Every Forever Home has its own story.
And we can't wait to help tell it.
It's been in our family for generations.
Let me smash. Let me smash.
[man] This is the next step.
[woman] The next chapter in my life.
Hayya.
-[man] Love it. -Whoo!
After you. Welcome home.
-[woman] Oh, my goodness. -[man] Look at this.
Oh, wow.
Let's go.
It feels like home.
[grunting effort]
Come on for a group hug.
[all laughing]
[banging noises]
I saw the video. I'm very happy,
that Brian and Ephie decided to stop moving every two seconds.
-[chuckles] -And settle down in a home.
I think Brian is just like our dad.
We moved a bunch, because they just wanted the best for their kids.
And I think Brian wants the same for his kids.
-We will make this house perfect. -We will make it happen.
-So I would say, we met around 19-20 years ago. -Nineteen, yeah.
-[Brian] 17 years ago, we got married. -We got married.
[Brian] Our daughter is Layla. She's 13 years old.
And we have a son named Reid, who's 11 years old.
Since I've lived with Ephie, we have moved six different times.
[Ephie] Brian gets antsy.
[Brian] Yeah, I have a tendency of wanting to change houses
every couple of years.
So, when we got this place,
we finally found the community that we wanted to land in forever.
[Ephie] My forever home is still forever.
My mom is living there, just down the street.
When my mom came here from the Philippines,
her American dream was that
her kids would be able to buy a house.
She helped raise our kids
when we were both full-time working.
She's just really the heart of the family.
I just love having one house
that has all these memories.
We've moved quite a bit. We need some roots.
Our kids are like,
-"Dad, we have our forever home." -[Brian laughs]
I'm ready to take this house and turn it into
the absolute perfect home for us.
San Marino is like a postcard.
It's gorgeous. Very friendly neighborhood.
My gosh. This is like the dream.
-Hello. -Oh, I'm looking up here.
Oh, hello there.
-How are you? -[Brian] Hi. Come in.
-[Drew] How are you? -[Jonathan] What a gorgeous home.
Thank you.
[Drew] And how long have you lived here?
[Ephie] So we moved here almost three years ago.
I'm already realizing one thing that's probably bugging you,
is that it looks like it's very compartmentalized.
-Yeah. -We are a house with separated rooms for sure.
Well, you bought a historic home.
So, this would be '20s?
-[Brian] 1927, yeah. -[Jonathan] '27? Okay.
But then you look out here and you're like,
ooh la la.
[Brian] Yeah, this was one of the reason we got the house, for sure.
'Cause I've always liked a gigantic great room.
A place for all the family to sit down and hang out together.
I mean, this room does look nice.
Is this indicative of your style?
[Brian] We definitely love the Spanish style.
So it's something that we'd love to keep if we can,
um, but make it more modern.
So, why don't you show us where you do want to spend the renovation money.
Yeah, right over here.
So this is the room where our kids spend a lot of time
playing board games, playing video games.
So I've always loved to have a separate space for them.
-[Ephie] Yes. -[Drew] It's really important.
-You're gonna have two teenagers very soon. -[Brian] Yeah.
Do you have frustrations with this room?
Yeah, it's just closed off to everything.
I mean, you can kind of see the dining area from here.
But you don't see the kitchen at all.
So I kind of have to have, you know, one eye on the kids,
-so I have to pop back in and out every now and then. -[Drew] Right.
You're allotting a lot of space
to a room, just basically for watching TV or using devices.
[Brian] Yeah.
Now, can we take a peek over here? 'Cause...
I don't like this.
Other than having a nose break door...
[all laughing]
-Honestly, we never even close that door. -Yeah.
[Jonathan] Why do you have, like, a bar table
in the corner of, like, a mud room?
-Yeah. -Reality is, this has just become, like, a dead room.
-[Jonathan] You do use this access, I assume. -[Ephie] Yes.
-All the time. -So everybody who comes over to our house,
has to go through this room.
[Drew] So the backdoor is more likely your main entry.
-And you would need better mud room storage and function. -[Ephie] Yes.
[Drew] At least tile flooring is good for a mud room.
It's a bit dated, and I wonder if there's hardwood underneath.
-[Ephie] Yes. -[Brian] Yeah, we did not choose this tile.
-It's just what it came with. -And it even goes through both rooms,
-in to the kitchen as well. -[Brian] Yeah, whole back of the house.
-[Jonathan] Oh, wow. -[Drew] Oh, it keeps going.
[Ephie] Straight all the way through the kitchen back.
Ooh, I'd like a moment of silence for the rest of the house,
-knowing that this tile goes everywhere. -[Brian laughs]
We do have plenty of it, no doubt.
[Jonathan] Well, plus this is a back splash and countertop,
-we would have put in back in the late '90s. -[Brian] Yes.
We did try to paint all of these cabinets,
-and make it look more modern. -[Drew] Yeah.
-And. -Yeah, I also put the handles in as well.
Uh, so you can see why we need your help.
You're so nervous right now.
I can tell all of a sudden, you're like...
[Brian] Yeah, this is the room.
-This is the room. -'Cause this is the room that, like,
even if you come in, all the other rooms in the house are good sizes.
You come in to the kitchen and it's, like, the smallest room.
[Drew] And your countertop, too.
Like, your only bit of prep space is, like, this.
