Good Bones (2016–…): Season 2, Episode 11 - Small House, Big Problems - full transcript

I'm Mina,
and this is my mom, Karen,

and we're renovating Indianapolis

one house at a time.

Every rotten,
nasty house that we see...

Oh, my gosh.

...we try and buy.

Then, with a little vision...

And a lot of hard work.

...we create beautiful homes
for our neighbors.

Oh, wow.

This is our neighborhood,
and we want to see it be



the best it can be.

Oh, my gosh.
What?

Is that a good
"Oh, my gosh?"

Every tragic house...

Good job, Mom!

...deserves
a second chance...

Down, baby!

Oh, yeah.

...because underneath
all that mess,

we might find
some really good bones.

Yes.

It's a little breezy
this morning.

It is.

Today, Mom and I
are just strolling



around Fountain Square,
and it's a little chilly.

A little brisk.

But the sun's out,
and more importantly,

the doughnut truck
is out.

- Good morning.
- Good morning.

What do you got
for us?

- Doughnuts and coffee.
- All right.

I would like
one of each.

Let me get you
a doughnut.

Thank you.

I'm gonna stick
with just coffee.

You're gonna
regret it.

You're not gonna want to eat
for, like, hours

after this house.

And coffee.

- Thank you.
- Thank you.

Have a good day.

- Stay warm.
- Yeah.

Let's go check out
this mess.

So, this house
on Kennington,

it's a little bit
of a unique situation

'cause it's further out
in Bates-Hendricks,

and same as with
Fountain Square, like,

two blocks
will make a difference.

Bates-Hendricks is still
transitioning, and this house

is on the outskirts
of Bates-Hendricks.

That's a great location.

I mean,
it's super walkable.

I just don't think
people realize it yet.

So, we're gonna need to find
some urban pioneers

for this house.

Mm-hmm.

So, we purchased this tiny
Kennington house for $5,000,

but it's so tiny.

It's only 730 square feet,
one-bedroom, one-bath house.

Can we make it bigger
and make it worth more?

I don't know.

The house is
super skinny.

When you walk in,
it's two rooms.

There's the bedroom
off to the left.

Kitchen's in the back
of the house.

And then, there's
an upstairs room

that's just totally unfinished.

I think we can get about
400 square feet up there

and turn it into
a second bedroom.

It would make sense
to go bigger.

We're gonna spend
more money.

We need to create value
without spending money.

Yes.

But it is tiny.
- Okay.

And you can't even
see it anymore.

It's so overgrown.

There's a house
in there?

Somewhere in there.

I don't see a house.

It looks like you
bought some shrubbery.

Well, it's way back
in there.

- Oh, it is.
- But it's in there.

It's tiny.

It's a little nugget
of a house.

Oh.

But I think, you know,
limb this up, pull this out.

Obviously, like, new...

Look at you,
"limb this up."

Look at you.
- It'll be cute.

Right now, you just
can't see anything.

I kind of want to
do that first.

Like, I want that
to be the first thing

is to clean it up
so we can see.

I want to take
a closer look.

All right.
Let's go in.

We're gonna have a great
comfort fire in this front yard.

Once you make your way
onto the front porch,

you have a lovely
skylight above you

'cause there's a hole
in the porch roof.

It definitely needs
a new roof.

Every window
is broken out.

What's keeping it
from opening?

All the trash
in the world.

Oh.
I love trashy houses.

Ugh.

I like the
wood paneling.

Mina did not mention
the amount of treasure

that we're gonna
find in this house.

'Cause there's gonna be
tons of cool things in here.

We are probably not gonna
find a ton of treasure.

Mom will find
lots of "treasure."

Tons. Tons.
I'm gonna find tons.

I think, if it's coated in poop,
it does not count as treasure.

There's clearly been boatloads
of squatting over the years.

Holy cow.

Ew!

Once we get all the way through,
you're probably gonna see

we're gonna fill, easy,

three 40-yard dumpsters
just with trash.

So, I think the only thing
we both know for sure is,

these two front rooms

become kitchen,
dining, living.

Yep.

Just take down this wall
in between,

and this whole space, now,
is one open concept.

Oh, I'll go in here.

Bathroom.

So, that's the bathroom
right now,

the only bathroom
in the house.

How many bathrooms
does a house this size need?

At least 1 1/2,
if not two.

So, bedroom.

Ooh, nice.

So, this is it?

- Well, no. There's a little...
- One, two, three, four.

There's an upstairs.

So, this is the kitchen
on the back of the house.

This is beautiful.

