This First House (2026) s01e03 Episode Script

1
♪♪
♪♪
-Ooh! What's there?
[ Speaking indistinctly ]
-Can you get to the next one?
-The condo that our offer got
accepted on, we --
It was appraised,
but they came in at
under asking the appraisal.
So because the sellers
are sort of not willing
to accept what it appraised at,
Yemily has come up with
a couple of different strategies
to see how we can try
to save the deal
and still get the condo.
Ooh!
[ Laughs ]
But obviously, our apprehension
is that the deal falls through.
If we can't make it work,
we're just going to have to sort
of go back to the drawing board.
-You see how it's getting to
-Hello?
-Hello. Hi.
How are you?
-Crystal --
Crystal is here with me.
-I have some sad news.
-Oh, yeah?
-Oh, no.
-Yes. I'm sorry.
The deal fell apart.
-What happened?
-The sellers didn't
want to wait for the appraisal,
so they decided to move
forward with the other offer.
-Oh, my goodness.
-The sellers are expecting.
And I think their timeline is
very restricted.
-Oh.
-You know, I had a feeling
that this was going to happen,
but it still
really sucks to hear it.
-You know, we thought
we were at the finish line.
You know, we are literally
less than two weeks away
from the original closing date.
We jumped through so many hoops
to get to this point.
To hear
that the deal fell through,
that the sellers canceled
is a little bit heartbreaking,
to be honest.
-Yeah.
-But I did find another
property we should go see.
-Okay.
-Oh.
-Wow. That was fast.
-Okay.
-It's in North Plainfield,
so it's a little further away,
but it's a great community.
Two bedrooms, one bathroom, and
it checks a lot of your boxes.
-An FHA-approved property?
-Yes, it's an FHA-approved
property.
-In our budget?
-Of course.
-You know, I'm asking
because it's hard to believe.
-Location may be a little far,
but you do get everything
that you want.
-Okay, well, you know, we --
-At this point,
like, we have to be more open.
-We talked about that, yeah.
-Yeah.
-I'll schedule it now
and I'll let you know.
Thank you, guys.
I appreciate you.
Have a great day.
-Sucks. It sucks.
-Belleville is bust.
♪♪
-There are a lot of moments
that I'm grateful for my husband
and this is one of them.
-Great news.
All of our final permits
are now approved and paid for.
♪♪
The gas meter has moved outside,
so this seemed like one
of the most reasonable places
to put the new gas meter.
Hannah has been clearing out
the garden.
Thanks, Hannah.
♪♪
♪♪
-We're at Nick and Hannah's
today.
We're starting the renovation
because our plumbers
are showing up tomorrow,
and we just want to get
everything in the right spot
to make sure we're
not ripping out anything later.
I'm going to stick
these plans to the wall
so we can see what we're doing.
-So my understanding is
we're doing some framing,
and to do framing,
there's some preliminary steps
that I'm going to have to learn
about.
And even the framing I'm
going to have to learn about.
I think I'm going to
be learning a lot today.
-I hear Nick is going to be
my sous chef,
so we're going to get
a little dirty in that basement.
Alright. Here we are
in your new bathroom.
These are our bottom plates that
we want to get in today, right?
And they're all pretty much
full boards except this one,
which is a short one.
So let's lay
out our plates now just
so we have sort of a frame
of reference.
So I've already got them cut.
-Probably every step of the way
makes me a little bit nervous
because who knows
what won't work the way
you thought it's supposed
to work or will cost more
than you think it was supposed
to,
or take longer
than it was supposed to.
-So, one thing
you guys have done very well
is you've not only
selected your finishes,
but you purchased them
and they're here.
And why that's so important
is the biggest reason
we find ourselves ripping
things out of renovations
is because someone messed up
the communication, right?
So what we're doing today
is we're going to lay them
physically out in the space,
make sure you like it.
And that way
if you don't like it,
we can kind of tweak things left
or right.
And we're not doing that
actively
while the plumbers here like,
"Hey, guys,
like, now's not the time."
So what do you think
of your bathroom?
[ Chuckles ]
-It's about as small
as I expected,
but if there is a door here
I can get in,
I can access everything
and we can have some storage
in the corner.
-Right. And the door is going to
swing into the vanity.
-Okay.
-So it'll be here.
Do you want to move
this toilet at all?
The code says it has to be
at least 15 inches off the wall.
So we've -- we've got about that
there.
But we could cheat it this way
a little if we felt like it.
A lot of times
we'll put a vanity in.
The homeowner's like, "Oh,
this is bigger than I thought."
You know, so just having
that peace of mind,
knowing that Nick's seen it, he
understands what he's getting,
he understands the toilet's
proximity to the wall --
Like, those are all things
that I'm concerned about
because by the time
that toilet goes in, we're --
we're past the point
of no return. Right?
What we want to do now
is really just figure out
where the pipes are going.
We don't want to screw that up.
I can't tell you the amount of
times that mistake has happened.
So we want to be very careful.
But luckily, if you go to
the manufacturer's website,
they have the specifications.
And that shows us
exactly what we need.
Center of drain.
Center of supply.
That's all
we're really looking for.
We'll get these pieces
out of the way
so we don't break them
with our tools.
I shouldn't even
be wearing this, if I'm honest.