-[Brian] Yeah. -Yes, and so I'm prepping over there.
And the kids, one is going to the room, one's going to the pantry.
God forbid a drawer's open. [imitates falling]
-[Brian laughs] -Exactly.
What's your dream?
I would like a big island.
And it needs to have seating.
Uh, it's odd to me that our pantry's not even in this room, either.
So if a pantry could be loaded in as a part of that as well,
-that would be amazing. -[Drew] Where is it?
-It's back over in this hallway over here. -Is that that in there?
[Drew] Oh, your pantry is in the laundry room?
[Jonathan] The cabinet is so high.
[Ephie] Exactly. So I can't reach anything there.
There's only, you know, a cabinet underneath the little sink.
Do you want to do a little laundry room remake?
I think if we could do some sort of storage,
-rethink, back there. -Yeah.
Or how it's set up, that would be great.
I don't understand when you have a decent footprint for your home,
why you create so many tiny, tiny little rooms, next to each other.
There are definitely solutions.
Some of them are more expensive,
like adding on additions, doing some beam work.
Some, are just a matter of flopping rooms and their uses.
What's outside on the other side of this wall?
It is our... our HVAC.
[Jonathan] Have you ever thought about
squaring off the building right here?
'Cause that alone would give you twice the space for the kitchen.
Something like that would be amazing.
[Jonathan] Another great option which would be less complicated,
but not give you the same square footage from an addition,
would be to relocate this existing kitchen
over to the kids play area.
With everything gone out of the old kitchen,
we could turn it into a comfy new spot,
where the kids could hang out.
We then open up the wall from the mud room,
which would give you much more space for a bigger kitchen and an island.
All of this said, now you've got the kitchen in the heart of the home,
-where you can see into all the different spaces. -[Ephie] Right, yeah.
Point also with that, if this was just seating and TV for the kids,
-you can easily walk past that. That's no problem. -[Ephie] Yeah.
I feel, we will definitely give you more space in your kitchen.
-Okay. -Because we want it to function.
We don't want you to struggle to do the things you like to do in the kitchen.
-Yeah. -Right.
Let's get ourselves out of the frustrating space,
-and into that beautiful backyard. -Yeah, great.
We love this yard as well.
It's one of the reasons we chose this house.
-You have found the perfect house. -[Brian] Yep.
And the perfect construction design team.
-Yes. -Yes, we did. With the perfect shirts.
-Yeah. -You noticed? They match.
It's gonna take a bit of time to work out some ideas,
'cause you can see out here,
there is room back here to possibly square off that if you want more space,
for the kitchen, or relocate the kitchen completely.
[Brian] Yeah.
[Jonathan] But it's a historical area.
Permits are more involved and take more time.
So it'll be a priority to get those in early.
But, all of that costs money.
What's your budget for the renovation?
$215,000.
[Jonathan] Okay, it's a good budget, but it is a lot to do.
The kitchen, mud room, kids den and even the laundry room.
If you were to tell me in a few words,
what is your style?
It would be, I think...
-modern with a Spanish twist. -[Jonathan] Okay.
I can take you guys somewhere that has the style that you like.
Hopefully get a little more out of you,
so we know exactly what to do with your house.
I... I am a little nervous.
Piece of cake. This is gonna be easy.
Knock on wood, piece of cake. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I'm ready to do this.
I'm incredibly hopeful for what Jonathan and Drew come up with.
I'm very nervous, because, I don't do well with change.
But I trust them. So...
-They have a thumbs up from me. -[laughs] Thumbs up.
[Jonathan] Brian and Ephie's house is located in a historical area,
and that means there are limitations on what we can change.
Especially, if it's the exterior.
We need special permits, extra drawings.
The neighborhood needs to be notified.
We need to plead our case in person to the city.
But until we decide on our final options,
we can get started removing things on the inside.
Especially this kitchen which was updated in the '90s,
but never addressed it's tiny, poor layout.
It's time to finally fix this.
So all of their family can actually come together
and be in the same room at the same time.
Let's just start fresh.
And... And if that means relocating the kitchen,
if that means busting walls out...
-Mmm-hmm. -So if you're with me,
-gloves and glasses. -All right.
We've got this family of four,
who's trying to squeeze into this tiny kitchen,
and it just doesn't work.
Unfortunately, not much is salvageable.
Nothing's original and the materials just aren't worth saving.
[Brian and Ephie laugh]
He's got some pent up anger.
[groans]
-[screaming] -[Jonathan and Brian laughs]
[Ephie screams]
This is how we do kitchen demo.
Having the whole half of the kitchen come down in one moment,
was alarming, for sure.
Never seen cabinetry fill up a room as fast as this.
Demolition, we've literally got nowhere to put cabinets,
because there is nowhere to go in this kitchen.
Let's talk about better sightlines.
-[Brian] Yep. -[Ephie] Yes.
[Brian] Yeah, this door has never been used as a door.
[Brian and Ephie exclaiming and laughing]
Grab a sledgehammer.
-[Brian] Oh, that feels good. -[Jonathan] Let's bust into this wall.
No matter what options we put together,
I want this to be gone.
Yeah, we'd love to have this open.
I'm opening up that wall
between the living room and the little mud room area,
because I want them to see
what natural light throughout the space is gonna do.
Just removing that wall will make it feel twice the size.
