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00:00Trying to figure out what the leak is up here.
00:02Oh, my gosh.
00:03Oh, Vince.
00:04I'm kind of handy.
00:06I turned to the internet to figure out what to do.
00:08Are these rags in your windows?
00:10Um, yep.
00:12Working on your house is great.
00:15A do-it-all-yourself mentality is toxic.
00:18None of this is in a box.
00:20You can see open, exposed wires.
00:22It's a huge fire hazard.
00:23Oh, my gosh.
00:25Look at this.
00:27Yeah, that is bad, Jasmine.
00:29So that's all black mold in there.
00:31Yeah.
00:32So how are we going to do this?
00:33It's really hard knowing, you know,
00:34I was putting my family in danger.
00:35This electrical's a mess.
00:36How is this house still standing?
00:41Oh, my gosh.
00:43Oh!
00:44Between social media, how-to videos,
00:46and faceless tutorials,
00:48inspired DIYers are taking on bigger and bigger projects,
00:52leaving their homes in complete chaos.
00:56What have you done?
00:57There's a thing holding a wall.
00:58The flood made it.
00:59This was a DIY gone wrong.
01:01What have we started?
01:02This is sketchy.
01:04You step in the wrong spot.
01:06You're going through.
01:07Yeah.
01:10For years, I've helped families in Southern California
01:12restore order to their dream homes.
01:14Oh, oh, oh!
01:16You're done!
01:17Now, I've moved my family to Park City, Utah,
01:20where I'm rebuilding my business,
01:21and I know it's not going to be easy.
01:23New town, new business, new recs.
01:32Did you sleep so good?
01:33No, you did not.
01:35Oh, let's all go get ready.
01:37Come on.
01:38I'm building a wall around my castle.
01:41Oh, cool.
01:42Are you sleep striking?
01:43I don't think she is.
01:45I think she's just too big for her bassinet.
01:47Like, for reals.
01:49It's time to move out.
01:51She needs her own room.
01:52Yeah.
01:53So we'll do it all this afternoon.
01:55It's definitely not going to be done today.
01:57I'm starting a new project,
01:59but I definitely want to finish.
02:01We need to finish her room.
02:02Like, it's time.
02:04All right, let's go make breakfast.
02:06Come on.
02:07We'll finish the finishing touches later.
02:10Okay.
02:16What a morning.
02:17Beautiful.
02:18The mountains in Utah are stunning.
02:22This is a whole new mountain range.
02:23These are the Ochre Mountains.
02:25And South Jordan is located right here south of Salt Lake.
02:28This area is booming.
02:30And I am going to see Rachel and Vince.
02:33We'll figure it out.
02:34Sure.
02:35Vince reached out.
02:36He's been trying to DIY projects around the house now for years.
02:40He thought he could do a lot more than it turns out that he could.
02:45We're the Wilsons.
02:46We've been married for 17 years, coming up on 18 now soon.
02:51We have four kids from ages 3 until 13.
02:54Where are we at?
02:55We're really measuring.
02:56I'm an attorney.
02:57Mostly regulatory, consumer compliance law.
03:00I teach art at the elementary school, part-time.
03:03I'm mostly a stay-at-home mom for our four kids.
03:07We've lived here for eight years.
03:09It's built in 1989, so it's getting on in years.
03:12This is my favorite cabinet in the house.
03:14This is the one that keeps falling off of the wall.
03:17He's a pretty handy guy.
03:18He's done a lot of work in there.
03:19We've saved a lot of money that way.
03:21But there are a lot of things that just stay undone in the house that I would love to have done.
03:28Oh, wow.
03:29That was so much easier than I thought.
03:31It's okay to say that it's been frustrating, because it is.
03:34Trying to figure out what the leak is up here.
03:37I always figured that I was kind of a skilled amateur maybe, someone who could figure it out and get, you know, pretty close.
03:44Oh, my gosh.
03:45Oh, Vince.
03:46But it just got really apparent that everything that I did, I really needed to call somebody else to help me out.
03:53That would have been my dad that I called.
03:55He was a professional, and he could do a little bit of absolutely everything.
03:58Growing up and on the job site with him, it was amazing.
04:01It taught us how to work with our hands, and it taught us that we could do things ourselves.
04:05Part of me still now wants to be like him as much as possible.
04:09When my dad passed away, I turned to the internet to figure out what to do.
04:13When I did the jobs, they just weren't as good as I wanted them to be.
04:18When I got it back in, it wasn't working again.
04:22It just became really apparent that we needed a professional.
04:25Well, here they are. Everybody's outside.
04:28Vince's dad passing away, I think, you know, reminded Vince of their family tradition.
04:33We do things ourselves.
04:35I'm Jasmine.
04:36I'm Rachel. Nice to meet you.
04:37Nice to meet you.
04:38And while he's trying to do all of these projects to honor his dad's memory,
04:41that might not be the best thing for Vince's family.
04:46Watch out. We kind of have a whole coat and shoe situation here.
04:49This is Utah in the spring.
04:51Springtime.
04:52Because you've got to have the winter coats out.
04:53And snowshoes and flip-flops, and it sometimes, like, overflows into the door area.
04:57So that's real fun.
04:58The shoe rollerblade lunchbox conundrum is real, right?
05:02It's for real.
