Real estate is a hot commodity.
But around every corner, danger lurks...
from zombie houses.
These rotting corpses aren't just ugly...
What happened?
...they're dangerous.
Whoa!
Fire! Get out of there!
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.
Renovating the ugly stuff is what we do.
Ew. Our team tracks these filthy zombies down...
This place is a total dump,
but at least this room is huge.
...and pumps new life into them...
Maybe I got heat stroke,
but I'm falling in love with this place.
...flipping them into sweet homes...
- Wow. - This is amazing.
...that we can sell... We are ready to go.
...for an even sweeter payday.
Here's to selling another house.
This...
is "Zombie House Flipping."
Captioning provided by A+E Networks
♪ You've got to give a little ♪
♪ Live a little ♪
♪ I'll be next to you ♪
♪ When you push on through ♪
Where are we going today?
You know Fern Creek in the Michigan area?
Yeah. Yeah, just around that.
It's in the area called Wadeview Park.
I mean, it's an up-and-coming neighborhood.
There's a lot of variety in the real estate of Wadeview Park,
which is about two miles south of downtown Orlando.
From starter homes to million-dollar listings,
it's one of the hottest neighborhoods in Orlando
thanks to lots of good restaurants
opening up in the area and plenty of good schools.
We're going to this house that's a wood frame,
two-story house, and it's listed for 265.
Wait, - wait, wait, wait. - Yeah.
What's wrong with this picture?
Like, Justin, isn't 250 like land value, right there?
- Pretty much. - Yeah, there's a house right here--
right in the middle of where everybody wants to live,
and it's land value.
There's a reason.
I called the listing agent, and apparently,
the lady who bought it, she bought it like ten years ago
planning to flip it herself.
Never did. Then there's, like, the rest of the story.
Like, it was hit by a meteor, or--
Well, she did say it was damaged by Hurricane Irma.
Ok-- Yeah, okay. 2017, yeah.
Also, it's a hundred years old.
- It's a 1920s house. - Oh, see? Okay.
Yeah. Now it's all making sense.
Look, a house is 100 years old,
it's gonna have a century's worth of problems.
I mean, if we bought a lot that had no house on it,
that might even be the better deal.
This house is gonna be so jacked.
Oh, here it is-- look. - We-- You ready? - Yeah.
Oh. There's no driveway.
We literally parked in the front yard.
I think this is the driveway. It's just covered with weeds.
The house is covered, too.
Look. Like, that is insane.
You think they're growing into the roof?
They're probably growing inside the house by now.
Yeah, you can see it getting up
under the drip edge there.
So, Ash, what kind of house is getting eaten up here?
It's a two-story, wood-frame house
that's about 1,900 square feet.
The ground floor has a living room
and a kitchen, a formal dining room,
and one bathroom.
And the second floor has three bedrooms
and the other bathroom.
And the $265,000 listing price
even includes a pool.
Roof looks new.
The roof is looking good, yeah.
Maybe that's--Maybe that's one less thing
- we have to deal with. - Yeah.
The windows have arches in them,
but they still look kind of old.
I mean, they have character.
It's like a little doll house out of a fairy tale.
Yeah, this house is actually kind of cute,
despite all the problems we see.
Hopefully it's better on the inside.
Yeah, how much worse could it possibly be, right?
Ugh, it stinks.
Oh.
Oh, my God, you smell that?
- What is that? - It's cat pee.
- Ugh. - We can handle zombie houses
being an assault in the eyes, 'cause we know how to fix ugly.
But when a place smells even worse than it looks,
it means this place is probably rotten to the core.
That is so gross.
And look, Justin, you're right.
The vines are growing through the window.
This house is going green.
But it's decent-sized living room with a fireplace.
Look at this vent.
It's, like, full of nasty stuff.
Yeah, but...
- Oh, my God. - Let me s-- Ugh!
- Look at the duct! - Yeah, that's what we're breathing right now.
We might have to throw out this outdated ventilation system
and get all new duct work in here.
Okay, so, this is the dining room.
- Plastered. - Plaster wood wave walls.
The wall's crunching.
It sounds like Rice Krispies when you push on it.
Is it damp? This is very open.
That's nice that the kitchen is open to this big dining room.
And then, you have this kind of little room over there.
Should we check that out? It looks cute.
It's small, but it's pretty bright.
Could be used as a kid's playroom or an office.
What's this room on the other side?