[laughing]
-It's so good. -[Brian laughs]
-She's got the best laugh. -[Brian] Yeah.
[Jonathan] Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You still have knob and tube in here.
[Brian] Oh, jeez.
[Jonathan] Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You still have knob and tube in here.
[Ephie] What's a knob and tube?
So this is an old home.
And the way they used to run electricals in these houses,
if it's all through the house,
we're gonna be looking at thousands of dollars to replace it.
It's dangerous because it's not grounded.
That's why we clear all the old electrical out.
If for some reason one of those circuits
is still attached, and someone
flicks on a breaker, switches it on,
big fire hazard.
How crazy. 'Cause this is the room
where, like, Layla and Reid hang out the most, right?
[Jonathan] Yeah, we'll find out.
I'll track it all back anyway,
and we'll see if, for any reason it is still attached.
Because if there is knob and tube
that still has to be taken out,
that can eat up a chunk of your budget.
Oh, jeez.
Hey, you never know what's gonna be behind the walls of a 100-year-old house.
I mean, we're really happy to know
that Jonathan is gonna come through the whole house,
and clear out everything that might be a danger to our family.
Let me pull that last little piece down.
And I want you guys to punch through.
-[Brian] All right, great. -[Ephie] Yeah.
Ready, one, two, three.
[indistinct Ephie]
-I'll help with the high part. -[Brian laughs]
[exclaiming in excitement]
[Jonathan] All right.
Yeah, this place already feels more connected.
-Yeah, exactly. -[Ephie] Yeah.
-It is really exciting. -More smashing.
-I know. What's next? -What's more exciting?
The concept of it being open or the smashing?
-Yeah. -Uh, both. But I do like to smash that.
[all laughing]
Right. She's got her own form of karate.
I like it.
Now, the kids den
had nice original hardwood that we wanna keep.
So it's covered to protect it.
I just hope that continues into the mud room.
Oh.
-More hardwood? -[Jonathan] Whoa!
Your hardwood at least this far keeps going.
-[Ephie] Yeah. -Fingers crossed.
[Jonathan] How cool.
Oh, no.
This might be asbestos sporing.
[Brian] Oh, no.
[Jonathan] It was hidden between the hardwood and the tile.
May be this is why it got covered up.
Is that something that would may be
go through the entire backend of the house here?
Well, it could go all the way under,
-where the tile is, yeah. -[Brian] Yeah? Okay.
And it's removal will affect how much floor area we can save.
Well, why don't I clean up the rest of this.
I'll get the sample off to the lab, tested.
In the meantime, you guys can call it quits for the day.
[Ephie] I think it will affect our budget,
but that's something that has to be done, for safety reasons.
And we want to make sure that our family,
you know, is safe and healthy.
And that everything is done correctly.
I just don't want this to eat up a ton of their budget.
Because there's so much that we want to do.
So hopefully, we don't have asbestos.
If we do, we're gonna be looking at a new budget.
And we're gonna be looking at a different timeline.
[Drew] While Jonathan gets the asbestos test off to the lab,
and figures out the electrical issues for pricing out options,
I want to get Brian and Ephie's minds off this discouraging start.
So, I am taking them down to Long Beach,
to get them relaxed, to get them inspired,
and I have the perfect house for this.
[Brian] Yes, I am so excited about this part.
[Drew] What are you expecting to see?
Something Spanish would be my guess.
And some nice clean lines, some modern looks, too.
-[Drew] A whole lot of good stuff in here. -[Ephie laughs]
-Very excited. -How cool.
Wow, it's beautiful.
[Ephie] It's really, really cool and nice and open.
You already have a really nice living room.
But I know you wanted to put second living space in.
-[Ephie] Yeah. -[Drew] So, we can talk about the kids area little bit.
-Grab a seat. Make yourselves feel at home. -[Ephie] I like this.
-Ooh. -[Brian laughs]
-So... -Yeah, this is a nice, deep couch.
-Yeah. -So what kind of a vibe do you want in there for them?
[Brian] Warm and cozy.
[Ephie] I mean, I like this vibe.
A nice deep couch for them.
I love that the TV is here.
But I also love that there's built-ins with storage.
-I love the idea of built-ins and somewhere to showcase. -[Ephie] Yeah.
Um, color would be a good idea.
We can bring in colors that are still elevated and sophisticated.
It doesn't have to be crazy,
-like polka dots or something like that. -Right.
-[Drew] Come on over here. -All right.
[Drew] And on the way, notice the beautiful hardwood throughout.
Would you like that?
I do like that herringbone.
[Brian] If we could possibly save the hardwood floor.
[Drew] If we can, great.
And then we can match that throughout the whole house.
[Brian] Amazing, great.
[Drew] What do you think of this kitchen?
[Ephie] This looks pretty cool. I like this.
I want, like, a... just a big, open, nice sink to work with.
And it looks farmhousey, but it also looks modern.
It does. I mean, if you look around too,
they have some items like the... the pendants that you see here.
These are very traditional looking.
Whereas they have other aspects, like what they have over here.
-And for the sink that are bit more modern. -[Ephie] Yeah.
So they're doing a good job blending
some of the things that you've talked about potentially liking.
Yes. Yeah. I would say that these are too big for me.
[Drew] This is meant to look chunky.
But we can get you something that's a little more streamlined, smaller.