I'm gonna add that to my
collection of seatless chairs.

You notice how I'm, like,
trying to avoid

touching things
with my hands?

This is how you get
a healthy micro bio.

Ooh, and some dishes.

Because we need
more plates.

Well, a plate like that
flower one, that one is good.

Right. Let's go
check out upstairs.

So, I think what we need to do
right in this 3 feet is,

we need to a dormer,
so there's head room.

Going up the staircase,
we definitely are gonna

have to add a dormer
on that portion of the roof

because I'm short,

and I can't stand up straight
walking up there.

And what I was thinking,
this would be cute.

We get rid
of the chimney.

Yeah.

And what I see in my head
is this is kind of,

like, a sitting,
loft, living area.

And you got a twin bed
and a twin bed.

That would be
super cute.

But not, like,
dress it for kids.

Like, dress it like
a grown-up guest room.

Yeah.
Look at all this car siding.

We could save this, and we could
make a great focal wall.

I'm just thinking about
the buyer for the house.

Like, this isn't gonna
be a huge family home.

I think it's gonna be
a couple or a single person,

so they'll probably mostly
live on the first floor.

But then, you have this space
upstairs for a kid

or a guest that's also
a second hangout,

living-room space.

All right.
Let's get down to the basement.

Ay, yi, yi.

Careful.

So, this is
your special surprise.

Great father of
all feces piles.

There's, like, 3 inches of poop
to get down to the basement.

I'm gonna say
that's raccoon.

That is raccoon behavior.

Ooh, look at this.

There's so much stuff
in here.

There's a plant
growing into the basement.

Oh, cool.

Oh, my gosh.

Huh.

Oh, my gosh.

Huh.

There is an ancient,
rusty car jack,

two cinder blocks,
and a very tiny piece of wood.

It looks like it's
supporting some amount

of weight of the back
of the house.

That it's not made
to support.

No.

So, that's gonna be
a thing.

There's a lot of brickwork
to be redone.

A lot of rot that's gonna have
to come out and be resupported.

Can't wait to see what this
will do to our budget.

This Kennington house
may be tiny,

but I can already see it's
going to eat up a lot of money.

Wait,
what's this?

This brick wall was holding back
all this dirt,

and they went into
the brick wall for some reason.

So, we need to dig this out
and fix the brick wall.

Yeah.
That's a problem.

All right.
Let's get out of the basement.

Ay, yi, yi.

Let's go check out
the backyard.

This is
a serious problem.

Look at this.

The back half of the house
is sitting on nothing.

Nothing is sitting
on anything.

So, we're gonna have
to do some major work

on the back portion
of the house.

I like this.
It's like a fort.

Can we just
keep it like this?

Geez, oh, Pete's.

Ah!

Did you get stuck?

There are living
things in there.

Take a deep breath.

This house may be tiny,
but it's gonna be a big job.

First, we'll need to get rid
of all the trash,

open up the space to a much
more functional floor plan.

The foundation is gonna be
an issue, hence the car jack.

And renovating the loft space
upstairs is gonna require

some new framing
and roofline work.

So, we've got our work
cut out for us.

I like that little awning
with the scallop.

That's kind of cute.
- Yeah.

But back here,
the weeds are as tall as me.

I can get that taken care of.
It'll be fine.

And then, we'll be able
to see how the backyard looks.

'Cause, right now,
we can't see it.

This one is one of our houses
we got from the city for $5,000.

I'm hoping Lenny is gonna be
able to keep

the renovation costs
around $125,000.

If we can sell it
for around $175,000,

that would give us around
a $45,000 profit.

I know we can get
$200,000 for it.

I know we can.
- Girl, you're crazy.

Look!
It comes with a pool!

Oh, hello.

- Good morning.
- Good morning.

This is our
demo crew today?

We just got two?

- Two chicks.
- Two hammers.

Two hammers,
you know.

I want ants
on a cupcake.

That is my dream on demo day,
every demo day,

no matter the size of the house,
ants on a cupcake,

and there was,
like, an ant.

What a nice
little fire...

It is.
It's nice.

...especially on this cold,
brisk morning.

It's warm.

It burns the debris
that's on the property

that we need to
get rid of anyway.

We don't fill
a dumpster with it.

We got two 40-yard dumpsters
in the back.

I've got a third 25-yard
coming to pull up to the front.

So, there's gonna be
a lot of trash let out today.

'Cause this one, inside out,
all the way through,

everything's coming down,
and it's a mess. So...

And if we have
105 yards of trash,

you know there's gonna be
Karen's treasures in there.

