It's been four years since we did his third floor.
Just happened.
Doesn't that feel crazy to you?
- Go, Zeus! - Oh, here we go.
Let's go, boy.
Ready?
Our friend Michael McKinnon is an architect.
He lives in downtown Laurel.
He invited us to help him renovate the top floor of his loft.
This is how you do a bedroom.
And he's asked us to come back and finish the second floor
of his building, but we are coming back
under very different circumstances.
What happened next was probably the worst thing
I could have, you know, fathomed.
We were seeing pictures of this building up in smoke.
I mean, it was billowing out of this area
that we had just finished.
Good morning.
Just another day of making our favorite small town better.
Erin, we gotta go, babe.
Love ya, girls, y'all have fun!
Ben, let's go.
Can you believe we fixed up over 100 houses in Laurel?
I don't know what's gonna go wrong today.
I'm sure something.
Any time we start a new house, we don't know how it's gonna go.
Oh, a bat just flew through here.
- That's not good. - No way.
They're about to see the house for the first time.
- This is the best part. - Oh, my gosh!
Are you serious right now?
This is perfect.
Every day is different when you're renovating houses
in Laurel, Mississippi.
♪ I watched it happen Like a daydream ♪
Look how big Zeus is. He was already big.
- He's still big. - Hey, buddy.
- We've done this before. - Yeah, I'm not--
- This top floor turned out beautifully. - Awesome.
Michael lives on the third floor,
but he works on the first floor,
and he's a commercial architect in town.
Actually, he's done some of our projects here in Laurel.
He did the Scent Library and the Visitor Center,
and he's asked us to come back and finish
the second floor of his building.
I need to call this building complete so I can really keep
focusing on everybody else's projects.
The building is 4,000 square feet.
You've got your office space here on the first floor.
Top floor, that's your area, primary bathroom.
And then middle floor, you've got another bathroom,
your kitchen, another bathroom. - But it's very dated.
The top floor is so well identified.
The first floor makes sense.
That second floor is just like, "Who am I as a person?"
It's a nothing sandwich.
It's a nothing burger right there,
right there in the middle.
And I was thinking $60,000 for the project.
So is there fire damage here?
Well, the fire pretty much got balcony and then apartment,
the space y'all renovated.
And then about 30 guys with hoses came
and just flooded the whole building.
- Yeah. - Thankfully, they did.
But, you know, soaked the second floor.
We just got it finished last week.
The project wrapped up last week as far as remediation
and repairs from the fire.
As you can tell, on this top floor, what Ben and Erin did,
it's-- it's pretty much the same way that we left it.
If we can just close out, complete, and walk away
from the second floor like we did this, I mean,
it's-- it would be a dream.
So we're gonna do the second floor?
Yes.
Is it set up back the way it was since the fire?
- Like, does it look the same? - It looks exactly the same.
You know, it was just water damage,
the ceiling, and a little bit of paint.
So all that's repaired, and we're ready to renovate.
Yes.
So where did the fire start?
It's been pinpointed to the ceiling in the kitchen.
OK.
There was actually a not so funny joke going around town
that it was my TV thing started the fire.
- We didn't start the fire. - No.
Apparently, there was light, insulation, can lights,
something going on up there.
You know, burned up through the ceiling, up on the balcony,
up the balcony wall, into the apartment.
Didn't that scare you to death?
- Oh, I was sleeping. - Dang.
But this dude was not.
Uh, I was awakened by Zeus, like, hovering over me
on the couch, just barking at my face.
Ears pinned back.
And he'd never done that before.
Kind of got me up, started walking around,
then started hearing a lot of popping and realized
it was daylight outside.
And then realized it was not daylight, it's just all fire.
Thankfully, two to three fire departments showed up,
and I had 30 strapping guys running through here
with hoses, just flooding everything,
putting the fire out. And I'm so thankful for that.
I just like to think pretty much because of him,
the block is still here, it didn't burn up. - Yeah.
- Neighbor's fine. - Good job, Zeus.
- He's the goodest boy.
Yeah, he's my guy. I mean, um...
yeah, he's the dude.
Um...
Let's go look.
Remind me, have y'all been in here before?
- Yeah. - OK.
- A few times. - One time.
Our episode was the first episode
where the kitchen was not reworked.
This is more than adequate for my needs, you know?
It's got cereal storage and a milk cooler,
so I'm just... - Like, the way it is.
The way it is.
And Ben and Erin said I would regret that.
And they were right.
- All right. - It's a time warp.
- Remember this space? - Oh, yeah.
It all needs to be reworked.
You want it to be so cool that you can't help but cook.
Right.
Y'all remember, Michael only eats cereal.
And pizza. But he's ready.
He's ready to have a real kitchen and be a grown up
who cooks food.
Do you like the exposed brick?