05:03When we moved in, we had two kids.
05:05But then we had two more kids.
05:07We were, you know, talking about moving someplace,
05:09and just prices kind of skyrocketed here in the area.
05:12And so we're like, never mind.
05:13We won't buy a new house.
05:14We'll just make this one work.
05:15We've been saving money for a long time.
05:17So we want to fix it up and make it the house that we want to stay in.
05:20All right, you guys.
05:21I have to ask you, because the first thing I saw when I walked through the door, this staircase.
05:25So this is an improvement project.
05:27We're fixing it.
05:28It's a lot more difficult.
05:29I know I can't do it the right way.
05:31And so I've just kind of had this paralysis around it.
05:34How long have the stairs been pulled apart like this?
05:36It's been a while.
05:37It's been a while.
05:38Right.
05:39So what do you want this area to become?
05:41A clean greeting place where I can open the door and pretend like I'm a clean person.
05:46Oh, I love that.
05:47A reception area, if you will.
05:49Like a proper entry.
05:50Yeah.
05:51That's fair.
05:52How do you use this room?
05:53Do you use this room?
05:54It looks really clean.
05:55We don't use it a lot, actually.
05:57There's still so much that just doesn't work, like the weird ceilings.
06:01This is so low.
06:02His brother comes over and hits his head on it because he's just too tall.
06:07Yeah, he's 6'10".
06:08Oh.
06:09Oh, wow.
06:10And it's dropped all the way through the kitchen.
06:11This is low.
06:12I mean, if I can touch the ceiling, that's low.
06:13I don't know if it's possible, but we want the ceilings lifted.
06:16Right.
06:17Tell me about your kitchen.
06:18There are a couple of things that are ticking time bombs.
06:21One of the big things was this cabinet.
06:24There was a leak behind this wall.
06:27I pulled it off, repaired the leak, and then put it back up.
06:31Since then, it's just kind of been sagging down.
06:34Tell me about the leak.
06:35It was our black water.
06:38We've got a pipe coming down right here.
06:41So it was a sewage pipe?
06:42Yeah, it was a sewage pipe.
06:43And you got it repaired or you repaired it?
06:45I repaired it.
06:46Okay.
06:47Right.
06:48Whenever I hear black water, I get nervous, especially if it wasn't something that was handled by like a remediation team.
06:54It may not be leaking anymore, but it could have turned into something bigger at the time.
06:58Right.
06:59That we're not aware of.
07:00We'll just have to see if there's anything in there.
07:03If there was a sewage leak and they just left it, this could be a major problem.
07:10Are these rags in your windows?
07:12Um, yep.
07:14When Vince redid this window, this was the first one he did.
07:17So I messed up on my measurements to start out with, got the wrong size window.
07:21I never came back to finish up the opening.
07:24Part of the window installation is what's around the window.
07:27Right.
07:28I'm sure the cold and the hot is gonna be able to get through because normally there's layers.
07:31Yeah.
07:32This was significantly harder than I thought it was going to be.
07:35It's rough with living with bad windows.
07:38If we sit on the front couch, you can feel a breeze coming off of the windows.
07:43Yeah.
07:44In winter, dead of winter, it is very cold sitting on that couch.
07:48Yeah, there's definitely issues.
07:49We need new windows.
07:51What else do you have going on in this kitchen?
07:54Well, the ovens, your favorite thing.
07:57So when we moved in, we really wanted a double oven.
08:00And then when I tried to hook up the electrical, it didn't work exactly the way I want.
08:04It goes out once in a while.
08:06One day it was Thanksgiving and he was still trying to fix it.
08:10And I was like, this isn't worth it.
08:12Just put it back in the wall.
08:13We'll cook the stuff at the neighbor's house and come back with it.
08:16And that's what we did for that year.
08:17Wait.
08:18That's real?
08:19That's a real story?
08:20That's a real story.
08:21Oh, my gosh.
08:22I can imagine that that would be stressful.
08:24And this was a few years ago.
08:25Yeah.
08:26Yeah.
08:27This was probably three, four years ago.
08:28And it hasn't been fixed since then.
08:30Like, it's not remedied.
08:32Okay.
08:33You cannot learn how to do electrical on the internet.
08:37I am not at all excited about seeing this electrical work that Vin did.
08:41What else do you have going on?
08:44So, there are other leaks.
08:47Is this more window stuff?
08:48We found out it was probably the swamp cooler.
08:51It leaks now when it rains, so it's not just a swamp cooler.
08:54This is all bad.
08:55I'm sure you already know that.
08:56Yeah.
08:57When you see water, it's usually because the water has done a whole bunch of other stuff,
09:03and now you're finally seeing it.
09:05There's not like a, oh, well, it's just a small leak, so it's not a big deal.
09:09No.
09:10If you have a leak, it's going to be a big deal.
09:13What is your dream for your house?
09:16We like openness and being able to, like, see people in the dining room and front room.
09:20I just want it to flow better and just give us more space so we can cook together as a family
09:24and can have people over and just have space for all of it.
09:28But right now, it's just stressful and kind of embarrassing.
09:31Has anyone in your family hired professionals?
09:35Like, what you're considering doing?
09:37I don't think so.
09:38Having this conversation with me right now, you're kind of bucking the system.
09:42Oh, yeah.
09:43This is a big deal.