Is this is a bedroom?
Tell me this is not a bedroom.
Well, there's no closet, so it can't be a bedroom,
But it has an en suite bathroom, for some reason.
Comprised of the world's oldest vanity
and dinkiest shower.
Let's look at this kitchen.
See what we got.
What we got is a lot of trash
on top of a lot of outdated countertops and cabinets.
And one of them's even cut off
by the slope of the staircase.
And there's a big hole - up there. - Oh, my God.
I didn't even look up. Look at all this water damage.
Is that from leaky pipes or Hurricane Irma?
Oh, my God, it's worse up here.
It stinks!
Here's one of the bedrooms.
Pretty plain except for this weird woodblock divider
in the middle of it.
[ Laughs ] Yeah, what's up with that?
We've got more vines. Nature's taking over.
And then, there's this nice big bedroom.
It's really nice and bright, and it's got a walk-in closet.
This place is a dump.
Listen, it might be a good deal for the right price.
Everything's a good deal for the right price.
God, look at the bathroom.
Ugh, that sink is old.
And that shower is mold.
Maybe this is the source of those stains
on the ceiling downstairs.
The bathroom's not connected to either bedroom up here,
so there's no real master bedroom in the house
anywhere right now.
That may have been okay 100 years ago,
but it won't fly with buyers today.
The layout in this place is just awful.
Okay, we've seen and smelled enough.
Let's check out the backyard.
- Good God. - Oh, my-- Look at this!
This is amazing!
Look at this backyard. It's huge.
At the moment, - - this place is a wreck. - Ashlee: - Yeah.
But we could clean this up and make it gorgeous.
Yeah, oka-- This pool's great.
- This pool is incredible. - This is the best part of the house.
I love that it's just a big rectangle.
It's so modern. This a huge selling feature.
We'd be buying a pool and getting a grody house with it.
I feel like the house is very charming.
Which part are you in love with--
the vines crawling actually inside the house,
or the exposed plumbing?
That's external plumbing on the side of a house.
Yes, there is tons of work to do here,
but the overall architecture of the house
is a beautiful throwback.
Bringing this zombie back to life could be
a great showcase for us.
A historic reno that could be a calling card for our business.
Plus, since the asking price is near land value,
flipping this property could bring us a really good payday.
There's definitely a lot wrong with this house,
but it could be so cute.
Did we not just visit the same house?
There wasn't one thing in that house where you're like,
"Oh, at least it has this."
- No, at least it has suck. - Oh, my--
- Like, suck, suck, suck. - Come on.
This place has three nice-sized bedrooms,
that cute sunroom, a living room with a fireplace.
There is a lot to like about this house.
And this area is amazing.
I think we could even sell this house
for maybe 500 grand in a couple of months... Yeah.
...the way the market is moving.
It's listed at 265.
What if we put in an offer for 245?
Yeah, yeah, I'm cool with that.
I think we pump 100 grand into this,
get it fixed up,
and save a hundred-year-old house, you know?
We like saving old houses.
Despite my reservations,
I do see how this could be a profitable flip.
And I do have a soft spot in my heart for old houses.
I just hope this one doesn't kick us in the butt.
All right. - Let's go do it.
- Yes! Let's do it! - All right.
The owner was as eager as we had hoped
to unload this property,
and they accepted our land value offer
of $245,000.
But that's also a sign
of how much work this house actually needs.
So we're budgeting $100,000 for this renovation.
Because we need a big loan,
we'll try to finish this renovation in two months,
limiting our interest payments to 4,100 bucks.
Closing costs when we sell should come in around 20 grand.
That's an all-in cost of about $370,000.
But if we can hit our sale price of around $499,000,
that'll bring the team a profit of around 130 grand.
There's a couple of big fixes we gotta do
to bring this vintage house into the 21st century.
The first is to open up the downstairs floor plan.
We're gonna knock down that wall between the dining area
and that rear office, bonus room space
to create a large, flowing common area.
Then, upstairs, we're gonna make that front bedroom
into a master by sectioning off the side
and turning it into an en suite bathroom,
which also turns this house into a three-three.
In the backyard, we're gonna clean up that pool,
then clean up the rest of the yard,
adding plants alongside the pool deck
and constructing a walkway to a brand new patio
that will be a perfect lounging spot
for this tranquil space.
What's up, Ash? Hey! Demo day! You ready?
Demo day. It might take a while
to air the stink out of this house.