- I love the exposed brick. - OK.
OK. See, to me, that doesn't feel Michael, but...
As an architect,
it's just nice to see building construction.
- It's cool, yeah. - The layers of it.
- Lighting's big for you. - Lighting's big for me.
Do you want your cabinetry to speak that same vernacular
that we did upstairs? - I do.
Honestly, Michael's taste is totally not my taste.
And that means I get to flex creative muscles
that are very weak for me.
And I need to do that. We all need to do that.
We can't just do English country houses every day.
- It needs to be more "Mad Men." - I love the "Mad Men."
Right now, this is not inspiring.
Understand.
The fridge is recessed into the wall.
This is a pantry.
It would be very cool if we could tear out all of this,
and this would be the face of your cabinetry.
Keep things where they are and completely change the look,
and you continue it this direction.
- OK. - Stained is the vibe upstairs.
- Mm-hmm. - And we could just
pull more of that down here.
I think a beautiful stone countertop is key,
and you continue it for the backsplash.
And then we'll have floating shelves,
beautiful track lighting or something gimbaled.
Task lighting, hidden lighting.
Yeah. And then the range stays here.
The vent hood above is usually a feature.
Something simple and faceted, maybe.
- Faceted really helps me. - Yeah.
The way diamonds are cut.
I want to make it kind of like the thing in here.
Cool. OK.
You're gonna have to cook for real.
I know. I know.
- And I want to. - If you do this.
- I want that for myself. - OK.
Cereal's always good.
But I do know that you should have more than just fiber
in your life, apparently. - It's not a big kitchen.
In order to pull off
the Michael McKinnon big city modern, you have to use
luxury materials. $50,000?
If you're gonna have a "Mad Men" kitchen,
you got to spend some Don Draper paper.
That's right. Dang!
♪ Ba-da, ba, ba-da-da ♪
Look, I love these bookcases, but you got to get curtains
that go all the way to the floor, Michael.
I know. I did one thing in here,
and I didn't do it right.
This room seems nice now, but at night,
it gets extremely dark.
So you need better lighting in there.
I need better lighting in here.
Did I make this up, or did you used to have,
like, a poker game you would play with friends?
The best poker game you can imagine.
But then come Saturday, when it's football time,
this whole room turns into the football room.
You know, part of me hopes it goes back to what it was.
You know, I would say there's been some paralysis
over the last year and a half trying to get through this.
And it's just been so long since the, uh, since the fire.
Like, I miss entertaining.
And we're trying to bring play back.
We're trying to bring people back.
And so, when you have overnight guests,
this is their room.
It'd be great to have a place for overnight guests to stay.
- This is it. - Perfectly fine.
- Yep. - You just need some paint and a new light.
- But the bathroom... - Yeah, the, uh--
Periwinkle really screams Michael McKinnon.
This is a cute bathroom for anybody else.
But you don't want to spend a lot of money in here.
I don't think it's necessary. I don't think I'll be in here a lot.
- Light update, new vanity, new lighting, new paint. - Mm-hmm.
You said you wanted to spend $60,000.
- Now, I know we ate a big chunk of that in the kitchen. - Yeah.
I think, uh, with $10,000, we can do the living room,
bedroom, bathroom.
Some refinishing, some touch ups.
It's just paint. It's a lot of paint.
- Yeah. - A lot of paint.
- Yeah. - OK.
- Mm-hmm. - I think we can do that.
Now, where are you gonna stay?
- Where are you gonna stay? - All right.
You can't be walking through this while we're trying
to work. - I plan to work downstairs.
- I fi-- just got my apartment back upstairs. - Mm-hmm.
I still want to sleep up there. I mean, it's awesome.
I promise, I have no interest
in ruining any surprises or anything.
So we would just need to build some sort of like temp tunnel.
That's it.
- Don't be looking. - I wanna be surprised.
Don't let Zeus speak either.
And everybody knows he can't keep a secret.
Everybody knows I have zero control over my dog.
Yeah, that's true.
Troy, how about this? Demo.
- Yeah, finally. - It's an easy one.
We're easing you into it.
Troy's been on the crew for a while, but he hasn't
done demo before. He's been mostly a runner.
That's right. Because if we need
a sheet of plywood, Troy's your man.
We have to take out this kitchen and this wall,
and then a vanity from the bathroom.
So it's pretty quick and pretty easy if we, like, get on it.
Troy's also getting married.
In three months.
They met in sixth grade three years ago.
Hush! He's not in ninth grade.
- How old are you, Troy? - 23.
23.
That's how old I was when I got married.
Quit.
There we go.
They're coming out pretty easily.
- They are. - I picked it up a while ago.
- I'm not-- - Mine is still stuck.
- Good job. - Good gosh!
That is very heavy.
