doing. If I’m at work, I’m at work. When I’m at home, I don’t check emails … Mom guilt is real. But all I can do is work at being present for whoever I’m with,” she says.
Roth’s philosophy might be her most potent message, especially to young girls watching. “In my girls’ world, women drive trucks, wear tool belts, swing hammers and run construction crews,” she says. Roth being in the driver’s seat of Help! I Wrecked My House has undoubtedly paved the way for other women to enter the industry.
Next on the docket is continuing to find balance in her busy life. “Maybe if we get another season, I’ll get around to finishing our primary bedroom,” Roth says. Settling into Park City life means accepting that happiness is never an end game, it’s a process. Roth lives the truth that life is always under construction.
