Justin: Real estate is a hot commodity.
But around every corner,
danger lurks
from zombie houses.
These rotting corpses aren't just ugly...
What happened?
Justin: ...they're dangerous.
- Whoa! - Fire! Get out of there.
Justin: And they can drag down an entire neighborhood.
It's the ugliest house on the street.
But their days are numbered.
Here in Orlando, Florida,
taking on these monstrosities is our specialty.
It's a wreck, but we don't shy away
from things like that.
- Oh. - Ew.
Justin: Our team tracks these filthy zombies down...
This place is a total dump, but at least this room is huge.
Justin: ...and pumps new life into them.
Maybe I get heat stroke, but I'm falling in love
with this place,
Justin: ...flipping them into sweet homes.
- Wow. - This is amazing.
- That we can sell... - We are ready to go.
Justin: ...for an even sweeter payday.
Here's to selling another house.
Justin: This...
is "Zombie House Flipping."
♪
♪ Feeling just fine ♪
♪ Love on the line ♪
♪ All human kind ♪
♪
So this has popped up in Dover Shores,
kind of like near the Hourglass District,
so it's in the cool like really nice up and coming area.
This is in Dover, pretty cool.
You know, they're very like mid-century 1950s
concrete block, terrazzo floors.
- Vintage tile. - Yeah, I love it.
These are kind of the last affordable houses in downtown.
Yeah.
You know, the neighborhood's changing because those people
had a Maserati - and their carport. - Really?
- Yeah. - Oh, my goodness.
Dover Shores is located around five minutes
from downtown Orlando.
It's public schools, beautiful lakes,
and mid-century modern Florida architecture
make it a really appealing place to live.
Home prices have been going up really quickly,
especially on the trendy west side,
which can make it really hard to identify a good zombie price.
You know, the house is listed at $335,000.
It's under 1,600 square feet.
Really? Because that's super - duper expensive. - Mm-hmm.
I know. Apparently, it's been vacant forever.
So maybe we can get it for a bit less than asking.
Is that it? Look at it.
- That looks mighty rundown. - Oh, my goodness. This is it.
Looks like the worst house on the block.
- Just how we like them. - Easily.
♪
This is...
- It's a good street. - Yeah.
I think this is really interesting.
It's concrete block, a bit under 1,500 square feet.
It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms,
a sunroom in the back
that could be used as a dining area
and a separate utility room.
Hey, look at this roof.
I mean, this roof looks like it's in good shape.
- Wow. - Yeah, looks great.
Better than that, I think the neighbors are amazing.
I mean, look at that house - over there. - Yeah.
Totally renovated, immaculate yards.
Far as this place goes, what are we seeing?
I mean, I see a lot of deferred maintenance,
but nothing too major.
Just chipped paint obviously needs new windows.
But you know, what we're not seeing are like cracks
in the concrete where it's settling
or something like it looks really square.
Yeah, it's a carport, which I don't love,
but everyone else has one, too.
- Yeah. - So it's not going to be out of the ordinary
to just keep it. - Yeah.
First impressions of this place,
it's not that bad, which is bad for us.
That asking price is too high for a zombie.
So maybe this place isn't actually a zombie.
- Let's check inside. - Yeah.
I think the access is over here at front door.
♪
Whoa, look at this! This looks surprisingly nice.
You know what, - I love these floors. - Why?
Yeah. - Parquet is awesome, dude. - Yeah.
Imagine if we sanded this down and stained it black.
It's already stained. It's just stained from stained.
What would we do with this window if we bought this house?
These aren't like standard-sized windows.
We do like a fixed glass in the middle
and two up and down or side to sides on the sides.
It wouldn't look as cool though.
This looks like prison bars. What are you talking about?
Let's check out the sunroom.
Keith: Look McDonald's kitchen floor.
Oh, no, I love this floor.
What do you mean McDonald's kitchen floor?
I love this, this clay hexagon.
This is in style right now, Keith.
No. And we need to get rid of it because it's gross.
No, I think we could fix this up and keep it. It's cool.
At this point, I'm saying, let's keep all the floors--Yeah.
...and just spruce up - the house. - That's what I think.
So now I'm thinking this place is definitely a zombie
and I mean, a 1950s deader than blue suede shoes zombie.
But for some reason, I'm the only one that sees this.
I mean, this house needs organ transplants,
not a shave and a haircut.
So would you keep this planter thing?
- I mean... - No, just say no.
But what if you wrapped it in quartz?
- That'll be really cool. - No. You know what that is?
- What? - That's a freaking liability,
because every party anybody is going to have in this house,
some drunk is going to fall right over that and break arms.
