All language subtitles for Amazing.Interiors.S01E08

The exciting thing
about this house is that

nothing gives away
what is going to be inside.

I really wasn't expecting that
in the shower.

This house isn't going anywhere,
I can tell you.

It's like a bomb shelter.

My dream for this building is to make it
the steampunk capital of America.

Stop. Hold.

It's a good thing we live in a church.

I'm gonna say a lot of prayers.

I'm Bruce.

I'm artist, designer, fabricator.

My wife, Melanie, and I
live in Palmer, Massachusetts.

My dad has new ideas quite frequently

and they seem to get more and more
grandiose as time goes on.

It's like, "Oh, we're gonna move
into a church."

It was kind of like, "Oh, okay. Totally."

This popped up in a real estate
listing, and it was love at first sight.

This is the space.

Incredible, amazing space.

I think this is really when I first
fell in love with the church,

was when I saw this space.

My dream for this building

is to make it the steampunk
capital of America.

Steampunk kind of started in the 1980s
in science-fiction literature.

It's this sort of re-imagination...

If during the Victorian period
or the Industrial Age,

they had our modern technology.

It's this kind of retro
futuristic look.

There's a lot of people
who are into steampunk,

and there's really no place
anywhere in the world

that has steampunk
as its central theme and inspiration,

so they'll be coming to Palmer,
Massachusetts to find that.

Downstairs is our space
that we're going to be living in.

The church had a stage

that we've converted
into a bedroom temporarily.

This whole space
that we're looking at here

will be a gallery space.

It will be a showcase
for the steampunk artwork,

and will help me get more business
from clients because...

when you see it, you believe it.

Up here, we're planning to install
this huge fan right here,

and then below it,
install Helioman.

He's a da Vinci-inspired
flying machine.

He's gonna stand about nine feet tall,
15 feet wide,

and he's gonna be right down the center
of the vertical space here.

I think Helioman will become
kind of the iconic...

sculpture and piece of the space.

When someone walks in,

the first... All I can think of
is they're gonna think,

"Oh, my gosh,
this guy has such an ego," or.

"What's he thinking?"

Bruce tends to go off
on these creative projects

without much thought of budget,

and here we have a ceiling
that needs to be done,

and we have bedrooms
that need to be done eventually,

walls to be painted.

It's a really tenuous
way to live.

This is our home,

but it's also a business investment.

You know, we've planned this grand
opening so we can show future clients,

you know, what they can have,

And grow the business
and get us to a point

where we can take care
of all those practical things.

I'm in total panic mode every single day.

The exciting thing about this house

is that from the outside,

it looks like a completely
traditional Georgian house.

Nothing gives away
what is going to be inside.

A lot of people
when they first see this house

perceive that it's all about
politics, and it's actually really not.

This house is much more about
just provoking thought.

It's a creative space
to get people thinking.

We've got a lot of Lenin in this room.

It's not a statement
about dictators.

A lot of it was more about just looking at the art and
things that were made during that Communist period.

This Lenin painting was bought online.

I got it for, I think maybe £70.

I think it's a great painting.

The fact that it's a bit distressed
and rotting away kind of adds to that.

It just feels casual, you know?

You need a casual dictator just, like,
kind of lounging against your wall.

So going down,

this is the atrium.

This was a particular tricky one
to do,

because we had to abseil up
and down in order to do it,

with me directing
from the balcony up there.

This door is a replica of the door

to the Ministry of Internal Affairs
in Moscow.

It's wood which has
a metal-coated paint on top.

Behind is a different kind
of internal affairs:

The guest toilet.

All of these frames that you can
see, they're all front covers

from a 1930s Russian
propaganda newspaper.

People read the newspaper on the toilet.

It's just a slightly more
political version of that.

The house itself
has five bedrooms, five bathrooms.

When Roland had just bought it,
it had been done by a developer.

No character,
no personality whatsoever.

And, you know, Roland wanted
a home. He didn't like any of it,

so we needed to rip it all out
and give it a personality.

The whole refurbishment
cost just over a million pounds.

There's nothing bling
in this house.

Sometimes, things that are
kind of amazing cost quite a lot,

but most of the time they don't.

We bought a lot of these items
from auction websites for 10, £20.

Really where more of the budget
got spent

was in the individual
one-off elements

that we wanted to make and create.

The chess set was around £10,000.
We've got Arabs versus Americans.

As kings and queens,

we've got Saddam Hussein.

And we've got Osama bin Laden.

And then here we've got
George Bush.

It actually has a piece of the war

with real historical providence
sitting underneath.

I found this missile
from a soldier in Iraq.

I just thought it was completely perfect.

It was gonna be great for it.
It was only 50 quid.

So we've got Pope John Paul II in here.

It was gonna have Roland in here,

and then we were both sitting
in a cab, and the pope had just died,

and you couldn't open up a paper
without it being about him.