09:44Such a rebel.
09:45That's one of the things that gets me is I grew up fairly poor.
09:48Worked really hard to have a really good career to provide for the family.
09:52But still, a lot of that has been focused on, okay, we need to save money.
09:56If there's something that I can do myself, why pay thousands of dollars?
10:00I mean, we've saved lots of money, yes, but now we're going to find out at what cost.
10:04In Vince's family, he was told the story that in our family, we work on our houses.
10:11But Vince is an attorney.
10:13Of course, he doesn't know how to work on his house, and he doesn't have the time, and it doesn't make sense.
10:17Yeah, you want to save money, but in his case, hiring somebody to come work on his house is going to be the way to accomplish that.
10:24It's a big project.
10:25Mm-hmm.
10:26What is your budget for doing all of this work?
10:29Right now, we're about 170.
10:32I think that for $170,000, I can help you.
10:38That would be huge.
10:39We would love that so much.
10:41Seeing all of the little problems in the house, it's just years and years of failure.
10:46Every time I look at them, it's a little bit heartbreaking.
10:51So if we just keep going as it is, the house is just going to fall apart.
11:00We have $170,000, seven weeks to complete all of the work on this house.
11:05In order for this to actually be their forever home, this house has to be safe.
11:09It has to be functional.
11:11They need a lot to be done to this house to make it a place where they're comfortable living with their children.
11:17Hi.
11:19Are you ready for this?
11:20Wow.
11:22They got all their stuff out. I'm impressed.
11:24Yeah, they did. They moved it all out.
11:26The design style for this house is a Utah take on a Scandinavian design that I know Rachel is drawn towards.
11:32We're going to have light wood tones. We're going to have a lot of contrast.
11:36Just a really clean, simple, function-forward design that works for this family.
11:41Let's start by the front door.
11:43OK.
11:44OK.
11:45This area, they had like coats and shoes and all kinds of backpacks and everything.
11:49Their goal is to make this area like a civilized entry.
11:54OK.
11:55Instead of like, ah!
11:58Let's do a new front door.
11:59OK.
12:00We'll run new flooring throughout this entire area that will also continue up the staircase.
12:04And this closet, it'll move to the far corner over here.
12:08And then we add a wall. And let's create a really beautiful entry area.
12:13I think it would be great if we brought a wall off right here.
12:16Yeah.
12:17It's definitely going to make the entry feel bigger.
12:18Oh, for sure.
12:19We're going to create a room here.
12:21But the rest of this, we want to all flow and be open.
12:23Sure.
12:24This area for a dining room didn't work for them.
12:27OK.
12:28So I think this becomes kind of more their formal sitting area.
12:31OK.
12:32That used to be in this front room.
12:34The dining area actually moves clear over here.
12:37Vince and Rachel used their living room at the front of the house very infrequently.
12:44And they have another big family room right off the back of the kitchen.
12:48So by getting rid of the front living room, now we have the opportunity to make this really work for them.
12:54If there's a wall here, I think that we do a big L-shaped banquette, table in the middle, chairs all the way around, and that gives them a really nice big new dining room.
13:05This whole space?
13:06Yeah.
13:07That's cool.
13:08But with that, their kitchen starts here.
13:15Basically, open this whole space up, get rid of this drop ceiling.
13:19We have white oak cabinetry that's either stained black or stained natural mixed together.
13:25Over here, refrigerator, range.
13:27OK.
13:28And what that does is it leaves us room for a nice big island.
13:31That doubles the size of the kitchen, doubles the size of the dining.
13:34And double in everything.
13:35But can we get rid of this wall?
13:37That's what we're going to find out.
13:39It's a pretty important part of this house, right?
13:41We're going to have to get an engineer involved.
13:43This is like what's holding the whole upstairs up.
13:45That's not an easy...
13:46We can't just tear it down.
13:47I don't know if you're trying to scare me, but it's just getting me more excited.
13:50I'm like, yeah, exactly.
13:52Let's do that.
13:53Or that.
13:54So this wall's just got to go?
13:55It's just got to go.
13:56Oof.
13:57All right.
13:58Well, let's do it then.
13:59Let's get into it.
14:00Are you ready?
14:01Yeah.
14:02Well, demo might be easy.
14:05We have a lot of work to do today.
14:07We're ripping up all the floors.
14:09The entire ceiling's basically coming down.
14:11We have to dig into some of the known issues.
14:13That's soft back there.
14:15That's had moisture.
14:16We have to kind of figure out where we're going to spend our money.
14:19And that's a big part of the demolition today.
14:24Oh, my...
14:25Look at this.
14:27That's just an open junction, not even in a box,
14:30with hot leads out underneath that dishwasher.
14:33That would short out.
14:34I mean, that is so dangerous in a wet area.
14:36That's a total fire hazard.
14:38How is this house still standing?
14:39I don't know.
14:40I don't think Vince realized the severity of DIY electrical.
14:46I think working on your house is great.
14:50I think a do-it-all-yourself mentality is toxic.
14:54No way.
14:56Kathleen, look at this.
14:58What is that?
14:59Okay, now this actually upsets me.
15:02Look at that.
15:03That's an adapter on an adapter on an adapter.
15:06They've taken this big power supply, which is more volts, more amperage, everything,
15:11and they try to downsize it by doing this.