Okay, so I have an idea. What if you built it up higher?
And it was a cool little bar since you said party?
- Yeah. - That would be really cool.
- Yeah. - Or we can just take it out and we'd have a nice open house.
Well, you just leave that to Ash and I, all right?[ Laughs ]
These two have lost their mind.
I mean, this house is a hodgepodge of horrible designs
that are either out of style
or never in style in the first place.
Why am I the only sane one saying this house
needs to be flipped into something, you know,
nice and modern?
Check out this kitchen. Are we going to keep this?
[ Laughter ]
♪
Okay, now maybe they'll agree with me
that this place is a zombie house.
These people are actually pretty stylish
because this color is now in fashion again.
This maple looks super cool. You don't like maple?
No, that's not stylish.
Maple's back in, Keith.
- Yeah, Keith. - Yeah.
Keith thinks everything needs to be new and shiny.
Yes, this kitchen screams zombie,
but there's a huge market for classic retro
in Florida right now, and we need to keep that in mind
if we're going to buy this house.
Let's see the rest of this house.
Bathroom's shot.
It's seen smoke.
It's a shame, too, man, I love retro tile.
Why does everybody got to destroy it?
- I know this looks so good. - Because it's ugly?
Have you guys seen where the master is?
- I think we found it. - Oh, yeah.
Seems like it's a decent size.
I want to see the bathroom.
Okay, this looks zombie-ish.
I mean, it's outdated. It's small.
Oh, yeah. This is tiny.
There was a closet on the other side of this,
do you remember? - Yeah.
- We could go that way. - Mm-hmm, okay.
Everything I see in this house is easily fixable,
and some things we can keep, those tile floors,
that retro planter.
I think these features can give the house a great look
that also fits the style of the neighborhood.
Let's check out the backyard.
♪
- It is ragged out here. - It's large.
Old AC, so we need to upgrade that.
Let's go look at the shed.
Now this shed might actually be salvageable.
You know there's power to run out here.
It looks dry. I mean, it rained like crazy last night,
and it's not drenched in here.
Let's go check out that utility room by the carport.
Keith: Let's we got here.
Oh, my goodness, it's massive. Look at that.
- Wow. - That is huge.
Justin: Nice. Okay, cool.
We have full laundry, washer and dryer.
Need to upgrade this old electrical panel.
What if we put insulation in here
and a vent in here, too.
If we just put an air conditioning drop in here,
we get to count the extra 150 square feet
that we got - and that's free money. - That's true.
Because it's attached and it's under the carport--Yeah!
...so they will-- - the appraiser will use it. - Uh-huh.
Prices are directly tied to square feet.
And this neighborhood, you can get about
$300 per square foot.
That adds up fast.
For this kind of profit bump,
maybe I can convince Ashlee and Justin
to splurge on some updated floors
and ditch this whole retro chic thing they're contemplating.
All righty, gang, what are we thinking about this house?
I think it's a no-brainer. It's pretty straightforward.
We just have to make sure
we get it - for the right price, right? - Yeah.
There's nothing super complicated.
We should be able to do this pretty quick.
It's listed at $335,000.
But don't forget we have the additional laundry room.
So that's just another 100 square feet, we said?
30 grand.
New windows, new kitchen.
So how much for the reno?
What do you guys thinking? 50 grand?
- Probably. - I think we could maybe do it for 50.
So what are we thinking to offer? 310?
You know, try to get 25 grand off the price?
And we could list it around $425,000.
I think this house could be a great opportunity
because not every zombie has old stuff we can actually keep.
I know Keith will fight me every step of the way on this,
but I'm ready for the battle.
Well, let's go back to Blueprint's office
and write up an offer. - All right, for sure.
- All right, cool. - Yeah.
Justin: We put an offer in at $310,000
and after some back and forth negotiations,
we settled on the purchase price $316,000.
We'll set our renovation at 50 grand
and we know that after fees and closing costs,
that'll cost us about 19 grand.
If we can do this flip in two months or less,
we can keep our loan interest payments under 5 grand.
That puts our total expenses
at just under $390,000.
If we can sell for $425,000,
that means our profit will be around $35,000.
The first thing we're going to do to this house
is a simple fix that's going to have a big impact.
We're going to add 165 square feet
to this house by reclaiming that utility room
as interior living space.
All we have to do is seal off the door to the outside,
move the laundry hook ups over, and then add a doorway
connecting the space to the sunroom.
And just like that, our house is 11% larger.
Then we're going to reorganize this kitchen
to create a better flow with more counter space.
First, we'll seal up that side door to the sunroom
and we'll move the fridge over to that wall.