- Yep.
- Uh-huh.

So, if you see something,
say something.

- Yeah.
- Let's get in.

We'll check it out.
I'll show you guys, okay?

- All right.
- Let's do it.

I'm just gonna stay here
and tend the fire.

Oh, my god.

We got a whole boatload
of couches, TVs, mattresses.

That's the name
of the game.

It's trash everywhere.
All right.

- There's just so much.
- Get to work.

That's kind of wild.

It's always a question
of what to keep

versus what to
throw away.

And in general, I am always on
the team of "throw it all away."

Everything in here
is trash.

Man, I got one of those
at my house.

That's the creepiest-looking
snowman face ever.

If you fall,
you got a furnace

you're gonna hit,
a knee wall you're gonna hit,

and then you're gonna bounce
about 8 feet down

to the basement floor.

I'm not exactly sure
what's going on with the floor.

I don't know how
the damage occurred.

But there's a very,
very weak floor,

and in parts,
it's nonexistent.

So, we had to pull
some OSB from...

It's an especially
weak floor.

There's no floor.
- There's no floor.

Don't step on it, Skyler.

It really isn't
a laughing matter

because holes in the floor
mean holes in our budget.

And we're super tight
on this one as it is.

That's, like, extra money
paying for that right there.

We're gonna need
another sheet.

Let's get these walls
and ceilings down.

Not even any wall
behind that.

Look.

Oh.

Who wants to get
the drop ceiling down?

- Be careful.
- Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my God.

Who wants to get
the drop ceiling down?

Be careful.
- Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my God.

There's a guitar!

Is there something
in it?

It'd be super cool
if there was.

- Dibs.
- Dibs?

- Oh, there's a guitar?
- Yeah!

Oh, my gosh.

I don't know anything about
guitars, but it looks pretty.

Lots of the time, we find, like,
a cool suitcase, nothing in it.

It's an old
electric guitar.

So, guitar case,
probably nothing in it.

And we open it up,
and it's like, the angels sing.

It's not terrible.

Do you know about guitars?
- Yeah.

- Is it nice?
- It's a nice guitar.

Yeah!

I don't know
if it's worth anything.

I think it's cool regardless.

Mom, we actually
found treasure.

Sweet.

I feel like this kind of
happened to, maybe, teach me

a little lesson that,
Mom's right, sometimes.

That's beautiful wood.

And now Mina has been bitten
by the treasure bug.

And once bitten,
twice shy?

I don't know.

I have no idea
what that means.

So, I'm gonna go
put it in the truck.

We're kicking demo
into high gear

at our tiny house
on Kennington.

Oh, yeah.

Hey, Tad.

- Yeah. What's up?
- Come look at this.

I found some...

Some what?

There's pictures of people,
but there's also pictures of,

like, that looks
like the house.

There's a little patio
set and everything.

Yeah.
It was nice.

It was loved,
at one point.

- Pretty cool.
- Cool.

All right.
I'll hold onto this.

Y'all get back
to work.

Yes!

We're gonna make sure
this house is loved again.

We just have to strip her down
to her bones.

You're getting
the whole thing, girl.

Take it away.

Pull up.

Woo-hoo!

Good job, Mom!

Boom, baby!

Oh, if this is Kennington,
I'm really excited.

This house is bad.

I need to steal
one of your markers.

Now that Kennington
is all demoed,

Mom and I can get a better
sense of the floor plan.

So, pretty much start
from scratch,

including the front.

The front porch we're gonna
have to totally rebuild.

And when you come in,
the first two rooms that were,

like, living room
and dining room--

open it up,
and then those two

are gonna become our kitchen,
dining, and living room.

All right, good. Yay.

And then, once you go past
those first two spaces,

that's where
the house widens up.

And the whole right side
of the house

will now be
master bedroom,

master closet,
and en suite bath.

Okay.

Because this house
is so narrow,

I'm actually gonna
angle the hallway,

which will give us room
for a laundry closet

and a second bathroom.

And then, you get to the back of
the house, you can go outside

or you can turn the staircase
and go left upstairs

to what will be
the second bedroom.

We're gonna have
to dormer out the roof,

raise those ceilings up
a little bit, and then I think

that's gonna create
some room

for a little bit
of closet space on one side,

and hopefully,
a little desk built-in niche

on the other side.

I kind of see it more as,
like, guest room, office,

some kind of
whatever-your-hobby-is room.

- Right.
- But...

This is good.

...the general idea
of the home, you dig?

You're good?
- Yeah.

I'll make my edits.