15:14It will push way more power to this small little line that could melt it, burn it.
15:19It's a huge fire hazard.
15:20It's crazy to me to think that someone would think that's okay to do in their house.
15:24We knew that there were going to be issues with this house, but this is not a good start.
15:29Vince didn't mention this to me.
15:31He mentioned what's going on behind the ovens.
15:34If this wasn't even on his radar, I can't imagine how bad it is behind the ovens.
15:37Okay, this upsets me.
15:39What do you see?
15:40There's an open junction back here again.
15:42Oh, my gosh.
15:43You've got a splice coming to a splice going over to a splice.
15:47All of this is wide open.
15:49None of this is in a box.
15:50You can see open exposed wires.
15:52This electrical is a mess.
15:54It needs to be fixed.
15:55Yeah.
15:56We're going to have to run all new wiring to this kitchen to make sure that it's done properly.
16:01This is definitely some of the most dangerous electrical work I've ever seen.
16:05I want to be sympathetic, right?
16:07And I know that Vince wanted to uphold this family tradition of doing it himself.
16:13But unfortunately, he didn't have the skills.
16:15And this house is a testament to that.
16:18Ugh.
16:19Is that glue or mold?
16:21It looks like mold.
16:22Look how easy that just breaks.
16:24So that's all black mold in there.
16:26Yeah.
16:27You might want to put a mask on.
16:29Yeah.
16:30This is dangerous for Vince and Rachel and their whole family.
16:34There are all types of health issues that have been linked to black mold.
16:39Look at this.
16:40You can still see the spores right there.
16:42That's just moisture that's never been dealt with.
16:44The longer you're exposed to black mold, the worse it is.
16:47I don't know how long it's been this way, but it's not good.
16:50Even though I have a mask on, I'm not really comfortable being right here with all of this,
16:54especially as, like, a nursing mom.
16:56I'm going to step outside.
16:57I think that's very smart.
16:58But we have to take care of this.
17:00We can't leave any mold.
17:01So this entire area is going to have to be remediated.
17:03And also, will you open up this part over here?
17:07Yeah.
17:08And just see, I'm nervous that we have the same issue in that ceiling.
17:11I'm really nervous about our budget.
17:13I'm nervous that we aren't going to even be able to put this kitchen back together
17:18by the time we handle all of these things that are underlying.
17:22This is a lot.
17:24Okay, girlfriend, let's work on your room.
17:35It's time for her to be in a crib.
17:37It's time for her to be able to roll around and have some space.
17:40She's ready to have her own room.
17:42But I've done nothing in here.
17:44I'm excited to incorporate this chair into the design,
17:47the kind of rose pink color palette.
17:51So I'm going to do peel and stick wallpaper in here
17:53because I feel like kids grow up pretty fast.
17:56And I want to have the option to change it out.
17:58That's cute.
17:59So I'm going for kind of a vintage feel.
18:03Darla Rose sounds like a vintage name to me.
18:06I think it's really important that all the rooms of a house
18:09feel like they're part of the same house.
18:11Some people, I think, lose sight of that
18:13and they make each room feel like it's a whole different world when you walk in.
18:17But to me, that's jarring.
18:19So from a design standpoint, even if it's a nursery,
18:22I think it should all feel cohesive.
18:25Which wallpaper do you like?
18:28This is why I haven't finished this room.
18:30So, yeah.
18:32We'll pick a wallpaper example later.
18:39This first floor is fully gutted,
18:41which means we can really see the bare bones.
18:44The mold by the sewage pipe has been remediated
18:46and now we can start putting this house back together the right way.
18:49Getting rid of those dropped ceilings,
18:51that was the first step to opening this whole room up.
18:54The next step is taking out this wall.
18:56In order to open up this room, we needed two different supports.
19:00We had to add support in the floor so that there was a post that could sit on top of it
19:04to hold the beam in the ceiling.
19:06Beam.
19:07Beam.
19:08Post.
19:09Beam.
19:10That that sits on up there.
19:11Yeah.
19:12Woo!
19:13For the structural part of taking this wall out, I had $1,600 set aside.
19:17This has been a lot more than we expected.
19:19So now we're $4,600 over the budget that we set,
19:24and that has to come out of the contingency.
19:26It's a ton of framing.
19:27It's a ton of engineering.
19:29It's definitely something Vince could have never done on his own.
19:32We're going to get it done and we're going to open up this whole space.
19:35This we've got figured out.
19:37This we don't.
19:38The window, right?
19:39Yep.
19:40It's a problem.
19:41We knew there was this big water damage patch up here.
19:44And as we started exposing more and more and more.
19:47Yeah.
19:48We found this.
19:51And if you can see this, there's a big hole right here.
19:55It's rotted out.
19:56It goes all the way down.
19:57All gone.
19:59I think we're dealing with two different problems.
20:01I think this corner, a lot of the water that was here is coming from above.
20:04We found out it was probably the swamp cooler.
20:07It leaks snow and it rains.
20:09This, I think, is from a bad old window.
20:13And I think it's just, for so many years, just kind of leaked out of that corner of that window.
20:17I mean, completely gone away.
20:18We didn't have any framing on this wall in our scope.
20:22Correct.
20:23Worst case, we have to reframe and rebuild this entire Bay Area window.