I'm just going to scratch
your new vanity,
and then we'll get
these walls plated.
All we're going to do
is we're going to lay
out square using
the laser level.
-Alright. Looks good there.
-Now let's snap some lines.
And when we snap it, chalk
gets snapped onto the floor.
Now let's see what happens
if we turn that off.
There it is.
And then we're going to drill
some holes
to fasten to the floor.
This is a pressure-treated 2x4
rated for ground contact.
And we'll put sealant
on the bottom.
That'll make sure
no water can push through up
into your finished space.
♪♪
-I did some building work
back in the day, and I miss it.
And I find myself thinking
this is enjoyable in ways
that I don't enjoy
other aspects of life.
-We'll finish
up the bottom plates,
and then we'll do basically the
same process for the top plates.
Really, all we need to do now
is lay out our studs.
The first stud is going to be
in the corner.
So the key thing
to know here is really drywall
is typically four foot
by eight foot.
So we want to have consistent
spacing with our studs.
In this case it's going to be
16 inches on center.
Some people do 24 inches on
center.
We're doing 16.
That's the most common.
So we cut all our studs.
Pretty easy to do.
Now we're going to pop them in.
I'm going to start
my screw perpendicular
to the surface like that.
Get it started.
Then I'll angle in.
We're going to use screws
because it's possible
a homeowner might put it
in incorrectly.
So using screws allows
us to back those out later.
Piece of cake.
♪♪
♪♪
-Beautiful, Nick.
Make sure you get that
in the final cut.
Just go through the board,
completely miss the top plate.
At some point,
I definitely thought
Zack had put in maybe 10 times
as many studs
as I had in terms of his pace.
-Well, let's take
a stab at me doing your job,
and you'll see
how quickly you get ahead of me.
-I'll have to come up with
some quantifiable unit of work.
-Yeah,
yeah, we'll figure it out.
-Okay.
♪♪
♪♪
-I think that's about as far
as we're gonna get today
because I want to get
these pipes laid out
before plumbers show up.
-Alright.
I noticed these signs.
Can you tell me about
how these things work?
-Yeah. So I made these years ago
because I was always
sort of using masking tape
to sort of lay out
where plumbers and electricians
had to put things,
and a lot of times
the homeowners didn't understand
where things were going to go.
So I found putting the signs up
before the subtrades arrived
gave that homeowner a day
or two to sort of figure out
where things go, so for today,
anyway,
we're going to fill out
the signs for
where the drain will be and
the supply for your lavatory,
as well as the supply
for the control valve
and the supply for your toilet.
So let's mark
out the toilet first.
That'll be the easy one.
So that's center of our drain.
Now we need to locate
on the wall the supply.
And it says six inches
from the center of drain
and 10 inches
from the finished floor
for the center of the supply.
Alright. So there is six inches
off center.
So I'll measure up 10 inches
if you want to just hold
the sign to where you want it.
And then just transfer that
10-inch mark onto the sign.
Alright. That's perfect.
Alright. So next thing we'll do
is we'll take the shower pan.
Just put it on the floor here
and mark out the center
of the drain.
And then we'll make another sign
for the lavatory supply
and drain,
which are pretty much
just stock locations.
-It's always gratifying
to see something done
at the end of the day.
-Yeah, it looked like a,
uh, an empty corner,
and now it looks like
an empty corner
with some wood studs in it.
♪♪
♪♪
Yeah. Can you open that?
I committed myself to this
path of business ownership
and becoming a better carpenter.
Didn't grow quickly,
didn't make a lot of money.
But just -- just kept
working hard.
The quality of our work
got bigger.
Eventually got, you know,
our first full home remodel.
Now we have a team of six,
and that's sort of
where we're at now.
We do some pretty cool projects.
-Our goal with our company
is that we don't ever want
people to feel overwhelmed
or frustrated by the process.
So I really take
that role very seriously
in helping our homeowners
get to the finish line
without feeling exhausted.
-Oh, hold on,
I'm getting a phone call here.
Odd. Jorge.
-Oh.
-What's up, Jorge?
-Hey, Zack. How you doing?
-Good. How are you?
-Good, good.
I just wanted to call you
to let you know some good news.
-I love good news.
-Yeah, I know, I know. Me too.
So our most recent offer
got accepted.
-No way.
-Oh, that's fantastic.
-Yeah, yeah, so,
you know, we're cautiously
optimistic, of course,
because we -- we've been
down this road before.
We know getting an offer
accepted is only the first --
the first step in the process.
-We'll hope for you in
the short term.
-We'll keep our fingers
crossed for you on this one.
-We appreciate it.
We'll keep you posted.
-Alright.
Thanks for letting us know.
Bye-bye.
-Bye-bye, guys.
-Well, that's good news.
-Yeah. I'm hopeful, but nervous.
-Less hiccups so far
with this one.
So hopefully.
-Everything crossed.
-Everything crossed.
-Alright, let's get back to it.
-Okay.
-A little movement right here.
-Yeah.
-Is that because my tape
measure isn't working right?
No. It slides the thickness
of the end right there.
That's to give me
an accurate measurement.
If I hook it or if I push it,
boom, it slides.
-So you show me
that inspiration pick.
You say, "I love it, I want it."
I want to know what is
it that you love about it?