It's good for TV to see Ben pick up really heavy things.
I love it. It makes me watch.
Three, two, one.
Nate, open that door.
Ah, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta.
Easy one, right? What do the others look like?
It's honestly a very simple demo,
but the stairs complicate it.
Oh, Lord, we ain't gonna make it.
Set it down.
Think about what downtown needs more than ever.
For 20 years, we've been looking to do a hotel.
Right now, two of the most iconic buildings
are available downtown.
It's gonna be the biggest project we've ever done.
- Can I be honest? - Well, yeah.
I feel a little overextended.
Let's come back in.
We taking these apart, Ben?
Literally, the only hard part about the demo was the stairs.
It's like a 45-minute demo, but I have to get to ballet
rehearsal right now. - Now.
♪ Yeah, I can't believe We're flying ♪
♪ Get away Got to get away ♪
♪ Yeah ♪
- You're a hero. - I don't know about all that.
You are.
Travis Runyan is a firefighter, and he is one
of the firefighters who came and saved Michael's apartment.
So I wanna have Travis help me build something for him.
I met Michael many, many years ago when we first moved here.
In fact, now we even play poker.
- You're in the poker club? - Yeah, I am, yep.
But on that particular night, call came in, and I knew
exactly where it was and who it was.
My heart dropped.
That's when you're like, this is now close to home.
Is that the first one you've done where you knew the person?
- Yeah. - Dang.
Once we got there and I was able to assess that he was
outside and Zeus was outside, I-- weight off the shoulders,
now let's get to work. - You really are a hero.
One, you saved Michael's apartment.
That's great, thank you.
But you saved the piece of furniture that I built.
This is the first time we've ever done this.
Y'all built that?
Yeah, yeah, we built this in the--
That is-- that is gorgeous.
So it has little burn marks on it,
which makes me like it even more. - Right.
Because it-- now it tells more of a story.
Right, absolutely.
Well, speaking of important items, so this is genuine
mahogany that we're gonna use to build a six-foot-tall
floor lamp inspired by one
that Frank Lloyd Wright had in his home.
Frank Lloyd Wright, probably the most famous
architect in American history.
Michael refers to himself as Frank Lloyd Wrong.
Wrong-- I like it.
He better recognize it when he walks in.
- And then I'll say, "Travis the fireman... - Oh!
- ...helped me build it." - How exciting.
- Mr. January? - No, no, no.
- I am not doing a calendar. - What?
No way! Maybe for my wife.
Maybe for your wife.
- You'll be every month then. - Yeah.
All right, let's go run this through the planer.
♪ He wants to drink And he don't wait in the line ♪
It's a very Michael McKinnon lamp because Michael likes
the way light plays on structural elements.
That's what I like about this lamp, is the way the light
plays with the mahogany in the build.
It's just-- it's a very Michael lamp.
I've got LED bulbs, low-heat, since this is
a wooden lamp. - Probably a good thing.
Do we think Frank Lloyd Wrong will like it?
I do. It looks good.
- Good morning. - Hey.
This is so different.
This wall has been taken out and the goal is to make it all
feel just like smooth paneling, basically.
And so this will be paint-grade, and then we'll
have pretty stained wood. - That's right.
Where will the robot live?
Yes, he wants a robot vacuum cleaner.
This is his house right here.
He'll just go right in there and--
Disappear into the cabinet.
Yeah, and go to his charger.
- Oh, these robots are wicked smart. - Hmm.
This may be the beginning of them, when you start building
houses, rooms for your robots in your house,
and then they just take over. - But he's a small robot.
Yeah, he's just a little one for now.
I'm OK with these robots.
Yeah, I hope that you don't have any animals in the house
that are having any accidents. - Yeah.
- Ask me how I know. - Na--
It happened to a friend of ours.
I'm nervous about this duct up here.
How do we make this look beautiful?
The way we handled it upstairs,
it's like louvered cuts in the wood.
- I like that. - Yeah.
Yeah, I think it'd look good, too.
So in this kitchen, we'll have a pantry, very sleek.
We will have way more cabinets.
But the kitchen's all about the hood vent
that doesn't exist yet.
We're just designing a whole room around something
that doesn't exist, which feels uncomfortable.
Michael wants the focus to be this piece of art that is
actually a hood vent. - Architectural.
It needs to be unusual, architectural, faceted.
And then we'll have floating shelves,
because Michael's the kind of person
who can actually live that way.
Do you have someone?
Found a guy named Ryan Durrett in Atlanta.
And he's like a metal fabricator, sculptor,
artist, woodworker and he says he can do it.
OK.
We need to do the bathroom vanity.
Troy's here now. Do y'all want to do the tunnel?
Yeah, we can do that, and y'all can work
on the vanity. - OK.
You wanna climb out, or do you want me
to wall you up?
