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.
...for an even sweeter payday.
Here's to selling another house.
This...
is "Zombie House Flipping."
Captioning provided by A+E Networks
♪ Watch out ♪
♪ I'm coming through ♪
♪ Stacking up my W's ♪
Thornton Park has certainly turned out to be
a really cool neighborhood.
I remember when I first moved to Orlando,
it was kind of run-down.
It was just kind of a bunch of old houses.
And now, I mean, look at it. Oh.
The restaurants are so cute.
I just love this area.
some challenging flipping projects.
This house might be a great side project
that she and I could partner on.
The interesting part is, the gentrification
isn't through new construction.
This is almost entirely all old wood-frame houses
that are actually well-maintained
and look really nice.
People are actually rehabbing these old homes
and bringing them back to life - instead of demo'ing them. - Yeah.
I heard about this house we're seeing
from a Realtor friend
who told me it couldn't pass inspection.
And I thought you'd be the perfect person to work with me
because from the pictures I saw,
it might have some style challenges,
and that's, you know-- That's what you do.
So you're taking me to a really ugly house
where I'm gonna have a lot of challenges?
Is that--Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Isn't that what I always do with you?
One of the challenges we're gonna have to overcome
is the asking price.
They're asking $425,000, and this house needs a lot,
and it ain't very big. It's, like, 1,500 square feet.
Well, the houses that are done properly in this area,
- they do go in the sixes. - Yeah.
It's just a matter of what it takes to get it there.
It should be up here on the left.
Oh.
Uh...
That's a lot of yellow.
This doesn't even look like a house.
It looks like an insurance office.
There's nothing about that that says residential.
It's just ugly.
I mean, you can kind of see the 1920s bones here.
You know, like those flared columns
over there on the corners.
But the rest is just kind of flat and lifeless.
So what are the specs here?
Well, the official square footage is 1,426,
which includes two bedrooms, two bathrooms,
a front living room, and, you know,
formal dining room. The kitchen's galley style,
which leads to a courtyard out back
and a separate one-car garage.
We're in a historic - preservation district, right? - Right.
And if a house was heavily modified
before the historic preservation district was installed... Mm-hmm.
...that house is considered nonconforming.
My fear is that in this district,
they could want a historic front elevation.
I'm seeing some major challenges here.
Restoring a historic home can be a fun challenge
with some rewarding results.
But you don't take on one of those lightly.
You have to operate within some tight rules
and get the historic preservation board's approval
for almost every fix.
It can be time-consuming and expensive,
so you have to make sure the project is really worth it.
Let's go in and check out the inside
and see what kind of challenges we find in there.
Well, I hope they're not as challenging as this.
Well, that's not encouraging.
You could barely get the door open.
Oh, man. Look at this arch right here.
See this? The wood's peeling.
This is, what, 1920s, right? - Yeah.
So this is gonna be wood frame, plaster,
heavy plaster - on the walls, right? - Heavy. Yeah.
This was all enclosed.
The front porch, they closed it in,
but it still has a very exterior,
almost institutional-type feel to it.
These columns would be brick,
but they did some weird stucco over them. Yeah.
That's what they did back in the day.
It was just thick, thick stucco.
Alright. Let's go and check out the rest of the house
and just see what we have going on.
Some ugly green paint in here.
We got a fireplace. We got oak floors, right?
Mm-hmm.
Look at these casement windows. I bet these are original.
- Oh, it's painted. - Yeah, they're probably painted shut.
- Painted shut. - I mean, we've got to really think about this.
Are we gonna blow it out,
or are we gonna try and restore some of it?
I know. I'm just trying to get my bearings.
I want to let the whole space inform my thoughts, you know?
Dining room. That's the thing about these old houses.
The rooms are really well-defined.
We're definitely in the dining room.
That was definitely the living room.
The way these historic houses are constructed,
it makes them a little harder to open up walls, you know?
- Right. - Because a lot of the interior walls
are gonna be structural.
- Oh, yeah. - What do you think that is?
I don't know. This is one of the things
that I don't like about the older homes.
Who knows what that is?
- Okay. Oh. - This is 100 years of history,
which is 100 years - to do weird stuff. - Yeah, well...
I know. The kitchen looks like 100 years of misery.
Oh. Look at this.
That's the biggest soffit I've ever seen.
It's a tall ceiling. That's a great selling point,
having the high ceilings, because you don't get that... Oh. Oh, I thought...