20:28Like that's all coming out of contingency at this point.
20:31Our contingency, the money that we set aside for emergencies, was $13,600.
20:39We are eating into that every single day of this project.
20:42So how are we going to do this?
20:46I'm hoping that we can go on the outside and slowly and carefully take the siding off so that we can reuse it.
20:53What if we can't?
20:54I, man, I don't know, because it's a siding that we can't match. We can't even get it anymore. If we have to start dealing with the siding of the house, the siding starts at one end and goes all the way to the house, right? You'd have to re-side the entire house.
21:09What's that going to cost?
21:10I mean, you would be over $100,000.
21:12We can't do that.
21:13But we have to fix this.
21:14Yeah, this has to be fixed.
21:15We have to be so careful. Re-siding the entire house is not an option. There's no way.
21:16There's no way.
21:17Hopefully we can save the existing siding or we can find siding that comes close to matching or even coordinates with the existing gray siding. It'll be a challenge, but we're just going to have to cross that bridge when it comes because we have to do this fix.
21:28What I do know right now is that we're out of contingency. We try really hard to set our budgets with conservative numbers, with numbers that feel like worst case scenario. So to have to call Vince and Rachel, it's not fun.
21:43Hey, how's it going?
21:44Hi. Good to see you. Good to see you. Well, I'm here working on your house, as you can see. And I wanted to talk to you about the budget a little bit. So we've had a whole bunch of things that have come up.
21:58That we just didn't expect, right? We had electrical come in over. It really needed to be addressed and reworked. And it was just, you have to do it. You know what I mean?
22:22Sure. Okay. And then the structural was different than what we expected, basically. So that also was additional. Okay. And I've dug into that bay window area a bit more. This bay window was not on our radar, not the part underneath. It's completely rotten.
22:44Right. We're going to have to frame. We're going to have to waterproof. We have to do the soffit. Replace that. Then we have the drywall. So all said and done, we are $2,400 over your contingency at this point.
23:00Okay. We still have a long time to go in this project. And we're already out of the contingency. I'm just afraid of, you know, what's going to happen the next time something comes up.
23:09Yeah. I'm sorry. It's not a fun position to be in. So either we go through the budget and take out $2,400 worth of finishes, or if you guys can come up with another $2,400.
23:22Like, if it's going to be hard to take it away from other places, I want the kitchen that we want to have.
23:27Yeah. I mean, if we're going to do it right, let's do it right the first time.
23:30We'll tighten our belts and we'll get it paid.
23:32I think that's the right move. It's not even the fun stuff. I'm so sorry. Like, it's not like, hey, I want to do this really cool thing.
23:39You guys are doing the best that you can. And we appreciate all the work.
23:43Thanks for taking the call. And hopefully next time I talk to you is with some good news.
23:47Thank you. Thanks for calling. Bye.
23:49See you. Bye.
23:55So here we are getting out at our third house. We thought, we'll just live at my parents' house.
24:01But then Tess was allergic to their basement where they kept the guinea pigs. And so that didn't work out. We stayed there about a week.
24:07Third house. This one we can stay till our house is done.
24:11So tired.
24:12Okay.
24:12So done moving.
24:14I know. It's a lot of moving. It's a lot of pain. But it'll all be worth it. Right, guys?
24:18I asked Vince to come back to the house today because I need to talk to him about the things that he worked on in this house.
24:34Jasmine?
24:35Come on in.
24:36Wow. This is crazy. Everything's gone. This is amazing.
24:42This has been a lot of work. And that's with a bunch of professionals that do this day in and day out. Teams of people in here.
24:49We've actually had a lot of issues just kind of outside of the norm.
24:53Between the electrical over here, which I haven't really seen anything like that.
24:58And it was probably more dangerous than you realize.
25:01I think y'all are very lucky that it didn't cause a fire.
25:05Really?
25:06Yeah. Did you do that electrical? Because there was a converter.
25:10Oh, yeah. Yeah, the converter.
25:12Yeah.
25:12Yeah, I didn't realize it was really dangerous at all.
25:14It was a bit of a mess.
25:17So we found mold in this wall here. It's been remediated and we're actually good to go.
25:22I had an idea that there would be mold there. I was just kind of holding off, hoping.
25:27So, yeah, it's really hard knowing that, you know, I just put my family in danger.
25:30I really need to stop taking it all on myself.
25:34Not only should you not be doing it yourself, but you don't have to.
25:37Yeah.
25:37I know that Vince's intent wasn't to harm his family.
25:42And so hearing me tell him this is really dangerous, I think that that was the wake-up call he needed
25:47to accept that his skills, they just don't work.
25:51The windows, I know, have been something that have been, like, hanging over your head.
25:58We are going to install these windows the right way.
26:00Oh, awesome. Fantastic.
26:02Not so that you can install windows on your own in the future.
26:06I plan on this being my last window that I do.
26:08Okay, good. I'm glad to hear that.
26:10Oh, there she goes.
26:13I realized that there's a time to go and ask for help.
26:16Time to go and find other people.
26:17Five years ago, that would have been my dad that I called.
26:21He was one of the best men I've ever known.
26:23As soon as we moved in, we're like, we need new windows.
26:25He's like, oh, yeah, no, I'll help you out with that.
26:26And we'd make up plans to do things.