The color of the walls,
the vanity, the tile?
if you don't tell me what it is
you like about this picture,
I'm gonna just come up with
what I like about the picture,
and I might serve you
with some options
that mean nothing to you
and you actually
didn't like those things.
So when you present
your inspirational photos
to your contractor
or to your design team,
tell them specifically
what you like and even better,
what you don't like
about that picture.
♪♪
-So we're a week in here
working at Nick and Hannah's.
We got the framing 99% complete,
and now we're moving
on to rough plumbing.
The plumbers wrapped up
last night.
They broke up the concrete.
They put in the waste pipes
in the floor,
and they got all of the supply
pipes roughed in the walls.
So Camille is on her way here
now.
We're going to talk
through the progress so far.
We've got a couple of
little snafus that have come up.
So we need a problem-solve
those, work out our schedule,
do a little bit of tweaking to
make sure we're on the same team
and we have the power
we need to wrap this thing up.
-Alright. Look at this.
-Hey, babe.
-A little different.
-A little different, right?
We got the rough plumbing
in ready
for the plumbing inspector
to show up Monday.
-Okay.
That's good. On schedule.
-Yes.
-What is it? Tell me.
♪♪
♪♪
-Tell me.
-Uh, you know, typical nonsense.
First thing I notice --
the plumbers did a great job.
But, like everyone does,
they took the path
of least resistance.
And now my dryer vent
Wa-chu!
-Oh, no.
-is gonna need to pass
through this pipe somehow,
so I'm gonna need to get
either creative
with my dryer vent,
or I'm going to need to have
them move this pipe,
which I'd hate to do.
-Right.
-Because this is
-Then you cut more holes.
-necessary.
Also, you know, we've
created a situation with this
backflow preventer,
which I'm really happy we have,
but now it's in the middle
of the floor,
so we'll have a hole
in the epoxy floor.
So I'll just need to
sort of come up with a pretty
and creative plug or cap.
-A little epoxy door
into the hole in the floor.
-Yeah. I mean, I'm sure
Kalen will
come up with something creative.
He likes those types
of problem-solving tasks.
-That's true.
Are you seeing any change
orders with this stuff?
Or it's more just like
some creative --
more creative on your part?
-No, just part of the job.
It's not something
that's unforeseen.
-Okay. Alright.
So we've got rough plumbing
inspection hopefully next week.
-I met with Hannah
this morning.
She said that
the water heater stopped working
and her HVAC system stopped
working.
Luckily,
the HVAC system was just --
The plumber didn't turn on
the
turn it back on
because we drained the gas out.
-Right, okay.
-But the water heater --
The plug has stopped working.
-Oh, no.
-So now we'll have to get
the electrician in to fix that.
I don't know exactly --
My guess is it's just at the end
of its life or something,
but I'll test that later.
So she can have --
-Hot showers again?
-Yeah. Poor thing.
She was very nice about it.
-Yikes.
-She was like, "There seems
to be not a lot of hot water."
-As in zero hot water, right?
-No hot water.
So I'm gonna diagnose that,
but I'll --
I'll get to work
on the vent fan.
-Okay. Sounds good.
-Can you take care
of that missing shower panel
and make sure that's here?
-Yeah, I'll do that.
-Alright. Cool.
-See ya.
-Alright. Have you ever seen one
of these on the ceiling?
Maybe it's making
a little bit of noise.
This is what's called
your bathroom vent fan.
And the purpose of this
is to suck smells
and moisture out
of a bathroom,
especially after you shower.
And the great thing about it
in this case
is there's no window
to open in here.
So you have to have one by code.
I'm gonna get this installed
and then our electrician
can make the connection.
♪♪
Air is basically sucked in.
It goes through the pipe
and then out through
the side wall of your house.
And we put one
of these sidewall vents,
and it has louvers
so water can't get in
and it allows nothing
to get inside there.
But there's also another damper
located in the end of the fan
that just flaps down
when it's not in use to keep
anything from getting through,
and also to keep weather
from getting through.
We prefer to use rigid pipe
wherever possible.
So, this fan has two settings
on it.
It can be 80 or 100 CFM,
which stands for
cubic feet per minute.
That may not sound like a lot,
but if you let this running
for 24 hours,
it could move the equivalent
amount of air of a house
that's 18,000 square feet.
That's how much air this
would move in a 24-hour period.
And remember,
your heating and cooling costs
are probably
the highest energy bill
you're responsible for
with your house.
So what you're doing is you're
taking this conditioned air
and you're dumping it outside.
So you want to use it
to get rid of the moisture,
but you don't want to leave it
on so long
that it's just dumping
that conditioned air.
I love to put these on timers
because then you don't have to
think about the wasted energy.
You just hit that for
5, 10, 15 minutes,
whatever it is,
and it'll turn itself off.
♪♪
So putting the cardboard on
is going to keep any excess dust
that's in the air
out of those fan blades.
The cleaner
those fan blades are,
the more effective
they will be at moving air.
♪♪
-And voilà.
♪♪
So the things that people should
look for in their final
walkthrough is that the property
is in the same condition
that they saw it the first time,
that there's no, you know,
not a broken window.
The doors are exactly the same,
that the appliances are
still in the home.
Okay, now we wait for them.
♪♪
Hi. Welcome to your home.