Then we'll combine the oven
and the range into a single unit,
and that'll give us room for counters
on both sides of the range.
Combine that with the new lower and upper cabinets
throughout the kitchen,
plus removing the back wall in the doorway,
and we'll have an open, user-friendly space
that buyers will love.
♪
Demo day, man. Let's do it.
Oh, hey, Ash is already here.
Old Smashley beat us to it, eh?
Aah!
- Ashlee! - What?
- What up, killer? - Hey!
- You came after it, huh? - Oh, my God. Yeah. I was going to town.
Hey, no need to let these guys have all the fun.
I'm throwing Keith a couple of bones today.
The first is these kitchen cabinets newer will be better,
so it's time for a little break up.
♪
Whoa, whoa, hey, bro, - did you turn the water off yet? - No.
Why are you smashing things?
It is not off.
In my rush to catch up with Ashlee, I forgot demo 101.
Always turn off the water first.
Now we can enjoy some good smashing.
♪
Ashlee: My second concession to Keith
is these old wooden floors.
I love them, but they're in such bad shape,
I just have to let them go.
Plus, it gives me bargaining power
for keeping the sunroom tile.
♪
- Oh, there is a [bleep]. - Whoa, are you breaking wires?
- What are you doing? - I got a spark.
Yeah, I see that. Over here playing with fire
Keith, did you get electrocuted?
Apparently, Justin forgot Demo 102
always turn off the circuit breakers.
Can someone turn off the breakers, please?
Yes, I'll go turn off the breakers.
That's like always his job.
Oh, bro, what the [bleep]?
Wait, there's smoke?
What the...
Fire! I got a fire extinguisher in the truck.
- Keith: Wait, there's smoke. - What the...
Fire. I got a fire extinguisher - in the truck. - What's-- oh, my God.
Is it on fire?
Whoo.
Hold on, look out.
[ Hissing ]
- [ Coughing ] - You okay? [Bleep]
What happened, Justin?
Cowboy over here is ripping the 120 volts out.
Apparently, when I pulled out the dishwasher,
a couple of live wires broke, arced
...and caused a surge at the panel.
All right, I'll be right back.
Yeah, when those two wires came together and sparked,
the breaker must not a tripped.
It must be a bad breaker.
- Is it turned off now? - Yeah.
And you can't really see much, but I can see
the panel, the panel's rested, but super hot.
It looks like the wires overheated
and melted all the plastic sheathing
and that caused all that crazy smoke.
We're going to let things cool down a bit here
and then have our demo team come in
and clean up the rest of this mess.
♪
They tear out the rest of that dated kitchen,
the ratty floors.
And that ugly tile.
This zombie is ready for some new life.
♪
It's time to properly connect the utility room
to the rest of the house.
Our contractors create a new doorway
by cutting through the cinder block
with a diamond blade circular saw.
Once the cuts are made, the sledgehammer does the rest.
Then they seal off the old entrance in the carport side.
And just like that,
our house is 165 square feet bigger.
And you can take that one to the bank.
The other major fix needed in this room is, of course,
that old fire starting electrical panel.
The electricians replace the old panel with something
that's actually up to today's code,
and they're also rewiring the house with new 12
and 14 gauge wires.
Electrical flare-ups
are now a thing of the past for this house.
♪
Today, our framers are going to cover up
those bleak cinderblock walls
in utility room with fresh drywall.
The first step is to install some wood framing.
This creates a buffer where plumbing and electric lines
can live, and then the rest of that space
is going to get filled with insulation.
Then we cover everything up with 4x8 sheets of drywall.
Next up, drywall tape is used to cover the seams.
Then everything is sealed up and made smooth,
with joint compound also known as drywall mud.
Finally, we cut a drop for the AC unit.
We just created 165 square feet of usable space.
That brings our total square footage
for this house of the 1,632.
♪
Ashlee: The tile for the back - room is coming in today. - For there?
So it's going to go in here.
Yeah, that's the new laundry room, super cool, right?
I was thinking the tile has - to butt up to this other tile. - Yeah.
So it could come right up to here?
Well, wait, it wouldn't have to butt right--Oh, my--
- Wait. - What?
What is this? God, look, it's all broken.
Ashlee, we're not keeping that.
What? We're keeping this.
This is McDonald's kitchen floor tile.
It doesn't matter, Keith. It's in the whole room.
And it looks really good. And people nowadays like this.
Keith and I aren't seeing eye to eye on this flip.
These retro hexagon tiles are all the rage now.
He needs to leave the design process up to me
and just stay out of my space.
But I want to know who broke it.
- Look at this. - If I find them, I'll pay them a bonus.