-Low profile. -[Ephie] Yeah.
The chairs that you have here for the island,
it's really nice. I like them.
They look like they are, um, comfortable.
[Drew] Yeah, we can definitely work that in.
Now, countertops and cabinets.
You can see they have a two tone here with the white and a color on the island.
[Ephie] Oh, I like that the island is kind of a different color,
than the rest of the cabinets.
[Brian] I would like a little more color in the cabinets
than just this kind of off white.
So we'll go little bit darker with the cabinets.
[Brian] Yeah. I like the black handles.
And I do like the countertop.
It's subtle, but has that nice, kind of texture
-and character to it. -Yeah.
And did you want a real stone, like this?
-[Brian] Yeah. -[Drew] Or did you want something that is, uh, quartz,
or something that's zero maintenance?
[Brian] Yeah, I think we would love whatever the low maintenance version is.
And also, you can actually choose a slab that has
reduced amount of veining, so...
Great. What do you think of this range?
[Ephie] I love this range.
But seeing how you reacted to this...
[imitating excitement]
...this is the right thing to get.
We do have family that comes and stays with us during Thanksgiving.
We regularly are the ones that are cooking.
To have something this big, would be amazing.
I like that there is a lot of this kitchen that is speaking to you.
-Yeah. -The one thing that's a little obvious,
-is that this is not really a Spanish style. -Yeah.
So, is there any thing that you would love to add in,
that we could bring in, that's Spanish style way.
I really like this.
-Right, Brian? -Yes.
I think this hood is exactly the type of thing that we're looking for in here.
Anywhere we can give a little bit of an extra nod
-in that direction could help. -Yeah.
I've realized that Ephie's not really saying
the style she wants overall with a Spanish, modern look.
She's specifically talking about key pieces.
A farmhouse sink.
We can pick different pieces from different aesthetics
to bring together in one cohesive, transitional design.
That's what design is all about.
Get creative and make it personal.
You know, for me it's just really important that we get this right.
You know, we've moved around a lot over the last few years.
And I really wanna make sure
that what we end up with is something
that I'm really gonna be happy with for a long time to come.
Yeah, and the most important part of making sure you're happy,
-is that we really focus on the function. -[Ephie] Yeah.
We need to make sure you have lots of counter space.
-Yeah. -And a better flow than what we currently have.
-Yeah, that'll be amazing. This feels really close. -[Ephie] Yeah.
I love it. I have so much good information.
I hope this was helpful for you.
-Yeah. -Yeah, this is a beautiful place.
-Thank you for showing it to us. -Of course.
-Yeah, I'll give this all over to Jonathan. -All right.
It's been a few days since our inspiration tour,
and unfortunately everything has come to a complete stop,
because we had some very serious news.
Brian had a sudden medical emergency
and has been rushed to the hospital.
Now we're pausing on any major decisions,
as we standby to hear more about the situation.
Our thoughts go out to Brian, and we're really hoping for the best.
It has been a few nerve wracking days,
as we're waiting to hear back from Brian's health emergency.
He is stable, but he's still at the hospital waiting test results.
Yeah, we really wanna support them however we can,
especially now that we have some new complications with the reno.
[Jonathan] The lab tests came back and the old flooring had asbestos.
We don't want Ephie and Brian to worry.
So it's being safely removed, along with all the knob and tube wiring.
This had to get done before any renovations,
but we're already out over $10,000.
Now we need to decide on design plans that keep within the budget.
And allow us to submit our time sensitive permits.
There are a lot of uncertainties,
but for now, we're just patiently waiting
for an update from Ephie and Brian.
[cell phone dialing]
-Hello. -[Ephie] How are you?
I'm... I'm good.
I mean, you guys have so much going on. How's Brian?
You know, he's doing a lot better.
Um, he actually came back from the hospital.
And he's resting.
But he seems like he's on the mend.
-So, he doing a lot better. Thank you. -Oh, that's good.
I'm sorry you've had to go through this.
And by the way, just so you know.
All the knob and tube,
all of that stuff's already been taken care of.
And it's already worked into the budgets as well. So we're good.
-Great. -Did you get the plans that we sent over?
-Yeah. -'Cause we have two options.
One is to flip the whole floor plan.
Move it to the front of the house, and put the kitchen there.
The other is to do an addition
and square off that back portion of the house,
so you'll have more square footage.
Tuck the kitchen all the way across the back there.
We're just wondering if may be
you like one or the other, what would you go with?
Honestly I think the kitchen at the front of the house
would be a lot less complicated.
'Cause as soon as we tackle an addition,
it can potentially slow things down.
For us the most important thing is to get the permits as quickly as we can.
My vote would be, probably to move the kitchen to the front.
I like that.
It'll be the first thing that people see when they come into the house,
rather than the kitchen being, tucked away as it is now.
This will be simpler to do this.
We've got so much going on right now,
we don't need any more delays.
-So let's just go with that. -Amazing.
We've got your back here. Don't worry about any of this stuff.
Focus on Brian.
Focus on family. Send my love to everybody.
But, thank you for letting me know.
All right. Thank you so much, Jonathan.
Bye. I'll talk to you soon.
With Ephie and Brian's blessings
we're proceeding with the design I feel best suits their place.
And I think we can get it done in about six weeks.