I'll get them
to Lenny.

I'm gonna go back
to dreaming.

Well, dang.

Yeah, dang.

So, we're back at Kennington,
and there's a whole chunk

of the floor missing.

This is a mess.

These floor joists
were all shot?

They're all ate up.

I didn't know that, like,
all the floor joists

were gonna have to go.

This here was really
the only thing

that was holding
this house up.

Holding the house up?

There are parts
of our foundation

that are being
held up by air.

It's another magic
floating house.

Is that jack still
on the back of the house?

It's still there.
- They left the jack.

The jack that's
holding up the house,

it's supposed to be
used for cars.

Apparently, it's still integral
to the structure

of the back of the house.

It's confusing
how that happens.

It's surprising to me
what will hold up a house.

There's not much here.

We're definitely gonna have
to replace these floors.

There's a whole lot
of give.

Definitely.

This floor needs
to come up.

When your whole house
is already down to the studs,

and then you start
tearing up the entire floor,

that's when you know you're
spending way too much money.

- Whoa!
- What? What?

Oh, that would have
been funny.

That would not have
been funny, Lenny.

Everything about this house
is just messed up.

With a long enough lever,
you can move the world.

What a mess.

This was probably one of our
worst, definitely worst outside.

You could barely even see
the house.

And so, now, we have this
cool-looking little house.

It's so cute.

Yeah.

Because our tiny
Kennington house foundation

was such a wreck
and everything was rotted out,

we had to shore up
the foundation,

put in new cinder block,
get that car jack out of there,

and we pretty much had
to put in new floor joists

in the entire house.

So, those both cost
a pretty penny,

which was not
in our original budget.

And now, Lenny has a problem
with my floor plan.

It's hard to tell, but, I mean,
this is the hallway.

Right?
- Yep.

So, wall here,
wall here.

So, is it gonna go from the
outside of the house to here?

Well, so, we have
a choice here.

Yeah.

If you want to keep
the open floor plan...

Yes.

...we install
a bunch of headers,

or we can install
a bunch of walls

and do away with
your open floor plan.

I don't want to do away
with the open floor plan.

Then, we've got to install
about four headers here

to hold
the second story up.

I feel like you're
telling me that

'cause you want
more money for it.

I do.

So, where this temp wall is,
you're saying,

has to be a wall
or has to be four headers.

Exactly.

I just create these really
nice open floor plans,

and I'm like, "All right.
You guys make it work."

But this house is so wonky
and unsupported,

it's costing even more
than I planned,

so we're gonna go over our
$125,000 budget, for sure.

But we're kind of
in too deep now,

so we just need to
buck up

and put the headers in.

None of this
can happen.

We have to put in the headers.
- Okay.

But I'll help you.
What do we do?

So, let's get
this ball rolling.

All right.

That is a big header.

Man, you couldn't have
lightened that one up a little.

A header is basically a big beam
that's large enough

to take the place
of any load-bearing wall.

We got to get the headers up,
and then we'll be able

to see, kind of,
the open space

that's going to be
the first-floor master bedroom.

There we go.

That's good.

Good?

Okay.

There you go.

And we have
a master bedroom!

Now, it's nice and open.

You see it was
all worth it.

We have this nice big bedroom,
and it looks good.

Beautiful.

Look how nice and roomy
it is, Lenny.

I'll send you
my bill.

Thanks.

Now that we've got
the second floor supported,

the guys can start
framing out the dormer

up on that second floor,

and Mom and I can start
finalizing our design plan.

- Hey, girl.
- Hello.

I got these developed.
I didn't look at them.

Do you want to
look at them?

- Yeah.
- This is the undeveloped film

that we found
in Kennington.

There's the one
of the house, right?

It's way less tragic-looking
than when we found it.

Yeah.

This is what we're
gonna channel.

You don't want
to channel this...

The wood paneling?

...wood paneling
or the...

None of that's
gonna happen again.

We got lots of, like, clean,
fresh, pretty things.

And this is on the edge
of Bates-Hendricks,

so I want to make it
a little bit funky,

but soft funky.

Like, that's what
it's asking for,

to be
a little bit edgy.

I think it's gonna be...
- Really young.

...someone around my age-ish,
maybe a little younger,

that buys it,
so I want it to be hip.

We're so not hip.

I don't know if we can
pull that off.

I feel funny.
I feel weird saying "hip,"

'cause I don't feel like--
where I'm-- at 32--

I don't think I ever
was hip.

No. We never
have been.

But I want the house to be
a little hip and a little funky.