Honestly, I'm pissed off.
I wanted to keep all of this tile.
I'm going to look for the tiler because I think he's here
and see what he can do about it.
Roberto?
I get that she's passionate for this outdated flooring,
but come on.
The truth is this tile is so old and brittle
that just walking on it during the renovation
has caused some of the pieces to break off.
She really has to let this go.
Look at this. It's all broken. It's quite bad.
I don't think it's salvageable.
Remember, the baseboard that was here.
We had a baseboard and it was the same tile.
Maybe you could cut the pieces into new tile.
Now we're going over the top.
We're going to manufacture tile to match our McDonald's floor?
You can't fix it.
Oh, that would be amazing. Thank you.
Just don't demo it anymore.
Keith: This may be as hard as I've ever seen Ashlee
fight for a tile choice.
They say you have to pick your battles.
So in the war of retro versus modern,
I guess I'll have to concede this round
to the fast food flooring.
All right, - you go on with your bad self. - Okay, so--
I'm going to get the walls done,
get the kitchen in, and get the floors down so.
Well, don't mess with this floor anymore.
You take that and leave a check in the bathroom.
♪
Ashlee: Our tiler Roberto gets to work
cutting the baseboard pieces into new hex tile.
A little mortar holds it in place,
and then he grouts it in.
To strengthen and fortify the floor,
we're using a heavy duty tile sealer,
which will protect it from daily wear and tear.
♪
- Hey. - Hey, what's up, Ash?
- Hey. - So what are you talking about?
Talking about what to do with this planter.
We're a quarter of the way into this flip,
it's time to decide what we're going to do
with this ugly old planter box.
I think our two best options
are either a sledgehammer or a jackhammer.
- I like it, he hates it. - I want to destroy it.
No, no way. We're definitely keeping it. It's cool.
What if we like cleaned it up?
Maybe varnished it, brightened it up,
fill it, add succulents. - Uh-huh.
Then, so nobody trips over it.
One of those ornamental types screen things
that you can see through.
It divides the rooms, and it's kind of a feature.
I'm not sure what's circulating in the air in this house,
but I think Ashlee and Justin have lost it.
There's not a single buyer out there
that's looking for an outdated,
succulent planter box in the middle of their new home.
You know, you never actually hear about people doing anymore
was closing off areas.
It's about opening up spaces.
To keep the speed bump and make it safe,
you're like, I know we'll put a big screen up.
We'll close this area off. We'll make it smaller
and more separate from the rest of the house.
It's more like a design feature.
Keith is locked into some inside the box thinking here.
I know open plan is great,
but you know what else is great? Style.
This planter doesn't separate the room that much,
and it captures the hip retro vibe
that makes this house so unique.
Well, I say we let Ash run with it
because we're talking about - probably 100, 200 bucks. - Oh, my God.
- Yeah. - See what it looks like.
And if it doesn't look good, then we will tear it out.
- No harm, no foul. - That didn't work for the floor.
I thought we said, if it doesn't look good,
this floor is not going to stay.
And somehow there's more of it
than there was last time I was here.
Well, hey, if Ash takes the lead on it,
it's not like it's costing us any time.
I can't believe I'm the only one arguing against
the cheaper option here, but I guess it works.
I mean, yeah, we save some good cash
and hey, I'm outvoted anyway so...
And when it's nice and clean, I will then send you off
to get the soil and you can get the succulents
and I'll order the screen. Perfect?
- How do we just get signed up? - Scrubbing?
I want to destroy it, not clean it.
She knows what she's doing.
She's the one that-- she's got to sell it.
So. All right.
Honestly, I think this is a huge mistake.
I wouldn't be surprised if that planter box cost
is a good $10,000 off our asking price.
You just watch.
Who-- who cleans rocks?
♪
Justin: Ashlee wanted Keith tonight
to turn the stone planter box
into a succulent garden with a decorative screen,
making it a focal point of this house.
You can go, bro. You got the heaviest load.
Once the rocks were cleaned and the screen was installed,
Keith and I got to work on these succulents.
All right, bro, we're going to do a little succulent farm.
♪
We added 250 pounds of rocks to this planter.
That will allow the water to percolate down to the bottom
and eventually dry up.
All right. So, this is actually almost the right length.
Next, we added a micro funnel fabric that will allow
for the free flow of water
without having the soil mix in with the rocks.
♪
All right, bro.
Ugh, this was literally the last bag of sand
that they had at the store.
Since the succulents have a small root structure,
we'll lay out some sand and come up with a design pattern.
What is that? It's like a demitasse plant.
What's a demitasse?
Like a miniature version of something.