26:29When my dad passed away, a lot of the projects kind of got put on pause.
26:34And part of it was I didn't know how to do it myself.
26:40Awesome.
26:40I feel like this is an opportunity for a little bit of closure, maybe to finish this project.
26:44Yes.
26:45And I'll never have to worry about him again.
26:48Exactly.
26:49Your dad was a contractor, so he worked on houses.
26:53But you have a career now that allows you to contribute in a completely different way
26:58than maybe, like, your parents contributed to the family.
27:01It's a good way to look at it.
27:02You know, I'll have more time and more capacity and more ability to bless them, you know, in other ways.
27:08Yeah.
27:09I'm really glad that we were able to get this window in.
27:11We've got to level it.
27:12We've got to put a few more sprues in.
27:14And we'll go into the next one.
27:15All right, awesome.
27:15Cool.
27:17Hey, Jasmine.
27:25We've been plugging away.
27:26If you'll notice here, what you don't see is a wall in the middle of your kitchen.
27:30So now we've got your new post here, holding your new beam, flushing the floor to your post over there.
27:36Now that Vince and Rachel have agreed to pay the extra cost, we can move forward with fixing this bay window.
27:43The good news is, is that we were able to find new siding that was a great color match to the siding that was on the rest of the house.
27:49So we're only going to have to replace the siding in the one area.
27:53So we're only going to have to replace the siding in the one area.
27:57Okay, so, Darla's room update.
28:00Wallpaper is in.
28:02Curtains are going in.
28:04Oh my gosh, Bill, that's self-balanced.
28:06I love it.
28:07Party, party, party.
28:08I think they add a lot as far as, like, making the room feel finished and special.
28:12Now it's time for the crib.
28:14I've got the mattress already in here.
28:15We've got to load in the furniture.
28:17Get that baby into her room.
28:20What are you doing in there?
28:22With the new flooring in and the painting done, today it's all about kitchen cabinets.
28:33The cabinets are a natural oak tone, and for a bit of contrast, we stained some of them black.
28:39Look how great this space is turning out.
28:41What a difference the drywall makes, yeah?
28:43Look at this corner.
28:45This big window looks great.
28:47Oh, yeah.
28:48Much, much better.
28:49Vince and Rachel love to cook with their kids.
28:52They entertain.
28:53They have a big family.
28:54Cabinetry, cabinetry.
28:56This is a lot of cabinetry.
28:57It's a lot of cabinets.
28:58So reconfiguring this layout, supersizing this kitchen was a big part of this project.
29:07Matt smiles a lot.
29:08He's, like, perpetually positive dude.
29:11And when you see Matt and he's not smiling, you can't help but wonder what's going on,
29:15because that means something bad is happening.
29:17Um, so we just found out that the tile that we'd ordered for the backsplash is backordered.
29:25We ordered it weeks ago.
29:27Mm-hmm.
29:27We can't get the tile now for six to eight weeks.
29:30It's supposed to go in, start of the week.
29:32This is going to mess up the entire schedule.
29:34I mean, we can hit this schedule.
29:39We just need a decision made today with material that we can get.
29:42And, of course, the backsplash is backordered.
29:45I mean, if it's not one thing, it's another.
29:47It's just one more thing I have to figure out.
29:49So this is the tile we're going to use for the backsplash.
29:52I loved it because it has this variation of color, because of everything else that we found on the project.
29:57This was a way that I was trying to save money.
29:59But, like, her first choice from the beginning was the slab, this countertop material.
30:04You rolled up the back wall?
30:06As the backsplash, yeah.
30:07Okay.
30:07I just knew we couldn't afford it.
30:09But I do know that's what she actually wants.
30:12Yeah.
30:12How much more expensive would that be?
30:14Um, I would imagine you're probably around $2,500.
30:18$2,500.
30:20I do have this, like, command center area that I was going to have custom built.
30:26Yeah.
30:26What if I had Vince help me and we built this and took $2,500 out of the carpentry budget, put it towards the countertop backsplash?
30:36When I first walked through the home, I saw that Vince had made a coffee table and a side table.
30:40So, hopefully, he has the carpentry skills to help with this command center.
30:45Really, they just need functionality out of this area.
30:48But I think there's a lot of different ways we could accomplish that.
30:50Can you build this in our time frame?
30:53Sure.
30:54I will say, this might be a blessing in disguise, because it gives me the opportunity to give Rachel the backsplash that she wanted.
31:02I do want to make sure that before I leave this project, I have a chance to share with Vince that he can do things around his house, just not the dangerous things.
31:15This is a wood shop, and it used to be a desk factory.
31:19This is awesome.
31:20Remember how, when you walked in your front door, there was that cabinet that had all your paperwork and your stuff everywhere?
31:27I'm calling it a command center, and so I thought maybe you and I today could work on that.
31:32That'd be awesome.
31:33I love that.
31:34This command center is really just a family organization zone.
31:37It'll have a simple Scandinavian look that Rachel loves, and this box is what we're going to build today.
31:42From the time that I was a little kid, I got to learn how to use clamps and use a saw and use a drill.
31:49Okay, I think we've got to get this on before that starts dripping.
31:52Yeah.
31:53My problem was, I had just enough knowledge to be dangerous.
31:58Was or is?
32:00Well, is, yeah, I mean, I still am.