You're what they call
a "hot nerd."

I'm not a nerd!

Yeah, you are.

I've been lusting
after these geometric,

kind of,
like, 3D tiles.

I know you have.

Couldn't find
the right place.

This is a good place.

White in the bathroom,
and then, I like the gray

for the kitchen
to warm it up a little bit.

Yeah.

These are some samples
of the colors

that we
played around with.

I know we've been
talking about, for months,

wanting to find a good blue
for the cabinets.

And this is--
I think it's "cadet."

- Yeah.
- I really like it.

I don't think we should do it
on the top and bottom.

No, no, no. We should do
this color on the top.

Like,
a putty-ish gray?

- Yeah, a putty color.
- Okay.

I feel like our interior walls
need to be this, way lighter,

like a purple-gray,
but really pale.

Kind of like up here
with a smidge more purple?

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

- I'm down with that.
- All right.
- Okay.

What are we talking about
for lights?

Is this
the risque stuff?

I'm gonna show you
countertop first.

It's herringbone
butcher block.

Oh.

So, it's funky.

But I think-- with this
geometric backsplash,

I think it'll
warm it up a lot.

'Cause all these
are very cool tones.

So, I think we need
to warm it up.

Mm-hmm.

And then, warm it up
with the light fixtures.

These are all bronze.

Your light game
is strong.

I like that.
- Great.

And you know, we have that car
siding on the second floor,

and seeing these guys
lined up makes me think

we should do an ombré.

I was excited
when we did the demo

and we found
this car siding,

which is not the same
as shiplap or lap siding.

It notches in and it just
creates this great graphic

linear element
in the room.

We have a purple
front door.

I want to pull that color
through the house.

Let's pull it
up the wall.

Honestly, I've been wanting
to do an ombré tile wall,

and I can't find
a middle gray,

so doing it with paint
might be cool.

Yeah. Yeah,
'cause then you

can customize it
however you want to.

I like that.

I think that's all
I got to show you.

All right. I'll touch base
with you in a bit.

Okay.
Bye.

So, we're over at
our house on Kennington,

and the dormer is built.

The staircase is built,
so we can get upstairs now.

And we're gonna help Jimbo
put the subfloor down

in the upstairs bedroom.

That last one
didn't shoot anything.

What am I doing?

It is Indiana wintertime...

It's cold....which means it's cold.

Ah.

It's too cold.

So, it's so cold today
that the air gun froze.

No nail.

Do you want me to just
hammer some nails in?

I got a hammer.

So, we had to go old school
and use hammers and nails

the old-fashioned way.

I think this house couldn't
possibly go any slower,

even if we were hand-banging
the whole thing.

Mina.

Yeah.

We got an issue
with the stairs.

What is going on?

- Mina.
- Yeah.

We got an issue
with the stairs.

What is going on?

We're over at our house
on Kennington,

and we've got
another problem.

They're pretty steep.

The staircase
is like a ladder.

It's too steep.

I don't know
who built this,

but they must have had
really tiny feet.

I mean, I got small feet,
and even my foot,

backed all the way up
against to that, doesn't fit.

A little more than half of
my foot fits on this step,

which is a problem because,
if anyone any taller than me

that has, theoretically,
larger feet than me,

tries to walk down
those stairs,

they're just gonna
bite it.

Like, it's dangerous.

Yeah, It's just not
gonna pass code.

So, it's another bump
in the road.

It's gonna take more time
to fix, more money,

and they won't pass us

unless we correct
the newly built staircase.

All right, Mina.
I think we got a solution.

- You got it figured out?
- Yeah.

So, we can bring this out
to 28 1/2 inches.

That's gonna give us
an extra 7 1/2 inches.

And then,
that'll bring it...

One, two, three, four,
five, six,

so, each step
gets another inch.

That will bring us
right to code.

So, to give this staircase
more room this way,

we have to shrink the opening
to the landing,

and we're gonna buy
7 more inches.

He says it'll
pass inspection.

That's what he says,
and that's what it needs to do.

So, yay.

This problem's solved.

All right.

Let's get her done.
- Right on.

Feels like we got off
to a slow start,

but now, things are
on a roll.

Outside, we're getting
new roofing.

The second story
is getting wrapped in OSB.

Siding is going up.

The porch
is getting rebuilt.

Inside, spray foam
and drywall have gone up.

Flooring is going down.

Our beautiful cadet-blue
kitchen cabinets have arrived,

and upstairs, Lenny and I
are starting on the loft space.

- What are you doing?
- I'm making you a tutu.