[ Laughs ] Like that?
Yeah, we just leave them in the planter box.
I have no idea.
That would be hilarious, though, if Ash came back.
Honestly, that's kind of hilarious to do it.
OK, let's plant these in the sand and we're done.
♪
Ashlee: Today, it's out with the old windows
and in with the new.
We're removing the hodgepodge of jalousie windows
and single-pane windows
and replacing them with new eco glass windows.
These fresh upgrades are double-paned,
and they're designed to block out harmful UV rays,
making them as beneficial as they are beautiful.
♪
Now, it's time for some exterior paint,
which is the perfect opportunity to add
more retro vibes to this house.
I've chosen a rich, vivid flat Naples yellow,
a color that's a callback
to the bright design palette of the '60s.
Yellow evokes a cheerful, happy tone,
which is perfect for this family-friendly residence.
♪
Justin: As we near the halfway point,
we're doing a great job hitting our marks on this flip.
We set a renovation budget of 50 grand,
and right now, we've spent around 19.
Prices are coming in as expected, putting us on pace
to finish this job with the money we have remaining
and within the two month time frame we anticipated.
♪
Keith: Hey. So let's figure out what we're going to do
with this shed because we kind of
got a plan for the house...
Yeah. ...But you talked about
making like Airbnb or...
I don't-- I mean, I've seen
some really kind of funky Airbnbs.
Yeah, I mean, it's not big enough,
but it would be kind of cool to build out.
I mean, we've built out sheds
just to be, like, yoga studios, workshops.
You know, you name it.
Yeah. It's got options.
It's kind of big enough.
[ Lightbulb explodes, both shouting ]
Oh, my God!
Arturo?
Arturo: I'm here.
Hey, we got a problem. The light bulb popped.
There's-- I don't know, some kind of a short
or something.
♪
I flipped this switch and the bulb exploded.
- Oh, my God. - Why did that happen?
- I see. - What is it?
There's-- There's just wires with no conduit.
And this is just all-around not safe at all.
And there's one cut off down there, too.
Justin: That could have been fire number two for this place.
Whoever ran electricity to the shed,
did some of the craziest DIY I've ever seen.
These wires were left exposed to the elements.
Their casings wore away, and that allowed
the metal filaments inside to touch each other.
It could have set the whole yard ablaze.
Arturo: We're going to have to make a trench
and run new-- new because I mean, obviously
we can't have that like this.
So it turns out, we weren't finished with electrical work,
after all.
Arturo digs a new conduit trench from the house to the shed
and runs a new line that has proper insulation around it.
He connects it to the newly installed electrical panel,
ensuring that there'll be no more unintentional
backyard barbecues.
Electrical surgeons to the rescue.
♪
Justin: We have two bathrooms in this house.
Since we're on a budget,
we're going to use the same wall tile and floor tile
in each bathroom to save us a couple bucks.
On the floors, we're going with a porcelain tile that features
a black and white diamond pattern
around a four-leaf crest, giving it a hint of retro chic.
The walls get a high gloss 3x12" subway tile
that can fit with both vintage and modern decor.
And the laundry room floor tile gets that retro treatment, too.
We're perfectly serving up that vintage vibe.
♪
We're also starting interior painting today.
We decided to go with a flat, gossamer veil.
This classic white color will complement the space
and go with any furnishings.
♪
It's time to upgrade this home's heating and AC systems.
With our house now a bit over 1,600 square feet,
a three ton HVAC is the perfect capacity
for keeping this place the right temperature year round.
♪
We're two-thirds of our way through this flip
and two-thirds of the way through our money.
Of the 50 grand we budgeted for,
we've now spent around 32,
and that means things are looking good.
Unfortunately, things aren't looking so good
on that HVAC install.
♪
22...
17 1/2.
Ashlee: Keith?
How's it going? Hey. Hi.
Hey.
You see what they did?
You can't put a door on this
because the freon line and the drain line--
It's all sticking out. Yeah.
It's, like, almost out in the hallway.
Oh, my God. That's crazy.
So the door would normally be in here.
Yeah, it'd be recessed, like a door.
So what can we do? Can you push it back? [ Grunts ]
No, no. It doesn't go back any further.
I looked in the other closet-- it's no bigger.
What about this one? This one might work.
But then you'd have to move it over here, huh?
And then the problem is, if you actually relocate
the whole thing, you're moving the freon lines,
the electric, the ductwork.
I thought about maybe putting in the attic,
but if you have a leak, then it starts raining in your house.
- Oh, my God. - You know, so it's just...
I don't know.
So what if we bump out the wall
right here and, like, made this whole wall bigger?
Make the hallway narrower?