-Oh!
-Look at this living room.
-The second thing will be
that everything is empty
unless you ask for something
to be left for you.
And do you want to keep this?
-Um
-I don't know about that.
-[ Laughs ]
-That's okay.
Just tell me what
you don't want to keep.
-I think the nightstand.
We can use them in the meantime
until we get settled.
-So let's celebrate.
-Oh, you got --
-There you go.
-Yay, whoo!
-Whoo!
-I am so happy for you guys.
And I just want to toast
for your success.
And this is just the start.
I know there's a lot more
coming.
And I'm so happy
that this house is so beautiful
and it's actually big.
-Aw. Thank you.
-I'm really happy.
-Thank you so much.
-Compared to everything that we
saw.
So to growing success.
-Thank you so much, Yemily.
-Yes, thank you.
-That's for Sadie
and this is for Sadie.
And that's for Mateo.
-Oh, yeah, Yemily, thank you
so much. That's so sweet.
-Thank you so much.
-He can drive. Look.
-Vroom vroom!
-Oh, my God, he looks so cute.
-Thank you.
-I got to make sure
that you guys are relaxed
because there's gonna be a lot
of signing, a lot of explaining.
Really boring
for the next two hours,
but it's information
that you really need to know.
-Of course.
-Okay?
-Yeah.
-We're ready.
-Yeah.
Thank you, Yemily,
for making all of this happen.
-You made it so special.
-Yeah, yeah.
-Thank you so much.
-Of course.
You guys deserve this,
and more.
♪♪
-My name is Adam Tuttle.
I'm an attorney
in the state of New Jersey.
Among other things,
I specialize in real estate,
including residential
real-estate closings.
You have to occupy
the property within 60 days
because it's
an owner-occupied loan.
Well, today is basically
the final phase
of a real-estate transaction.
It's called the closing.
And basically it's
where you come and you finalize
any financial papers
that have to be done
regarding the loan.
I just want you to sign
and date.
Basically, what I like to say
is you,
you know,
you sign a bunch of papers,
you bring a check,
and you get a set of keys.
I mean,
that's basically what it is.
This is the most important
document you're going to sign.
Alright?
This is the promise to pay.
-It's just we've been through
so much to get to this point,
and there's been so much doubt
throughout the process.
-That's the interest rate.
Your payment's
due the first of the month.
-The number-one advice
I would give my clients
on the day of closing
would definitely
be eat something before closing.
It's a long process.
It takes a lot of time and you
may not have a chance to eat,
and it makes everyone grumpy.
-These are the title
charges, recording fees.
-The actual closing is about,
I say like two hours.
-You're going to sign
and date it.
Any questions on that?
Condominium has some upfront
fees. Sign and date.
And you're basically saying that
these are the names you go by.
I just need your signature
on it.
Sale of the note.
So that's where you borrowed
the money from Bank A.
They're going to sell the loan
to Bank B.
Just sign right here
and date it.
This is the affidavit
of occupancy.
So you're just going to sign
off.
So I'm just going to have
you sign it.
So this is a 4506-C.
You're going to sign here.
And you're going to date it.
Basically just breaks down
the payment.
Right. So we got the principal
and interest right.
So they want you to sign
and date here.
Sign and date.
Just sign and date.
Just sign and date right here.
Alright.
So we got funding approval.
Here's your deed.
Congratulations.
The house is yours.
-Thank you.
-Thank you so much.
-It's very exciting.
-These are the keys.
-Alright.
[ Laughter ]
-It's incredible to have
signed all those papers and to,
you know, have the keys.
It feels surreal.
-They get the keys, and
basically the house is theirs.
Some people renovate the house
before they move in.
Some people paint.
You know, some people do
a lot of different things.
But yes, the house is yours
that night.
You can literally go there.
You can sleep in the house.
It is yours.
-It's hard to put it
into words because,
you know,
it's been such a whirlwind.
-I didn't think we
were gonna get here personally.
But look at us. We're here.
-But we did it.
Thank you so much, Adam.
-Oh, no worries.
You guys enjoy it, alright?
It's a pleasure.
-Thank you so much.
-It was a pleasure
working with you both.
-We couldn't have done it
without you.
-Thank you, Yemily.
-Yes.
-I think in total we saw like --
maybe like 10 or 11 places.
-Yeah, 10 plus.
Offers put in? Many.
-Yeah, maybe like six even.
Because, you know, there was
a time when we were desperate.
-We were -- We wouldn't
even look at the place.
We wouldn't even go to the --
-We would see if it's
in our price range, and we were
texting Yemily desperately like,
"We want to put in an offer."
The hardest part was our budget.
Uh, it was just
very challenging.
-Well, the hardest part for me
was doing it
with two little kids.
[ Laughs ]
I'm gonna go home and put
the kids to bed.
-It's so tricky, yeah.
Like, the kids have a nap,
so it's like we have to get
the kids home.
And then we're like,
we got a bottle of champagne
from the title company.
You know, I think we're in
an extended state of celebration
because this is such a --
it's such a big deal.
-I really need to take
a picture
of you guys with the key.
Hold on.
-Yeah. Take a picture.
[ Laughter ]
-Perfect.
♪♪
♪♪
-So today we get to meet Sean,
who seems to be quite
the artist for outdoor spaces.
