When Stephen and David St. Russell decided to renovate their Dorchester Victorian home around 2017, they were just doing it for themselves.

But one Instagram post led to another, and the husbands quit their jobs to renovate full time. Today, more than a quarter million followers on Instagram — along with some 300,000 on TikTok — watch @renovationhusbands update their 1893 Dorchester Victorian and 1974 Midcoast Maine cabin.

Now you can see the St. Russells test their skills against two other teams on HGTV’s “Battle on the Mountain.’’ The pilot aired Jan. 22 and is streaming now on MAX, with the next episode airing Monday at 9 p.m.

Spoiler alert: the Dorchester couple won both the mini-challenge (making a campsite) and the main challenge (kitchen and dining room renovation) on the first episode. And boy, did they.

How it works: three couples — The St. Russells, Ohio’s Amber and Trey Masciarelli, and Indiana’s Lymari and Tony Navarro — have each been assigned a home to renovate in the ski town of Breckenridge, Colo., where, the show warns, “oxygen levels are seriously low.’’ (And some of the tasks here are pretty grueling.)

Each team has a $100,000 budget and a known HGTV star as a coach, with other HGTV stars popping in to survey the spaces or serve as episode judges. (The St. Russells’ coach is Rico León of “Rico to the Rescue.’’) The ultimate goal: raising the property value of their home the highest. The winning team snags $50,000 cash.

Massachusetts native and HGTV mentor Taniya Nayak, “saw us on the mountain the first day,’’ said David, adding that she told them: “Do Dorchester proud.’’ Western Mass. natives, David, 35, and Stephen, 33, met at Longmeadow High School. Stephen went on to Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston and David to Springfield College. David worked as an operations consultant, Stephen in architectural design, until they became full-time content creators a few years back.

We called the couple at their Dorchester home where they live with pups Gemma and Holly, to talk mountain challenges, midcentury renovations, and more.

Q. Have you always had this passion for home renovation?

Stephen: It’s a passion we found together. We rented our first apartment in Fenway, but enjoyed DIY projects, turning a coffee table into a tufted ottoman. It snowballed.

David: We grew organically. We never saw a penny from it for about six years. Then brands started investing, and it worked out for us that we could leave our jobs.

Q. But you have a real knack for it.

David: One of the most common questions we get is: “How did you learn your skills?’’ We’re just genuinely curious. You have to practice. You’re going to make mistakes. Our first project was probably 2012. So it’s just 12 years of trying.

Q. What have you done in your Dorchester home?

Stephen: So it was completely gutted and boarded up when we bought it. It was down to the studs. It’s been from the ground up.

David: We had a contractor who got us through plumbing and electric. From there, it really was just a shell. So yeah, we do it all ourselves. The full kitchen installation, the bathrooms, tiling. It’s been a slow roll.

Q. Then you’ve got the Maine home.

Stephen: That’s a different situation in that it was occupied until we bought it. It was built in the ’70s and hasn’t really been updated. It’s more of a traditional renovating — not as extreme. But it’s a fun process, we’re leaning into the design of the ’70s. The aesthetic is really fun. We just painted avocado [green] stairs. We’re doing a lot of checkers, yellows, and greens and oranges.

Q. In the show, you won the mini-challenge, which gave you first dibs on which house you wanted.

David: We picked a chalet-style home, the exact same style as our house in Maine. It was funny, because we were preparing to close on the Maine house at the time. So it was a fun crash-course.

Q. Then you won the first main challenge: kitchen and dining room design.

David: It’s one of the most important spaces in the house. It has a lot of weight in terms of resale value and perception of value. Our main focus on this entire show is walking away and feeling like we were proud of the spaces we created.

Q. So what was it like doing this show?

David: We had no idea what we were walking into. I can’t emphasize that enough. They told us so little.

Stephen: It truly was a six-week challenge. No TV magic. It was grueling, and fast. We’ve been renovating our Dorchester house for seven years. So to renovate an entire house in six weeks was unthinkable.

Q. Do you have a dream project in New England?

David: We are doing our dream projects. It’s amazing that we have a yard in Boston — that’s so incredible.

Stephen: Maine was the dream for a long time. I’m sure there’ll be a new dream soon. But right now, we’re happy with this current one.

Interview was edited and condensed.

Lauren Daley can be reached at ldaley33@gmail.com. Follow her on Twitter @laurendaley1.