We both thought it would be funny
to do him under the stairs

reading, like, kind of
all of his own publicity.

It made us laugh for ages,
so we were like, "That has to happen."

Unofficially, we're calling it
the Dictator House.

- Wow.
- Come in.

This one's actually Abu Ghraib prison,

The Iraqi prison that was infamous
for prisoner torture.

- It's quite dark.
- Quite a provoking addition

to the room.

My clients do range quite a lot

in the types of personalities I deal with,

but there's quite a large number

that would be offended
by something like this.

Okay. Wow.

I really wasn't expecting that
in the shower.

Not many people can say
they've had a shower

- with Saddam Hussein.
- Yeah, exactly.

Genuinely, in ten years of viewings,

which I can't even imagine
how many I've done,

I've never seen anything quite like this.

It's really appealing, because
it's unassuming from the outside,

yet inside, you have this
absolutely incredible space.

I think the house is very Roland,
and that was the idea.

It makes you think, it makes you laugh,
and it's a lot of fun.

Ten years on, I still love
this house.

It's an amazing space,

and it's really special
and unique, I think.

Brimfield, Massachusetts
has the Brimfield Market.

This is my raw materials.

This is where my steampunk art
originates from.

The mission today
is to find some cool stuff

that we can actually use
for the church.

My dad just has boundless energy.

It just seems to never run out.

I think part of that comes from
the fact that he had cancer.

It was the first year
we were married,

and I think when that happened,
it almost set him into overdrive.

I'm cancer-free now,

but I think, really,
it kind of gave me this urgency...

so I'm always pushing forward.

I'm always thinking
about the next thing,

and not procrastinating.

That is pure steampunk.

What's your best price on it?

Maybe... 250.

All right.

We went through a period where

one of my dad's projects
actually kind of put us

in dire straits financially
for a little while.

Ever since then, I have had
this worry

that, you know, oh, my God,
we came very close

to essentially being on the streets.

That is crazy.

The finances of this project
are just frightening.

We're not rich people.

We came into this project
with a certain amount of money,

it's already gone over that.

Got it? There you go.

Is that in?

We are in the cathedral space
of the church,

which is becoming our art gallery,

and what you see in here
are my Humachines.

You ask what are Humachines?

Really they represent
iconic authors and inventors

mostly from the Victorian period,

and I'm having them come back
as the machines

that they either wrote about or created.

One is Jules Verne,

and he comes back as the subhuman,

which is the Nautilus.

He comes back as his own
submarine. I also have Mary Shelley,

and Mary Shelley comes back

as the machine
that created Frankenstein.

One of my most favorite Humachines
is H.G. Wells.

I created H.G. Wells

as the time machine
that he wrote about.

This is almost like the throne...

where you can kind of oversee
your steampunk kingdom.

It is a little infuriating
sometimes to have

these sort of art projects
that are expensive

taking over the place
of something that's more practical.

The main thing is the ceiling.

This winter is gonna be
really difficult with the cold.

It would be really incredibly
nice to have some insulation up there.

This is our home,
but it's also our business,

so there is a justification

that we can spend money on this artwork

and have it pay off big.

Now, I might be delusional.

- Want some coffee, Bruce?
- Yeah, I'll take some coffee.

I'm gonna have some coffee.

Some of the projects that I do,
like Helioman,

they involve resources and funds,

and I'm afraid if I tell her, you know,
she's gonna get more stressed out.

And so I'm trying to find this balance
of how much to tell her

and how much to kind of just,
you know, keep close to the vest.

So, Bruce, how is Helioman coming along?

He's flying high.

- So how much is this gonna cost?
- Right.

Probably about $10,000.

And then with the...

I don't know what
the structural engineer is gonna cost.

I mean, it's probably a couple hours
of his time, I would think.

So a few thousand dollars, I'm sure.

I guess I'm so upset
I can't quite find the words.

Yeah, it's a bit of a bombshell.

All this money is going
to something like Helioman.

That could have been
half our ceiling.

In terms of being complete,

we just need to spend time now
kind of putting all the pieces together

and getting everything organized.

It's a good thing we live in a church.

I'm gonna say
a lot of prayers here.

That's all I can do.

My name is Cathy Calhoun.

I live
in Spring City, Pennsylvania.

My first job was in a bank
at 18 years old.

After working in banking
for ten years,

I moved on to
the jewelry industry,

started my own jewelry store.

I was looking for a second
location to have a jewelry store.

When the bank
where I used to work closed...

...my old boss came to me

and said, "Why don't you go down
and buy our old bank building?"

I said,
"I think I'm gonna buy it...

but I'm not gonna put
a jewelry store there...

I'm gonna live in it."

There are three bedrooms...

and three bathrooms.

I have a dining room,
living room...

loft area, which used to be
where the bookkeeper sat.

I wanted the focal point
to always be on the original vault

that was in the lobby floor.

That intrigued me,

and I thought,
"I can do something with that."