...inside of a lot of the historic homes.
Yeah. This is a countertop
that's just set on top of two...
Yeah.
It's gonna make it easy to demo.
I know. You just...
And...
oh, that is actually the back
of the fiberglass shower enclosure.
You could, like, poke your finger in through here
and be in the shower.
Well, let's go check out the bathroom, okay? Alright.
So we know there's another bathroom over there.
There's got to be a low-quality shower hiding somewhere here,
but this is not that bathroom.
Right. That's a baby toilet, right there. Look at that.
This is like
It is a baby toilet.
It's a baby toilet.
And the two medicine cabinets?
Like-- Oh, yeah.
Yeah, we don't need to do dueling medicine cabinets. Yeah.
Dueling medicine cabinets, okay.
Alright, so let's go to see - what else we got over here. - So...
Okay.
This is the master.
This obviously had to be two rooms before.
Oh, you mean because of the giant divider
in the middle of the room
and the room is unusually - long and-- and narrow? - Right.
You could throw a football in here, you know.
Here's the master bath. Holy crap.
Look at this. That's a water heater.
That's got to be, what, a 50-gallon?
Yeah. 8 pounds per gallon.
That's 400 pounds just of water, plus the water heater itself.
- Mm-hmm. - That's probably 500 pounds sitting right there.
And this is not a structured wall, and that's a 2x4.
That can't be okay.
That's actually really scary because if that breaks
and somebody's down there, it's gonna kill them.
Here's the shower we saw from the kitchen.
We can actually bust this shower open
and go wall to wall right here.
We can take this toilet, and we can move it right here.
And it'll make this into a proper master en suite.
You know, that's a damn fine idea you just came up with.
Hey, let's go check out the backyard. Okay.
Wait, this is kind of cute.
The space is great.
There's a pretty good side yard.
The vegetation is actually really cool.
That garage will need some fresh paint,
but this is a pretty decent courtyard.
Yeah. This is kind of a cool spot
for me to be able to design.
So we got to figure out what we're doing here.
I like historic houses,
and this is kind of an interesting-looking project.
It's not a total restructure- the-entire-house thing.
Other than the kitchen and the bathroom,
the interior just needs, like, a simple refresh,
and we can focus more energy out here.
What we have on our side
is the fact that it just fell out of contract
because it failed a home inspection. Mm-hmm.
And the Realtor said that it can't qualify
for conventional financing. The pool of buyers
went from everybody down to investors or cash buyers.
- Fantastic. - So that's on our side.
Yeah.
The seller's agent informed us
that the electrical system wasn't up to code
and no bank will make a conventional loan
for a house that can't pass inspection.
Like, we can actually make a pretty good profit on it.
I think that this project has enough profit
to make it worth your while... Yeah.
...and enough design challenges for me to have fun with it.
You're gonna-- I'm gonna make money,
and you're gonna have fun.
I'm gonna make money, too, but... Oh.
Alright, come on. Let's go-- Let's go see Ashlee.
We negotiated with the sellers and got them down to $400,000,
which is perfect for us.
Alynne and I will be exclusive partners on this flip
and try to limit our reno budget to only 65 grand.
That's because we have to borrow the full amount
for the purchase and reno and pay points on the loan,
which will cost 13 grand just for one month.
We also anticipate Realtor fees and closing costs
will be about $33,000 when we sell,
which Ashlee will get her cut of as our agent.
That puts our all-in cost at just over $511,000.
But with the market still high right now,
we think we can sell this house for 600 grand,
which would net us a great profit of almost $89,000
that Alynne and I will split 50-50.
We don't want to completely reconfigure this historic house,
but we do think that we can reallocate
some of this closet space for better use.
The first change will be to make the master shower a proper size
by widening it into the space that was a kitchen pantry.
We'll also shift the toilet to the other wall,
creating easier access to the new shower.
Then to maintain a proper kitchen pantry,
we'll eliminate the central hall closet
and create a new cabinet pantry at the end of the kitchen,
which has the added bonus of widening that entry.
But the biggest transformation will be out back.
We're gonna turn that courtyard
into the ultimate hangout by adding a large covered deck
and even putting a putting green beside the house.
It will look great,
assuming we get approval from the preservation board.
She's the best tool for demo.
Whoo!
Alright, Karen.
Oh.
Ha ha!
And, oh, an electric connection.
Okay. Let's find the breaker for the dishwasher and turn it off.