Because we're shifting the kitchen location to the front of the house,
the new counters will be too high for the existing windows,
which means we need to shrink them.
-The window is gonna be like three feet? -Yeah.
Any change to the exterior of a historical house in San Marino
has a lot of rules to follow
to preserve the original architecture,
and it requires special additional building permits.
So those need to get submitted immediately.
If we can't change the windows on the outside,
plan B means modifying them on the inside.
Not ideal, but it will still get them their new kitchen.
In any case, we have to re-run everything,
which means going down into the dirty crawl space.
Ugh.
[exclaims in disgust]
Mouse bones.
We've already lost over $10,000
to removing the asbestos and knob and tube.
So we need to figure out how to re-route all of these utilities
as economically as possible.
There's not really anything in the way,
but there's a lot of stuff down here.
Good news is, all of the lines are exposed and accessible, which means some savings,
because there are fewer walls that need to be ripped open upstairs.
That's really important to me, because Brian and Ephie
love their home and wanna preserve as much
of the original character as possible.
Which is why I need a perfect match to their existing flooring.
-Okay. Oh, you have a piece of cardboard. -I do.
-I brought tile and luxury vinyl as well.
I had these lofty dreams
of having the original hardwood flow all the way through here, too.
And it was in good shape. We could reuse it.
And then that all turned into a nightmare.
-No. 'Cause this is what? Two layers of asbestos. -Exactly.
-Yeah. -I'm now thinking the flooring that we can keep,
is so much more valuable and dear to my heart.
Because of time and budget?
Yeah, especially not knowing Brian's health situation.
We can try to match up the new flooring to the old,
or if we did one of these in, like, luxury vinyl,
I think we could also just sand down the original floor
and then color match to the luxury vinyl.
Then it just looks like a bad mat.
It's two different materi-- It'd be different if it was actual wood.
If we took the Red Oak,
sanded down their floor,
it best matches the existing floors.
Going with the thinner vinyl wouldn't save you much,
and we have to raise the height.
I think if the color tone is same throughout, it'll actually look great.
-It'll look fine. -Okay.
So hardwood it is.
[Jonathan] Now that Brian is back on his feet,
I wanna give them something really positive to look forward to.
I'm excited for them to see the progress and visualize the design in the space.
What happened was, I have a nerve in my neck that turned out to be damaged,
which caused some pretty scary and wonky symptoms.
So, really just glad to be able to be here today.
Brian's my rock, right?
He's strong and sound.
To see him, you know,
going to emergency, and then being admitted, I'm trying to just be strong for everybody.
Trying to be strong for, like, the kids.
You hear who the real rock is, thought, right?
Yeah.
[imitates creaking]
It's like a haunted house in here right now.
-We got open walls and torn-up floors-- -[Brian] Oh, my gosh.
-[Ephie] Oh, my gosh. -Look at these floors!
[Jonathan] Yeah. And this used to be your old kitchen.
-We're ready to start building. -Yeah, we're ready for this.
[Jonathan] I'm glad.
Moving your old kitchen to the kid's den at the front of the house will be a huge change
and something to really look forward to.
We would rebuild a whole new kitchen,
still give you all that space. The island, everything you want.
Imagine a Spanish-inspired vent hood over a giant range,
shiny new appliances, ample countertops. Just a beautiful grand space
where your whole family can finally gather while you're cooking.
Your old mudroom will be transformed into an area with tons of storage and function.
And your former tiny kitchen will turn into a den for the kids.
- Sofa, TV... -[Ephie] Okay.
Nice and comfortable, but more appropriate for the size of the room.
For the functional modern style that blends seamlessly with the history of the house.
Still have beautiful flooring throughout, you have all
the gorgeous finishes of the kitchen,
just in a brand new location.
[both] Okay.
[Jonathan] In order to get the kitchen there,
we'll be shrinking the size of the windows
to accommodate the new countertop heights.
Changing window sizes in a historic home, as you know, requires
extra approvals.
But thankfully, as soon as that choice was made, we submitted for them.
-However, that can be a real challenge. -[both] Yeah.
But it is a risk, it sounds like.
[Jonathan] It should be fine, since we followed their guidelines.
I'm glad we didn't do any additions at the back and went with this option, because
although I tried my best with the budget, we still came in at your max.
That includes, though, getting rid of the knob and tube, and the asbestos.
It is right at the top of our budget.
So, it's a lot of money.
-[Ephie] Yeah. -For sure.
[Jonathan] I understand. And you guys have been through a lot.
But you'll have this incredible kitchen.
Yeah, I like the timeline. I like the budget. I like that
the kitchen will be in the front.
Truly a blessing in disguise, just, like, timing-wise.
It's just something to be able to look forward to.
So I think it's just... Umm, it'll be worth it.
To have this place feel like it's really finished, and really ready for us
to have a long and healthy life together in.
[Jonathan] Key to the design of making this living room a kitchen,
is being able to raise the windows for the new counter height.
So we submitted a special permit to the city to alter the historical exterior.
We're completely switching the location of the current kitchen,
which is gonna be a much bigger footprint for them.
Opening up the former passageway between the mudroom and the kids' den was critical
to give the kitchen as much space as possible.
But it does require a new beam to take the load above.
You could do, like, 82 and seven-eighths?
82... and... seven-eighths.
-[Jonathan] Got it? -Mmm-hmm.
