(dramatic music)
- I love being a hoarder. I really do.
(Bob chuckles)
- [Ken] There are mountains of trash.
- The rice is moving. I think it's maggots.
- Yeah, it is.
- Oh, we are in a crisis situation.
(Ken retches)
- I can't. I just started retching.
There were so many bugs.
We have to help him get this house in order,
so that he can be safe.
- We're standing on a foot of trash. This is not doable.
- Why is he sleeping on the floor in the bathroom?
- I just live for this house.
- Everything should go. - No.
- You got a couch just filled with cat pee.
- It is not.
I'm not getting rid of it. I'll tell you that.
(dramtic music)
(gentle music)
I'm Bob.
I'm a commercial artist,
and I've been restoring this Victorian house for 51 years.
I love being a hoarder. I really do.
(Bob chuckles)
I know it's a little crowded.
It could be thinned out a little bit.
I've got things that people can't even buy anymore.
When you first walk into the front door,
you see the stained glass windows in the door.
You see the living room furnished with Louis XIV
antique furniture,
and you see the Victorian staircase
that go up to the second floor.
All the paintings I did here,
is of my best friends and relatives.
- I'm Ceil, and I am Robert's best friend.
I've known him the longest of anyone.
I'm 91, going strong.
- That's me dressed up way back when I was young.
- He's a good man at heart and he loves the antiques.
Then he told me, he said,
"Well, I've got a hundred antique dolls."
I said, "A hundred? Why do you need a hundred of them?"
- I'm Ken, and I'm Bob's friend.
The outside of the home was stunning.
It was this beautiful second empire style house,
but upon entering the home,
I was completely distracted by the piles of trash
and antiques that filled up all of the space,
and in an odd way,
it was still marvelous just to see the house
hiding behind those things,
because it really is a beautiful home.
You have Eastlake Furniture, Louis XIV furniture,
and possibly some Napoleonic furniture all mixed in,
and piled over with tapestries.
Paintings from famous artists, paintings from Bob himself,
and there are textiles from the 16th century
that have water damage.
These are things that once they're gone,
we cannot replicate them.
His kitchen is a horror zone.
You walk in and there are mountains of trash.
It's like 20 years of food waste and garbage.
There is a crockpot in the kitchen, and upon looking at it,
you just assume, okay, that's just rice, just sitting there,
but it's not sitting there.
It is moving around and squirming.
- Now, I know his kitchen obviously is a disaster,
and that, I'm sorry to see.
(cat meows)
- We found a sleeping pad up in the primary bathroom
on the second floor where it appeared he had been sleeping,
and it took him several months to admit to me
that he was in fact sleeping in that bathroom.
- I mean, he's got rooms, he had beds.
What happened to the rooms with the beds?
Why is he sleeping on the floor in the bathroom?
- Been working on this house since '71,
and I'm still working on it.
I painted everything on the ceilings.
- Robert restored every room in that house.
That house is Robert Dielman's right arm.
- I just lived for this house. I don't know why, but I did.
- I'm Elizabeth and I'm a neighbor of Bob's.
I'm also a fine artist, photographer, sculptor,
and a master gardener.
Over the years, he's collected amazing antiques.
Some of these antiques go all the way back
to the former owners of the house that built the house.
- Bob has a large collection of Louis XIV bisques,
which are ceramic sculptures, that can be incredibly rare.
Some of them can go for anywhere from $500
to upwards of $20,000 a piece.
If I had to estimate how much the antiques are worth,
I would say somewhere between six to seven million
for all of the Eastlake furniture, all of the bisques,
the tapestries, the European artifacts,
and the American antiques.
- He's always finding something.
He can't go anywhere without finding something
that will work, you know.
He feels like he's feeding the belly.
He's not eating.
The house is eating, and I mean, that sounds crazy,
but these are things that belong there to him.
- God, yes, I'm proud of it.
I don't think anybody would ever take the time to do it.
- About 30 to 40 years ago,
the house was listed as one of the top five homes
in the St. Louis area,
and it was open to the public one weekend per month
for parlor tours.
Now, our goal is to turn it into a proper house museum.
- I'm Daulton, I'm Ken's spouse,
and I'm good friends with Bob,
and I would love to help him get his house cleaned out.
We're trying to mentally prepare him.
Hey, if you wanna open this as a museum,
museums aren't cluttered floor to ceiling.
- If it's to be open to the public as a house museum,
it needs to be navigatable,
and that is just simply not possible with more than half
of the stuff's still in the house.
- I think I almost painted myself out of this house.
There's so many paintings.
- He paints daily if he can,
and I'm always a little concerned that his paintings
are just everywhere.
I think a really good estimate was probably done,
maybe over 3,000 paintings.
- My occupation was a lot of things,
but I was mostly always an artist.
(bright music)
Here's one, this is actual artwork that I did.
I worked for Famous-Barr downtown
in the advertising department, and I did women's fashions,
men's fashion, shoes, bed,
everything you can imagine, I drew.
Men's sportswear, blazers, one for underwear.
I loved it because every day I got to go in there
and got to do artwork and create,
and I couldn't wait to get up and go to work.
I made my living off of it.
I was able to buy all these antiques and stuff,
so I think I was pretty good.
For "Playboy," I did a lot of the illustrations,
and from there Hugh Hefner got me jobs doing other things.
I did murals in his mansion,
and they were completely all naked women all over the place.
I mean, he furnished the naked women, so I didn't care.
- He introduced me to Vincent Price and then Vincent Price
started buying artwork from me too.
- So many of his paintings are in private collections
because they were commissions,
but most of his paintings are in his house,
and he stipulated that he wants those paintings
to remain in his house,
and that has always been a problem
as where are we going to store his paintings?
You're running out of room, Bob.
- We recently documented a lot of his paintings
and I ran them by an appraiser friend of mine.
He estimated the value of his art collection
to be around 2.8 million dollars.
- That painting there is when I told my mother, I was gay.
- It's a very private moment,
and I think the way he treated it was just very elegant.
- She had the expression on her face, "Oh my God."
It was horrible growing up as a gay person.
- I didn't find out that Robert was a gay man until after
working at Famous-Barr for a while,
and that's when I told him, I said,
"Well, hell, I had a crush on you," and it was the truth.
He is a good looking man.
He had problems with his family,
so he was denied some kind of relationships there,
and that could be part of the problem too.
Who knows?
- I met John in 1970.
Eventually we wound up living together and then he started
drinking and getting on drugs,
and from there on he went downhill so bad,
you wouldn't believe it.
We had a joint bank account,
and I found out later that he took all that money
and he put it in banks all over the United States.
He tried to poison me.
He put antifreeze in my milk.
He loosened all the bolts on my car.
I mean, he pulled things left and right.
John also gave me...
the AIDS.
Thank God I was healthy enough and caught it right away,
but then I had a nervous breakdown right after that.
I would sit at my desk and tears would just come out.
- That betrayal actually caused a lot of depression
on Robert's part.
It stuck with him over the years.
- That's when I decided I'm going to make this house
out to be the best museum in St. Louis.
- He collected because it took the place of John.
Robert started replacing John by buying things.
The house became his obsession.
The house became his life and his partner.
- I love this house more than I think I ever loved anything.
- In all possibility,
that house became his partner for life.
(gentle music)
- He has had two strokes. He has had a heart attack.
He was diagnosed with AIDS.
He has overcome a lot in his life,
but recently he was diagnosed with lung cancer.
- [Bob] I found out two months ago that I've got lung cancer
on my right side.