It's gonna be
really pretty.

You just keep working.

I'm not feeling comfortable
right now.

- No, no, no, this is good.
- This is not my position.

Oh, I like this.
This is good.

You're gonna
like this.

That's nice.
That's nice.

Now, a little...

Do you have
ballet training?

I've never done ballet.

I have done
break dancing, though.

- Really?
- Yes.
Yeah.

I kind of want to
see that now.

I broke a few things.

- Right there?
- Yep.

That will work.
- Then, we're gonna put...

This is your
next piece, here.

We killed it
at the flooring.

It was easy.

First of all, this is a
very nice, engineered hardwood.

It's really pretty,
and it goes in really easily.

Oh, look at that.

That's pretty.

You know what
we do now?

We say...
-"It's too easy."

..."Too easy. I quit."

Let's get out of here.

Mom and I are coming by
a local music shop

to have this guitar

that fell out
of the ceiling checked out

to see if it's
in good shape,

if it's worth
a billion dollars.

- Hey.
- Hi.

What can we
help you with?

So, this gem--
we were demoing a house,

and this literally fell out
of the drop ceiling.

Oh, my goodness, okay.

And it looks way better
than the case does.

Mm-hmm.

But I don't think either of us
really know much about guitars.

- Okay.
- Well, I did Google the brand.

Mm-hmm.

And I found prices
between $300 and $2,000.

Oh.

I mean, I'm obviously
hoping the guitar is worth,

like, a billion dollars,
but it'd be nice

if it was worth
a couple thousand.

Yeah.
The action is nice.

Okay. I just think
the wood's pretty.

Yeah.
And this is zebra wood.

There's actually
some spalting in here.

What's that mean?

This is actually
disease in the wood,

these black lines in here.
- Oh.

But it makes a really
cool grain pattern.

- Yeah.
- Yeah.

And so, guitar manufacturers
use it 'cause it looks cool.

So, is this our
$3,000 guitar?

It's, actually,
probably worth...

So, is this our
$3,000 guitar?

Mom and I are at
a local music shop

to have this guitar

that fell out
of the ceiling

at the Kennington house
during demo...

Yeah!

...hopefully appraised, see if
it's, maybe, worth anything.

It'd be nice if it was
worth a couple thousand, but...

It's, actually,
probably worth...

between $250 and $300.

I was close.

All right.

So, not worth $3,000,
just a few hundred.

But that's okay.

Well, I mean, I was hoping
it was worth, like, $3,000,

but it's still
really pretty.

It is pretty.

We'll put it back
in the house,

up in
the bonus room.

It's definitely
a nice guitar.

Full circle, the guitar
was tragically

living in a drop ceiling.

And now, it'll come back
to the house

in a much more
comfortable form.

Well, thank you so much.
- Thank you.

- Appreciate the time.
- Have a great rest of your day.

- Have a good day.
- Thank you.

There's a lot of activity
at Kennington.

We're painting outside,
and inside, the geometric,

honeycomb-looking bathroom tile
is being installed,

and it'll carry through
into the kitchen backsplash.

Lenny and I are upstairs
working on the loft space.

I'm really excited
about my ombré wall.

I'm gonna do a ratio of about
four parts water, one part paint

because my goal is
to make this really,

really thin so it
just barely, barely,

barely adds color
to the wood.

So, my vision for this wall
is a very subtle ombré effect.

But I want the wood grain
to show through.

It's such beautiful, old wood,
and it has so much character.

I don't want to cover it.
I want to elevate it.

I want it to be a design element
in the room.

I feel like that is
a little too opaque.

That's not bad, though.

I'm gonna try
a little something.

This is just fabric dye.

I added a little bit of
fabric dye to up the intensity

but not change the color.

There.

That's what
I'm aiming for.

All right.
- Looks good.

So, I'm gonna pain this first
board the dark, dark purple.

I want it to be dark
at the bottom,

and then I want it to get
lighter and lighter and lighter

and lighter as you go up.

Oh, super-duper happy.

I think the space is gonna
look inviting, unique.

It's like a little nest
up there.

And just the way the room
sort of wraps around you,

it's just really cozy.

The wall looks great.

Right now,
it's super subtle,

but I think,
as it soaks in,

you'll see the variation
a little more.

Yep.

Good job.

We're turning our
attention to the outside.

This one-time
overgrown disaster

is now the most beautiful backyard.

We're building a great big back
deck perfect for barbecues,

and now we need to finish
the privacy fence.

We're gonna have
a fence-off.

A what?

A fence-off.
This is gonna be fun.