You have this nice hallway.
You get up here and you're like...
- to go around your bump. - It's quirky.
Quirky. Yeah.
I started measuring in the inside of this.
I think they might be able to just turn this sideways.
They wouldn't have to really reroute anything,
and I think it'd work perfectly.
Wouldn't you need access to all of that stuff?
So what, you'd have to bust open this?
No... Well, yeah, of course they could do that.
This would be sort of around that corner, but...
Did you try measuring it? Here.
Yeah, I mean, bumping out, that's, like, a cheap way
to do it, but it just feels awkward.
You might not get it in here.
It's 17 wide,
so you need it to be 17 around here.
And there's, like, framework, so you couldn't make the door
wide enough to get the unit in or out.
It's not enough for the AC unit to fit inside the closet.
Regulations also require that it's able to fit through
the doorway as well,
so rotating it is not going to work.
Man, why do the little things cause the biggest headaches?
♪
So you couldn't make the door wide enough
to get the unit in or out.
Well, what other choice do we have?
I mean, the only thing I can think is bump out
the whole wall and put a door on it.
Yeah, I'm not digging this solution.
But when you consider the cost of relocating an AC
and the regulations surrounding its positioning,
a slightly awkward bump out is probably the best choice.
So a-bumping we all go.
All right. I'm gonna call the framers.
♪
Keith: Throughout most of the house,
we're replacing the flooring with luxury vinyl planks.
They look like wood,
but these planks are waterproof, pet proof, and childproof.
Each plank has a wire-brushed wood grain embossed texture,
beveled edges,
and it sits on an under pad to produce a quieter floor.
It's definitely a modern upgrade from the previous wood flooring,
keeping a touch of that classic style.
♪
The pros from Cabinet Saver are here to install
some ready-to-assemble white shaker cabinets.
We decided to accent the white cabinets
with gold hardware,
an elegant upgrade to its classic design.
♪
Justin: Things are still looking good for our budget.
Out of the 50 grand we set aside for renovation,
we've now spent about $42,000.
That leaves us enough for the final steps we have,
which we think we can get done in the next few days,
knocking this house out just a couple of days
ahead of schedule.
♪
Keith: Hey. Hey.
Today, Ashlee and I are appliance shopping
for the Catalpa House.
We haven't been seeing eye-to-eye
on how to design this house,
so I'm already nervous to find her getting ideas
from the uber-expensive designer showcase area.
Look at this. It's so cool.
It's kind of, like, a restaurant vibe.
If I was in somebody's house and I grabbed a drink like that,
I'd feel like I had to go to the counter and pay for it.
[ Laughs ]
Anyway, look at this. I mean, this stuff is so crazy.
It's made in France. Only $65,000.
So this costs more than the house
that we're working on would have cost
during the financial crisis 10 years ago. [ Laughs ]
Yeah, this is our typical budget,
but we can spend it on one item.
Obviously, we're not going to buy a $65,000 range.
But I do think a great way to add more retro touches
to this house is with appliances,
which might make it a bit more expensive than Keith would like,
but I'm hoping I can convince him that it's worth it.
What we're doing for Catalpa
is, like-- it's a relatively small kitchen.
We could get a whole package for 4 grand.
I've been buying them for cheap houses
for like $2,500, 3 grand.
Have you been buying them lately?
The pandemic shutdowns have been causing supply shortages,
and that's been pushing the prices up.
Even the cheap stuff is no longer as cheap as Keith wants.
But what about this? Something different?
Oh, my God. The retro vintage vibe.
Oh, come on. You know what's up with that.
The gold handles are everything. If that had white handles,
you wouldn't be able to sell it for $600.
I don't even know what it sells for,
but like, that's a white fridge.
It looks like it's $3,200.
It's double the budget, but I think it's worth it.
No! You're killing my retro vibe.
You got rid of my floors. You tried to get rid
of my other floors, and now you won't even
let me get the cool retro kitchen.
That's not--
♪
We're at Aggressive Appliances
to get a full kitchen setup for the house,
but it's not going well.
This is so amazing. It's vintage.
It goes with the floor that I wanted to keep,
and you got rid of the parquet that I loved.
Sometimes, shopping with Ashlee
is like living in a fairy tale.
It's all fantasy and no reality.
Look, and it has two of them, so you can cook a turkey
in there and another turkey in there.
No. Bring your turkey over here.
Come here. Look.
$1,350. It's contemporary.
You can fit an entire turkey instead of two half-turkeys.
Hello?
Ashlee's making too big a thing out of this vintage vibe.
That looks fine for tile and hardware,
but people want modern appliances.