And so I'm excited to meet him
and see what his vision is
for our outdoor space.
-I'm Sean Collinsgru,
and my company is
Premier Outdoor Living.
So I'm going to meet
Hannah on site,
walk through the design
that we have
and answer some questions.
♪♪
-Sean, it's so good to meet you.
-Yeah, you too.
How are you?
-Good. How are you?
-Pretty good.
-Welcome to our space.
Thank you so much
for making the trip.
-I'm excited to dive into this
project and get it all rolling.
-Well, we're excited too.
-So the projects
that we typically do
are full backyard remodels.
A lot of times a deck
with a roof cover of some sort
leading down to a patio.
We handle everything from start
to finish,
and our calling card
has kind of become
the interesting design elements
that we incorporate.
So a lot of deck or patio
inlays, interesting designs
with multiple different
materials and patterns.
And that's kind of
what drives me the most
and the part I love about it.
Walk me through, you know,
what you have here right now,
what some of the pain points
are.
We have somewhat of a plan
already, but we'll
we'll kind of walk you
through what we're going to do
and then get to any questions
that you have.
-Sounds great.
-Cool.
-So, there was a deck here
when we moved in.
-Okay.
-And so what you're seeing
of our backdrop here
is what we're repairing
from the ledger boards
that were there
holding up the deck.
Our inspector
when we bought the house said
the deck needed to come down
really immediately for safety.
And so obviously
that needs to be taken care of.
And then the whole slab,
as you can see, is cracking
and may not be pitched quite
the right way with the house.
And so we're just really wanting
to make sure that it's safe,
you know,
set for the future to also,
you know, keep the house safe
and not cause more water issues
like the ledger board
may have caused.
-So that's something
that we see a lot with decks
not flashed properly.
You know,
you're kind of dealing with
the repercussions of that
right now.
-Yeah.
-So the stairs here --
-Yeah.
-This is priority number one.
Got a little bit
of a safety concern here.
So what we're going to do
is actually shift
these stairs this way
so that we have access coming up
straight into the door,
which is going to be a lot
easier for appliances coming in
and any couch or big things
that need to go into the house.
-Baby's crib.
-Baby's crib. Exactly.
My biggest piece
of advice to homeowners is,
even if you are going to phase
out a project
to really think
of the overall vision,
and even if it starts
with a very small portion of it,
like a landing
coming out of your house,
know what that's going to lead
to down the line
so that you can pick away at it
because a lot of people
can't afford,
especially first-time
home buyers,
to do everything that
they want right off the rip.
So if they start
with an overall vision,
they can pick away at that
and do it in a way
that makes sense
and is more cost-efficient
and just easier.
Alright.
So we're gonna actually bump
this patio out about six feet
just to give you
more usable space here.
And we're going to take it
from a one living zone
to two living zones with
a lounge area and a dining set.
So, just by adding that
six feet,
we're going to gain
about double the functionality.
-Wow. that's very luxurious.
-Yeah.
-We're gonna do a little bit
of privacy along this side,
just to make this space feel
like its own space
and feel a little bit
more intimate.
And it's also going to kind of
pull us around this corner,
which is going to lead us
into the raised garden beds.
You'll have three
separate planting beds here
raised so a little bit easier
to work on.
And we can also remove that
so that you have
a little bit more green space.
Maintain as much
usable yard space as possible
because we don't
want to eliminate that with all
of this entertainment space.
-That's important to us.
We definitely want to keep
the green space.
-Yeah, absolutely.
-To run around and play.
-Yeah, I think we got
a great plan here
and excited to get started.
-Thank you so much, Sean.
Really appreciate it.
-Thank you, Hannah.
Appreciate it.
-So it was really good
to meet Sean in person
and let him see the space.
I imagine myself just like
laying out here to relax
and again,
having that greater space
to entertain
with friends and family.
-It's an interesting space.
It has unique challenges.
It's a little bit
on the smaller side of backyard.
It has some slopes
that we have to contend with.
They have a clear vision of
how they intend to use it
and the functionality
that they're looking for.
So it makes my job
a lot easier as a designer,
and I think it's going to
hopefully hit all their needs
and really be like a great space
for them to enjoy.
One piece of advice I always
give to clients, homeowners,
when they're starting
to design their outdoor space
is to actually
reverse-engineer it.
So think about the furniture
that you want in the end,
and then decide how big
your deck or patio needs to be
because I see way
too many people design a space
and then when it's done,
they look at it and say,
"Alright, what furniture can I
fit here that's going to work?"
So think about the furniture
and the functionality
first, design around that,
and you're going to be
in a much better situation.
-Curl and smell.
-Make sure you go
until failure.
-So one of the reasons
why it's really important to
tell us what it is that you like
and don't like about
your inspirational photos is
then we can help you figure out
how to get what you like
at your budget.
So for example, you might send
us a beautiful kitchen
and the cabinets are
a gorgeous color.
And they have, you know,
honed marble on the countertops.
And what you actually liked
about that kitchen
was the way
it had a farmhouse sink.
We might see it and say,
you know,
that countertop is like $15,000
and you didn't even really
care about the countertop.
So telling us what you like
about those pictures
and what you don't like
will help us meet your budget
and get you to the finish line.
♪♪
♪♪
-This is nice.