I really do think that this is-- this'll work.
We're at the point now with Michael's apartment that
we're starting to build it the way that it will be for him.
So we now have to seal off his passages because he's still
living upstairs, and he's working downstairs.
Inside voices.
I want him to be surprised.
It's hard to surprise someone when they're living and working
in the space you're trying to renovate.
He's not gonna know anything.
No, he'll have no idea. It's gonna be a secret.
We don't work on as many commercial buildings
as Michael McKinnon does. - Right.
That's his specialty.
But we have worked with him on several of our own businesses,
and we own four of them here in Laurel
with our business partners who are also our best friends.
Jim is also my first cousin, which makes our group Framily.
One of our goals is revitalizing downtown Laurel,
which we've been working on ever since we all moved back
here from college 16 years ago.
You know, they wanna get breakfast this morning.
We usually do that.
We have company meetings all the time.
- All right, guys. - It looks good.
Usually over food.
This has to do with real estate.
This is something different.
Think about the last time you had family come in.
- This weekend. - Do you find it easy?
Finding them a place for them to stay?
- Nope. - That's the point.
Yeah.
Think about what downtown needs more than ever.
For 20 years, we've been looking to do a hotel.
There is no hotel downtown, and downtown
is where most people are coming.
And more than that, right now, two of, I would say,
of the most iconic buildings are available downtown.
A hotel helps revitalize Laurel.
Saving one of those buildings helps it equally.
I feel like we're in a position where
we can make this work.
It's gonna be the biggest project we've ever done.
- Collectively. - Collectively.
- Can I be honest? - Well, yeah.
- I feel a little overextended. - I'm pretty maxed out.
- We're doing like five houses at a time at all times. - Yeah.
The idea of owning and operating a hotel
is too much for us to swallow.
This is millions of dollars.
The thought of it overwhelms me so much
that I can't even talk about it. - I agree.
The way our lives are, I have everything
on my plate that I can eat. - Yeah.
But our friends feel like they could eat more.
I don't think that I can own a hotel downtown.
But I can help y'all own one.
We're gonna need all the help we can get.
So we're not gonna be touring the buildings with them.
We're gonna let them make this decision.
Once they decide which building it's gonna be,
then we will help all that we can.
However we can.
♪ Call in ♪
♪ Never gonna getcha ♪
♪ Fall in ♪
♪ Never gonna getcha ♪
Michael's apartment has been painted, and it feels so rich.
Very transformative.
The whole apartment, we've got these really deep,
warm brown-grays and stone.
The guys are delivering countertops today.
I was a little late getting here
"accidentally."
There was one left when I got here.
Wanted to save a little for you.
Mm-hmm.
Careful going around this corner right here, because if
we hit that piece here, it's gonna break.
- Erin, you want to carry this? - Yeah, maybe.
Um, I really don't understand how you're gonna do this.
Just try it.
Oh, my gosh. This is stupid.
Just think, Ben.
Can't think right now.
I'm trying to not break a slab of stone
on Michael's house. - You all right?
- Hang on. - All right.
Yep.
- Thank God. - Whoo!
It's so sharp.
- You did it! - Wow!
Phew!
Man, that looks good, though.
I felt like it was very Michael.
It's bold. It has a lot of depth.
The unique thing is that they're waterfalled.
We took a stone, cut a 45 here and a 45 there, and then just
folded it.
- That looks awesome. - The lines look good?
- Mm-hmm. - Yeah.
It's so cool. Michael will freak out.
All right.
You don't need any help. It looks...
- Oh, I got this one. - OK.
This one's a little lighter here.
- OK. - It looks so good.
The brown in it is my favorite thing.
It looks expensive.
- Probably because it is. - It is.
Unless you get a tiny little scrap of it.
And it's a perfect water bowl for Zeus, the Great Dane.
- Really? - You thought it was a vanity,
but it's really a dog bowl.
- Huh. - Yep.
♪ Ooh Ooh ♪
It is hard to walk past this building and not look at it.
Jim and Mallorie and Josh are officially going on a tour
of two of the buildings that are available downtown
that could become hotels.
- What an iconic building! - Yeah.
- You know. - The arches, the columns.
- It's so-- - It's so grand.
- The windows. - It is so big.
- It screams luxury. - It does.
From the 1960s, right, Jim? What year was it?
Uh, 1969, it finished.
So it's been vacant for two years.
Two years. I'm curious what
it looks like on the inside. - I wanna see it.
The Trustmark building, it's a landmark building.
It doesn't look historic
in a turn of the century kind of way.
- Oh, wow! - Dang!
Yeah, this is a big space.
A lot bigger than I even remembered.
- Such good memories. - Oh, I know.
Remember these stairs?
- Absolutely. - Did you guys--
Stairs I could never go up.