-Back your way here. -Good.
-Am I level? -Feel good there. You're level.
[chainsaw whirring]
-[Jonathan] Thank you. -Okay.
Are you okay for a sec?
You know, this beam is easy to lift when it's down low. Not when it's at my full reach.
Go fast.
[drilling and hammering]
What a difference this is gonna make for the family.
It's so much better.
-Pretty good. -Nice work, sir. Nice work.
[Jonathan] We've taken the renovation as far as we can.
I still haven't heard back if our permits have passed for a special window modification.
So I'm starting to sweat a little bit, because if they say no,
then we have to completely revisit the design.
[Jonathan] Well, we have some good news.
I went to the city and pleaded our case for altering the windows,
and we were approved!
They felt reassured that we'll preserve the integrity of the exterior of the home.
So we can carry on and start choosing our finishes.
Brian wants something that feels a little more modern.
Ephie's looking for hints of Spanish with a twist.
Like, adding a farmhouse sink.
But somewhere in the middle, lies what this house will be. Good news.
We're gonna save on a lot of floors because we were able
to match up to almost half the original ones.
So, darker on the floors. So we have to be careful we don't
go too dark with our kitchen cabinet.
-[Drew] They want color. -And they like a mix. They like greens and blues.
Look how nice this goes together.
Maybe lighter on the perimeter and darker on the island?
Switch to a green though. They do like green.
Well, we could do something like this for the laundry room.
Or even the mudroom.
And you know what we could probably do? The kids' media area.
Maybe we could do some cabinets like this in there as well.
It's where the TV is, so...
Yeah, something like that would be nice.
They have preference on hardwood?
[Jonathan] Brian did like the black handles.
Something like that. And this would actually look nice on both.
-That could be in the pantry or the media room. -Yeah.
They have a lot of Spanish elements within the home too.
We can keep some of that vibe,
especially the outside has that feel.
They wanna go with something that looks like real stone.
Guess we could do more veining, less veining.
This is actually nice because it ties into the dark tones.
Both tie into the dark tones.
-Actually, this one-- -[Drew] Maybe we shouldn't go too busy.
[Jonathan] That actually looks really natural.
There's a simplicity to it, which I think they would both love.
Well, since I can't pin all of those up on the board,
I will put the chair over here so Ephie gets her comfortable bar seating.
No more moving for them.
If we make this house so beautiful and so functional...
-...they'll never wanna move again. -Yeah. Never again.
With Brian's health scare and not having a place to return to recover after the hospital,
I just want them to come back here and feel like they have
the perfect sanctuary that reflects them.
Yeah. A unique home where they've always dreamed of settling down.
The renovation is now in full swing.
To relocate all the utilities to the new kitchen location,
we have to go through a lot of crawl spaces. Floors, walls, everything.
We brought this house up to safe modern standards,
after getting rid of the knob and tube, and asbestos.
But it did mean maxing out our reno budget.
While the walls are open, we can start prepping for our new raised windows.
But we're gonna have to be mindful to try and keep as
much of the original exterior as possible,
if we're gonna pass inspections.
We are on track with our six-week timeline.
However, the unexpected cost we incurred during demo
removing knob and tube wiring, and remediating the asbestos,
put us right at Ephie and Brian's max budget.
So we had to offset that issue by finding savings in the old kitchen and laundry areas.
We're not doing a ton of work in the laundry room.
Carrying our flooring around, cleaning things up.
But the cabinets. Even though it's not the color that Ephie and Brian want,
they're solid wood cabinets with a nice profile,
that will look a thousand times better with a fresh coat of paint.
-That's actually coming out quite nice. -Very nice.
Yeah, I mean, the quality of the door is actually pretty nice.
So I think this is gonna turn out really good.
[sanding machine whirring]
We were able to keep a lot of the original hardwood flooring in some areas of the house,
but anything that had asbestos tile on top of it had to be removed.
We're tying in some new Red Oak board to blend the two areas,
sanding them down and then adding a uniform dark stain to match.
This partial replacement saves us some money,
but more importantly, gave us the look that's both brand new
yet feels like it's always been in this historic home.
[Jonathan] Brian and Ephie's old kitchen was cramped,
and they desperately needed usable storage.
Their new kitchen will not only be the heart of the home, but will have tons of cabinets
as well as their old mudroom, which had nowhere to put anything
except their dog.
Brian's health scare early on made it extra urgent for me to get this reno done on time.
We're one step closer now with the arrival of our custom windows.
They are critical to the design of the new kitchen,
and were not easy to get approved.
Well, it's a good thing they allowed us to do this, because
we would never have been able to put our kitchen in this exact layout
if we were not able to raise these windows up.
[satisfied whistle]
[Drew] Brian and Ephie have a huge extended family,
and they love to cook and entertain.
Now, they could not do that in their old kitchen, which was tight and it was tucked away,
forgotten at the back of the house.
The new kitchen is, like, twice the size, right up at the front of the house.
In fact, the massive island alone is almost the same size as their entire old kitchen.
Oh, yeah, I like how you guys are standing here acting all busy.
I'm lifting shims, man.
All right, watch my fingers.
-Watch it, watch it. -One more, one more.
-There you go. -Wow.
That looks pretty good.
[Jonathan] This is just spectacular.