I gotta live with it and do my best.
- Bob is just a survivor.
He's made it his goal to save his house, whatever it takes.
To move out of the house would probably be the end of Bob.
- [Ken] Bob has a unique case.
He has acquired items of extreme providence
and historical value.
However, he has also acquired a ton of junk.
It's this weird balance between being an educated collector
and being a hoarder, and in Bob's case,
those things just come together.
- I'm Dr. Robin Zasio.
I'm a licensed clinical psychologist and I specialize
in helping people struggling with hoarding behaviors.
Hello. - Hello.
- Hi, I'm Dr. Zasio. Are you Bob?
- I'm Bob.
- Hi, Bob. It's very nice to meet you.
- Well come on in. - Thank you very much.
I see this beautiful Victorian house that is decorated
and colorful.
Tell me about this room, Bob.
- This room is the living room.
You've got a lot of stuff in here.
- I do because it goes into other different rooms and stuff.
It's just that it's not organized right.
- Okay.
So are you saying that everything in this room
is going to stay?
It's just gonna be redistributed to another room?
- A lot of it.
- A lot of it, okay. - Yes.
Do the other rooms in the house look like this room?
- The rooms are all like this.
- One of my first questions for Bob,
is how much of this stuff are we gonna get rid of?
And he basically tells me "None of it."
- This sofa here goes in the music room.
- Okay.
- That sofa there goes up on the second floor
with the two chairs.
- Okay.
Now is the music room filled like this?
- It's filled.
- So then how does the sofa fit in there
if it's already full?
- Well, you wait until it's cleaned up,
and you move it back then.
- I'm already very nervous because I don't think
he has any intention of getting rid of anything.
All right. Well, I'd like to see more of your house.
- Oh God.
- I ask Bob to take me to the next room,
which he says is the kitchen,
and we walk through the dining room,
which is covered in trash.
And it gets progressively worse as we enter
into the kitchen.
This is probably five feet tall,
and look at how much higher I am than this refrigerator,
which means we are standing on...
- I know...this is about two feet.
Of trash, - [Bob] Yes.
and food and bugs.
- Yes, that's true. (Dr. Zasio sighs)
- Out of the corner of my eye I see something moving,
and it's inside of a crockpot.
Bob? - [Bob] Yes?
- That pot of rice is moving.
- [Bob] Huh?
- The rice is moving.
- I know there's bugs in there.
- I think it's actually not rice.
I think it's maggots.
- Yeah, it is.
That's why I got those papers up there.
- There's fly strips that have been there for years
that are covered in various insects.
The odor is so strong in this room,
I'm having difficulty focusing,
but it's important for me to understand how this room
got to be so bad.
How about family? Do you have any family around?
- I do, but I have nothing to do with 'em.
- Okay, okay.
Have you ever had a lifelong partner or?
- I had one, but he took advantage of me, too.
- Oh, no.
- Yes, he was stealing, he was on drugs.
- He had a partner that he thought was gonna be lifelong,
who basically was abusive to him, took advantage of him.
- He tried to kill me, I don't know how many times.
- How did he try to kill you?
- Putting antifreeze in my milk.
- How did you find this stuff out?
- The detectives down at city hall.
They said if you find anything unusual,
take it down there and they'll test it for me.
So I tested, that's what it was.
- How did that affect you when this person
you were living with was taking advantage of you?
- I was shocked. - [Dr. Zasio] Mm hmm.
I mean,
I couldn't believe people would be that ornery and mean.
- It's clear that Bob has been through a lot,
and understandably suffered from an emotional breakdown
and depression.
- I was so depressed and everything,
and I had a bad back,
so I couldn't lift and I couldn't get anybody to help me.
- I do have to say,
I'm very glad we're here to help you because this is not...
- [Bob] I know it. I know.
- The way somebody should live.
It's hard to know why he has this history
of people taking advantage of him.
I suspect in part,
he's just a very nice guy and he's very trusting,
and he doesn't realize what he's gotten into
until he's too deep.
Wow, all these, all this artwork.
- It's mine.
- You've painted all of this?
- [Bob] Mm-hmm. - Wow.
Bob takes me up the stairway to the second floor,
and I am taken back by these magnificent pieces of work.
- That's my mother and that's my father.
- This is your mother? - [Bob] Mm hmm.
Mother and father?
- [Bob] Yes. - [Robin] Wow.
- This is my great grandmother.
- [Robin] You painted that too?
- [Bob] Sure.
- We absolutely need to get this house in order,
so that you can really honor all of this amazing stuff
that you have in this house.
Everywhere I look, there are these beautiful paintings,
and I thought it was important to point out to Bob
that we have to get this house cleaned out
so that he can restore this beautiful home.
This is the floor that you sleep on?
- Yes, I sleep in the bathroom on the floor.
- In the bathroom? - [Bob] Mm hmm.
Why?
- 'Cause that was the only place I could sleep.
I couldn't sleep in my original bedroom.
- Let's take a look.
So Bob, this is where you sleep?
- Right there.
- It was absolutely heartbreaking
to see where he was sleeping on the bathroom floor
and the type of bed that he created for himself.
You don't wanna be living on the edge all the time,
and this is living on the edge.
There is a sense of danger in this home,
- Mm hmm.
trip hazard, fire hazard, health hazard.
- [Bob] I know.
- Do you have any health issues right now?
- Oh, yes, I have lung cancer.
- Okay.
- They just diagnosed that about two months ago.
- And so what does that mean for you,
and your longevity?
- That means I gotta do a lot of work,
for a short time.
- All right, Bob.
The reality is that we have to get this house in order
for you, - Right.
for your mental health,
as well as for your physical health,
because we are in a crisis situation right now.
- Okay.
- It really scares me to think about him living in this home
and something happening to him.
So there are so many reasons why we have to help him
get this house in order so that he can be safe
and live out his remaining years comfortably.
(dramatic music)
- [Matt] Good morning everybody.
- [All] Good morning.
There's a lot of people.
I'm Matt Paxton.
I'm an extreme cleaning specialist.
For a guy that's got no family,
you got a lot of friends here.
- I hope so.
- [Ceil] He's my buddy.
- What a pair. Bob and Ceil.
I mean, they're a duo, man.
- Listen kid, you're gonna be surprised.
- Okay.
- They're hilarious. Deep friends.
50 years they've been friends.
What are your goals for this week?
What do you wanna have accomplished?
- I want you guys to help me get back on my feet
so I can really work again.
- Okay. So that's the goal. Keep working.
- Yeah, I still always wanna work.
- Okay.
Every hoarder tells you "I'm an artist.
I want my house to be a museum."
Bob's probably the first one that it actually could be.
He's hands down just unbelievable artist.
They both have an agenda here.
Bob wants his house clean so he can make it a museum
for a few people to come over and see his art.
And Ceil wants the house to be cleaned up
so Bob can have a life so that the world can see his art.
Because you're so creative and you're such a good artist.
I mean, you're an amazing artist,
and like any good artist,
everything in this yard has potential.
I mean, I'm literally standing on...
- [Bob] My mosaic.
- On your mosaics.
The rest of the world would say that's trash right?
But for you, you'll actually turn it into really nice art.
I know that.
The challenge is I gotta get rid of some stuff.
- Yes.
- To make space.
I mean, you can't even get in the first two feet,
I mean, the entryway...
So there's a door, two feet, and then the front door,
and the little two feet is hoarded.
I mean, there's just no space, and it's really cute.
It's really neat. It's very eclectic.
I mean, the dude's got talent.
He's prolific.