-Yeah, look at that.
I like the brick.
-Brick garden action.
Nice quiet area.
-I'm so excited.
This is their new place.
-I know.
Can't wait to see how we
can renovate this space, right?
-Yeah, let's see what
we can make happen for them.
-Alright, let's do it.
-Welcome. Hi.
-You did it!
-We did it.
-Welcome to our new home.
-Yes.
So this is our living room.
-This is so nice, guys.
-So spacious.
-Definitely a huge upgrade.
-Do I feel air conditioning
in here?
-You do.
-That is what you feel.
-I love that today.
-Yeah.
-That's a bonus.
-So this is our room.
-Oh, lovely.
-Yeah, it's pretty spacious.
-Yeah. For sure.
-We have his and hers closets.
-So this is Mateo and Sadie's
room.
-Oh, lovely.
-Very bright.
-Perfect.
-Love it.
Such a nice room.
-Yeah.
-So this is the bathroom
right here.
-Oh, yeah. Very nice.
-It looks like it
was renovated pretty recently.
Alright, so what do you want
to improve about this place?
-Basically everything.
-Okay.
-But that's not realistic.
-Alright.
What are the must-haves?
-We definitely want to paint.
We want to redo these floors.
-Yep.
-We want to do some work
in the kitchen.
-So, you know,
it's a lot cheaper to do all
of these things
before you guys move in.
Which is my next question.
When is the move-in date?
-So this is the last month
in our apartment.
-Alright. So we got like three
weeks to sand the floors,
paint the walls.
-[ Chuckles ]
-That's what I'm saying.
-Figure out the kitchen.
[ Laughter ]
I think you better go
get some tools
so we can pick
some stain colors.
-Alright, I'll go do that.
-Okay.
Can we take a look at
the kitchen?
-Yes.
-Okay.
-So this is our kitchen.
-Alright.
It's tight, but it's nice
and open at the same time.
-Yeah.
-What are some
of the things that you like?
What do you not like
about the space?
-I like the amount
of cabinets we have.
I don't like the cabinets
or the floor or the countertop
or the backsplash.
Gotcha.
Okay, so aesthetically,
pretty much everything
goes in your head, right?
-But we like how open it is,
how it flows.
-Small kitchens
can sometimes be more effective
than larger kitchens.
I've had bigger kitchens
than this
and sometimes you're
running across from one side
to the other, and it's a lot
easier to prep food
when you can turn around,
reach the refrigerator
or wash the dishes.
What I do notice about this
space is there's a lot of --
there's a lot
of unutilized space
with the cabinets existing here.
You have dead space between
the fridge and these cabinets
and then between all
of the drawers.
You're not really getting
a lot of function,
right, with these drawers.
Being older, they're not
full extension. Right?
So you're not really maximizing
the depth that you do have.
If you put them on the counter
there,
you're going to only see
really -- you have all
this extra space at the back.
-Wow.
-So I think long term, you know,
a cabinet upgrade
would really give you guys
a lot more utility, especially
as the kids get bigger and,
you know, you'd be able to
hopefully fit plates in here
because here we've only got
about 12 inches of space there.
So you may have to change
your plates out to like long,
narrow ones
if you want them to fit right.
-You know, when Camille
mentioned all the dead space
between the cabinets,
the shelving,
I never thought about that.
I thought that was
such a good point.
-Yeah, definitely. Me too.
I was -- I thought like, oh,
these cabinets are fine
if we just get new doors.
But thinking about them
being older and the use of space
not being as efficient
as possible,
it really makes me think
that it would be worth it
to get new cabinets,
because our kitchen is going
to be more functional.
-Right.
-Well, maybe Zack has
some floor samples down.
Do we want to go take
a look in that back bedroom?
Okay. Let's take
a look at these floors.
-Alright.
-Wow. I love it.
-Yeah, they clean up nice
when they're sanded, right?
So I brought the stains
we discussed
in the text message.
We got some lighter ones,
some darker ones.
We'll just put them out.
It looks like you have red oak.
But the nice thing is
it's really thick,
which means you can sand it
and make it look like brand new,
even if you have dents in it.
So it's a really good floor
to have in your house
because if you guys stay
here a long time
and you don't like the color,
guess what.
Sand it again.
So let's see
if there's any color
in particular
you guys gravitate toward.
This is nutmeg.
-What I really like
about that nutmeg
is it's a nice light color.
So you still kind of get
the lighter layer wood floors.
-Alright.
This is a crowd favorite for us.
Special walnut.
-And similar to the nutmeg,
it's a little bit cooler.
-Golden pecan going down next.
-Alright, so with
golden pecan over here, what
you're going to notice
with all the stain colors
that have like a gold
or a red in the name,
is that you're going to see
a lot more amber undertones,
a lot -- a little bit more
orange.
And they're going to feel
like colors
that are more nostalgic
to maybe the '90s.
And that's not usually
a color people gravitate
towards these days.
Again, it's all
personal preference.
Okay.
So with the early American,
you're gonna see
a little bit more --
looks like some yellow,
maybe even a little bit
of a green undertone in there.
It's not quite as warm
as that golden pecan.
-Alright, moving on to natural.