Yeah. Your mama said you couldn't?
- Yeah. - Yeah, mine too.
Can't go up there. I love this, like, '60s style.
It would be fun to design around.
My mom also worked at Trustmark Bank in the '70s
when she was a newlywed. - I didn't know that.
Yeah.
Imagine walking into this lobby.
Dang, look at this thing!
But this, imagine this being your continental breakfast.
You have, like, all your utensils here,
where the banknotes used to be. - Pretty cool.
Got a big urn of, like, fancy coffee
and pastries and...
Well, you could make the check-in counter
between these two columns,
that's enough for a proper check-in counter.
Sitting area over here with a nice club chair.
Clean lines, wood paneling, leather.
You've got all this space here, and I think we could add
some walls, maybe create some more revenue somehow.
Or space for retail, event space, or space
for wedding, or conference space, too.
Mm-hmm.
These stairs, like, I remember as a little boy coming in,
well, I want to go upstairs. I've never been upstairs.
Wow, this is unbelievable!
- Whoa! - Look at this!
- Oh, the arches. - What a view!
Oh, and man, can you imagine a hotel room and having coffee,
looking out this window? Top of the world.
I love this bank building because it's mainly
concrete and steel.
You know it's not going anywhere.
This is a sturdy building.
Jim likes it because of the style.
I love the style. It's got that '60s vibe, man.
I like it. It's groovy.
- Groovy. - Yeah.
The view doesn't match the hall.
Right. The view is amazing.
The hall, ah, it's boring, but we could fix that.
Original curtains, still.
Look at this!
Man, you could get like 60 rooms.
- This would be unbelievable. - Yeah.
Like, so much cash flow from the rooms.
It's a lot of cash flow coming out, possibly, but that's a lot
of cash flow going in, too. - Yeah.
That's true.
♪ Take me brother hand baby ♪
This stone backsplash has a lot of movement.
And that's good because I think the kitchen is so dark.
There's so much darkness that I think we need the movement
to break up visually what we're seeing.
I'm also excited about what that hood vent's gonna do
visually paired with all of this.
- Ready? - This is the coolest hood vent!
- There it is. - This is-- yep.
Oh, my goodness!
Ryan Durrett is a metal worker.
Sculptor.
Artist, sculptor, one day country music singer.
You wish.
I mean, with a name like Ryan Durrett.
- Yeah. - Yeah, I like doing hood vents.
I've done quite a few.
- Really? OK. - Seriously?
- Yeah, there's a real big market for them... - Yeah.
...in any, like, high end kitchen.
This is definitely statement making.
Oh, yeah.
I would call it brutalist design element.
Yeah, definitely.
This is very Michael, though.
He's an architect. He's super inspired
by buildings that are faceted. - Yes.
Like the Shard in London and also
the Leadenhall building. - That's right.
I think that's what it's called.
He's going to freak out.
I can't wait to get this welded and ground and
get to the next. - Can you teach me to TIG?
I would love to teach you to TIG.
Fire in the hole!
It's so quiet.
I have MIG welded, and I have stick welded.
This is something different.
It's just the difference in material?
Yep, and style and positioning.
Ooh, that's a good looking weld.
- I would say that TIG welding is the most complicated. - Yeah.
I'm looking to Ryan right now.
- Yeah. - All right, can I try one?
You can. Be mindful.
If you touch this tungsten to this metal, it is gonna arc.
Where should I start? Can I do over here, so it's--
Um, you're tall. We'll start here.
OK.
So just try that again.
Boy, I'm trying! Dadgummit!
I'm not very good at TIG welding.
What's that Patrick Swayze movie?
Let me "Ghost" it.
Oh, this is-- isn't this magical?
I'm gonna help you in the beginning again.
♪ What's a man to do ♪
- I was trying to-- - Are you Patrick or Demi?
I'm Demi.
So dab on the right when I move to the left.
- So dab. - Gotcha.
- Dab. - Oh!
Dab.
He was strong, firm, but tender.
I felt as light as a feather.
Like a-- like a dove in his hands.
These legitimately look good. Pretty-- pretty great.
- I mean, it's a big building. - It's a huge building.
So this building, though...
- Mm-hmm. - ...product of the 1920s.
I've always loved this building.
This is a great building.
It's truly an icon of the city.
When I see the great old photographs of Laurel
at its peak, its heyday in the 1920s, the Kress Building
is always there in the background.
Tons of traffic coming and going, which is so
different from what it's been in my lifetime.
- All right, be careful. - Yeah.
- Wow! - Whoa!
Look at the ceiling height.
It's even taller over there. Wow.
- They really demoed. - I mean, they took it out.
They demoed everything.
You're talking about top-to-bottom remodel,
and that's gonna be an extensive budget.
OK, so this was the department store, right?
