Original subtitles

[upbeat music playing]

One, two, three. It's heavy.

[grunts] It's heavy.

Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

-We'll put it over this wall over here. -Sure.

You know what sucks?

Huh?

Hating your house before you even move into it.

Well, I mean, it's dated, but all houses are dated.

No, no. Not this place. Ben and Krystal's house.

[Jonathan] That's a whole different story.

It's a '50s home that Krystal didn't like from the start,

mainly, because she knows there are gonna be problems.

[Drew] They bought it so they could live closer to family

but it's in terrible shape.

They just can't figure out what to do with it.

I think there's a lot of pressure on Ben.

-He pushed for the house. -Ben definitely bit off more than he can chew.

Who knows what else we'll find behind those walls.

We definitely have our work cut out for ourselves.

[upbeat music playing]

This is my nightmare.

It's really frustrating.

Ooh. This is not good.

-[man] What? -I'm stressed.

You're not alone.

[Drew] This all has to be ripped out...

I just felt like throwing up.

and rebuilt.

I don't wanna finish a beautiful house and then they aren't happy.

No pressure.

[Jonathan] My hope is that they will see this house

as everything they've dreamed of.

I love the house now.

Before it was a love-hate.

[upbeat music playing]

[Jonathan] Krystal and Ben bought a real fixer-upper

with family in lines.

They're LA natives with four kids.

Their three boys are older,

two live away at college

and one son goes to boarding school.

But their daughter, Monroe, is only five.

After living out East,

they moved back to their old neighborhood

so Monroe could grow up close to family

and also have a place for the boys

to come home for the holidays.

[Ben] There was a pool.

[Jonathan] But the house is over 70 years old

and it hasn't been updated.

I hope they realize when we open up the walls,

we're likely gonna uncover some unwanted surprises.

It is a great neighborhood.

-Yes. We love the neighborhood. -I love it. I love it.

[Drew] Hold on. Look past the house.

You got the view of the city right there.

-[Krystal] Oh, my gosh. -[Drew] That's pretty amazing.

-[Ben] That's what we love. -[Krystal] That's why we stopped here.

This was like the perfect location.

My mother-in-law is two minutes away.

My sister is one minute.

My mom and dad are five minutes.

-That's amazing. -Right. Right.

Perfect. Except for it needs a couple things?

-Yeah. That's right. -To say the least.

-[Krystal chuckling] -Oh, wow.

[Drew] Yeah.

[Jonathan] Has anything been touched,

because this looks almost fully original?

[Krystal] They said that everything was original from 1951,

-so-- -[Jonathan] Oh, my gosh.

On first sight, I think we both liked it.

Yeah. We both love the location,

the view, the pool together. But then...

-[Ben] Yeah. When we started-- -[Krystal] all the work,

I was like, "This is a bad idea."

I got every inspection known to man,

all the things, trying to say, "This is too much."

I really wanted something though that was turnkey.

-Right. -That we could just move

-our furniture in. -Yeah, but you pay for that.

The turnkey stuff might not have been

in the neighborhoods exactly that we wanted.

It's been a challenge.

We've been looking for the better part of a year.

And all the turnkeys are super expensive, right?

So it's hard to find a combination

of the house that you wanna live in

and the neighborhood that you wanna be in

at the same time.

We kind of found everything that we wanted in this house

but it just needs a lot of work.

[Jonathan] So you're gonna have lots of asbestos.

Your electrical is not grounded,

so you're gonna need all new electrical.

-[Ben] Right. -[Jonathan] The windows need to be replaced.

-Your seals look broken. -[Ben] Yeah.

[Jonathan] We've got all the floors that have to be done.

[Drew] How about HVAC?

Needs to go.

Do you have mold issues?

Have you seen?

-Supposedly. -Oh, you do?

[Krystal] Considerable.

I didn't even mention the sewage line

is completely broken in the front of the house

-that goes out to the street. -Right.

So that was when I really thought

I wouldn't have been able to convince him

that we should move on,

-but-- -But look at the view.

Look at the view.

You could just keep going back to the view.

That's not gonna cost you money out there.

This is gonna cost you money in here.

-[Krystal] Yes. -Yes, it is.

[Jonathan] We haven't even left this room

and you've got a good 75 grand

-and stuff that has to happen. -Yeah.