32:02I think that Vince is growing a lot through this experience.
32:07Vince, like it or not, he will be forever changed from having someone come work on his house.
32:13I'm really glad that, you know, he asked for help and that he's been on this journey.
32:18I feel like Vince is getting that redemption that he needed for this project.
32:24My dad would be proud of me, I think, today, you know, seeing me put in time and effort for the betterment of my family.
32:30He'd be proud to see me just sitting here working with my hands, too.
32:32That was always something he's like, it's great to go in and do the work.
32:37And so being here today and contribute to what the house will be felt really good.
32:44Last one.
32:45Darla is a few days shy of nine months old, and she's finally moving into her nursery.
33:05It's a lot harder to do a nursery after you have a baby.
33:08This is what I've learned.
33:09You don't quite have the same amount of time, energy, but the cool thing is, you kind of get to make a nursery for the baby that you've met and the personality that they have.
33:25Here it is.
33:29What do you think?
33:31What do you think? Are you excited?
33:33Yay!
33:35Yeah, yeah, yeah.
33:36She's very excited, I can tell. Totally into it.
33:41Darla kind of seems like an old soul, so I thought a vintage style for her nursery would be a good direction, and then also making it a modern nursery on top of that.
33:51I tried to mix in some, like, brass tones, a lot of, like, the creamy whites, and then some wood tones here and there as well.
33:58There you go, Kate, look, this is your new crib.
34:01Do you love it?
34:02She loves it. Oh, my gosh, she totally loves it.
34:06I don't think Darla cares. I think she's okay, but I care as a mom.
34:12Now I feel like it's somewhere where you really want to hang out.
34:14I think that this is a good sign.
34:17We might actually get a good night's sleep tonight.
34:19Well, that's the dream, right?
34:22Are you going to sleep in here? Are you going to do good tonight?
34:24Are you going to sleep in here?
34:54I hope they're going to have time that they had away from this house to work on themselves, and they worked on their relationship.
35:01And I think that they would not have had that chance
35:04had this renovation not happened.
35:06And I give them a lot of credit for asking for help
35:08because I know that was the first step
35:10and that was hard for them.
35:11Hi.
35:13Hello.
35:13Hi.
35:14Welcome home.
35:16Thanks.
35:16It's been a while.
35:17Yeah.
35:18Right?
35:18I keep telling them it's like my Christmas,
35:20so I couldn't sleep last night at all.
35:21I was too excited.
35:22Yeah?
35:23We've had a number of people in the neighborhood
35:25and they're like, oh, I love the black windows.
35:27They look so good.
35:28We get updates.
35:29They'll say, we walked by your house.
35:30It looks good.
35:31So we're really excited to get inside and see.
35:33I hope so.
35:35Fingers crossed.
35:36So we went into this project with a budget of $170,000.
35:40It's a lot of money.
35:42As you know, I did go through the entire contingency
35:44and I had to call and ask for a little bit more money.
35:48We came in at $172,400.
35:52Yeah.
35:53Yeah.
35:53Looking at all of the issues that there were,
35:55like it makes sense,
35:57especially with that rot that we had from that window,
36:00was just, it was insane.
36:02Yeah.
36:03Now we just have to live here forever.
36:05No big deal.
36:06There were a lot of things that surprised me about this house.
36:09So thank you for hanging in there with me
36:12as we went through everything.
36:13And I think, you know,
36:14the name of the game for this renovation really has been the safety.
36:18Mm-hmm.
36:19We always just assumed the house was safe,
36:21but having all of that open up and see it,
36:23I'm like scared after the fact.
36:25So now it'll be really nice to go in
36:27and know that that's all taken care of
36:28and know that everything is safe.
36:29Yeah.
36:30All right.
36:30You guys want to go inside?
36:31Oh my gosh.
36:31So bad.
36:32So bad.
36:33Let's go.
36:33I'll follow you.
36:35Yeah.
36:35Okay.
36:36Oh my gosh.
36:37Oh wow.
36:39Oh wow.
36:40Oh my.
36:44Oh my gosh.
36:48Oh.
36:51Oh, look at my pictures up.
36:54I didn't think I was mine already.
36:59Oh.
37:00We can get so many pairs of shoes in there.
37:02Like all of the rollerblades, all of them.
37:06It's like a real entryway.
37:08It's not just like straight into our living room.
37:10Oh, okay.
37:11What do you think?
37:11Already 10 out of 10.
37:13And it's just amazing.
37:15Okay.
37:15So this entry before, it was not this.
37:18No.
37:19No.
37:19Not even close.
37:21I was a little worried when we talked about making like an entryway.
37:24I was like, is it going to be so dark?
37:25Like this is so, so nice.
37:27The idea here was that you have a space
37:30where you can have people come to your front door
37:32and not put everything in your home on display right away, right?
37:37That was your goal.
37:38Yes.
37:38And then also make sure that in this area,
37:41it's kind of a, you know, really functional space,
37:43but also a great representation of your family and your style.
37:47It feels really open.
37:48It feels spacious and just like a nice welcoming area.
37:51Like I'm really impressed with how well it turned out.
37:53I love it.
37:54Yay.
37:54And then just like having the ceiling up.
37:56That looks so good.
37:58That's awesome.
37:59So everything here was lower, right?