I mean, just nonstop art everywhere you look,
and you're going through it and it's beautiful.
And then you get to the kitchen,
and that's when you realize really how serious
this hoard is.
The kitchen is dangerous and nobody would want
their loved one living in the bedroom situation
you're in and the kitchen situation you're in.
- Well, I wouldn't need either.
I really tell you the truth.
- Okay, Dr. Zasio, any thoughts?
- Yeah, so my concern, and Matt,
I don't know if you know this, but when I first met you,
Bob, you told me that the goal was to clean your stuff,
and then redistribute it.
- Oh, that's the museum part.
- Well, this whole house is a museum of some sort, okay?
And I'm really concerned because we're not here to clean.
We're not housekeepers.
We're here to help you get rid of your stuff
to make this house livable.
- Right.
- Okay, so you are gonna have to make
some super hard decisions about good, valuable stuff,
that is going to need to go somewhere
if you're going to make this house livable.
- Oh, that's true. Sure.
- Okay, so I'm glad to hear that, okay?
And as Matt said, we have Steri-Clean here,
and of course you have your friends
who are pretty much like family now.
So we have Ceil and Ceil's caretaker, Angela.
We have Daulton, and we have Ken.
And I'm actually gonna start with you Ceil,
to see how you are feeling about what's to come.
- I am so pleased that this is happening for Robert.
I've loved his paintings since the first day I met him
and I told him I wanted to be his patron,
and that was the God's honest truth.
I said, "If I had the money, you wouldn't be working here.
You'd be working for me," and I meant it.
- We're here because you're an artist
and we're stuck because you're an artist, right?
- Yeah.
- So I think today my goal is the kitchen
and the front hallway and some of the yard,
to give us some space to clean. - Oh that...
I'd love to get that done today.
And then we'll have the auctioneer come
and look at all of your art.
I think this is like any good masterpiece.
We're not really sure how it's gonna turn out.
I hope this clean out is beautiful when we're done. Okay?
- Let's go. - All right.
- You guys ready?
Yeah, all the way up the steps.
It's all cat food.
So all of this will go. Let's just pull this out.
Open that door and go.
This is a new one for me.
We started cleaning out the back door,
and it was a big pile of cat food boxes and tins.
We cleaned for about five minutes,
and got to the bottom of the door,
and realized it was a window.
Is that a window? Where's the door?
That's a window. This is the door.
Okay.
Door opened right up and we were able to get the team in,
and they just started cleaning everything out
as fast as we could.
(dramatic music)
- How did that kitchen get so messy, Robert?
- It was very easy.
(both laugh)
- [Ceil] Now see if I'd been here,
you'd had that kitchen clean.
- I know I would. - Cause I would...
You wouldn't have ever let me do it.
(cans clanging)
- [Matt] I'm gonna follow you through the kitchen.
- [Daulton] Oh, that smell. - Yeah.
- The smell is, it's there.
(Ken retches)
- [Ken] Oh God. - [Daulton] Yeah.
- [Daulton] He's got a queasy stomach, so.
- [Matt] Oh okay, well then this is gonna be fun.
- [Ken] Oh God.
- [Daulton] He may need to go out.
You gonna make it or no?
- [Ken] Oh the smell is overwhelming.
Yeah, no I need to see that stuff.
- [Matt] If you need to not go in there, tell me, okay?
- [Ken] We will push on. - [Matt] Alright.
We need to see how bad this is.
- [Daulton] I got a stronger stomach than him.
- [Matt] Yeah. So I'll definitely see it.
- Ken and Daulton are the executors of this trust,
and it's important that they actually see how Bob is living,
because they are actually legally responsible for him.
All right.
They paused for a second just so we can come in and see it.
(Ken retches)
- [Ken] I can't. I can't.
- [Matt] Ken lasted about five seconds.
He ran past me, actually more elevated past me.
He just took off.
- [Ken] It smells terrible.
- [Daulton] Yeah, no, you wanna keep going outta the house?
- [Ken] I've never smelled anything that bad. Oh my God.
- [Daulton] I will hold my breath.
I shouldn't laugh.
- [Ken] My stomach. I just started retching.
There were so many bugs and mold and God knows what,
just everywhere.
Once the surface has been moved
and you can see what's under it,
the garbage that's probably 10 or 20 years old.
It just hit me that this is a much, much worse situation,
than I ever imagined it would be.
(people chattering)
(cans clanking)
- [Matt] I don't know if that's maggots or rice.
- [Daulton] Ew. That looks like maggots.
- Oh, it's maggots.
- [Daulton] That's for sure, man. That is not rice.
- That rice is moving.
- [Daulton] Dr. Zasio was not exaggerating.
- No, that's pretty rough.
- [Daulton] Oh my.
- [Matt] This is not lazy. This is not doable by yourself.
- [Daulton] Mm hmm. No, not at all.
- It's pretty thick. It's dense.
- [Daulton] It's a foot of trash.
- It's a foot. Yeah.
We're standing on a foot of trash,
and years and years and years of depression,
and that's what this is. - Mm hmm.
You know, I didn't really understand
till we got back outside,
and I could see it in Ken's eyes.
I mean, he was truly concerned for Bob.
- He's been living this way for so long.
And it's... - Yeah.
- He's such a crazy person.
- You're having the normal reaction.
Bob doesn't feel that way.
Ken really cares about Bob,
and what I'm happy about is that you could see
how much it actually bothered Ken.
And so that actually means hey,
he really does care about Bob.
- I had seen it before they started cleaning,
and the smell wasn't as bad,
but once they took off that top layer
and I could see the garbage that was 10 and 20 years old,
I can't believe you live this way.
This breaks my heart for you.
- Don't do that to me.
- No, Bob, I care about you and I look up to you,
and I want you to have a peaceful life.
And this is not peaceful this is,
this needs to change.
- I know, I know that.
- He flat said to him, he's like
"Look, man, you can't live like this.
We can't let you live in a space like this.
We gotta do more."
- Bob, I've promised you that I'm going to help you
save this house.
We've agreed to take on the house museum, but right now,
I need the focus to be on saving you from this situation.
- Hmm?
- He's just concerned that this will fail. This is a lot.
He's realizing, I think seeing the kitchen
is really overwhelming to realize,
I don't think he understood how bad
the living condition was.
He doesn't want you to stay in this living condition.
- Now, I want you to know that I can take care of myself.
I can cook for myself. I can clean.
I've done it all my life.
I went through strokes. I went through mental breakdowns.
- Hold one second. Let's update Dr. Zasio.
So I just took Ken and Daulton inside,
and I don't think Ken really understood
how bad the situation was.
- I want to save this house as a museum,
but we need to save Bob from it first.
- [Dr. Zasio] Mm hmm. And if this isn't successful,
we're gonna have to find a different living arrangement.
I'm sorry, I'm overwhelmed right now.
- [Dr. Zasio] Yeah, yeah. - [Matt] It is overwhelming.
- It is overwhelming.
- I'm just, I'm concerned for his safety in there.
It's disgusting. I don't want him to live like this.
- In the very beginning,
Ken mentioned that his whole goal was to get this house
into museum shape,
that they want to get this house restored.
At this point, I think his focus has changed,
and he's more concerned about getting the house
in shape for Bob.
There's gonna be so much involved in moving forward,
and I'm so glad that you're here.
It really was a miracle from God that you were able
to become friends with Bob,
because I think that if it wasn't for you,
that he would've died in this hoard.
Because some of the things, Bob,
that you did tell me is that the condition,
specifically of the kitchen,
was caused by a mental breakdown,
and a very, very severe depression.