Here are the rules.

You got 100 fence planks
on the deck on this side.

Them are yours.

Ours are over there.

Zac could be on Mina's team.
Ricky, get over here.

Ricky, you're over here.
You're on Karen's team.

You got to work
from that way back.

Once you get
it all done...

And you see these little
red flags back here?

Whoever gets their flag first
and comes to the front wins.

I was born
for competition.

I was raised
for competition.

Everything is
a competition.

Who's saying "Go"?

Ready, set, go!

Go!

I'll get you.

Hold onto it!

I need one of you guys
over here.

What is happening here?

He cut our string,
didn't he?

He did.
He cut our string, I bet you.

Come here,
you little boogers.

Did you nail our boards
to the ground?!

What's she saying?

Somebody screwed their pickets
to the ground or something.

I don't know.

Someone screwed our chunks
of wood together.

Oh, my God!

I'm gonna kill him!

I had nothing to do
with the planning of this.

I had no idea
what was going on.

I was wondering why
I couldn't get them up.

- Go.
- Can I?

They're done?

I'm standing here waiting,
and no one's cheering!

- We're the winner!
- Whoo!

Yeah!

No one's cheering for you guys
because you cheat.

I'm down for a good competition,
but cheaters never prosper.

Not cool.
- Whoo!

We're out!
We're out!

Nice work, Ricky!

I was wondering
if their string broke.

We didn't really win,
but we did have a lot of fun.

Yes.

And we did get the fence
up in record time.

We got the fence
up very quickly,

which I'm always
a fan of.

All nonsense aside,
we're almost done.

We need to till and level
the ground, put some sod down.

We're gonna have plenty of room
for leisure area,

maybe a big
farm-style dining.

I think it's gonna
show really nice.

And the inside is, like,
grouting tile and cleaning.

Like, there's not
much left to do.

We're so close
to moving furniture in.

I'm excited.

Today is the day we finally get
to dress this hip little house.

We want to fill the space
without overwhelming the space.

It's 13 by 20, so you got
to get it right.

And if it's wrong,
it's gonna be really wrong.

So, we chose
a light-colored,

neutral sectional
with a low back.

There we go.

That way, it's not
too visually heavy.

I love this chair.

I really like
the arms.

And a lot of the pieces we have
in the room have open work...

You come with me.

...that make them appear
visually lighter

than they actually are.

Ooh!

Good thing that
was there.

The dining-room table,
it's got metal legs

that are very light,
and then a nice,

clean marble top
with hairpin chairs

because they're also
a little bit visually lighter.

So, you get lots of seating
without big chunky furniture.

So, there's a part of the house
that's structural that creates

a bench in that upstairs room,
and we couldn't get rid of it.

So, instead, we embraced it,
and we made it into a daybed.

I don't have a stand for him,
but I think, like--

like someone was just
chilling on the sofa...

Yeah.
Okay.

It's definitely changed
a whole lot.

This was probably one of our
worst, definitely worst outside.

Justin and Halie,
they're both just really cool.

He's super creative.

They're our target demographic
for this house,

this area,
how we designed it.

They are, potentially,
interested in the house,

so we're gonna bring them
through before we get it listed.

And so, now, we have this
cool-looking little house.

- It's so cute.
- Yeah.

This was probably
one of our worst,

definitely worst outside.

And so, now, we have
this cool-looking little house.

- It's so cute.
- Yeah.

- I like the purple.
- This is great.

I like the color of
the front door, too.

It's subtle, but it's cute.
- The big purple?

Yeah. Yeah.
That is good.

I like a guy
that can dig some purple.

It looks great.

Do you want to go inside
and see what's inside?

- Would love to.
- Yeah.

Follow her.

Walking up to the front of the
house, their eyes got big,

and their mouths opened
in little Os,

and those are all
good things.

Oh, my gosh.
What?

Is that a good
"Oh, my gosh"?

It looks so good.

Yeah.
- It's so cozy.

Man.

You know, when
you walk in the door,

you're not expecting
how big it is

because,
from the outside,

it has this charming,
little cozy feel.

And then, you get inside,
and it's pretty spacious.

I mean, it's, obviously,
a small house,

but we've fit a tonin here,

and hopefully, made it
pretty functional.

The dining area, you could
actually, probably,

fit six people around
if you wanted to,

so you can entertain.

Do you guys want to take
a closer look at the kitchen?

- Yeah.
- Absolutely.
- Come on.

- Yeah.
- You like that?

This is great.

I like the blue
and the brown.

