When Stephanie Heinle found out her family was going to be featured on a popular television show, she screamed, danced and created quite a commotion – all while her customers were watching.
“Anyone who knows me knows how excited I get about stuff like this,” said the owner of the Coffee Landing.
Heinle and her family will appear in an upcoming episode of HGTV’s House Hunters International. The show will hopefully air before the end of the year, she said.
“I’m so excited for everyone to see it,” she said. “I really hope I portrayed this community well.”
The process started last year when Heinle reached out to the show’s producers after she and her husband, Tim, decided to purchase a condo in the Cayman Islands. After visiting the tropical location on their honeymoon in 2011, Heinle said she was hooked on owning something in the area.
“I stepped off the plane and loved it immediately,” she said.
The first email Heinle sent to producers went unanswered, so she tried again a few months later, noting she’s the type of person who goes after something she wants.
“I just told them we were going to the island soon and they were going to miss a great story opportunity,” she said. “I was 99.9 percent sure our story would be a good fit for the show.”
In April, Heinle was preparing to fax a due diligence to her Cayman realtor when she received an email from producers that they were interested in portraying the family for the show.
“I literally lost it,” she said. “I was so excited.”
During the next couple months, several back-and-forth emails were exchanged before a film crew came to International Falls in September to start shooting for the show. The crew followed Heinle, her husband and two of her sons around the community for one day and then a few more days in Cayman.
“It was hard work filming,” Heinle admitted. “It was a few full days of it.”
Heinle said the focus of the episode will be a family from the Icebox of the Nation looking for a condo in a warmer climate. The storyline is the two boys want a place closer to the party scene while she and Tim would like something quieter, but at the same time in an ideal location to hopefully open a coffee shop nearby.
“I’d love to have Coffee Landing Cayman,” Heinle said. “I’ve met with other coffee shop owners down there and I’m really hoping I can make that happen someday...By the end of the show, I think people will be surprised which of the three properties we choose. Everybody kind of scored on what we ended up with.”
When her friends, family and strangers watch the show, Heinle is hopeful people realize they can do what they set their minds to.
“We’re a small-town family who accomplished our dream,” she said. “Some people have hunting shacks, some have cabins, it just so happens we have a condo in the Cayman.”
Now the family can alter its focus on enjoying the new condo, when schedules allow.
“We got it all decked out,” Heinle said of her second home. “I just love it there. I like the island because their motto is they are Cayman Kind. Since we come from Minnesota Nice, it is a good fit.”
As soon as an air date for the Heinle’s episode of House Hunters International is announced, The Journal will include the information in the Borderland Briefs section.