And while I have worked,
25 years with people who are depressed,
it's not typical that you go into this type of state,
but essentially he gave up.
(Bob sobs) - [Dr. Zasio] Can I? Can I?
- I'm sorry.
- [Matt] It's okay.
- No, I haven't let it out yet.
- I'm just gonna ask if I could have
a little bit of time with you Bob alone.
- Sure.
- [Robin] Would that be okay?
- Yes.
- Bob is starting to sob,
and it's primarily because all the memories of his trauma
and his depression is starting to come up.
I hope with that and the cleanup,
it's not too much for him.
(dramatic music)
- [Robin] What's coming up for you?
- Well, I've held it back for so long,
you know,
and I had nobody to talk to, anything else,
what's going on?
So I just held it in.
- Did it start with John?
- Yes.
- I mean, - [Bob] Yes.
he stole from you, he tried to kill you.
- Yes.
- That alone had to be extremely painful.
- It was.
- What happened after John left?
- Well, I met other people,
and they started taking advantage of me too.
- There is this sense when I look at the home,
and especially that kitchen that you had given up.
- I did.
I said, "There's no hope.
Somebody's just gonna come in here and sell everything
and I'm gonna lose it."
- Bob is a very emotional man who's been holding in a lot
of stuff for a very long time.
The conditions that you've been living in do not represent
who you are.
- No.
- And what you deserve in life, Bob.
- That's right.
- And it sounds like you were taken out so quickly
with the depression that there was really no chance of you
seeing that maybe you could go get therapy,
maybe medication, get some support.
None of that.
- No, I didn't think I'd get it anyway,
so I just didn't do it.
- Did you think you were gonna die?
- Yes, in a way I said, "If I keep doing this, I will."
- Bob, it is your time to shine. It really is.
Look at all of these people who have come to help you,
taking trash can after trash can of stuff out,
that you do don't need,
that you do not need because it's garbage.
Right?
And you don't need to live in garbage.
So, with what you've seen so far,
do you feel good about what's happened?
- I'm not even paying any attention.
- Well, we know there's about 15 people in your house,
bringing out garbage, so you feel good about that, right?
- I'm just not looking.
(both laugh)
- All right. All right. I'm here for you.
- I know you are.
- Yeah.
And I'm glad that you're starting to let things out,
because that's what this process is about.
Okay?
- So we're gonna be walking things past you
here on the table,
and Abagael and the guys are gonna help you
make some choices.
- I'm willing to give up some of this.
- You're ready to go?
- Yes.
- Now I think food is the toss. Is that right?
- I've never used it. No. Go ahead.
Throw it away. You can throw that away.
Save that one.
You can throw that one away.
Sell, I'm gonna sell those.
- [Abagael] Sell 'em?
Here. I can take some.
- I really hope this turns out to be a success story,
and I think it can be, but it's going to be up to Bob.
- I don't need that.
- He's going to have to knuckle down and make thousands
and thousands of decisions,
because at least 60% of this stuff is gonna have to go.
- Bob, I think this is kind of gross.
I don't know that it's worth cleaning up.
It's very beautiful how you've created it,
but it's covered in cat and mouse poop,
and it has a very strong smell to it, once again.
- [Abagael] This is really contaminated.
- Okay, go ahead.
- [Abagael] Okay, I'm sorry.
- How are we doing?
- Well, how are you doing?
- Yeah, how are you doing personally, first?
- Well, I have to think so much.
I haven't had time to think.
- Okay.
- So that's our keep right here.
- Oh, okay.
That's it. Okay, Well, we're doing all right then.
I mean, the dumpster's almost half full.
That's good. We just need four more of those.
We'll be all right.
A, B, or C?
What's he get on this last hour?
- I'm giving him an A. - All right.
- The same, yeah.
- A plus. - A plus.
- Woo.
- What would you give yourself A, B, or C?
- I have no idea.
- Okay, well, everybody else said you did good.
Believe it or not, I think it was a good first day.
I think let's wrap it up and call it a day,
and we'll get back tomorrow and start over again
in the morning.
(trash clatters)
- [Matt] All right.
This is the place I identify that has a lot of opportunity
for us to make some space.
- [Bob] Mm-hmm.
- [Matt] What can go in here?
- What can go?
Oh, but that's what I'm gonna do the clothes first.
- Clothes.
Well and I'm realizing now, paint...
- Now, this is the porch paint. - Okay.
This is the front of the house.
- Yeah.
- [Bob] So, yes.
- The new cans I would like to save.
Today we really need to focus on space.
Bob has a lot of goals for this house.
He wants it to be a museum.
He wants it to be a lot of things, but for us,
we just need it to be a safe home for Bob.
And to do that,
we gotta get a lot of the volume outta here.
And the only way to do that is to really get all the trash
out of the basement.
There is a ton of trash in the basement.
And if I can get Bob to agree very quickly
to get rid of this stuff,
then we should be able to make enough space
to get all the stuff he's not sure about upstairs
and store it down in the basement.
- This can be thrown away. This can be thrown away.
This can be thrown away.
- Nice, so you're doing good pace on this actually.
- That can go.
- Ken, I know you have an eye probably for how this room
should be set up.
Do you envision all the furniture that's in here
fitting in here?
- There's too much furniture in this space.
I think two sofas on either side of the fireplace.
One chair in each window.
- So if we had two sofas and two chairs,
- [Bob] Mm hmm.
what do we do with the other furniture?
- Well, I'll tell you what.
See that?
- [Katherine] Yes.
- That with the marble top - Mm hmm.
that goes right there in the dining room.
- Right.
So you see the challenge because the dining room
is also full.
- [Bob] Right, every room is full.
- So, right.
So do you have any thoughts on what could permanently exit?
- Permanently?
- Permanently leave the home?
Any thoughts?
- Oh God. I have to go through it.
- As I was challenging Bob in the room
as to what he could eliminate,
the only solution he had was to move things to rooms
that were already cluttered.
So you have no desire to let go
of any of the large pieces in here?
- [Bob] No. - [Katherine] Okay.
- We're running out of time,
so we need to get some of the other things outta the house
and then we can rearrange it later.
- You mean get rid of them?
- Some of 'em, Yes. Yes. - Okay.
- Is that where it gets a little too real?
- Yes because, - Yeah.
I don't want it to disappear because I'll never get it back.
- It does feel like we're going in circles with Bob,
because these are valuable items that fit the period
of this house.
So it's hard to argue about throwing these things
in the trash.
So ultimately we still don't have a solution.
- Robert, Robert. - What?
- [Ceil] What am I gonna do with you?
- Nothing.
- Keep one set here, the other set he wants,
but no more than two sets.
- As I always said,
once it's set up with everything that should be in the rooms
and it looks like the real Victorian room,
I will get rid of it.
But until then, I'm not gonna get rid of the stuff.
And then here's a piece that really belongs here, gone.
- Well, Robert,
can you decide now exactly what piece has to be where?
- Listen, this goes in the music room.
I know that.
This goes up in the second floor.
- Then everything else that you are not gonna be
putting in those rooms should go.
- Where to?
- Let them sell it.
- [Bob] No!
- I mean, sometimes it just comes down to physics.
Two objects cannot occupy the same space.
- That's right.
- And I cannot stand there to get to that jacket
that can go, because these items are here.
- I know Bob is struggling in there now,
and they're not sure if they can get this cleared up.
- I'm not getting rid of it, I'll tell you that.
- [Katherine] No.