Where is the breaker box for this? Do we know?
If I was a breaker box in a 100-year house,
where would I be?
There might not be an inside box here.
Okay.
Oh, dishwasher.
Oh, you found it. Okay.
Yeah, but there's no subpanel.
It's just a main breaker box.
I guess we know why this house failed that inspection.
We were told the electrical system wasn't up to code,
and this is why.
Today, houses are required to have panels
that have more specific breakers,
and this one only has a few.
If you had a problem,
you'd have to turn off, like, half your house.
And if we have to rewire this entire house,
that could cost a lot more than we anticipated.
There's no subpanel. It's just a main breaker box.
I guess we know why this house failed that inspection.
100-year-old house.
100-year-old problems.
We need to book our electricians
to come look at this house's setup.
Until then, our demo team gets to work finishing off
that kitchen, removing every bit of ugliness,
including that giant, useless soffit.
Then that weird master bathroom gets stripped of studs.
And all that debris ends up in the dump, where it belongs,
so we can start fresh with our historic renovation.
Keith. Hey, buddy.
Hey. How you doing, man?
Good, good, good. This is Alynne.
- Alynne. Scott. - Nice to meet you. Scott.
Hi. Nice to meet you.
A couple of options you have. You can leave it as is.
You can make modifications to it,
which you have to get the board's approval for.
Our first choice would be go back to the original open porch.
Think about how charming it would be with a covered porch
right here on-- in a historic district.
It would look so beautiful - and authentic. - It...
Yeah, but... But?
...we don't want to lose 200 square feet.
200 square feet at... Times--
...$300 a square foot.
and they're giving us a lot of leeway
to do it the way we want, which is kind of exciting.
I'm glad you guys did this.
The fact that you guys are being proactive and going,
"What's okay, what's not?" helps the city a ton.
Oh, dude, proactive is her middle name. Heck yeah.
- Well, good seeing you guys. - Alright, take care.
Today, our plumber's in the crawl space
updating the main drain line with 4-inch PVC.
Because he couldn't install any of the cabinets
because of the floor. Look at over here and over here.
Well, wait, you mean the level?
Look. Look. Right here.
- Okay. - It has to be raised up there.
All the floors are unlevel.
Yeah, but he--And then this one
right over here...
- Yeah. - If you come look at this one,
this one's the worst. Look at this thing.
During demo, we didn't notice that the floors in this kitchen
were off-kilter, but-- And I mean not just
in a part of it, but across the whole floor.
We're trying to keep a tight reno budget here,
and this one problem could destroy that.
Holy cow.
I just think we have - to get some self-leveler. - Okay.
And we're just gonna have to get it level.
I'm not a huge fan of using self-leveler
in a wood-frame house because the self-leveler is runny stuff.
It can go through the floors.
I think a better idea might be to get under the house,
find out where the closest main beam is,
and jack it up, and then put a permanent,
like, stanchion under there to hold it.
That could cause other issues,
and with our time frame,
I just think that self-leveler is cheaper... Yeah.
...and it is gonna take less time.
Yeah, no. I wasn't thinking.
Because the-- There's always the risk of cracking plaster.
- Exactly. Yeah. - Yeah, you blow the whole house up
if you cr-- if you lift it - a little too much. - Yeah.
In order to not crack all the plaster in the house
when you jack a house up,
you have to jack it up over a period of days.
It could take a week for us to get that floor level
by jacking it up a little bit at a time,
and we don't have a week.
I think a better idea might be some shimming.
The easiest fix here is to simply place some shims
underneath the cabinets to level them out.
It's not only the quickest fix--
It's also the least expensive.
That way, we'll only have to level
the remaining exposed floor in the middle of the kitchen,
which can be done with a few concrete patches.
Yeah, shim up the cabinets so we keep moving.
Well, that will solve it. Alright.
Our cabinet guys get back to work
using shims to make the lower units level.
The cabinets we chose are white Shaker
with the uppers topped by a crown molding.
It's a timeless look for this historic house.
- Hey. - Hey.
- Hey. Hey. - Good to see you guys.
Excited to hear how the project's coming.
Oh. It's coming.
Yeah? Yeah, right.
Never as fast as you want.
Never as fast or as easy.
Oh, there's always something - on an old house, right? - Yeah.
- So, yeah. - What do you got?
Here's the awning that I want to use.
Okay. Is that metal or--
- Yeah, it's metal. - Okay.