Man, we can get rid of all the ugly pretty fast.
Let's do it.
And the first eyesore I wanted to demolish
are these outdated kitchen cabinets.
Oh, my God, this is soft.
Oh, [ Bleep ].
The entire house is gonna fall down.
Hey, Justin, does this wood look rotten to you?
That could be some termite damage.
I say we leave that section alone
until pest control can take a look
and we start on a different area.
I want to open this up so you can see the pool.
All right.
While Ashlee and Justin go to town on the downstairs,
I'm going upstairs to lay waste to that block wall
dividing the bedroom.
Okay.
Ugh.
The only thing built well in the whole house.
Rgh!
Ugh!
Come on!
Wow, look at this floor.
Justin! Justin, look at this.
That's good-looking hardwood. It's good. It looks good.
Then why the hell would people put laminate over that?
I don't know. It's insane.
Hardwood is as popular today as it was in the 1920s,
so when the floor is fully refinished,
it's gonna be a huge selling point.
Yeah.
There's still plenty more to do, and we gotta be careful
not to damage our newly discovered hardwood floors.
So we're gonna leave this difficult and delicate work
to our demo professionals.
Clearing out the kitchen...
ripping everything out of the bathrooms...
...and stripping out all the laminate
revealed these awesome hardwood floors
and get this old-time house
ready to reclaim its former glory.
- Chris, you up here? - Hey, guys.
During demo, we found what we think
is some old termite damage in a couple of spots.
So we asked Roland Pest Control to come on out and take a look.
So, what have we got - going on? - I mean...
Termites.
Dry wood termites everywhere.
The whole house has got it all the way through.
Coming up...
Chris, you up here? Hey, guys.
So what have got - going on? - Dry wood termites everywhere.
The whole house has got it all the way through.
Man, I knew I should have expected this.
I mean, flipping any zombie
always comes with a few problems.
But an old wood-frame house like this
usually means thousands of problems.
Thousands of tiny, wood-eating problems
You can see right here, all of this wood is torn up
by dry wood termites.
It's all gonna have to be replaced.
But it doesn't look like the termites are still active
in the wood, right? Yeah.
Not a whole lot of activity - in this room. - Okay.
All of the active stuff that I'm seeing is all downstairs.
Let's go take a look.
I guess termites don't mind the nasty smell in here, huh?
- Oh, yeah. - Yeah.
Clearly, there's damage there.
Is that-- O-O-Oh.
Keith Well, I guess we can see if they're alive.
So this could be subterranean termite damage right here.
You kind of see how the galleries go
with the grain and wood? Yeah.
Basically, they use little mud tunnels
to get through the wood, so it's a tell
when you can see mud inside of the wood.
Holy cow!
Now he's talking about subterranean termites?!
I mean, a second ago, it was all about dry wood termites.
This entire house might be Swiss cheese
because of multiple waves of these buggers coming
over the last 100 years.
Okay, and you said subterranean, so I'm imagining they come up
through the post and the bottom and the crawl space.
So maybe that needs to be replaced? Yeah.
We've already been down there, checked it out,
and there are other issues down there
that we need to address, for sure.
Now Chris is talking about other problems under the house?
Is there some demon termite I've never heard of
that's tearing up the foundation of this place?
- So, what'd you find, Adam? - The structure itself is very solid.
Didn't look to be like there's any damage
to the wood foundationally.
But there's definitely been raccoon activity.
What kind of damage - did they do? - Any wires that are eaten up?
Yeah, absolutely.
Are the raccoons still living there? No.
Well, at least the raccoons are gone,
but it sounds like they made a meal of our wires.
We're gonna have to get the electrician to look at this
to see how much damage they did.
And even though the termites didn't eat the foundation,
there's plenty of them devouring the rest of the house.
Termites-- what are we thinking on that?
Are we tenting - this whole thing? - Yes.
We'll go ahead and tent it, kill them all off,
and then you'll be good to go after that.
What about a situation like this,
where you have a 40-foot-tall house?
It's dangerous work.
How much is it gonna cost, all of this?
It's in the thousands.
We'll go ahead and measure out the house,
and then we'll get that price going.
This tenting will cost us a lot of money,
and it will cost us time.
We want to finish this flip in two months,
and we're not off to a good start.
I want to kill - these termites fast. - Yeah.
Early the next day, the pest control team
gets to work, covering the entire house
with an airtight nylon tent.