- The only way he's gonna have a home here,
is he has to be able to let go.
- I'm Bob.
I'm a commercial artist,
and I've been restoring this Victorian house for 51 years.
- [Robin] Bob, that pot of rice is moving.
(Ken retches)
- [Ken] I can't, I can't.
- [Matt] It's pretty thick.
We're standing on a foot of trash,
years and years and years of depression,
and that's what this is. - [Daulton] Mm hmm.
- I want to save this house as a museum,
but we need to save Bob from it first.
- You're making me cry.
- He's going to have to knuckle down and make thousands
and thousands of decisions,
because at least 60% of this stuff is gonna have to go.
- There's too much furniture in this space.
- I'm not getting rid of it. I'll tell you that.
- You know, we're running out of time.
- So this is um...kind of a Groundhog Day for me in that
this is the same conversation that we had
when I first met him.
And that is he really wants to just
sort of, redistribute the stuff.
He's very crystal clear he's not gonna let this stuff go.
But what are our options is where we're at
in terms of being able to sell his stuff?
- Well, unfortunately, he's right.
The frames have financial value.
- Yes, it does.
- Bob probably has a hundred grand worth of frames
in this house.
He's got, gosh, more than a thousand frames
that are worth between 50 to 75 bucks a piece.
So we can't just throw 'em away.
I'm making a frame room in the basement.
He actually did let go of about 90% of his clothes
- [Robin] Hmm. in the basement this morning.
- Good job, Bob.
- So he's made space for that.
My concern here is there's a lot of big furniture
that won't sell.
It's a very hard resell market on the furniture.
- He's already said the furniture's not going, period.
- Yeah, I don't know where it goes.
- He actually knows where the pieces go,
- [Ceil] Yeah.
but we were explaining that they go into rooms
that aren't cleared yet.
- So what he was hoping, and again,
I'm just relaying what Bob is asking for,
is to take everything out and put it on the lawn,
let him look at it, sort through it, make his decisions,
and then bring it back in again.
- I'm okay with pulling stuff in the...
- See what happens.
- But I'm just gonna tell you it's gonna fail.
That method will fail for us.
It'll make this room look good,
but then we're gonna be like, what do we do with it?
We're gonna have the same question we have right now.
We're just gonna have it on the lawn.
He's being really stubborn and he wants to take
everything outta the house.
So I said, "Hey man, I'll do it for you."
I go, "This plan is gonna fail,
but I'm happy to do it for you."
So all we're gonna do is put everything outside
and then we're gonna put it all back in the house.
And you're gonna say it doesn't fit.
And I'm telling you right now, it doesn't fit.
I'm hoping you're going to let me toss some of this
furniture at the end of the day.
That's my goal.
If you don't, that's up to y'all.
But I'm gonna do what he said.
Let's get everything outta here.
Let's set it up the way he wants it and then let's see
what we're left with.
- That's a good idea. Really a good idea.
- [Matt] Adam. - Hey, Matt.
- Good to see you again. - Good to see you.
- Thanks for coming.
- Yeah, my pleasure.
- All right.
Bob's goal is that his art will live on
well beyond his years.
And if we sell a lot of this stuff,
that cash will actually help that to happen.
There's a whole lot of everything.
- Yeah, I'd say so.
- What's your vibe? What are you feeling?
- I'd like to look at this portrait.
Not too shabby. Handsome.
I'm Adam Veil, a fine art specialist,
at Freeman's Auction House in Philadelphia.
- So, believe it or not, this is his bedroom.
It's a former bathroom.
- It was a little bit of everything.
A whole lot of everything.
Some modest value, in some of the paintings I saw.
- E.H. Windred, that's right.
All right, Walk me through it. What is this?
- Windred was a British artist, late 19th,
early 20th century,
known for doing exactly this kind of thing,
racing pigeons, the heyday of professional pigeon races,
and pigeon fanciers.
They would ask the artist to come to their house,
and he would paint portraits of their prize pigeons.
- [Matt] Wow.
- Yeah, the pigeon pictures were interesting.
1920s, 1930s, they're the heyday
of professional pigeon racing.
I'd say maybe one to $3,000 for the pair together.
- [Adam] Huh.
- All right. Have you ever seen something like this?
- I have not. I have not. Impressive.
- [Matt] That's saying something.
- Gosh.
Wow is he prolific.
- Yeah, I mean, it goes over there.
It goes way over here. - [Adam] Huh.
There's hundreds of paintings over here.
- And not just singlemindedly prolific.
I mean I see landscapes, portraits, urban scenes.
- His work is good.
- It is. There is a lot to recommend his paintings.
He's a strong draftsman,
has certainly a vision for far reaching subject matter.
- [Matt] He's had a complicated life.
- Yeah and he just poured his heart and soul
into creating and collecting.
- Yeah.
- 90% of the collection is the homeowner's own work.
And while there's a lot to be said about it positively,
of course, that doesn't always translate into auction value.
- All right, Bob, this is my buddy Adam,
from Freeman's Auction.
- Hi Bob, a pleasure.
- He is both a art historian and an auctioneer,
so he can handle both sides of is it good art?
And what can it sell for?
Which are, as you know, two separate things.
- [Bob] Mm hmm.
Where did you get those two ducks? Pigeons, sorry.
- [Adam] Two pigeons. - [Matt] Yeah.
- Oh, I bought that in England.
- You did?
- Sure. Makes sense.
British artist.
- Yes.
- They actually have some value.
- [Bob] They do? - They do.
Those are worth about a thousand to 3,000 a piece,
believe it or not.
(Bob laughs)
You probably do have a million dollars worth of stuff
in this house, believe it or not.
But it's 50 bucks at a time.
We couldn't find one item worth a million dollars.
But who's to say that there's not,
- [Adam] Sure. Because we didn't get
to 90% of the house because it's still so full.
- Mm hmm.
So we still have a lot of work to do.
- Okay.
- He's gonna be on call with Freeman's all week.
- Anything that turns up, send me photos.
Happy to dig into it.
- Well, let's get some pictures.
We have to get to 'em, unfortunately.
- Yes.
So we'll get some pictures to him throughout the week
and he'll let us know.
- And we would be delighted to review anything of course.
- Currently there's just a lot of items
worth a little bit of money and that does add up.
I mean, I think Freeman's could probably sell,
fifty to a hundred thousand dollars worth of stuff in here.
And then I've got about three different other auction houses
that do the more fifty to a hundred dollars items.
And I would probably bring them in to help sell
a lot of that stuff.
So, I mean, there's probably $750,000 worth of contents
in this house, but you gotta do it a dollar at a time.
- Bob, real pleasure. - Oh same here.
Delighted.
- I think the solution here,
is we're gonna start to pull a lot of smaller items
out of these rooms that need to be sold.
But what's nice is those smaller auction houses will come
and take the entire room - [Bob] Mm hmm.
and you don't have to worry about it,
and then you just get a percentage.
And so that makes it a little easier they do all the work.
- [Bob] Right. We'll give him the plan,
we'll set up the calls for the people,
but he's gonna have to get all this stuff on a truck
and get it sold.
I think we'll help him identify a lot of the items
the next couple days.
All right, I'm gonna stop you here,
'cause I'm hoping I can do something here.
- Oh, well this whole thing can go.
- Bob, can I hug you?
That's exactly what I was hoping you would say.
Guys, that's gonna give us enough space for all the frames.
- [Ken] A ton of space, yeah.
- All these frames over here.
We're gonna reorganize in here now,
and we can keep all the frames upstairs down here now.