So I did print this out for you.
- Okay. - I got this.
I was looking through the regulations for your district.
Historic preservation boards get that bad rap
of being - a hysteric preservation board. - Right. Yeah.
- Right. - It's like-- It's just that people
bought in this neighborhood
because they liked the historic character
and you want to keep that historic character.
- Yeah. - And if people tear it down and put a McMansion up,
then it's not - the same character it was. - You lose-- Yeah, yeah.
Slowly, but surely, the neighborhood changes.
We want it to be simple, so an awning
is one of the things that's listed as a minor review,
which means you fill this out,
you pay the fee to the city, and it just goes to the officer.
Awesome. No board review for that at all.
So it's much faster.
You don't have to wait for, like, the monthly meeting
or anything like that.
- That's gonna be easy. - That's all you're planning
- on changing on the outside. - Yeah, yeah.
Are you-- Are you--
I know we talked about the opening
the front porch up, right, to go back
to more of that historic style? Are you--
Oh, you're getting peer pressure now.
Well, that's what I do.
That's my job, is to peer pressure people.
Right. Well--
I mean, do you want to go back
to that historic feel, right? It was designed with a porch.
It's that nice transition - into the house. - Yeah.
- It would look beautiful.
Sounds like a great idea,
but not on-- not on our pocketbook, though.
Not over right there then, okay.
Yeah. Yeah.
No, I get it. That makes total sense.
- Yeah. - I'd love to see it
when you guys are - wrapping stuff up. - Yeah.
See how it all comes out.
- Absolutely, yeah. - Absolutely.
Well, very good. Well, thank you for this.
You got it. My pleasure. Yeah.
Thanks, guys. Take care.
- We'll see you. - See you later.
Hey. That's great news.
I know.
It's time to start working on the exterior
of this historic house.
In the backyard, we're doing some much-needed cleanup
by removing the overgrown ivy from the garage
and tearing up the bricks and the cracked sidewalk.
Meanwhile, out front,
I'm installing a classic picket fence,
creating a visual separation between the house
and the street,
while also giving this place a touch of vintage style.
Next up, the back courtyard gets some shade.
We're installing a lofted patio cover to create a lounging area
where the homeowners can beat the heat
while still enjoying the fresh air.
We're about halfway through this one-month flip,
and we're about halfway through our reno budget, too.
Of the 65 grand we planned for this reno budget,
we've spent about $32,000.
Alynne's more prone to spend money than me,
so I got to keep watch over our remaining balance.
But, otherwise, this partnership
seems to be working out pretty well.
What is that? Yard art.
Yard art? Yeah.
Like I'll buy that when pigs fly?
I think it's cute. I just love this place.
Today, I brought Keith to one of my favorite vintage stores.
Our historic home has window openings
between the living room and the enclosed porch.
And we want to install old-style windows
that open like doors to give it that vintage look.
- Hey. How you guys doing? - Hi. You guys have doors?
Yes. - You do have doors?
- Yep. - Yeah.
We're on this hunt to find historic doors
because it's a historic renovation.
We've got maybe one set of doors here.
You're welcome to take a look at them.
- Yeah. Let's take a look. - Let me show you.
These-- These might work for you.
I have these. Oh.
Is this kind of what you're thinking?
- That's exactly. - Are you kidding me?
This is exactly what I think
would have been there, - like, exactly. - Okay.
Great. Let's hope they're the right size.
Was it 18"?
18".
Okay. Alright.
So the width works. Let's check the height.
A little over 66".
I think that's gonna work, Keith.
You're kidding me.
Maybe these came out of that house.
Well...
We need eight that match perfectly, right?
Yeah.
I don't know if I have more of the same style.
What's our alternative here then? What do we do?
We've got to take it down to the ground.
We could get into other problems,
and cost us a ton more money.
Demo is cheap. You just throw a hammer at stuff.
But then we have to match the floor,
so make this whole room be one flooring.
Keith isn't considering the fact that
if we take down this wall,
we'll be left with a major floor transition
right in the middle of this huge room.
And trying to replace the old porch floor
to match the living room could be incredibly expensive.
We could be talking 10 grand, easily.
Well--Versus finding something
- like this, which is hard. - Well, wait, wait, wait, wait.
She hasn't told us what these cost.
We don't know that yet. So how much--
How much do the doors cost?
Well, for the pair, it's $695.
We need four.
That's $2,800.