- This was one building, and then next door... - Mm-hmm.
- Oh! - ...that was the theater...
- ...and you see the change. - It jumps up.
But what's really cool is you can see the stairs
going up to the mezzanine.
I wonder if that went to the projector booth.
- That's cool. - Isn't that awesome?
Imagine walking in to this grand lobby.
Man, it could be a grand lobby.
And I love this has like really good street
store frontage upfront. - Yeah.
- Uh-huh - Pretty good.
We could take advantage of that and put some retail space
in here and bring back the lobby to how it used to be
in the 1920s.
Tons of wood, molding, leather in the sitting areas.
Grand, but still cozy feeling.
It's not as big of a lobby as the building up the street,
but I still like it. - Yeah.
Still getting that big feel, you know?
I wanna see upstairs. To see how many rooms
that we could possibly get.
- Man, these windows. - Ooh.
Wow.
- Check this out. - Dang, look how bright it is.
What's the holes? We got holes.
- Oh, yeah. - Whoo!
How far down is that?
Wanna to go to the third floor?
- Yeah. - Yeah, I do.
I wonder if it's the same layout.
- I would think. - Wide open.
Between the Trustmark building and the Kress building,
you have a very distinct style
that you would have to live with.
You have a building that the historic charm has been
erased, so you would have to try to recreate that.
- Ugh. - I don't know how you decide.
Look at his hood ornament.
That's good.
I didn't want you to pull up too far.
Sure.
And him see your truck and all.
- Is it finished? - It is finished.
- It's done. - It's done.
Ryan is delivering the finished range hood.
We don't want Michael to see it.
It's a big day.
Michael lives on the third floor.
He works on the first floor.
We're trying to renovate the second floor
without him seeing it.
- Right. - It's tricky.
So we need to be slick about this.
- All right, sneaky. - Yeah.
- Just be quick. I will go talk to him. - Yeah.
Let's do this.
- Hey. - Hey.
- Where's Zeus? - Ah, spa day.
- Ah. - You know.
Of course. This is cool.
What-- what you working on?
Um, I'm actually sitting here trying to compare
the, uh, Trustmark Bank and the Kress Building.
- Um, doing room counts. - For the hotel.
Yeah, yeah, looking at room counts.
How many rooms can you get in the Trustmark?
- 50, easily. - 50?
- Yeah. - That's a big hotel.
It has the potential to be a phenomenal, huge hotel,
but it's going to be a big project.
What about Kress?
Right now, I've got it at about 26, 27.
- That seems more manageable. - Absolutely.
- Glad things are good. - Good talk.
Yeah, have they been, are they leaning one way
or the other on the hotel?
Uh, I was told they're leaning one way.
- Yeah? - Wow.
- Dude. - It turned out so awesome!
The way this multifaceted hood vent has to be installed.
- There's Michael. - Michael's right there.
- What are you doing? - What are you doing?
Checking mail.
- Just checking mail. - Huh?
Don't be going-- don't be sneaking up.
- He's checking the mail. - Yeah, checking the mail.
Yeah, checking the mail.
♪ Can you ever get enough Get enough ♪
♪ Were you wanting something else, something else ♪
♪ Uh-oh-oh ♪
- Guess what's here? - Fridge looks good.
This thing's crazy. It's got a touchscreen.
- I always get counter depth. - Yeah.
But here, we could build however we wanted.
- Got a whole room. - For that pantry space.
And so I went full depth.
I'm now realizing that it might not actually fit through
the upstairs door, the kitchen door.
That was tight to get the countertop out of.
29 and a half without the doors.
I don't know, y'all.
When I'm out there ordering appliances, the last thing
I'm thinking about is the doorway of the kitchen.
You don't think about a door not being standard size.
- 29. - Because why would you?
Why would a door be smaller than, say, 32 inches?
We have a problem. It's 29 inches.
Any world where it can squeeze?
I mean, there's water lines and stuff on the back.
- We really need 30. - Kind of worried about this.
Hang on, let me make a phone call.
I have an idea.
What are you doing right now?
Beautiful.
- You're a hero today. - Am I?
Yeah.
Our buddy Jack Andrews just happened to be working
on a project down the street,
and he is a jack-of-most-trades, including driving a lift.
I asked for a favor, and he delivered.
♪ She's so beautiful Never seen another ♪
Oh, didn't see you there.
Do we feel super solid about this plan?
Nope, and that's what makes it a good one.
I understand it's gonna fit, but it could get dropped,
scratched, bent, dented.
- I don't love any of that. - Watch your hand, man.
It is like the exact size of that hole.
One, two, one.
- There it is. - Down, down.
You did it. Did it get scratched?
No scratches. High-five.
- Dang. - Look how high that is.
- That is really remarkable. - Isn't that impressive?