- Bob, I'm so proud of you.
This is awesome. This is amazing.
- I think we could fill that dumpster now.
(dramatic music)
(Bob pants)
- Bob, are you having trouble breathing right now?
- Hmm?
- Can you take some deep breaths?
- I am.
- [Ken] Okay, let's just take a moment to breathe.
- Bob's working really hard today and had some really great
success letting go of things in the basement.
At this point though, he's reporting shortness of breath.
- [Tim] How are you, sir?
- [Bob] Hmm? - How are you?
- [Bob] Okay.
- You're out of breath. A little winded?
- It's that lung thing.
- Yeah, let's just check your pulse.
- Due to Bob's lung cancer,
he does have episodes where he has shortness of breathing.
Well, Tim's here, he just wants to do a couple checks on ya.
- Can you take a deep breath, sir?
There we go. Let it out.
No chest pressure? No chest pain.
- No. - Okay.
All right. Let's just stay outside for a little while, sir.
- Okay. You're just winded.
- Fortunately, Bob was okay.
We just needed to let him rest and get hydrated.
- I'm much better right now. - Okay.
- We have a ton of art, as you all know.
I need to get it somewhere.
Is there a solution of storing, selling?
There's complicated things with the trust.
What are our options?
- I'm not allowed to sell any of the historic paintings
that Bob has done, including portraits, landscapes.
I'm only licensed to sell his abstract work.
- [Elizabeth] Exactly. So with those ones,
we could find a gallery to lend them to.
We could sell them, but the other ones,
we are kind of stuck with them.
- Stuck, okay.
- I've always felt that we need to take
all of those paintings out of the house, put 'em in storage.
So if we can figure out a way to keep them
where they would be safe,
I'm sure Bob would agree with that.
He just doesn't want everything to be split up
and sold individually.
It's all part and parcel of the estate.
- He wants it as one collection.
- We have all these paintings in the basement
and they have substantial value.
That basement's not a place to keep those.
They need to be in a more secure area with a dry situation,
temperature controlled.
I mean that's a financial asset.
Look, I've got movers that could come tomorrow,
but we'd have to have somewhere to take it.
That's the problem. So can you make some calls?
- I'll make a few calls.
- This one won't really sell regardless.
There's nothing of value here. I would let that go.
- I'm gonna use them in the house.
- I wouldn't sit on those.
They need to be, at best, they need to be restored.
- So Bob, how about this?
We get rid of this one. I'll have this one reupholstered.
- I don't want, that's the original upholstery...
- But it's ruined.
- It is not. That stain can be cleaned off.
- Well, I'm more worried about the...
there's um... I'll just say it very...
I'm trying to be eloquent here,
but this whole house smells like cat piss.
And so you got a couch just filled with cat pee,
and that is not something that anyone should sit on.
- I'm not doing it. I'm sorry.
- If we are gonna raise this to the level of a museum,
you gotta have quality stuff in here.
- I'm saving this one. I'll tell you that.
- We keep having the same conversation over and over
about the sofa and the chairs.
He thinks they're nice.
I think they're covered in cat pee,
and mouse poop and tomato, tomato,
either way, we're spending time arguing about it.
To me, throw it away. Let's restore that.
Move on to the other 18 couches.
- I wanna save it. I'm sorry.
- [Matt] Okay. I respect your opinion.
- [Bob] Okay.
- It's your stuff at the end of the day.
- [Bob] Right. - Okay.
- That's it.
- Still love you, man. Happy birthday.
- Thanks.
- All right, let's keep moving.
- I don't need that one.
- Fantastic. Christmas tree.
- [Daulton] Keeping it? - Yeah.
- [Daulton] Making progress. - Yes.
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪ - [Bob] I knew it.
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
♪ Happy birthday dear Bob ♪
♪ Happy birthday to you ♪
- Yay. (all clapping)
- Can I change
- 78.
- This whole project has been about honoring Bob
and today is his birthday.
So we got him a cake,
sang him happy birthday and let him know
that he is a really special guy.
- We'll let you take more than one breath.
(all cheer)
(dramatic music)
- So halfway through the cleanup,
we've still got a pretty full upstairs.
Here is my biggest concern.
It turns out you've got about a half million dollars,
if not more worth of paintings in the basement.
That's a significant asset.
And having them in the basement where they can get destroyed
by water is concerning to me.
Can you guys tell us what you guys did last night?
- Yeah, last night we rented
a temperature controlled storage unit with security.
It is large enough to fit a good portion of everything.
- No, that's fine with me.
- Okay.
- Great.
- So Bob, all the stuff,
whether it be in the basement or going to a storage unit,
what is the end goal with all these paintings?
- I said all abstracts can be sold to make profit
for the museum.
- [Robin] Okay.
- But none of the landscapes can be sold, correct?
- Nope.
- You've put a block on the best paintings,
the ones that would catch the most money.
- Yes, I did. I know.
- Why do you not want any of the landscapes or portraits
to be sold?
- Because I think the museum will profit from it.
- Do you think that you are being realistic
in this plan as well?
- Maybe not, but I still wanna do that.
I'm sorry.
- No, it's your stuff. We're here to honor you.
- [Bob] No.
But we just also want to be the voice of truth
and reality too.
- The reason why I'm doing that is 'cause I really want this
to be outstanding and the way I visualized it.
- [Matt] His vision of this living museum is now
really distorting reality.
And in other hoarding situations,
you would push harder.
But this dude had a stroke, he has cancer, he's 87.
At some point it's not healthy to push this man.
And he's got one vision to make this house a living museum
before he passes away.
I don't know that it's gonna come to fruition
while he's alive because he's holding onto too many things.
Now I was your cleaner, now I'm your friend.
I'm gonna tell you these couches are nasty,
- [Robin] Mm hmm. and they don't equate to
the rest of your vision.
- Just look at the floor alone.
There's rodent waste all over the floor.
There's cat waste on the floor.
I mean, we're all standing in it.
- I've been doing this 20 years
and I've never gotten sick in a house,
I've got an eye infection after two days in this house.
Everything is covered in cat urine and mouse feces.
And he's like, "Ah, there's nothing wrong here."
And I'm like, "Dude, I've got an eye infection,
because of your house."
It's dirty.
I want this ultimate museum to be the vision that you have.
And I think some of the furniture's holding us back.
- I don't care.
They belong to the museum
and I'm not gonna get rid of them.
- I don't wanna argue all day.
I'll say that we have a chance,
if you're okay with us moving these paintings,
I would love to get the paintings outta the basement.
Like ASAP.
- That's fine with me.
That's perfectly okay. - [Matt] Okay.
- And then that gives us now then two spaces.
One storage of stuff we're not sure on.
And then all the stuff you want to sell
can go into that back room there.
(dramatic music)
(door slams)
After working with you guys for a couple days. I get it.
When I first met you, I was like,
well what's in it for them?
Why are they so involved with Bob?
I mean, you're not technically blood family.
Why are you so dedicated to Bob?
- It's our social obligation to help out
our fellow members of our community.
Growing up gay in the Midwest can be really hard
for a lot of people.
And some of us have been rejected by our families.
Some of us have lost everything because of it.
- Bob came out in the 50s.
- He did.
He was a pioneer and he advocated for social change,
which allowed us to get married eventually.
He was part of that movement.
It's something that us gay men do.
We look out for each other and we make sure that we're okay,
because people like Bob don't have families to rely on.
And maybe someday someone will do the same for us
in our old age.
- On the first day I brought you into the kitchen,
you threw up and then you cried and then you stayed.