Inside, they release a poisonous gas called Vikane
that'll kill all the termites.
A couple of days later, they take the tent down.
It cost us time and money that we didn't expect,
but any pests that invaded this historic house
are now history.
Arturo?
- Hey, guys. - Hey.
After the pest control team told us that raccoons have been
chewing on all the wires underneath the house,
we had our electrician Arturo come over to check it out.
Fingers crossed that the damage isn't too bad.
We checked underneath... Uh-huh.
...and you end up with bare parts of these wires
that-- that could be dangerous.
Well, I have-- the AC guys are going tomorrow
to put in the new vents.
Oh, no, we gotta hold on that.
We gotta hold on that, because it's not safe
for anybody to go down there.
The best solution here is to eliminate all this power
that's going underneath and then run new power
from the panel out here to all over the house safely.
Great-- another day, another delay to our timeline.
How bad can this go?
That--Now you're rewiring the whole house?
Well, there should be Romex pretty much everywhere, right?
Um, not necessarily.
That will bring me to the next point.
If y'all want to go inside, I'll show you
the knob-and-tubing that we found here.
Knob-and-tube wiring is a old electrical system
where bare wires were actually run inside the walls
anchored by porcelain knobs and then run through cross beams
by going through porcelain tubes.
It was replaced by better systems in the 1930s,
so, really, only a house this old might have it.
And at this point, it's guaranteed
to be all worn and ratty.
You got that hanging there.
We thought we were clear here because the wiring we saw
during demo was actually upgraded Romex.
Right here is a perfect example
of why knob-and-tubing is dangerous.
Oh, my gosh. - You see that bare wire?
Yeah. - That's hot.
- That's live right now?! - If you touch it-- Yep, all live.
Oh, my God.
The sheathing of the wire is cloth.
Somebody comes here, touch it, gets shocked.
Whoa, it looks like that could be
a fire hazard, - right there. - Oh, definitely.
Definitely. Where the Romex crosses over the knob-and-tube?
- Yep, right in top. - Yeah, and it's, like, browning up.
Throughout the years, they'll start remodeling
parts here and there, so that's why
- you see the Romex. - Right.
But they never did a complete renovation...
Rewire....under an electrical.
So we got a mishmash of--That's right.
So you got patches.
So, we're gonna get rid of all the knob-and-tube
- in the house, right? - Yes, yes.
Okay, for sure.
Man, it's one thing after another.
Termites ate our wood, raccoons ate the wiring,
and now, fixing all this outdated electrical work--
I mean, it's causing all of our other crews to reschedule,
and that could cost us extra interest payments
if this flip takes too long.
I feel like flipping this hundred-year-old house
it's gonna take a hundred years.
It's not the news that you want to give,
but safety is first. Yeah.
Arturo's team gets to work
disconnecting the raccoon-ravaged wiring
underneath the house...
...and tearing out all the dangerous
knob-and-tube relics inside.
Then, they route upgraded Romex wiring
to a new electrical panel
that'll keep this house humming safely.
And with no more exposed electrical lines
in the crawl space, the HVAC team can safely go in
and replace all the ducting in there...
running new, clean duct all the way up
to the all-new heating and air conditioning system.
No more clogged airways.
Now we can get back to flipping this vintage house
without gagging on the air.
- Ooh, I like these vinyls. - I'm sure they have the doors, though.
Oh, my goodness. I love this place.
Today, Justin and I are at FVA Antiques,
and we are looking for doors for the Fern Creek house.
Most of the house has original 1920s doors,
but a few were replaced with more modern ones.
But that won't do for this historic home.
We need to find some vintage replacements
that will restore this property to its original charm.
We're only missing four doors,
so we need four original doors.
All right, it looks like we might be in the right place.
I know, I hope so.
Do you know which one it is? It's two-panel shaker.
Justin, here. There's another one here.
They're both massive, though. Look, 36x36.
But that's a two-panel.
We need a 28, a 32, and two 30s.
All right, here's the 30. - You said we need a 32, right? - I'm sure we can find--
No, this is a six-panel.
Okay. Hmm.
Should we find the guy and ask him?
Hello? Hello!
Y'all are looking for something?
Yeah, a two-panel shaker for a 1920s home.
I might have something in the back over here,
if y'all want to come along and check it out.
- Yeah, let's check it out. - Okay, yeah. All right.
- Thank you. - Follow me back.