It is impressive, but what is it?
Michael McKinnon's the single guy.
Got to have a TV, a big one.
So big, in fact, that he uses a projector, and we don't want
to hang it from the ceiling.
So I thought, let's hide it in a spy table.
Ah. A spy table?
Because it's gonna come up out of it.
Imagine just like a traditional sofa table.
Do curved ends
with a reeded front all the way around, and then white oak
on top-- Pop, comes up.
- Projectors inside that. - Hidden.
Hidden.
When we did his primary suite, he wanted a wall of cabinets
that just looked like paneling.
This will be another hidden feature.
That's really cool.
TVs and radios used to be designed to be
beautiful pieces of furniture.
Now they're this gaudy black square hanging on the wall.
It'll be a beautiful piece of furniture, but it'll be a very
Michael piece of furniture.
♪ Oh, yeah ♪
- Hey! - Michael!
Hey, buddy! What's up, guys?
What are y'all doing?
- Man, just working. - Nothing.
- What's up, dude? - All right.
- What you got? - Little information dump here.
This is both Trustmark and Kress Building.
Dang.
So Michael is working with Josh and Jim and Mallorie
on this hotel project. Josh wasn't expecting him.
I wasn't expecting him.
But we're building something for him.
- Y'all enjoy. - This is great.
- Thank you so much. - Appreciate it, man.
Have a good day.
- Well, it was close. - Phew! We almost got busted.
- Bye, Bud. - See you later.
I can't wait to show this to Mallorie and Jim
and get their opinions.
♪ Round and round she runs ♪
♪ Trying to catch the light ♪
- Ooh, good morning. - Good morning.
- Ooh. - What's going on?
Thing's like Sputnik.
So the whole lighting situation in here is really
next level. - Yes, I agree with you there.
Today's a big day for Colton. We got him bowed up.
It's a lot of lighting in one tiny little kitchen.
We have chandelier over dinner table.
We have toe kick. So that'll go...
- That'll be a first. - ...underneath on both sides.
It's ribbon lighting. It's remote-controlled.
- What's going here? - These are going away.
- OK. - We've got track lighting.
- Cool. - Here and there.
- All right. - It's under-cabinet.
Michael is all about light, where the light's coming from,
the way it moves around.
Slatted wood, that's always his thing.
Those are the things he cares about.
He cares more about lighting than most anything.
♪ Oh ♪
- How are the buildings? - They both have potential.
Both of them need a lot of work to be a hotel.
Jim really loves the bank building just because
of the style. He loves that mid mod.
I love that.
I'd be deeply intimidated by the bank building.
That's a huge, huge hotel.
The Kress Building, it's very similar to every
other project we've done thus far, where it's 1930s,
all of the historic, nostalgic.
A lot of the historic charm of the building was erased
40 years ago, 50 years ago.
Yeah, the cost to build that out, that's huge.
How many rooms do you think he could get in?
So we just got back from Michael's,
and the minimum number of rooms that we need to do this is 25.
If they can hit 25 rooms, then they cash flow it,
and it makes a profit.
How many rooms could you put in the bank?
Between, like, 50 and 60.
There's a nervousness factor on 60 rooms.
That's gonna be more staff to keep it up.
That's gonna be 60 beds, 60 air conditioners.
60 toilets to stop up.
Make up your mind!
Make up your mind.
OK. All in favor of the bank.
Really?
All in favor of Kress.
- Raise your hand. - Really?
I love it. I love it.
I'm sorry. I love it, too.
- You want both? - I want both of them.
They both need something to happen to.
Start with one. So you're doing it.
Y'all are going to buy the dang Kress building.
- That's the one. - Finally.
- Y'all. - Somebody's going to do something with that building.
We're gonna spend some money?
Just a little money?
We're gonna spend some money.
I'm excited to see the Kress be something.
My whole life, I wondered what it looked like when that
was alive. And I'll find out.
♪ You and me together Live forever ♪
♪ Always be the same ♪
Hello.
Oh, my goodness. I love it.
- It's Michael. - It's so Michael.
Do you think Michael's gonna learn how to cook?
No.
He's going to be busy building a hotel with us.
This looks great.
For the second time with Michael.
I have worked way outside my comfort zone.
He has unusual taste, and you can't always know for
sure that you got it right. I hope that we did.
- Michael. - Yes, sir.
- Are you ready? - It is time.
- Oh, thank God! - Come on.
- Let's do this! - Oh, what a greeting!
- Yeah. - Uh-huh.
You like the runner?
- Oh, yeah. - It's different.
[bleep] y'all.
Bro.
Y'all, this is awesome.
♪ Get on up now ♪
♪ Feel good times ♪
- Who did the hood? - His name is Ryan Durrett.
- Yep. - Who is a metal fabricator
and an artist.