38:01Yes.
38:02Just to have it one level all the way around.
38:05Yeah.
38:05Yeah.
38:05It's so awesome.
38:06It'll just flow so nicely now.
38:09Okay.
38:09Can we keep going?
38:10I want to see more.
38:10There's a lot to see.
38:13Oh my gosh.
38:14Oh my gosh.
38:19Oh my gosh.
38:22Oh no way.
38:23Oh, it's a whole other place.
38:26This is huge.
38:28It's huge.
38:29I can't believe that's my kitchen.
38:30Where I'm going to make kids lunch.
38:31Like this is crazy.
38:33It's so fantastic.
38:35Your entire kitchen before was, yeah, here.
38:40Like about to here.
38:41That was it.
38:41That was a whole kitchen.
38:42It was so closed in.
38:43You couldn't have more than one person in there at a time.
38:45And here now, like you can have.
38:47We can have the whole family cook in here.
38:50Yeah.
38:51So this is quartz.
38:53Which means it is a man-made material.
38:55It's very durable.
38:56You're not going to stain it.
38:57You're not going to etch it.
38:58But it has that look of a natural stone.
39:00This is gorgeous.
39:02Someone told me about like bringing out the warmth in things.
39:05It really does.
39:06It like brings out the warmth of the floors and everything.
39:09While you did want that high contrast, right?
39:11Yeah.
39:12You wanted the lighter wood tones with the black cabinets.
39:15There still needs to be a warmth.
39:17Yeah.
39:17I think that goes a long way as far as making this feel like a really comfortable and welcoming
39:22kitchen.
39:22Yeah, exactly.
39:24Your windows before.
39:25Oh, man.
39:26This was where we started with like why we needed to do this project.
39:31It was really interesting to see how a minimal knowledge of tools that I had does not equal
39:36what a professional can do.
39:38It's so much nicer than I would have been able to do in a million years.
39:41Now the towel can stay here and not in the windowsill.
39:45All towels are out.
39:47There's so much storage in this kitchen.
39:50You can put all your heavy stuff in there.
39:53It's not going to fall down.
39:53What?
39:54So like big pots and pans here.
39:56Oh, my gosh.
39:57Nice.
39:58I was hoping it was something like this.
39:59Genius.
40:00Cool.
40:00We're going to get some like good organizational dividers in here.
40:03She's like, oh, I can't wait to get back into the house and start organizing.
40:07Yes, I get it.
40:08A label maker.
40:09Oh, a label maker is my best friend.
40:11That's amazing.
40:13Vince.
40:15Vince.
40:16Yeah.
40:17If you pull this oven out, so help me.
40:23I'm not planning on it.
40:25You don't have to go to the neighbor and be like, can we use your oven?
40:28Like these will work and they are in place and they're installed correctly.
40:31There's so much that had to happen behind the scenes.
40:34Just knowing that like everything in the walls is safe.
40:37That's how this kitchen is going to last.
40:40It will be amazing.
40:42It might actually work for Thanksgiving.
40:44Your family won't hit their head.
40:45It's going to be so much better.
40:46Oh, I'm like seeing visions of the future.
40:49It's going to be so great.
40:50This whole area before was a living room that you never used, which is silly if you need
40:55more space for the day to day.
40:57We needed a dining spot.
40:59Well, you have a dining room now, right?
41:01It's a whole dining room with so much seating.
41:03Like we can pack in all of the cousin kids around here.
41:06This was really like such a good solution and I never would have thought of it.
41:10I never would have thought of putting the dining room here instead of back there.
41:13I love it.
41:13It was a great idea.
41:14This was the only way to really fit this much seating in though.
41:20There wasn't another spot to put it and having it right off the kitchen.
41:24I think you're going to use this all the time.
41:25It's just beautiful.
41:26It's everything I hope for.
41:28Yay!
41:30Oh, I love it.
41:31It's been a huge transformation and it's not just about this kitchen, right?
41:43It's about how you're going to live in this kitchen.
41:46It's not lost on us all of the, you know, metaphors of tearing things down to make them
41:50better and I really feel like it's kind of the beginning of a new stage of life.
41:56Vince actually built this part of it.
41:59You did?
42:00Yeah.
42:00Aw.
42:01My little project was building the box for this.
42:03Oh, it's so cute and I love the doors too.
42:06All the problems with the house or the things that I tried and failed and messed up, having
42:11those kind of wiped away is really like a psychological weightlifting.
42:16What I've learned is I can be a great dad and be different from my dad who was a great
42:21dad and our kids are going to have different needs than I had.
42:24And so with this, I'll have more time to be able to address those needs and be a better
42:28dad.
42:29Yeah.
42:29I'm so excited for you guys.
42:32I can't wait for you to show the kids.
42:35Oh my gosh.
42:35They're going to be so excited.
42:36They're going to freak out.
42:40Oh my gosh.
42:41What?
42:42What?
42:42Oh my gosh.
42:44This is so cool.
42:49I know.
42:50It's so cool.
42:51We came into this house thinking it was our starter home.
42:56Now it's the space that I want to be forever.
42:58What?
43:00What?
43:00That's so cool.
43:01What?
43:04Oh my gosh.
43:06Oh my gosh.
43:06What?
43:07What?
43:08What?
43:12My gosh.
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