That's family as far as I'm concerned.
I mean, y'all have been more involved
than a lot of family members we do get.
I hope this will continue to support your community,
and then the community of St. Louis as a whole.
And I hope that Bob gets seen.
I hope his art gets seen and appreciated.
- So he said this is a project.
How many projects did you guys keep yesterday?
- Quite a few.
- You've already kept quite a few projects.
- Do you know where the tail is for this?
- No, it was in there.
- If we can't find the tail, can we get rid of it?
- No. It's a piece of artwork.
Somebody can fix it.
- Well, someone could fix it.
Do you want you to be the person that fixes it?
- No. I'd rather just give it to somebody.
- Could we donate this?
- Yes.
- [Daulton] What's that?
- [Ceil] Oh, you don't know the design thing he did.
- Design for a tea cup.
- [Daulton] You wanna keep it?
- [Bob] No. - No?
- [Ceil] Nah.
- We spent a second day pulling items
out of the living room.
Ceil and Bob were actually making good choices.
- Donate it.
- Keep one of them in case we need it.
- That's a good idea.
- [Daulton] Sound good?
- But Bob is very slow.
He may make a good choice,
but it takes a long time to get there.
- [Daulton] Can I take a smell?
- Yeah, let's do a smell test on those.
- [Daulton] Let me see those.
- [Bob] All old fabric has that odor to it.
- [Daulton] Here you give it a smell.
This one's stronger than everything else.
- This is antique.
- I am not smelling that by the way.
- Well it could be washed.
- Can those be washed? - [Bob] Sure.
- [Ceil] Yeah, this could be washed.
- [Daulton] Has to be hand washed.
- That's not bad, you just shush 'em.
You just shush 'em.
- Add this to the wash pile,
and we'll have a neutral nose come through.
- [Ceil] Yeah, yeah go from there, go from there.
We'll take a look at that again.
- We have all of these things over here.
All the furniture items with nowhere to go inside the house.
There's only so much room.
We don't wanna store that furniture in the basement,
'cause it's only gonna get more damaged.
So are we able to reassess the furniture over here
and really try to pare it down
to see what we can actually...
- I'll give up painting and save my...
- To save the furniture?
- Yes, I will.
- You spend all day painting and being creative.
If you don't have a space to be creative, I mean,
that's you.
You like this furniture more than you like yourself.
- No, no, it's not that.
I need those furniture.
And then when I decided I told you I will get rid of them.
- Do you mind if we just take another glance
at it and see if there's anything
that you might wanna reconsider?
- I'm gonna look, but I might not say anything.
I'll tell you.
- Okay, well let's try. Right?
- Okay.
- It doesn't hurt to try. - [Ceil] In the meantime.
- What we're dealing with is bringing everything back in
and there not being enough space for those pieces.
It's gonna look pretty chaotic in there.
And I went through that with him and said,
"It's not gonna look like a room.
It's gonna look like a storage place."
- So that one does not match any of the ones out here.
I think this chair, this chair and both of those chairs,
I think those ones can go.
You've got plenty of other furniture to decorate.
You have better furniture to decorate.
- Well, I don't mind that these two go.
- So those two and these two?
- But there's one in there that matches,
close to the one that I want to reupholster.
So can I go in there and look and see what it is
and then come back out?
- He wants to see everything.
He wants to talk about everything.
And we just don't have time to go through each item.
There are thousands upon thousands of items
left in the house and he wants to talk
for five or ten minutes about each one.
At that rate, we won't be done in God knows how long.
I think we might be taking too much time doing this.
They're only going to be here one more day.
This is the chair you asked me to bring from the music room.
- Yeah.
- Can you get some... This is the one that matches it,
close to it.
- They don't match. They've got different designs.
- No, I know.
- This is gonna be a museum.
The chairs have to match and these don't match.
- Wait.
- [Ken] You're not gonna reupholster it.
- Yes, I am.
- [Ken] How many years have you had it for?
- Huh?
- How many years have you had it for?
- That's why I got the fabric in there and all the gilding.
- When did you get that?
- The fabrics?
- [Ken] 10 Years ago? 20 years ago?
- No.
- You're never gonna do it.
- [Bob] Yes, I am.
- Can we just throw these away?
- No, not gonna throw 'em away.
- I thought Bob and I shared the same vision for the museum,
and I think in his head there is a vision he has
for the museum,
and then there's the vision he has
for keeping all of his stuff.
And the two are not compatible.
Could you sell them?
- Yes, but I'm not gonna throw...
Listen, you're throwing history away.
- These aren't history. These weren't part of the house.
- Oh, the hell if it is.
And they're antique history and people can use them.
- Bob, I'm sorry if I'm yelling.
I'm sorry that we're arguing.
I care about you,
and I don't want you to live in filth, okay?
- Can we let them go?
- Not throw 'em in a dumpster.
- [Abagael] Okay.
- I'm not gonna throw history away.
I'm tired of throwing history away.
- Bob, I'll be honest with you,
I am not going to help you restore these.
These are too far gone and my time
is more valuable than trash.
I'm sorry.
- Oh, no they're not.
- You bought them with the intention to reupholster them,
but how long ago do you think that was?
- I have an upholsterer now that I found,
that does beautiful work.
He's over south St. Louis here somewhere.
- And how much does he charge? You're on a fixed income.
- $90 A chair just to cover those.
- Yeah, we're looking at a thousand dollars right here.
- I'll make it.
- Sorry, give me a quick update.
- Matt, we're talking about how these cushions
are infested with mites.
They are saturated with feces.
- Urine and mites, yes.
- And they are infested with bugs.
- [Bob] Oh, there's no feces on there.
- There's termite tracks on 'em. - [Matt] Well expensive.
Bob wants to pay to have them fixed,
but I'm telling him I'm not gonna help him with this.
- We were having an argument about the chairs and the sofa,
and I needed to go and get my eye checked out
and get some medicine.
And I went to the doctors across town, came back,
and we were having the same argument about chairs.
We could probably buy Victorian chairs
that are in better condition
for less than it would cost to repair 'em.
- You're not gonna throw 'em away.
I'm telling you, you're not gonna throw 'em away.
- Because for his idea of this house being a museum,
this stuff needs to be good or that vision doesn't work.
And that's why you see someone like Bob
really holding on to that theory.
- We could put 'em out on the curb and put a sign
that says "Free."
Someone will come take 'em. - [Bob] No.
He's been holding onto that vision of making this
a house museum for 20 years.
And if all of a sudden everything is ruined,
and it's not museum quality,
then his 20 year quest is BS.
And that's where a lot of this is coming from.
I'd be upset too.
- You've had a lot of loss in your life
with individuals taking things from you.
You are always opening yourself up to people
and showing kindness.
- I do. I like people.
- I know and it's wonderful,
but you have to be careful.
- Oh, I know, but I'm not a good judge.
- I know, I know.
And thank you for your willingness to
have this conversation and to be open.
Bob loves people. He trusts everyone.
But the problem is he doesn't see through people
until he's actually hurt.
So I hope that he'll be more careful in the future
about who he lets into his life.
I really appreciate that you recognize
that that is one of your areas
that you really need to strengthen.
I made some good progress with Bob therapeutically.
He now is saying that he needs to be more careful
and is very well aware of that.
We are going to offer you what's called aftercare.
And aftercare is going to involve connecting you
with a therapist that you can talk with such as myself,
so that you can continue to process your depression
or anxiety or trauma.
- Oh, I'm willing for that. Of course.
- All right. You ready to get back to work?
