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Ana Barraza had a great interview with HGTV S Rey and Eileen
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Jimenez about their new show divided by design.
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I'm kind of jealous.
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I'm going to have to check this out because I need to
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rearrange some furniture or something.
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the energy is dead in my apartment.
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Well, brother, I think you could learn something.
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We are joined by Rey and Eileen Jimenez from the new show
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on HGTV. Divided by design.
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First of all, you guys look real good show today,
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brush my teeth and I got a haircut.
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It's good. I didn't get a haircut.
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The hair looks fabulous.
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Thank you. Thank you.
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Tell me about the new show.
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What part? Everything,
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tell me everything. Well,
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the quick synopsis of the show is we're married and we both
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are interior designers. However,
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we have our independent studios,
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so I got my own thing going and she has her own
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thing going. However,
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we don't work together.
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Maybe we collaborate here and there and there's a little bit of
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competition. I mean,
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technically we are competitors in real life and on divided by design
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So how does it feel to be one of the first
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Latino host on HGTV?
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It's amazing. I mean,
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I think to be honest to represent the Latino culture and represent
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in so many ways from not only the Dominican side,
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but also as professionals,
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as entrepreneurs, as people who work really hard or really excited
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to kind of showcase that and show the world what we're all
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about. And why did you guys decide to work separately and
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have your own? That's how we met.
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We met 78 years ago at Art B.
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So even through a mutual friend,
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Christian, he's actually our mutual wallpaper vendor and his childhood best
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friend. So we owe a lot to him.
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Thank you. Thank you.
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So I was single for about a year.
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At least I told myself I need to be single for about
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a year. And he was like,
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listen, I know you're on a mission but there's somebody I
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OK, let's, let's do it.
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So he introduced us and the rest was history.
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So I should listen to my friends when they try to set
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they know you better think about your friends,
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they know what you're looking for,
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all of that and same thing he would talk to me about
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oh, do you know Rey?
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He's my friend and look,
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the truth is when you're in the industry,
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you know, who competition is and,
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you know, you wanna be acquainted.
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So you're kind of familiar who they are.
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And I always thought I was like,
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well, he's really good looking,
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we both were in relationships,
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you know, he was in his relationship and I was in
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mine, the universe planned it for it to be a way
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where we met at the right time.
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We were both single and we were ready to,
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at least I was ready to mingle.
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He wanted to single,
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but he couldn't stay away.
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That's, that's what I'm saying.
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He couldn't stay away.
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So we are divided by design,
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but we are unified by design at the end of the day
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So is it now that you guys have the show?
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Is it difficult being married and working together?
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Because they always say don't work with your friends don't work with
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You know. So I think this is a great balance
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because technically we do have our own separate studios and it means
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that we reign in our own independent,
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nobody understands what we're going for than each other because we're both
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in the industry. And I think that is the benefit of
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working with your spouse.
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They understand they can contribute actual ideas and solutions to your business
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because they actually understand what you're going through.
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And I think that is one of the most beautiful things in
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a relationship that yes,
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during the day, you know,
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Yes, during the day,
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you know, we have our own studios and we do our
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thing. But then when we go home at the end of
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the day and talk about our day and what happened,
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we're actually contributing and giving advice that works because we both understand
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what we're going through and what advice do you have for new
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married couples or, you know,
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maybe couples that have been doing it for a long time.
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That's a loaded question.
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I think my automatic response to this one is unconditional love.
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You know, like if you don't have that,
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then you just might as well call it.
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But no matter what Eileen does what she says,
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yes, it could be her for,
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it could be the greatest thing in the world.
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I'm going to love her regardless.
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and it is true at the end of the day,
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what they say, marry your best friend.
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Like somebody I always say being with re we've been together ready
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for eight years and being with Rey.
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Even if it's just for or the end of the day,
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it's like when you're a kid and your best friend is sleeping
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over your house and you're so excited because you're gonna hang out
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That is what being married to him feels like.
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So when you marry your best friend,
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no matter how hard the day is,
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no matter if you're fighting,
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you still want to be with that person.
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I think that's so important in any relationship.
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So, tell us about design.
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Who makes the decisions when it comes to designing your home?
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That's an automatic? Like we do try to collaborate.
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You get each room you get the should,
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That should be part of the episode.
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I do think that when it comes to designing,
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it's really about a compromise.
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There's things that are really important to Rey and there's things that
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are really important to me and I think he understands that and
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so there's something that is really important to him and he really
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likes fine run with it and vice versa.
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It's like anything you're gonna have a compromise,
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it's two different aesthetics.
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But I think when it came down like to our house,
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we both had a clear path of what we wanted that to
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be like. And we've worked collectively make that happen.
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And I think it's been fun.
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It's been fun. I mean,
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of course, there's challenges because there's certain things I want to
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push the envelope in when we are the head honchos in our
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own respective studios. When you are the creative directors of our
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own studios, it becomes a challenge.
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Like why are you questioning me?
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Nobody questions it you know,
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why are you telling me you can do this?
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But I think it's been also super insightful because there's,
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you know, decisions that I was reluctant on that he pushed
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I love now and I hope it's vice versa where,
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you know, same thing with him where he was like,
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I'm not sure about this and once you see it done,
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you're like now I get it.
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It's two design brains coming together to create and I think it
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should be special. Yeah.
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Yeah. Well, thanks for coming and talking to us.
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Thank you for having us.
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Lovely. Thank you so much for having us,
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dude. That was so cool.
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shout out to Anna and obviously to Ray Eileen for joining us
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and don't forget to check out divided by design on August 20th
Series