If we can find this-- these doors and they match,
it's gonna save us a ton of money.
But can you find us three more pairs that match?
We have a warehouse.
I can give a call down there and see what we have.
I'm gonna go with it. - Put our name on these. - Okay.
And then check the ones you have,
and maybe get back to us - with the sizes. - We'll get back to you.
And then we'll just-- We'll buy them all at once.
- Alright? - Sounds good.
- Alright. - I need a card, you know,
like if we buy 10 and you get one.
A loyalty card.
A loyalty card?
Hey, well, it's looking a little bit better.
You know, and for primer to look better
than what was here means it was pretty bad.
It was awful.
Ashlee came by today to help us consider
some paint choices for this historic house.
She's been busy working on other properties,
but since she's gonna be our real-estate agent here,
she wanted to weigh in on some of our finishes.
Hey guys.
Hey. Hey.
I've got our samples.
This is the Sherwin-Williams peel and stick color samples.
So, wait, you just peel it open?
- Amazing. - Yeah.
And-- And then you just, like...
Yeah. Wow.
Instead of painting the walls
with a bunch of samples, you just use these.
You get such a perfect sample
instead of kind of a messy-looking wall.
Isn't that awesome?
I can envision those colors in this room.
I think it looks incredible.
Let's look at it in other light.
Yeah.
Okay, so I was thinking... Yeah, this is a...
Should I get up here?...a totally different light here.
Just seeing it on different walls,
I think it's a great combination
with the Sea Salt and the Snowbound.
We've got to go with that.
- Absolutely. - Yeah.
The Sea Salt is gonna warm up this room
and still stay with the - historic charm of the house. - Yeah.
- Let's go order some paint. - Yeah.
I'm just happy we all agree.
Yeah.
- Alright, here we go. - Okay.
I think we got everything.
Our paint from Sherwin-Williams arrived.
We're gonna get the job started now to see
what the colors look like when they're fully applied.
This is covering really nicely.
- I know. - It looks like a retreat.
It's gorgeous.
I think it's time to get the actual professionals in here
- to do the whole thing. - Oh, I told them not to come.
You're gonna be staying here doing it.
Oh, yeah?
Get out of here! No.
- I will-- I will fight you. - Come on, let's get out of here.
You didn't know you were staying here all night?
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
The painting team continues the work,
putting Sea Salt on the walls
and Snowbound on the doors and trim.
When they're finished, this color scheme
will breathe new life into this old home.
Today, I'm reimagining the fireplace in this house,
going bold with some black paint
and some stylish stencil work on the back of the shelving.
Then good news.
Our friends at Foreign Accents were able to locate
three more pairs of matching windows,
which we're now installing.
They're the classic French glass style,
restoring the historical charm we're trying to capture.
Meanwhile, we're also swapping out
the old single swing door to our backyard.
By widening the opening,
we can add double-glass doors there,
which will allow more natural light into the house
and create an open-flow feel out to the courtyard.
It's time to turn our attention to the bathrooms.
In the hall bath, we'll save the old ceramic tile
by re-glazing it.
It's an easy way to update the tile without replacing it.
In our newly-built master shower,
we install 8"x48" slate tiles on the walls
and a mosaic called Cosmo Cool on the floor.
We also add a great fixture from Alfi--
a six-spray shower panel for the ultimate bathing experience.
We have one week left in our one-month flip,
and the money's looking pretty good.
We anticipated around 65 grand for reno.
We've now spent about $40,000.
I think we can stay on budget with the amount we have left
because Alynne's done a great job of choosing stylish upgrades
like the fence out front, the awning,
and those interior windows, without breaking the bank.
Alynne?
I think I found some Roman ruins or something here.
Oh, this is the real deal.
Careful. Yeah.
Okay.
This is super-cool.
You know, I've been looking for a place
to put an outdoor bar here. I mean--
We find one piece of junk, and you're like,
"Yeah, we should definitely build
an entire outdoor bar around that."
We literally have one old grody piece of concrete.
This is the only part of the outdoor bar we have,
and we didn't budget for this sort of upgrade.
Second of all, we don't even have space for an outdoor bar.
Let me show you where - I think it might fit. - Okay.
I-I know where your brain's going with this.
Yeah, there's a concrete pad and all,
but we still have some problems.
We don't have drain lines, and we don't have supply--
Of course there is.
That is a score.
Okay, but we don't have a cabinet,
and that thing's still uglier than sin.