- [Bob] Oh, I sure am.
- Okay, let's go.
I am so happy that he is accepting aftercare,
because he's never had any therapy.
He's never processed some of the events
that have happened to him.
And I think that he'll really benefit for his future.
- Oh, I just had that reupholstered.
- That is definitely a mouse nest.
And we pulled about 18 mice out of the pathway
going to that piece of furniture.
And when we got to that piece,
we realized that's where the nest is.
- It's like a mouse's home. - That is not safe.
- [Bob] Mm.
- Can we let go of that?
- It wasn't mouse poop.
We got to a couch that was a mouse's nest.
I mean, you can see where they're living,
and there's a bunch of dead baby mice there,
and he's like, "Yeah, I mean it's good."
- [Bob] I don't wanna throw it away.
- When your entire dream is getting shattered
in front of you, it's hard to see it.
So, I mean, it's not that Bob's being unrealistic.
He's sad.
- And these pillows, are they dirty?
- Very, that's literally a rat's nest.
Actually a rat's nest.
- Well, I guess I got fabric upstairs.
I can have new ones made.
- I mean, someone obviously knew there were rats here,
because there's rats d-CON here on the floor.
- Mm hmm.
So someone knew there was rodents in here
and here's a couple dead mice.
We're back to the same problem as the first day
and the second day and now the third day.
- Yeah. Too much stuff.
- Well, I'm not gonna get the original dining room set up.
- I'm not telling you to,
I'm saying I can't keep everything.
It's up to you what you get rid of.
I probably wouldn't get rid of these.
- I can set up the dining room table,
but that piece should go, it's too infested to save.
- Well, I can replace that somewhere.
- It's gonna be distracting
to see mouse infested furniture
that needs to be reupholstered in the same space
as your beautiful dining room table.
And we can't get things into other rooms
because they're full.
- Well, I'm willing to, okay?
- [Katherine] Okay.
- Willing to what?
- Get rid of it.
- Bob will bend and he'll say,
"Okay, you can get rid of that Tic-Tac, that's fine."
And you're like, "Dude, I got a thousand of those."
He's like, "Yeah, I'm gonna keep the other 999,
but you can get rid of that one."
And I hate to say this,
there's a front yard full of stuff.
- That's what I'm worried about,
is that we can't leave anything out in the yard.
We have to start putting that somewhere.
- What's going on in there?
- Same conversation, different room.
We got too much stuff.
- I'm not getting rid of the original stuff.
I'm telling you that right now. I gave up that.
- And that was a good decision.
What about all these little random chairs on the left here?
- I want these for the music room.
- Bob's not gonna budge.
So now I'm spending time taking crappy furniture
out of the house, bringing it back in, taking it back out,
bringing it back in.
And we're just shuffling smelly chairs around.
We're doing everything we can, man.
We just need to get rid of some more stuff.
- I know, I'm trying.
- You are trying. I'm just...
We're talking about a lot of ugly chairs.
If this was a chapter, this was a book,
today's chapter would be "Ugly Chairs."
That's what we would talk about.
- Well then I'll go down in history.
- Yes. Oh, you're going in history buddy, you are.
My goal was that Bob would someday see
his own living museum and I gotta be honest,
I don't see it happening in his lifetime.
I mean, the only thing holding Bob back
from having a living museum is Bob.
How you feeling, man?
- I'm tired. - [Robin] Mm hmm.
I didn't sleep last night.
Let's clean this part out because
this room has a claw tub,
a sink and a toilet, and it's all in one.
- Our goal was to make this a whole house,
and I'm talking to all three of you.
- You're not gonna be able to do it.
- It's a big job. - [Bob] That's true.
We didn't get it done.
But I don't think any of us can leave,
unless we have a safe space for you.
- Well, that's it. - [Matt] Okay.
- He wants to be able to probably get into a bed
and actually just go to bed like a normal person.
And so he was voicing that and I was glad he did.
- Okay, let's go.
- One last push guys. Let's do it.
(bright music)
- Oh my God.
- [Robin] Hi, Bob.
- [Matt] What do you think, man?
- Welcome to your home. Come on in.
- You did more work than I thought you did.
- Beautiful. Oh my God.
- [Matt] What are y'all thinking?
- [Bob] Oh God.
- [Robin] Aw.
- Come on. - I'm choking.
- Don't make me cry now.
- I can't help it. - I can't either.
So I'm gonna stand back here.
I could see that the house is becoming
what it should have been in the first place.
I'm watching it being restored, renewed, a new life.
- Oh, okay. I'm over it.
- Is that how you cry?
You just cry and then say, "I'm over it?"
- Bob, can you put some words to those tears?
- Well, God, yes.
I didn't think I'd see this for another five years.
It looks like a Victorian house, really.
They did a great job putting the stuff in.
- Your ceilings are actually some of my favorite art
that you've done.
And now that we're clearing the house out,
ironically it gives us space to look up now.
And I'm seeing things I didn't see before.
You don't even see the ceilings in this house
for the first four days and then all of a sudden,
you clear it out and you're like,
"Is that a baby's head on the ceiling?"
There's all this artwork that he has done, hand painted.
I mean this house is incredible.
- [Bob] (laughing) Gosh. - [Ceil] Oh my God.
- Look at this.
- It is fabulous.
- We have to stay with this concept of less is better.
- Oh yes, I know.
- All right, so let's talk real quick,
about where the stuff went.
You actually threw away 8,000 pounds of trash
out of this level and the basement.
It's a job that you look at and you feel like,
gosh, did they do much?
We moved a lot of stuff around.
We reorganized all the frames.
So all the frames are downstairs.
You allowed a lot of your paintings to go
to a temperature controlled storage,
so that gave us more space downstairs.
- [Ceil] Oh fantastic.
And then the entire washroom downstairs
is now filled with items that you're ready to sell.
I'm hoping this entire process will also build trust
between the three of you.
It's still up to Ken and Daulton to sell these items.
It's gonna be up to Bob to let go of them.
But we've given them the space and the system
to now put in place and do this.
First of all, I don't have a mask on.
I don't have boots on. I'm putting my hands on a surface.
The kitchen is cleaner, it can be used now.
We were charged with two things to make this a house museum,
and then secondly, to make it a safe space for Bob.
On the first part of that, we've got it started,
but secondly, making it a safe space, we did that.
We have open walkways from the front to the back.
All the hallways are safer now. The steps are safer.
And we have him a place to live where he can go
to the bathroom, he could cook, he can shower,
and he can eat and he can finally get in a bed
for the first time in probably five years.
(Bob laughs)
A bed.
- Throughout this whole process,
we quickly realized that we had to put the vision
of the house museum on the sidelines
and make sure that you had a safe, clean place to live.
I'm so happy that you could be so blessed to have this.
- I am too.
- Bob told me that he's been praying
for a miracle for years and two came, Ken and Daulton,
and I think he's really lucky to have them.
- It's so high up.
Oh God.
- [Daulton] We'll have to get you a stool.
- Yes.
- We have all of the sell pile down in the basement.
Auctioneers will be coming out to sell those items
and as they do, Daulton and I will be working with Bob,
to bring items from the second floor down to the basement,
bring auctioneers back out.
And we'll probably have to do this a handful of times,
but I think that Bob now sees his house
as the beautiful vision that he once had
and he's on a roll with it.
- Not finished, but it will be.
- Oh, it'll be beautiful.
- Yes.
- I just hope people get to see his art,
'cause it's a special thing.
My life is different because I got to be here this week.
- I guess I could get used to sleeping up here.