-Okay,
so with the natural over here,
what you're going to see because
of the grade of these floors
is you're going to notice
there's not a lot of tint
to that stain, and you're going
to really notice all
of the different variation
in the boards.
This is all going to show
more in a natural
or a lighter stain.
So that kind of gets hidden in
some of the darker stain colors.
-You know, honestly,
I don't hate any of them.
-Yeah.
What's sticking out to you?
Is there one --
Do you have a top two?
-What are we eliminating?
-I guess the natural.
-We'll eliminate the natural.
Yeah.
-Okay.
-I'm gravitating towards
early American and nutmeg.
-Yeah.
-I like the golden pecan
and nutmeg.
-Sounds like nutmeg then.
-Yeah.
-Yeah, yeah.
[ Laughter ]
-Nutmeg is the common.
-Let me call my flooring guy
and we can keep things moving.
But you guys take it from here.
-Okay. Sounds good.
-Thank you so much, Zack.
-Thank you.
-So right now
we're feeling super excited
about everything starting,
but we only have three weeks.
It's a hard deadline.
-I'm moving in no matter what.
[ Both laugh ]
We have three weeks to move in,
so Zack and Camille
have a really big project
ahead of them.
-We invited Crystal and Jorge
over to sort of talk
through all these decisions
they need to make.
-Yeah, I mean,
this is a -- this conversation
is a really vital part
of the pre-construction process.
-We have a lot
of big decisions to make.
The tiles, backsplash, paint.
It's like so much to think about
in the next couple days.
-So we have a lot of decisions
to make and not a lot of time.
-That's right.
So I think the first tool
that's going to be
a really important one is is it
in stock and is it in budget.
Right? We don't have all of
the materials available to us.
That's going to narrow
things down significantly.
-I think I'm gonna go inside
with the kids.
[ Laughter ]
And I'll leave you two
with Crystal.
-And so that kind of ties
into story.
What story do you want to tell?
Like, what feeling do you
want to leave the house with
that's a bit of you?
-And another one that's
really part of your story too,
is what is the ROI for
this place?
This may not be
your forever home.
Your family may grow.
What is going to
really bring you the most value
in your finished space?
-I think the final one is
you want to be respectful
to the building you're in.
So if it was a Victorian house,
you don't want to put,
you know,
super-modern floors in it.
And another thing to consider is
if you want to hire
a contractor,
you really want to hire us
for our decision making
because we're making hundreds
of hundreds of decisions
without ever asking you.
Right?
I'm not going to ask
you what kind of screw to use,
what kind of drywall to put up,
what kind of paint.
I'm not going to ask
you those things.
I'm going to make
those decisions on your behalf.
So if you got a little bit
of time,
we could ask you some questions
about your kitchen.
-Okay, sure.
-So how often do you
grocery shop?
Do you go a couple times a week?
-We do go to the supermarket
like on a weekly basis.
-So that's good.
That means probably
a smaller fridge is okay.
Right?
Because you're not buying
these massive bulk orders.
-Right.
-So there's different materials
we can bring into your house.
Some of them
have more chemicals than others,
but you have choices.
So would you rather spend a
little bit more money on a floor
that's solid wood or
would you rather save the money
on something
that looked the same
but was a plastic product?
-Because we have children
and we hope to grow our family
and because we're home
all the time,
I think durability is
way more important.
-I think something
I often like to ask people
is, like,
where their comfort level is
with bringing only new things
into the home,
or if they're the type of person
that likes to get antiques.
-I would say we're
very open to secondhand.
We go thrifting all the time.
And I prefer a
more vintage, grandma style.
-Is this your grandma
or just a general grandma?
-No, my grandma's Dominican,
and that's like a totally
different type of grandma.
I'm talking
about just a grandma.
-Just a grandma.
Generic grandma.
-Generic grandma who, like,
bakes and she, like, knits.
And she's just always,
like, so cozy.
That grandma.
-Kitchen is, like, put together.
-Put together.
Everything matches.
-Just like a little,
like, cover on the toaster.
-Everything has a cover
for no reason.
There's trinkets. Yes.
-Okay. Trinkets.
-I know this kitchen.
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
-It's your grandma.
-It's my grandma.
-Yeah.
-I had that grandma, and
it was a sweet little kitchen.
I thought the conversation
we had with Crystal
went really well.
-I know. I think we all
learned something.
And you learned what cottagecore
and grandmacore
are, first of all.
-Yeah, I learned something.
-Yeah.
-And I learned that honestly,
what I had in my head
for that apartment
is completely different
than what she had in her head.
But I also learned that
durability trumps esthetics,
and those are good things
to know.
-I think the really
important thing about looking
through a renovation
through the lens of
the story that you want to tell
is that you can
really understand
why people make decisions
that they make,
and you don't have to know
that they like beige
or cooler colors
or the light a certain way
because if you know the story
they're trying to tell,
you can really help them.
-You can get involved
in the story making.
-Exactly.
-I know.
It's going to make
our job a lot easier
knowing all that.
-That's right.
So the next steps for us
is really to develop
a really clear scope of work
and a clear budget for
what we're going to undertake
over the next couple of weeks.
-I'm excited. Yeah.
-Right.
-Let's go.
[ Laughter ]
-So one of the questions
that I get is,
"is my plant alive or is it
dead?"
One quick tip that you could use
is the old finger-scratch test
on the branch.