We need a cabinet, sink, and a faucet... Mm-hmm.
...and some labor, some time, and materials.
Here I was thinking Alynne was doing a great job
of keeping expenses in check with her upgrades.
Now this comes along.
Just because we can do something
doesn't mean we should do it, right?
We might actually finish on budget.
Why screw that up at the very end?
I think we can touch that up. I think it--
- We can touch that up. - Yeah.
But you think that's gonna add enough
to the value of the house to make it worthwhile doing?
Yeah. Summer kitchens can add anywhere from $2,500
to $5,000 to your sale price,
and I don't think--
This is gonna maybe cost us maybe $1,000.
For right now, I just got to figure out
how to get that 300-pound countertop over here, huh?
- Yeah. - Okay. I'm gonna go work on that.
Well, I'm gonna go find a tape measure
to figure out what size of barbecue's
gonna fit along - with that countertop. - Bar-- Bar--
We didn't say anything about a barbecue.
Well, when you have a sink, you have to have a grill.
So what's the deal? Who's coming?
Monster Grass.
What's Monster Grass?
They are an artificial turf company.
This yard is so small that I think
it gives us an opportunity to do something really cool.
Artificial turf here?
And pavers. It's actually got the pavers
with, like, four--
Hey. - Hey. How are you guys doing?
- Good. - Good, good.
- Fernie, right? - That's right.
Yeah, we've been talking on the phone.
Fernie. Keith?
- Keith. - That's right?
Yeah. Right. Alright.
I was just explaining to him what I wanted to do
that I've been going over with you with the plans.
Okay. So in here,
it's gonna have, like, 20x20 pavers...
Okay....with the grass in between.
But then that green in this area is gonna bleed into the areas
that we're doing just the-- the turf alone.
Oh, okay. We're gonna go ahead
and create a 3- to 4-inch - foundation, alright? - Okay.
That's gonna be tampered down with concrete sand.
We're also gonna be applying a weed barrier.
Then we apply the turf on the top.
The turf is installed.
We're gonna go ahead and spread silica sand,
alright, just to give it a little bit of weight.
You're gonna see a nice, beautiful, lush green.
Okay. Her design sounds amazing,
but I'm ki-- kind of curious--
What does-- What does this cost?
Well, with the square footage that you have,
$550 a square foot, so about $3,000.$3,000?
$3,000 is what we might spend in the backyard
to put in irrigation and real grass
and all this stuff. I mean, this is amazing.
This is why I thought
that this was the perfect yard for this application.
- I thank you for that. - Yeah.
So we got ourselves a deal?
- You got it. - Yes, awesome.
Alright, we got it? Yes.
The workers get busy spreading a layer
of finally-crushed gravel known as fines...
and then smoothing it out with a plate compactor.
This creates a perfect bed for the 20x20 paver stones...
...and the carpet of Monster Grass
along the side of the house.
Our backyard oasis is shaping up great.
It's time to paint over this ugly mustard yellow color.
We've chosen a shade called Niebla Azul--
a bluish gray that'll turn this 100-year-old eyesore
into a bright spot in the neighborhood.
Then we're finally getting our electrical panel replaced.
It turns out that all we had to do was redistribute
the connections at the panel to a new box with more breakers
and we're up to code.
The best part-- The money we saved is enough to cover
all of Alynne's design upgrades.
We're in a race to finish this flip in a month.
So today, we're setting up our kitchen appliances
and putting in a gorgeous black granite countertop,
which is contrasted nicely
by our white diamond tile backsplash.
We're building a kitchen outside, too,
polishing up that old countertop we found
and adding a cabinet with stainless-steel doors.
And finally, we're installing an amazing interior feature--
a hidden bookshelf door for the second bedroom.
It's a crafty touch that's sure to be a conversation piece.
The last step is staging.
The staging company is our go-to place
for finding the right blend of furniture
and accents for any house.
In this refreshed version of a historic home,
they hit the sweet spot between classic and comfortable.
We finished this flip right on schedule,
and, amazingly, right on budget.
We planned on spending 65 grand on reno,
and we ended within just a few hundred dollars of that.
We hit the mark almost perfectly,
and I think we hit the mark on this house, too.
Now it's time to find out.
Whoa.
Hey, Scott. You ready to approve our work?
Hey, guys. Look at this place.
I'm telling you.
Hey.
It's so different.
Originally, I thought this place
looked like an insurance office, not even residential.