It's cozier than, like,
all the gray you see.

It warms it up
a little bit.

This tile--
it really stands out.

And I love
the butcher block.

The herringbone pattern,
I thought that was really great.

Super high ceilings.

You got the
double-stacked cabinets,

so you still get
tons of storage.

- I like it.
- I do, too.

I'm glad you like it.
Downstairs, we've got a master.

So, you guys want to go
check that out?

- Okay. Let's do it.
- Let's go this way.

So, we managed
to get in

a really good-sized
master bedroom.

This is really nice.

It's pretty masculine.

With the purple walls,
it's shocking that

that's the first thing
you would say, but I like it.

I'm glad that we walked
the line, I guess.

With all the grays
and blues,

I didn't even really notice
that the walls were purple.

And yet, it still does have
that masculine feel.

This space back here
was a mess,

so there's actually
a little walk-in closet there,

which was the only bathroom
in the house.

So, we got rid of
the one bathroom,

but we were able to add
a master en suite

where the back porch
used to be.

So, go ahead
and check it out.

- Whoa.
- This is awesome.

And that-- it's a similar
tile to the kitchen.

It's the same tile,
just white.

Okay.

Want to try to keep it
a little bit cohesive

without being match-y.

Got a double vanity.

It's only 48 inches,
but we packed

as much storage space in
as possible.

Yeah, I like it a lot.

We have another
first-floor bathroom

if you guys want to come
back out this way,

and Mom will
lead the way.

I will lead the way.

- Oh, how cool is this?
- Yeah.

So we have
some funky angles,

but I think we were able
to make good use of this space,

still get a nice
big walk-in shower.

And your toilet is kind of
tucked away to the side.

- It's really big.
- Yeah, it's huge.

So, we have one
more room upstairs,

if you guys want to
check that out.

Yeah.

So, this space we
actually dormered out

'cause there was
no headroom.

You kind of had to
duck to get in.

And now...

Wow.

This might be my favorite room
in the house.

Mine, too.

Okay.

This wood on the wall
is the original car siding

from the house.

We took the color
of the front door,

and we ombred
the wall to make it

just a little funkier.

Yeah.

And I think it's super clever
to tie it all in like that.

Thank you very much.

You get me.
You get me.

We were doing demo downstairs,
and it had drop ceilings,

and that's what
was inside of it.

- No way.
- No way.

And I don't know
anything about guitars.

What?

So, we found some
treasures, finally.

We haven't found
any money still--

no money or no,
like, real jewelry.

So, there's still
a little bit more.

We have a really big backyard
here and a nice deck.

So, if you want to
lead them down there...

Oh, okay.
Lead them down?

All right.
- ...you can go check it out.

Oh, this is great.

This is great.

I like the deck,
and I like how it's open.

I really like that.

You know what I like
to say all the time?

"It's not how far
your feet can go,

it's how far your eye can go
that makes a space feel big."

And without a railing, there's
nothing to stop your eye,

so the space feels huge.

Mm-hmm.

You've got
lounging, dining,

maybe cocktailing,
more lounging.

And I mean, I feel
like that chunk

is just asking for
a mean bag of corn hole.

- Oh, yeah.
- It's "game of corn hole,"

not a "bag
of corn hole," right?

I think the girls
did a phenomenal job

designing this house.

Such great
little surprises

and great flow
through the house.

I did not think it was gonna
feel that big and that homey.

I did not expect there
to be that much space

in the back of the house,

'cause you can't see it
from the front of the house.

- The front's deceiving.
- Yeah.

Even though it's not big on
paper, in person, it feels huge.

I mean, it really--
it feels good.

Good.
Good.

I think Karen and Mina did an
excellent job with this house.

As far as the design goes,
I mean, it was really,

really cool.

Thank you guys, again,
for coming by.

- Thank you.
- Thanks for showing it to us.

We initially bought
the Kennington house for $5,000.

We did run into some
unexpected complications

with the renovation.

And it ended up costing $155,000
for a total investment

of $160,000.

But values have gone up really
quickly in the neighborhood,

and we were able
to sell the house

for $195,000
to a great couple

who will make an amazing
addition to the community.

And that will leave us with
a profit of around $35,000.

Going a little funkier
on this house,

I think, really paid off.

We found out that it was
attractive to those pioneers,

first-time buyers
in Bates-Hendricks.

And that was, really,
always our plan,

so it worked out.

Even though it's not
Justin and Halie, the new owners

are gonna be a great addition
to the neighborhood,

and they're gonna give that
house all the love it deserves.

Definitely.