It's silver in the areas where it's stainless.
And then this is steel with a black patina.
If there was a sexy hood, this is it.
- It has abs. - It's chiseled.
- Man, there's toe lighting. - Yes.
Lighting is your thing.
This is a sick lighting package.
You've got toe kick, under cabinet, the very special
Sputnik chandelier. It's everywhere.
- Look at this. - Mm-hmm.
Waterfall.
I try to get it in every project.
I've been chasing waterfalls for a long time, y'all.
- Longer than TLC. - Longer than TLC.
And we finally got one in a project.
- Oh. - Ooh.
- Cereal. - Y'all.
That is the bougiest cereal holder I've ever seen.
And then we carved just like upstairs above your closet.
- So that's your AC vent. - Mm-hmm.
OK, let me tell you about this fridge.
- Let's talk about this fridge. - Because it's crazy.
All right.
This is the most techie fridge.
Like, if you're at the grocery store and you can't remember
how much milk you have for your cereal, you can just pull up
the app on your phone and see inside your fridge,
see what you have. - That's awesome.
Isn't that crazy?
And under here, your robot vacuum has
a special hideaway in there.
Oh, Elon Dust has got his own place.
Elon Dust.
- Sour worms, too. - I mean, the details.
All you eat is cereal and candy.
I know, I know. But it's like,
Let me just see one of those.
- Like, this is awesome, y'all. - You like it?
Because this is not my style, Michael.
I think we both know.
I may have forced this on y'all a little bit.
This is a reach for me, and I hope that it's correct.
This is-- this is phenomenal.
- [bleep], y'all, this is home. - Yeah.
- Again. - This is home, y'all.
It's just like your apartment before was an outfit that
you would never wear.
- It's a nice one. - Yeah, well--
But we're trying to make it an outfit that you would wear.
This is like what it's supposed to be.
- Good, perfect. - It's very loungy.
What's this?
- It mimics the thing up top. - Yeah, it does.
At first I was like, they brought that down
from upstairs, what am I gonna do up there?
What about that in the corner?
That's beautiful.
This is a lamp inspired by a lamp
that's in Frank Lloyd Wright's house.
Travis Runyan helped me build this.
- Really? - Do you know who Travis is?
Firefighter.
I got Travis to come and help me because he was one of
the firefighters that arrived on the scene that night.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
I, uh, you know, that night I had about 20 firefighters here,
and it was just because of them, we were able to do this
project still. - Yeah.
So, like, I just owe it all to the Laurel Fire Departments.
- They're so awesome. - Yeah.
That's pretty cool y'all got him involved, too,
because he played poker here the night before.
And then, like, the next night.
You know, he's putting it out, so.
Well, we got you a new poker table, a proper one.
Our antes just went up with this table.
Have a seat on the sofa.
Now, let's say that you're hanging out with your buddies,
but it's not a poker night. It's a movie night.
Bro.
Get out of here.
Oh.
It's like, that is ridiculous, dude.
- This is phenomenal. - It's the Zeus show.
So he loves going to your Scent Library
and playing with your globe.
Seeing him drink water out of the sink reminds me we need
to show you a bathroom. You're not done yet.
Before we go, let's close all this up, you know,
because we're sophisticated. - Because we can.
You can feel the room transitioning.
- That's very satisfying. - You've peaked, sir.
That's it. I've leveled up.
I don't know how you're ever going to do that.
You have a guest room.
It feels comfortable.
Like it's actually lived in, too.
We hardly did anything at all, and it feels so different.
I may have only been in this room twice, too.
Like, I didn't-- I never had a plan for this room.
- You gotta see the bathroom. - OK.
- Oh! - Different!
This is a very legit space.
- More of... - Oh, this.
...that reeded look.
I just wanted to make the whole thing feel
like it's singing the same song as the rest of the apartment,
but we did it on, like, a shoestring budget.
There was nothing.
- We just paint. - I mean, painting a vanity.
The brass does magic.
And Zeus can drink out of this sink.
- Y'all, this sink bowl. - I know.
- Isn't that cool? - Yeah.
- What do you think? - I think this is a real pear.
- It is a real pear. - It sure is.
I like to use the real deal.
- The details, y'all. - It's not just for TV.
I fully assumed I was going to grab a fake pear
and start talking. - Unh-unh.
Well, you gave us $60,000 to do this, and I love it.
Yeah.
I doubt you'll ever be over the fire.
- But maybe this is... - This is gonna help.
You can't be upset in a space like this.
Mallorie brought up a good point.
She's glad that we were able to take this off your plate
so you could focus on a whole hotel.
I'm excited for Michael that he has a finished apartment.
I'm excited for our friends.
And we will absolutely do everything in our power to help
them build it out. Like, I want...
a huge success for this. - All the success for this.