It was... That mustard color.
And you had a different color
for what was infilled in the porch.
Right. We didn't have a lot to work with on the outside here
because there-- We couldn't really change a great deal,
but the things we did change and add and subtract...
This looks great.
Now it's a totally different look than it had.
This fence right here, I mean,
this really helps it feel
much more residential and much more warm.
It gives a separation from the road to the house.
- Yeah. - And it takes away from that insurance feel.
Man, oh, man, just the-- the colors and the awning,
they add some real pop and some real character to it.
You kept the historic feel to the house,
and actually changing it to one color made it more cohesive.
It just looks a lot more
appropriate to the historic district.
I think we did a good job
of maintaining the historic characteristics of the home
on the inside, too. You want to see?
- Yeah, love to. - Let's take a look.
You guys remember when we first came in here,
there was, like, the ugly, green paint on the walls?
This space used to be so drab.
The fireplace was present. It was here.
Yeah, it was fine. - But it wasn't very attractive.
But now... It's, like, a feature now.
It makes it feel like it's a lot bigger, a lot more to it.
I mean, it's a great living space.
It's a great entertaining space.
Yeah. - It's just-- It's just right.
I'm really happy with it.
You've always been into historic windows.
I was noticing that they're back.
These things were - gone before, right? - Yeah.
Now you guys brought these back. I love it.
They fit perfectly.
That's awesome, because they were originally there
to separate this room - from that room. Yeah.
And now you've got it back.
But they're not even my favorite part of this room,
let alone this flip. Let me show you something.
This is...
Check this out....a hidden bookcase door.
- Get out of here. - Yeah.
I had no idea.
You wouldn't ever think about that being there.
I just thought, "Bookcase," and they trimmed it out... Yeah.
...just like the rest of the trim.
Yeah. So let's go check out the dining room.
Yeah. Great. Let's go.
It was so bland in here and kind of dark.
Dark tan.
Yeah, it was, wasn't it? Before, it was just a room
you kind of walked through to get from one to the other.
And now it has full utility and clarity of purpose.
This is Sherwin-Williams...
- Sea Salt. - Sea Salt.
- The Sea Salt, yeah. - It's such a cool color.
It's just nicer in here. It's more pleasant.
We always knew this was a dining room,
but by adding the light and the new paint,
it's now brought back to life.
- It is. - Absolutely.
- It really is. It's awesome. - Nice job.
Let's check out the guest bath.
- Remember the baby toilet? - The baby toilet, yeah.
The dueling medicine cabinets.
- Right. - It was just a mess.
So bringing it together
under one style philosophy made it look great.
Small changes in this room,
but let's go check out - the master. - Yeah.
In the beginning, this room was so long and narrow.
It's amazing how much a dark room
can actually close - in a space. - Yeah.
Now it feels, like, very open and not so closed in.
We didn't change the size of it,
but we made it make much more sense, you know.
to it, so it's a really nice touch.
The floor's the part of this room
I'm actually the most surprised about.
- It's nice and level. - Massive, massive change.
So between the fantastic appliances,
the much more workable layout,
and these really cool little touches
- made it a really special space. - Yeah.
And we put this beautiful double door in there,
and let me show you what's on - the other side of that door. - Yeah.
Remember, before, it was just vines, and all the pavers,
and stepping stones, and stuff.
What a change!
Holy cow.
To see it now fully cleaned up
and having everything together, it's amazing.
The garage got the new paint it needed. It looks great.
I think one of the most surprising parts of this flip,
though, was this-- this pergola gazebo thing.
- We ordered it online. - Yeah.
- Are you serious? - Yeah. It came in a box.
I was assum-- I was assuming you just had
some carpenters out here to really build this... No.
...and a roofer to put a metal roof on it. This is awesome.
I'm really, really impressed, what we pulled off here.
We found this concrete countertop
in the weeds over there. It certainly wasn't something
that was part of our original design plan.
There's a drain line, supply line,
and electric right here.
That's fantastic.
- Crazy. - How fun is that?
Remember, we had, like, six different kinds of pavers
all over and they were all, like, unleveled.
The way that we integrated the stepping stones
with the Monster Grass-- really, really cool.
Monster Grass not only did a great job
with, like, the sort of landscaping,
Okay. I just saw your couple, you know.
Couple... Yeah, I'm good with this.
They were really close.
Ahhhhh!
Ah. So close.