From the closed-off tiny kitchen they had before, to now having so much prep space.
Makes you wanna cook.
Now, it's like, so much room in here.
We can have five people cooking in here.
We could. And sitting, because we got the breakfast bar seating.
So I feel because I lifted this in here for the dry fit,
you guys can lift it up and then I'll go get the glue and we'll get this down, okay?
-You know what? We could do it in our sleep. -[both chuckle]
You've done this before.
Perfect.
[old-timey voice] Would you like to see the royal faucet?
-Yes. -[exclaiming]
-This one looks good. -Fancy, huh?
I love that. I love that. Hold on one sec.
I'm just thinking about this.
-Are we gonna hit the window? -No.
[all groaning in frustration]
Ugh!
I think we went maybe too tall.
No, no. We're clear. Because the angle that it goes through...
Hold on. Let me hold it from underneath.
-No! -It hit?
-Yeah, it's hitting. -Oh, my gosh.
All this work.
[Jonathan] You know what else we can do, actually?
Hmm.
We have so much depth to play with in here.
We could set this back and just do a jam extension.
'Cause if we set this window back even, like, one inch,
-that would be enough to clear it. -Oh, actually...
-That's a good solution. -This is one of those moments where it's like,
there was so much work in re-running all the plumbing, moving everything here,
planning this all out, raising the window,
making the window look original. Everything was going right.
There had to be a roadblock.
-I'll get the drill. Let's fix this. -Okay.
Okay.
Two and a quarter inches.
That's it, right there.
Ready?
There.
You're level. Go for it.
[both cheering]
All right.
I went from feeling very sad to positive vibes.
I'm just really happy we didn't already close this all up out here.
All right. Good.
This reno was more complex than I anticipated.
And I hope that the faucet issue is the only little snag
as we head into the final phase.
Because we have a lot of finishing work ahead.
From brightening up the mudroom with low profile lighting,
to custom floor to ceiling kitchen cabinets,
and adding a beautiful quartz slab backsplash
that has to fit precisely into place.
Brian and Ephie wanted to renovate this house so it was perfect for their family.
Especially their two kids who need a new hangout spot since
we took their old one to make a new kitchen.
From tiny cramped kitchen
to all of a sudden, incredibly spacious, stylish media room.
-And this blue is much better. -Oh, yeah.
I like it. This is gonna make them very very happy.
It's a very tiny space. Looking at this, I can't believe this was a kitchen.
This is just such a great media room.
I don't know if the kids will allow the parents in here, but...
I can support the kids. Let's make this just for them.
[Drew] Fixing all the issues of this historic home,
the asbestos, the knob and tube, and the special permit.
And of course, navigating Brian's health challenges,
made it extra important for us to get this done quickly
and give Brian and Ephie a safe place to finally call home.
The reno is finished and we could not be happier or more relieved to show it to them.
I'm already noticing how much more stuff we can get in this kitchen than in the old one.
It's crazy. Their old kitchen was, like, this small section. There's so much function.
-Do I have to test the window? Is it gonna hit the faucet? -No, we're good.
Everything looks good, everything's beautiful. This is going to just give them
what they always dreamt this house could be.
[scatting]
-[Drew] The children's artwork looks awesome on that wall. -Oh, that's-- I did that.
Oh, you did? That's very cute. Very sweet.
This is definitely gonna be a spot that gets used a lot.
-Should we grab Brian and Ephie? -Yes, let's do it.
Oh, you guys are racing to get in there.
[all laughing]
I really am excited to see this kitchen though.
Oh, it's spectacular.
-[Brian] Oh, wow. -[Ephie laughing]
Oh, my gosh.
-[Brian] Oh, my gosh that's gorgeous. -Oh, my gosh.
You guys are racing to get in there.
[all laughing]
I really am excited to see this kitchen though.
[Jonathan] We are too. After everything you guys have been through.
Wow.
-[Brian] Oh, my gosh, that's gorgeous. -Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my gosh!
[Brian] It feels so much more open than I expected it to.
It's beautiful, right?
[Ephie crying] I'm very overwhelmed.
-Yeah? -[Drew] What's on your mind?
I don't know, like... I never thought that I could have a kitchen or house like this.
I just had a wave of emotions. I mean,
I was overwhelmed and it was just crazy walking through that front door.
I was blown away.
I wasn't sure what the kitchen was gonna feel like in a different part of the house,
but when I saw it, it immediately felt natural and nice. I loved it.
Well, it's exciting too 'cause it's in such a better location.
-Yeah. -It's the heart of the home. Before it was, like,
the big toe of the home. It was way off.
I'd say the little toe of the home.
Yeah, 'cause it was small.
Look out this way and tell me how it feels to be able to see
-from your kitchen to all these different areas. -[Brian] Yeah.
I can finally see the dining room table from the kitchen.
-[Ephie] Yeah. -[Brian] It's only ten feet away.
-[Drew] The flow is much better for you guys. -[Ephie] Yeah.
This is so great. What do you think of this?
I love it and it's not too veiny.
Like, the perfect amount of texture...
[Drew] This island is bigger than your old kitchen.
[Ephie] I know!
You said the kids wanted to be in the kitchen with you more.
Now you have a space where they can be part of cooking and baking with you.
Yes, oh my gosh, there's so much space.
It's like, so much to take in. I just... I... just...