Here is our two-panel door section.
A two-panel shaker. Two panel!
Here, we got one!
So, what sizes do you have?
This is a 32x79. Mm-hmm.
Um-- No, no, by 80.
We need them 80 inches tall.
And we need to get them bigger than smaller.
34x34-- you could cut this down.
I think you have them.
Finding materials for an old house like this
is a lot like a treasure hunt.
If you know where to dig, you can find some real gems,
even if they're not cut perfectly yet.
Well, I love it.
Let's get four of them for sure. Excellent.
We'll get you going. - All right. Excellent.
Let's go shop for some hardware.
It's time to repipe this 100-year-old hangout.
Our crew removes all the rusted, outdated plumbing...
...and replaces it with a combination of sturdy PVC
and flexible PEX piping.
With these modern upgrades, this historic home
will be good for another 100 years.
We're a month into this two-month flip,
and things are not moving as fast as we had hoped.
We expect to spend around 100 grand on this renovation,
and so far, we've only spent about 34 grand.
Pest control and electrical fixes
have slowed us down.
And even though our money is on track, our timeline isn't.
We need this job site to pick up fast,
or we'll end up paying much longer on this loan
than we had anticipated.
I think the smell's getting better--
at least where the windows are open.
Are you able to work in here, Bill?
I'm just trying to see where this bend is gonna sit.
Oh, perfect. - Okay, cool. - Okay?
Bill is one of our best subcontractors.
He can build or fix just about anything.
At least, I hope so, because we're really gonna
need his help solving a problem
with these antique doors we found.
So, I got a bit of bad news.
I know this doorway here is for a 28-inch door.
The vintage doors that I ordered,
they can't find any 28-inch doors.
They only have 30.
Nah, it's gotta be a 28-inch door.
Um, I was thinking you could just cut it down the side.
Oh, that wouldn't look very good.
Do we have one of those doors, and we'll just have a look?
Let's go find--Uh, there's s-some upstairs.
- Okay. - I'm sure that we can just cut off
one inch on either side of the door to get it to fit.
Okay.
I know Bill's the expert,
but I think I just need him to see my vision.
That's a 24-inch door.
Right, but I'm just saying, for this style of door,
why couldn't we just cut it down two inches?
You can't cut off where the doorknob is.
We can't cut half and half.
We've got to cut it all off of one side.
So you're saying it would be off-center type? Yes.
Man, we're already behind in this place.
I thought we struck gold when we found doors
that matched the style of this house.
If we have to find ones that fit perfectly,
we're gonna be looking for months.
For this style of door, why couldn't we just
cut it down two inches?
You can't cut off where the doorknob is.
We can't cut half and half.
We've got to cut it all off of one side.
So you're saying it would be off-center type? Yes.
I thought I had the perfect vintage doors
to restore the historic look of this house,
but one of them was too big, and if we use a different door,
it'll mess up the whole character of the house.
Okay, so, what if we made it into a barn door?
Where, like, you use the 30-inch door...
As a barn door - for a 28-inch? - Yeah, because--
And you don't cut it down.
Do you wanna bring that door downstairs?
I just want to see what it will look like.
I'm trying to think outside the box--
or outside the door frame.
Since barn doors are sliding doors
that have to sit outside the door frame,
they have to be wide enough to cover the opening.
We just need to see if there's enough wall space
to slide this one open.
Okay, so, to make this a barn door, right?
It would have to sit right over there.
So it will - just slide over. - Bond over here.
It will be like...
When the door is closed, it's gonna sit like that.
- That's perfect. - Yep, it will work.
This barn door is actually gonna be better
than what we originally planned
because it doesn't use any space into the room to open.
And it even adds a touch of historical flair.
It looks like we actually squeezed out
of this door jamb quite nicely.
Cool. All right.
Okay, I'm glad they couldn't find the doors.
We're about a week behind schedule,
but we finally started doing drywall.
While setting up, we discovered
a hidden brick wall inside our new master bedroom.
So we decided to leave it partially exposed
as an accent feature to preserve the house's historic charm.
Once we've framed around it,
we can start sealing up this house,
patching up any holes
and installing new drywall boards
to cover up any open space in the ceiling or the walls.
Now we can start painting.
We're going with an off-white shade throughout the house.
Bright enough to open up the place,
but it's subtle enough to feel inviting and cozy.
On the outside, we chose a dark forest green.