It'll appeal to tons more buyers,
and in this case, it's also the smarter economic choice.
It's half the price--
No, it's, like, a third of the price.
And look, it doesn't have the stand-up part in the back,
so you can see the backsplash.
We have a really small kitchen,
so without that-- the stand-up part in the back,
it actually looks almost a little bit smaller--
like it fits in better for the size
of the kitchen we have.
Yeah, I mean, it's definitely very streamlined.
Keith is such a predictable cheapskate with this stuff,
but sometimes, the cheapskate has a point.
This range is sleek, it's really good quality.
And if it opens up the space,
then maybe it's the better choice.
But OK, you're right.
We'll get the dishwasher and the microwave that match,
and we're off to the races.
Bye, fridge.
♪
Keith: We're cranking out the final touches on this house,
starting with landscaping.
A well-groomed yard and beautiful plants
can increase the property's value by around 15%.
So today, we have our landscaping crew
putting in some drought-tolerant plants
like mandevilla, plumbago, and Giant Apostles' Iris
to maximize our profits.
♪
We also received all the appliances Ashlee and I
agreed upon. The stainless steel appliances
are incredibly durable, beautifully modern,
and they tie the kitchen together.
Once the quartz countertops go in,
this once sad little kitchen will look like a million bucks.
Now it's time for staging.
The team at Systematic Staging
is bringing in an eclectic mix of furniture
that strikes the perfect balance between the modern touches
and the vintage vibe that we've hit with this house.
♪
Alrighty. All right.
- Hey. - Ta-da!
you like it? Hey, thank you.
Yeah, that's awesome.
Hey, Marley.
That's how happy we are to have another one
- on the market. - I know.
We turned this one around fast.
Justin: When we first pulled up,
this place had zero curb appeal.
Ashlee and Keith: Yeah.
The old paint was just chipping away
everywhere you looked, the windows were all tore up,
all of it.
It just wasn't a great-looking house.
But now... Look at this house.
Ta-da!
Yeah, I mean, look at this place.
Yeah. It looks awesome.
I think the yellow looks really good.
- Yeah. - Looks so fresh and so happy.
Let's go and see the inside.
Just want to remind you what this place looked like
at first-- it was dark, dirty, and depressing,
and I think the upgrades that we did were well worth it.
Hey, guys, have a look.
Wow. Doesn't it look great?
Considering the starting point we had, this is amazing.
Definitely a little sad, don't get me wrong,
that we couldn't do the parquet.
Yeah. That was gorgeous.
Yeah. It was just ruined in some areas,
so we just couldn't keep it.
I love these kind of beachy-looking,
whitewashed floors.
You know what contributes a lot are these windows.
The old windows had, like, the mullions in them.
They made this room feel like a prison.
But now, wide open and bright.
- It really adds the space. - Yes.
So fabulous.
The house is a little less vintage-y
than it could have been,
but I'm glad got to keep the planter.
Justin: Yeah, that's super vintage.
- Yeah. - And it looks great.
I'm glad we decided to not listen to K.O.
and refurbish it.
Did it in a day for 200 bucks.
Yeah, totally. And it adds
a nice little room separation to the most vintage part
we got to keep of the house...
I know....these awesome floors.
Oh, my God. Remember the day I came over
and I was so upset because this part was all broken?
Yeah. I thought we were going to
have to remove the whole floor.
But luckily, we're still able to keep it.
The tiler did such a good job.
And right next to this, we have the refurbished utility room.
This is a big deal because you could only get
to it from the outside.
Keith: Now we have this whole new entrance
and a spectacular, spacious indoor laundry room,
Bringing this room inside the house
and air conditioning it, We added square footage, right?
So that increases the value of the property
by a pretty substantial - amount. - Yeah, like 30 grand.
Yeah.
And the floor tile we used really gives it some pizzazz.
You can do a lot with this space.
Hey, let's go see the kitchen.
Yeah.
Remember how enclosed it felt?
It's completely different now.
- Whoa! - Such a nice galley kitchen.
- Yeah. - Amazing.
This is super sharp.
Those gold accents gave it some vintage flair,
and removing that wall gave it more breathing room.
So, yeah, let's go check out all the bedrooms.
These extra bedrooms were completely unremarkable,
but now, they're really inviting.
They're perfect for kids or guests.
Keith, remember this big issue that we had with the AC
sticking out too far?
Yeah.
We pushed the frame out beyond the pipes.
I mean, just the fact that we trimmed it out correctly,
it looks like it was supposed to be there.
Yeah.
And this hall bath has been totally transformed
from that decrepit, creepy cave
to this fresh, welcoming space.