So awesome and I love the sink.
It's nice and deep and...
[Drew] Spanish, right?
Spanish style. You wanted the Spanish style.
-Oh, my Gosh. -[Brian] This is so nice.
We wanted to make sure that some of it had a nod of the Spanish.
With still, maybe some more subtle color tones.
-Yeah, this is really it. It's great. I love it. -[Ephie] Yeah. Yeah.
-And there's six burners here. -Yeah, it's really cool.
I can, like, cook so much at the same time.
[Drew] Your house may be historical, but all of your
appliances are upgraded and modern.
-Storage right here is lower too. -Oh, my gosh.
I didn't even notice that!
And what's great about it is that
it closes quietly.
And then, all this is pantry?
An entire wall of pantry storage.
Oh, my gosh. It's, like...
-so many shelves! -[Brian] This is great.
There's something you didn't even notice here. You didn't even comment on it.
And it was the hardest thing to do in here.
-The windows? -Raising all the windows.
All these windows are brand new, but we had to make them
an identical match to the style of what was here before.
[Drew] Well, let me just clarify, Jonathan charmed on your behalf.
Who could say no to that face.
[Drew] If you think about it, the windows before were below this level.
We just made them a little shorter so we could raise them up and get counters in here.
Now you have so much more functional space to your kitchen.
I'm so excited, because, like,
we're gonna have all my, like, cousins and aunties and uncles.
I think this is the kind of kitchen that will bring a family together
and you'll create memories in.
Yeah, it 100% feels that way to me as well.
One big transformation is getting rid of that wall.
Because now you have sightline all the way through to the back.
You have great access in and out with storage everywhere.
But it still looks good.
-I didn't know how different it was going to feel. -[Ephie] That looks awesome.
[Brian] And you're completely right. The sightlines all through to the back
just didn't exist before. Now they do straight from the kitchen.
[Drew] Do you think we put in too much storage?
Is that gonna be a problem?
No, I think we're gonna be just fine with the amount of storage.
-Is there such a thing? -[all laughing]
[Ephie] And I really... The color in here, also, like...
-Spot on. -I agree.
And I know you want to get away from your old light blue cabinets,
-we gave you a better blue. -All right, let's see.
-[Brian] Awesome! -[Ephie exclaims]
It's a nice blue. A professional-looking blue. Not like what we did.
A comfy corner for them, too.
[Brian] Great couch.
-Oh, this is nice and cozy. -[Brian] Yeah, I know.
We'll be, like, up here and just, like, hang out.
Doesn't this feel more appropriate as a use for this
space than the kitchen you had here before?
[Brian] Yeah. I was worried this was gonna feel too cramped and it doesn't.
This feels really nice.
-To be gaming and eating and watching TV. -[Ephie] Yeah.
It's nice to have all this storage here 'cause of all the board games
-all the books, all the junk that they collect. All that. -[Ephie] Oh, yeah.
I mean, I keep noticing the floors. I didn't even know you could get floors like this.
-[Drew] The thin board? -Yeah, the thin board.
We did actually rip the boards down to get them to the right size.
And it tied in beautifully.
[Brian] This is way nicer than our asbestos-laden floors.
Yeah, no, I mean this house is safe,
it's functional, it's stylish. I think the kids, it's gonna blow their minds.
This is the only time you'll get to sit here because the kids won't let you back in.
-I know. -It's a good teen hideaway spot for sure.
This is the kids' zone. You're not allowed in here.
Unless you're on your way to do laundry. Then they're probably okay with that.
Check out your laundry room. Painted out the cabinets.
[Ephie] Oh! I like the colors. The color's really nice.
[Ephie gasps]
Even the sink looks so nice. Look at that!
Yeah, the sink is great. What do you think of the shelf right there?
I love it. So cool. It's so awesome but I love this.
I'm glad you're gushing because these are the same cabinets. Just painted them.
Floors look great. Tied it all together.
We didn't wanna have a beautiful space in here and then nothing back there.
No, we love it. It's really nice. Great.
Get back over here. Come on.
I love that you're already talking about who's gonna come over here,
what are they gonna think.
That's the true test, is when you have that first get together.
It's gonna be so fun just to show everybody around.
Can we already just get Leila and Reid and my mom, like...
[all agreeing]
So we had a pretty emotional couple of months.
And it's been a roller coaster.
I think now that we've seen everything and we're super excited and proud of it.
Like, we can move back in and just have all our family come over.
And celebrate all the blessings.
So it's really settling to feel back in our home. We're excited to be here.
-Wow! -Hello!
-Nice! -What do you think?
[Ephie] Go in, go in, go in.
-Yes, come on in. -It's a little different.
[Leila] What?!
[Drew] Reid, you look blown away.
I'm speechless. I don't know what to say.
[all laughing]
-You have an island, mom. -I know!
It's awesome to see my mom in such a fancy,
cool, modern kitchen.
And she looks so teeny-tiny in such a big space.
Next time we cook, we can all be in here together.
-And I'm gonna make her famous lumpias. -You invite them.
-[Drew] Thank you. -Oh, yeah. I'll definitely take it.
[Drew] This is what it's all about.
This is the heart of the home. This is for an amazing family.
We hope that you create a lot of new memories here.
-Cheers to family and good times. -[Brian] Cheers.
-Best experience ever! -So grateful.