As soon as I looked at it,

I knew it needed to be a bar.

What else would you put
in this place?

When I purchased the building,
I didn't use an architect.

At the time, I didn't even know any.

Just gutting this took
about six months.

Every floor is poured concrete
and steel rebar,

and they're three and a half feet thick.

It was so difficult.

Oh, my God, I try not to think
about what the cost would be.

Five hundred thousand...

I don't even know.
I don't even want to know.

Because of the rectangle shape
of the building,

it was very stark...

so I came up with the idea

to first do a half curved wall
in the dining room.

With the curved dining room

and then the curvature
of the staircase,

it wouldn't seem like
this big box.

When I'm up in the office here,

I can still see out
and it doesn't break up any light.

That was my vision,
and I didn't waiver from that.

This is my favorite room in the house.

I know it sounds crazy to have
your bathroom as the favorite room,

but I love taking a Jacuzzi here.

I can turn the fireplace on,

and if I could figure out food deliveries,

I would live here in this room.

When I purchased the building,

I purchased it with contents
and everything included.

They... all the safe deposit boxes
were still here in the vault.

For at least seven years,
notices were sent out

for people to empty the boxes out.

But I have keys for a good many of them.

I've found some old coins,

some old bills,

and a box that was filled
with X-rated love letters.

It was an ongoing affair,

and when I worked here,
I would take the man

his safe deposit box,

and he was reading
the love letters from his mistress.

I have to drill the rest open.

It's on my to-do list.

I like the feeling that there might be...

some priceless object hidden somewhere

that I just haven't gotten to yet.

This house isn't going anywhere,
I can tell you.

It's like a bomb shelter.

I feel safe, and no, I'm not leaving.

I have a motto:

When it's good,
you've got to lock it up.

It's a big day today.

It's the installation of Helioman.

Yesterday, we actually installed
the big-ass fan

that's gonna act as his rotor blades.

We hired a structural engineer.

And so today, we're figuring out
how our Helioman

is gonna be lifted
into the sky in position.

Helioman is something...

I kind of don't want to talk about

because it's a little bone of contention
between Bruce and I.

But... I've only seen pictures,

I haven't seen any of the real thing.

I have no idea how I'm gonna
feel about it once it's actually here.

I've been very nervous today,
'cause we have a major concern,

that is of safety.

The sculpture probably weighs
five to 800 lbs,

so we want to make sure
that everything is secure

and that it's gonna be
a permanent installation.

One thing that I'm worried about
is it might fall,

you know, 20 feet below.

So that's something
that can't happen.

The winch is in place
to bring Helioman up.

Brian is in the attic space,

and he's gonna be
the winch operator.

They're putting an aluminum
beam across

to help support Helioman's tail
as he's going up.

The cables are in place,

so we're gonna get the winch going
and lift him in position.

Okay, Bruce, I got it all hooked up.

- Are we good to go?
- No, not just yet.

Okay. Six inches.

A little more.

Stop.

Hold, hold.

- Stop. That's it. That's it.
- He's done.

Is it okay, Greg?

Okay.

Right, stop. That's it. That's it.

Just hold, Brian.
They're trying to connect now.

Yeah, no problem.

Okay, another six inches.

Okay, you're done. You're done.

That's the first time really
I've got to see him

- from below like this.
- So cool.

All right, so let's turn it on.
It's right here.

Go for it.

Wow, you can feel it too,
you know?

Look at that.

Oh, my God. Doesn't it look like
it's gonna just take off now?

The total cost of Helioman

is probably close to $15,000.

And again, that's something...

I know that sounds like a lot of money,

but I really feel like he's gonna
have a return on investment,

and I just hope that Melanie,
in the end, understands

and she sees that
it's been worthwhile.

Oh, my God.

There he is. The flying da Vinci.

Isn't that unbelievable?

- So, what do you think?
- That's pretty cool.

It's cool!

I'm still mad at you, but it's very cool.

We invited 50 people,

so it'll be exciting to see
what they're gonna say.

We've got food,
a little beer and wine.

- And a cool exhibit space.
- And a cool exhibit space.

- That's gonna be the big draw.
- Yeah.

I'm just hoping that when people
come through those doors,

I would love for people
to have positive reactions.

- Oh, wow.
- Wow.

It's a lot different.

- Amazing.
- This is amazing.

They've done a great job in here.
I just love it.

What are you looking at?
The flying machine.

I like all the details
to the things,

and also I like that we came here
and celebrated steampunk.

I'm definitely proud of my dad.
I'm proud of both my parents.

The evolution of this place

to what it is today is quite incredible,

and it's been quite an experience
seeing that unfold.

Today was the kind of the...
the icing on the cake

in terms of feeling like
we're doing the right thing.

We still look every day
at the real estate listings

to see, "Okay, did we miss
that perfect place?"

And we didn't.
You know, this is it.

I feel like we got a good taste
today that it's gonna work out.