I can't wait to see the master bedroom.
It had to be one of the most boring masters
I've ever seen.
Yeah, but now we've given it new life.
This master ain't no disaster anymore.
[ Laughter ]
Yes. It is true.
It's so calming. It feels fresh.
Wait till you see the master bath.
We've turned it from that bland, cramped room
into a beautiful, comfortable retreat.
Oooh. Look at this.
The shower that was in here wasn't even a phone booth.
It was dark and it had that weird entrance.
- Yeah. - It just felt so closed, yeah.
Don't you love that we did it with no step?
Yeah. Talk about a technological advancement,
[ Laughter ]
Not having to have a shower curb.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
Let's go see - the backyard. - OK.
I remember that patio being dingy and dull.
It didn't take much to clean it up
and make it look great.
I didn't foresee, like, making this space
quite as nice as it is. This is a really good outcome.
♪
And that brings us to the shed.
Now, the shed did try to kill us.
Yes, it did.
[ Lightbulb explodes, both shout ]
♪
In the end, doing a basic fix up
so the buyer can decide what to make it
was a smart economic choice.
It's cute, looks good, and it has new power.
I think whoever buys the house is going to love that shed.
Yeah.
Anyone know what time it is?
Because I feel like the open house
should be starting anytime.
It's open house time, alright.
Today, I'm going to run the open house
because Ash has to go meet with some other clients,
but I got a good feeling about this place today.
Its blend of retro chic and modern cool
hits the sweet spot on the design palette.
After checking some similar-sized comps
in the neighborhood, we decided to bump
our asking price from 425 to 435.
♪
All right, baby.
Ready for the open house?
The yellow is so Florida.
Definitely Florida vibes.
[ Knock on door ]
Hey. Hi.
Come on in.
Well, welcome to our open house.
Woman: Oh, my gosh, I love this.
So it's a three bedroom, two bath. OK.
It's just under 1,700 square feet.
So this is the living room.
Oh, it's so open.
Look at the window. So much natural lighting.
Nice floors.
It's luxury vinyl plank.
That's beautiful.
Want to check out the bedrooms?
Absolutely. Let's go.
This is bedroom number one.
Look at this.
Big enough for two twin beds.
Bedroom number two.
Woman: Wow. This is a great space.
So this is the hall bath.
- Look at this shower. - Wow.
I love it.
The master's is right around here.
This is my room.
Yeah? [ Laughs ]
The paint is a very, very pretty color.
Beautiful.
Justin: You got to check out the bathtub.
Oh! Oh, my gosh.[ Gasps ]
Both: The shower!
And it's shiny, too. It, like, glistens.
Floor is so dope.
Woman: That is the coolest pattern.
This is the kitchen.
Both: Oh!
Look at this! Lovely.
Gotta love a gold accent.
The kitchen is amazing.
What is this?
We got a little succulent garden.
Hmm, kind of awkward.
OK.
- Are they real? - Yeah, they're real.
That's so adorable.
- I like it. - I love this.
I like the way it gives you two spaces.
without closing it completely off.
Absolutely.
Cool. So this is the sunroom, retro living room.
[ Woman laughs ]
This is actually the original tile from 1957.
- Oh, wow. - Oh.
It's like that mid-century modern that's coming back.
Nice big backyard.
It's got a shed for storage, and the shed has power, too.
- And it's so cute. - But it's nice.
- It has power? - Yeah.
Whoa. Oh, wow.
Tiny house. [ Laughs ] Yep.
And then this is the brand new utility room.
Huge. This is huge.
This is so cool.
I've always wanted my own laundry room.
How much are we talking?
435 is what it came on the market today as.
Today may be your lucky day.
♪
Our open house clicked with several excited buyers.
♪
And a couple of weeks later, we accepted a full price offer
of $435,000.
We bought this house for $316,000
and our renovation budget came in perfect--
right around $51,000.
The loan interest and closing costs came in
right where expected, as well.
putting our all-in cost at $391,000.
So this sale nets us a profit of $43,000.
♪
[ Computer chimes ]
Justin: Hey, guys, just got an e-mail confirmation--
the deal in Catalpa is closed.
- That's amazing. - Keith: Really?
Was it the vintage floor and the vintage vibe?
Because I guarantee it was.
No, it was the modern touches.
It was the contemporary floor
in the living space. It's all that.
I didn't ask anybody to choose,
but people really liked the house.
This doesn't mean we get
to put McDonald's floors in more houses.
This means we'll never listen to you
about any tile or color choices ever,
because you're always wrong.
I would put McDonald's floors everywhere.
[ Laughs ]
- Oh. - Are you're crazy?
♪