If it's brown underneath,
then it is dead.
Just to show you --
I know this one is alive,
but to demonstrate.
See where I did
this little scratch?
It's green underneath.
And that shows
that that stem is alive.
But sometimes in the winter,
you don't know if it's alive
or dead.
Green is good. Brown is bad.
-Alright, so now
you've picked all of your items.
You know exactly what they are
and you know you can
pay for them.
All very important things.
But how do we get them onto the
jobsite and ready for install?
There's a couple
of different ways.
The first one is you purchase
it, you get it to your house,
and then you check it
and you make sure it's good.
And then you give me a call
and say, "Hey,
I have the vanity on site."
Option two --
I'll buy it for you.
You work with your design team.
They handle all of the annoying
stuff of receiving items,
sending back broken items,
sending back things
that aren't the right color,
and you just sit back
and pay just like a
little bit extra money, right?
Sometimes that peace of mind
and your time is worth more
than doing it yourself.
♪♪
Today, Hannah and I are
going to spend the better part
of an afternoon
trying to make some progress
on the demo of this patio,
which is
why I have my safety glasses for
when I start swinging
a sledgehammer and gloves.
Got to protect the manicure.
I think she's going to be
pretty surprised by
how little progress
we actually make.
Alright. How are you feeling?
Construction started.
-Feeling good.
It's exciting to see
it coming together as opposed
to just having to imagine
it like we have for so long.
So yeah, it seems
to be going well so far.
-What about having all these
people in and around your house,
all these interruptions?
There was a hot-water issue
earlier in the week, right?
-Yeah, it was alright.
-Unexpectedly.
-Unexpectedly.
-Yeah, yeah.
-So, construction has been
going for a couple weeks now.
We've got some rough-in
in the basement
with framed walls
for the bathroom and
plumbing being installed.
-I think that this type of work
is a great lesson
for a homeowner
in really understanding
why things cost what they cost.
When you look at something
on paper,
that number may seem high.
And then when you go out there
and you start trying
to demo your own patio out,
suddenly that price might feel
like more of a bargain.
Obviously, we have
a real demo crew coming in
to take care of that patio.
Next week the stairs are going.
All of this is going,
but I thought it could be fun
if we got a little head start
on that.
And, you know,
sometimes getting a little
manual labor in is a good way
to get some of the stress
out of there.
Very important.
Let's get our safety glasses on.
-Okay.
-You got gloves?
-I do.
-Alright.
Want to protect the hands.
Protect the eyes.
Are you right-handed?
-I am.
-Okay.
So you really
want to use the weight of this
to carry that motion through.
So the goal is that you want
to get it, like, to kind of arc
over you like you're --
like a windmill sort of.
-Okay, okay.
-So you're relying on
the weight of this and not on
your own body strength.
Alright.
So you remember you want to
kind of windmill, right?
And I -- if you hold it up here
as you're getting it behind your
head and then slide it down.
-Okay. Gosh, I'm, like, nervous.
[ Laughing ]
-Get some of that --
Get some of that frustration.
-Yeah. Feel the stress.
Feel the stress.
-Slide it down. Yep.
-Like that?
-Yeah.
-Okay.
-You want to take the first --
-It went easily into the ground.
-The first hit?
-Ah.
We'll see how it goes.
-Okay.
-Stand back.
-Yes.
[ Light tapping ]
-[ Laughing ]
-Great start.
-It didn't do anything.
-Try hitting a little closer
to the crack.
Maybe you'll get a little piece,
and then we can always pry
under there.
[ Loud thunk ]
There you go.
-Hey, a couple pebbles.
-That's why you got those
glasses.
-Works a little better.
-Yeah, you got the swing.
-I need your help
to make it actually happen.
♪♪
-Let's see if
we can get that little edge up.
-Nice. Look at that. Winner!
It's gonna be a lot
of wheelbarrows.
-Yeah.
-Yeah.
♪♪
Ooh! Got a crack. Nice.
-Good shoulder workout.
-A moment to recharge is good.
-Demo day makes great TV.
It's fun to watch
people swing some hammers
and watch the whole
building come down in one shot.
But in reality,
demo is a very meticulous,
highly skilled trade that
requires a lot of attention.
♪♪
-So, the renovation is underway.
We removed the tile floor
in the dining room,
which was pretty easy actually
because they just put
the tile on top of sticky tiles.
The kitchen tile's
a little higher
than the dining room tile,
and when I got even closer,
I noticed the grout is
all cracked in the dining room,
which told me there's something
wrong with this installation.
So we popped a couple tiles out
and look what we have.
We've got the hardwood
and someone used
a peel-and-stick tile
on top of that
and then they just tiled
right over it, and you can see
this
thinset wasn't really
able to bond to this at all.
We're gonna have to break
all these tiles up
and see if the hardwood floor
below is salvageable.
Pulled up all this tile today.
I've stacked it here
for our trash-removal service.
And then there was a sticky
tile, which you can hear
under my feet.
[ Squelching ]
We removed all that
the first day.
Then massive storm happened
on the day
we were supposed
to start sanding the floors.
[ Thunder crashes ]
♪♪
♪♪
So that obviously caused
a bit of a delay.
♪♪
♪♪
♪♪
-You got it there, sonny boy?