It helps retain the earthy charm that we first saw here.
Now the house is forest green
without the actual forest growing on it.
Meanwhile, we're starting to do some work on our kitchen, too.
We've chosen some classic shaker cabinets
and a color called "dove gray."
It's a vintage style with a modern tone
capturing the best of the past and the present.
With a week and a half left in our two-month schedule,
we still have lots to do-- like the rest of this kitchen,
the bathrooms, and all of the landscaping.
Of the 100 grand we set aside, we've spent almost half of it.
The remaining fixes might still be within our budget,
but getting them done on time is gonna take a miracle.
At this point, it's more about minimizing our losses
by not going too far past our deadline.
- What's up, Jerry? - How are you doing today, young man?
I'm good, bro.
Even though the exterminators got rid of all the termites,
the damage has been done,
and our pine floors are chewed up.
So our carpenter Jerry
is working to replace the bad boards.
But for a old house like this, it's not such an easy task.
I still gotta cut this out and replace that.
We ripped up the old floor in here
and we're gonna use the old wood in here
to patch out there, young man.
Okay, we don't really have enough.
That's why we have to use the new wood.
Yes. Okay.
It turns out our plan to steal the closet floorboards
to patch up the living room floor,
it's gonna come up short.
And that means we have to finish things off
with new wood, and that could be a problem.
Those grains don't match at all.
This is all really quick growth,
'cause the lines are close together, right?
Yes, young man.
Why does the new wood grow so much faster?
That floor's 100 years old.
Back then, they had a lot of pine trees
that grow for a long time.
Okay. And now, on these tree farms,
they just try to get these trees so high.
- Oh. - And then, they cut them down real quick
- to give you pine. - Is there any way to hide that a bit?
We'll stain just a little darker.
Kind of match it some way.
So, you'll put more coats on this to make it darker.
Correct. So, what's this delay you were talking about?
we've gotta wait for two weeks, 'cause it's gotta acclimate.
The pine's gotta acclimate for two weeks?
Our floor guy just told us that patching this hardwood
with fresh boards is gonna have a huge wait time.
And if waiting on boards makes us miss our window
on other projects like the kitchen install,
that could cost us a ton more in loan interest.
We could do laminate right now,
but we want to honor the historic nature
of this house everywhere possible.
So I mean, what do we do?
We need a solution, 'cause that's a problem.
Are you sure it needs a full two weeks?
- At least a week, young man. - At least a week.
If it's a week, I mean, for the vintage look,
we gotta do it.
If it takes a week, whatever.
There's other things we can do in this house
- that'll burn a week. - Y-Yeah, for sure.
So we're gonna give the boards a week.
We'll see if that's enough.
In the meantime, we're gonna do everything we can
to keep this flip moving forward.
- Nice meeting you, brother. - Good seeing you, man.
All right.
We have officially gone over-schedule on this flip,
but we're making big progress today in our bathrooms,
where we're installing beautiful tile
from Daltile Design.
In the master, we're going for an elegant,
small Forma hex pattern with scattered gray highlights.
On the back wall of the shower, we have a subway tile
with different cool shades of dark gray.
This will go perfectly with what we've chosen
for the sidewalls and niche--
light gray tiles that have an elongated hexagon shape.
In the upstairs hall bathroom.
We're surrounding the walls of the tub with a gray subway tile.
It's both classic and beautiful.
And this flooring has a hex pattern
that has pops of dark color that are actually deep purple--
a subtle rock and roll twist
on the vintage black and white standard.
Finally, for the downstairs bathroom,
we chose a dark green subway tile
for the bottom half of the wall
that reflects the lush backyard just outside.
And on the upper part, we have the same
elongated textile that's in the master bath.
When they're all done, this house will have
three distinct baths that are 100% stylish.
We can also finally finish the floors
in the rest of the house.
Using the old hardwood from the front closet
and the new boards, which have acclimated well
after eight days,
we can fill in the gaps throughout the house.
Add a little stain and lacquer,
and we now have a uniform, classic look.
We're also cutting a new exit to the backyard
and installing French doors.
French doors are true throwbacks of the Gulf states
starting with Creole cottages in the 1700s,
because they provide great ventilation
in hot and humid conditions.
And let's not forget Ashlee's barn door idea.
The sliding partition not only solves a problem,
but it offers a fun way to enter our downstairs bathroom.
Finally, now that the house has aired out that bad smell,
we're getting our kitchen into place.
