100 Day Dream Home's Mika & Brian Kleinschmidt Once Contended With A Natural Disaster

When you're trying to build a dream home in 100 days, everything needs to go according to plan, right down to the final nail. Home construction, especially builds that promise to be a "dream home," easily takes a year or longer, so we can see why Mika and Brian Kleinschmidt of "100 Day Dream Home" don't have any wiggle room in their timeline. Not even for a natural disaster.

In late September 2022, Hurricane Ian was bearing down on Florida. The category 4 storm would be one of the most expensive storms on record for the Sunshine State. It caused a storm surge of over ten feet, flooding coastal communities while leveling anything in its path with 150mph winds. Most residents hunkered down in their homes to wait out the storm, but what if you're in the middle of a build or renovation?

That's just the situation the Kleinschmidt's faced. First, while they were renovating an almost 100-year hotel for the special "100 Day Dream Home: Beachfront Hotel." The couple's historic project was located in Tampa, initially right in the path of the hurricane. Brian told Showbiz Cheat Sheet, "You can imagine the scare that we had with a hurricane spinning out in the Gulf. Not knowing what direction it was going to go. And we are right on the beach renovating a hotel." Fortunately for the home builders, the hurricane headed further south, largely sparing Tampa.

Even though the hurricane didn't devastate the Sunburst Inn, the first of many projects on Mika and Brian Kleinschidt's fourth season of "100 Day Dream Home," it did create a few hiccups for other builds. He explained to Showbiz Cheat Sheet, "Even though it didn't have a direct impact on us here, it did impact us because a lot of materials and a lot of our subs were kind of rerouted down south to take care of that. So you'll see that in several episodes where the hurricane kind of affected us and our timeline."

One example is the episode "Around the World in 100 Days," where the fan-favorite HGTV couple builds a home for a returning military family. The project actually took 112 days instead of the promised 100 — yes, most of them are actually finished in 100 days. Part of the pushed-back deadline was likely due to delayed materials as a result of Hurricane Ian's disastrous impact. But Brian also noted that a large part of his construction crew also assisted with storm relief efforts, delaying the project for almost 14 days.

Fortunately, the Kleinschmidts made an effort to prevent future storms from wreaking havoc on the home. They built the structure five feet off the ground to keep it out of the flood zone. It's all just a normal part of being builders in Flordia for the Kleinschmidts.

Though hurricane-proofing homes and grappling with storm delays are par for the course for Floridians Brian and Mika Kleinschmidt, there are occasions when the weather hits too close for home. During September 2022's Hurricane Ian, the hosts were under an evacuation order. Their Tampa, Florida residence was originally in the storm's direct path. Mika posted an update to her Instagram on September 26th, captioning it, "Last night here at the house as we have to evacuate tomorrow being that we are close to the water and praying for everyone to be safe as hurricane Ian approaches. Things can be replaced, people can not."

The duo also prepared some of their projects and local real estate offerings, removing "small things" like for-sale signs that could easily become flying debris. After the storm shifted south, Mika updated everyone after they spent the night at her in-law's home. She noted, "Thank you everyone for your prayers which were answered as there is minimal damage in our community and both Brian and I are safe and sound. My heart goes out to all of Florida right now."

It likely won't be the last time weather affects the Kleinschmidts or their HGTV series projects, but needing to pivot when facing hurricanes and storms is all in a day's work for the Florida construction dream team.