We're bringing in some gorgeous marble countertops
that pair beautifully with the cabinets
and that new farm-style sink.
Then, in goes some state of the art
stainless steel appliances-- the one modern touch
that most vintage buyers still want.
We're already a week and a half over-schedule on this flip,
so it's important that we finish things up fast.
We put aside 100 grand for this renovation,
and we've spent a bit more than 77 grand.
We still have expensive work to do outside,
including the landscaping, fencing, and the pool cleanup,
and that's where we'll use most of the remaining money.
The question is, is how much more money
we will burn on our loan interest
until we can get this place sold.
So, is this landscaping
gonna get cleared up soon, or what?
They said they're coming today.
Okay, because the open house is in a few days, so--
Yeah, they got the truck with the plants pulling up right now.
Finally. - What'd I tell you guys?
Yay! Hey! - Hi, guys!
- Hey. - How's it going?
- Hey! - There's more people coming, right?
The whole workers? The crew?
The-- All the--Sadly, I am the crew.
- What? - Everybody else is a little sick.
Oh, my God.
With all the labor shortages these days, it was even harder
to book a landscaping crew than normal.
But now, with the pandemic surge,
the labor pool is even more limited,
which means what should be a one-day job
could take four or five.
Will this flip ever end?
Sounds to me like we're doing this ourselves.
Let's get these in the ground... Right.
...and then reach out to all of our contacts
and try to call in a favor.
It might be a long shot,
but between Ashlee, Keith, and me,
we know a lot of people who know a lot of people.
So we'll make a few calls
and see if we can dig up some help.
All right, should we start digging?
Yes.
God, I love gardening.
I forgot how much I like gardening.
Are you kidding?
I would love to be a gardener.
Hey, look, who's here.
- Hey, all right! - The cavalry has arrived.
This is great-- a contractor that we know
was able to hook us up with a couple available landscapers.
They even brought us some more mulch and supplies.
How lucky are we that those guys showed up?
- That's amazing. - Yeah, it's pretty clutch, man.
Now we've got the manpower to tame this jungle
and whip this backyard into shape.
We have a lot to do to get this pool
up and running, too including a new pump,
new pipes, and a new electrical system.
It's expensive work, but when it's done,
our pool is gonna be ready for action,
and it's gonna look amazing.
We're more than two weeks later than we planned,
but we finally made it to staging day.
The team from the staging company
brings new life to this old-soul home
with a classic collection
of wooden furniture and country accents,
turning it into a comfortable space
the buyers could envision themselves living in.
Man, I'm excited
to see this place fully put back together.
Here we are.
Wow. Look at this place.
Is this not amazing?
- Yeah, it looks great. - I mean, what a transformation.
I love pulling up in this place
and actually being able to park.
Couldn't do that when we first got here.
There were weeds everywhere.
And then, there are vines, like, growing up
over the house and in through all the windows.
Yeah. That was insane.
But it looks great now.
Yeah, with all this foliage cleared out,
you can actually see this historic house,
and the new paint job helps it look brand new.
Let's go check out the inside.
Remember how drab it used to be in here?
Most colorful thing was those vines
growing through the windows.
Now look at it!
It's so bright and airy and fresh.
That's got to be one of the biggest transformations.
- No more cat pee smell. - Oh, man.
We can breathe in here.
There's fresh paint everywhere.
Anything that could be old and smell
has been, like, replaced or fixed.
- Eradicated. - Speaking of eradicated,
you remember all the termite damage this place had?
Yeah, they'd torn up our walls
and even started in on our floors.
Check out these floors now.
Honestly, like, I did not think
they could ever turn out this good.
I remember how the dining room
was so small and dingy
and had those Rice Krispie walls.
The wall's crunching.
Check it out now.
- Look at this. - So much space.
- So much living space. - Amazing.
- Yeah. - And it's so well-lit.
It's so bright - with all the natural light. - Yeah.
What helps is that we took that wall down.
Now you've got a direct view of the pool.
Putting in these French doors was a great idea.
And this hall bath is so close to the outside,
it's practically a pool bath.
The green tile with the gold accents--
the brushed gold-- that is such a sharp look.
Green looks good anywhere.
And don't forget, we added a barn door.
There used to be, like, a regular s--
- Oh, swing door-- yeah. - Yeah.
Looks great. Oh.
All right. - See you, Keith. - Guys.
Yo, guys.
Remember, the sunroom was painted
that weird blue color.
I'm so glad we painted it white.
It really brightened up this space.
Yeah, it looks great now.
I just love that there's a whole view
of the gorgeous pool from here.
You have a view - of everything. - Yeah.
There's windows all around. It's awesome.
This kitchen used to be full of trash
and outdated everything.
But look at it now.
- Talk about amazing. - Yeah.
This quartz turned out - so nice, as well. - That looks awesome.
The backsplash goes the whole way to the ceiling,
so you kind of have-- you know, it feels
- like a chef's kitchen. - Yeah.
Let's check out the upstairs, guys. Wow.
We decided this front bedroom should become the master
since there was no proper master.
But there's a hell of a nice master now.
I love the exposed brick.
I wasn't sure how we were gonna use it,
but I knew we'd integrate it into the room somehow.
I really love this new master bath that we added.
- And it looks great. - It looks really good.
Gold, green, and Carrara marble.
You cannot go wrong with that combination.
The landscaping was a jungle.
The pool was a swamp.
Look at this.
Total transformation, guys.
- So fabulous. - This is the view that's gonna sell this house.
- Yeah. - The ropes are awesome.
- The pool is gorgeous. - It's huge. It's really deep.
- Very open. - It feels massive.
A real backyard paradise.
My open house should be starting any time.
- We gotta go. - All right, let's go.
This has went from being a stinky old wreck
to a gorgeous vintage showcase.
I feel confident that it'll fetch top dollar,
which is tremendous for us,
because since we started this flip,
this neighborhood is exploding in value
as fast as I've ever seen.
Our purchase price $245,000
looks like a bigger bargain every day,
as we've decided to change our listing price
from $499,000
to $549,900.
- Hi, how are you? - Hello! Good.
- Come on in. - Thank you. - Hello.
Welcome to my open house.
It's a three-three, 2,000 square feet,
and it's in a really amazing area.
This is so open here. I love this.
I like the white stain here on the fireplace.
Look at this. Looks beautiful.
Original coffered ceilings, and then these floors,
believe it or not, are original.
We had them all restored. Oh, wow.
Come on over here.
The kitchen, living room now.
- Oh, wow. - Oh, my gosh.
Man 1: It's really good lighting in here.
A lot of modern elements with it that I really like.
Oh, my gosh, I love that sink.
Do you want to come this way? I'll show you a cool bath.
Woman 1: Oh, nice.
I really like the gold finishes in here.
And here is our totally redone master bedroom.
Woman 2: Wow, look at this.
I like when you redo homes like these
and you keep a lot of these older aspects of it.
This bathroom wasn't here.
It didn't exist, So we added.
Man 2: You used the gold with the chrome fixtures,
It's interesting to put those two together.
Mixed metals are all in.
Woman 1: Ooh, look at that, Camilla.
Woman 2: This is a unique shape for a room.
Like, it's, like, long.
My favorite part
is definitely this view of the pool.
Oh, my goodness.
Well, let's go outside and look at it.
Perfect, yeah. I'd love to.
Oh, my gosh.
Woman 3: With the pool and everything else,
you have so much space.
We added all-new pavers to match the front.
I like this little, uh, sun deck?
It's amazing, right?
Really nice outdoor area. Yeah.
So, do you have any questions?
Just, you know, list price.
$549,900.
I think it's, uh, right on the money.
Very reasonable. You want to make an offer?
- Yeah. - Let's go in and maybe write it up?
Okay, let's go. Let's go.
The open house was an even bigger hit than I hoped,
with multiple interested parties.
Some of them even got into a bidding war,
and we ended up accepting a phenomenal offer
of $615,000.
We bought this house for an unbelievably low price
of $245,000.
We limited our reno cost to $93,000,
which made up for spending more than we wanted to
on our loan interest.
We also had to pay Realtor fees
and closing costs of nearly $28,000.
All told, that's over $370,000 that we put into this place.
But thanks to the scorching market,
that sales price nets us over $243,000 on this project.
We can celebrate a job well done in a garden.
Yes. Very good.
So, cheers, team.
So, you said you loved gardening so much,
your garden all the time.
And it turns out, this garden center
needs some help, and they hired you
on the spot, sight unseen.
But for this gardening gig,
you'll have to do some heavy lifting.
Oh!
Hey! Ash!
- Follow your dreams! - Hey!
I love this job!