[Krystal] Yeah. That's not okay.

Now, we're gonna spend all this money

to fix things that you can't even see.

So it's really frustrating.

I didn't know she felt that strongly.

-Yes, you did. [laughs] -I could pick up...

I was picking up on certain things,

but I figured if she really didn't want the house,

we wouldn't be buying this house, right?

Aside from the view and being close to family,

is there anything within the house you like?

-The space. -Yeah.

The space is a... Is a plus.

I love this... The size of this living area.

-Yeah. -And the fireplace,

but we want it to be open.

[Ben] As much as possible.

Not closed off where you can't see me in the kitchen

or everybody's blocked off.

So the main area you wanna focus on

is between the living room and the kitchen?

-Right. -Yes.

[Krystal] Yeah. I really wanna make the kitchen

kind of extend in here.

I want it to be a big kitchen area.

I don't need a formal dining room.

That's why I'm thinking these walls can all go.

Opening this up will give us all the space

to sit around an island that I think we'd all enjoy.

-The island is super important to me. -Yes.

What's this right here?

[Krystal] That's the set of stairs

that goes down to the garage.

[Jonathan] Yeah, if this is part of the kitchen

and you have stairs right there,

we can't push that wall back or open it up.

-[Ben] No. Right. -[Jonathan] So it would end up

being a little bit tighter.

But no matter what,

it would make a huge difference to open this up...

-to the kitchen at the back. -Absolutely.

-Oh, wow. -[Krystal] Oh.

-[Jonathan] Oh, and it gets older. -[Krystal] Oh, my gosh.

-By the moment. -[Jonathan] And deadlier.

[Drew] Look at how sharp that is.

-This-- -[Ben] That's gotta go.

-[Jonathan] That's awful. -[Ben] Please take that away.

-[Drew] There's a lot of '50s charm in this kitchen. -[Ben] No.

-I'm good with the '50s. We can move on. -[Krystal] Yeah.

If this were gone,

we're talking about a really nice big, beautiful kitchen.

How do you do family dinners?

I mean, I'm okay with some table that could fit,

but it doesn't have to be a big like dining table.

-It could be just a nook. -Right. Nothing formal.

-Yeah. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

What's this big chunk

-of real estate? -[Krystal] Oh. Ugh.

[Jonathan] Oh, laundry?

I don't think the laundry has to stay.

We... I figured we could put it

in the garage or something.

-I don't... I don't wanna lose that space -Open it up.

for washing machine and dryer.

Is there space over by the bedrooms for laundry

or would it have to go downstairs?

I think it'd probably have to go downstairs.

So having your laundry on a different floor

or in a garage is not ideal,

but also having all of this prime real estate

taken up with that is even worse.

-This is wasted space. -[Ben] Right.

[Jonathan] The only place that's wide enough to have a dining table

would be this back area back here,

which is a nice place to sit

'cause you've got all the natural light.

-[Ben] Sure. -[Krystal] Right.

[Ben] Let's take it out.

I think it'd be great seating space.

-Yeah. I agree. -I would rethink

the kitchen as a whole.

If we got rid of this broken-down laundry room

and all the dividing walls

in the kitchen and dining room,

it would open up so many options.

There would be enough space

to fit a dining room over by the windows

that's large enough for your whole family.

We'd be able to add tons of cabinets

and all modern appliances on the sidewall.

We'd put in a massive island in the middle

with a sink and plenty of extra seating.

You would have it all in here

with much better flow and tons of light.

[Ben] Yes. That sounds much better.

-Yeah. -[Ben] I agree.

I just saw something that is totally illegal.

You can't open a door onto the stairs,

'cause from below,

it's dangerous to open it that way.

But, also, what if one of the kids come by

-and they lean back on that... -Oh, no.

and they fall down the stairs?

I literally just jumped when he did that.

I did too. I was thinking he's going down.

[Jonathan] We'd fix that so your door goes the other way.

This is a cool room.

-So you can watch your old slides. -Don't you love that?

[Ben] Yes.

-[Krystal] Oh, my gosh. -[Ben] Yeah.

It's so bad. It's so bad.

I wanna see it opened up.

Like gone? The whole thing gone?

Gone. Completely.

Okay. Great. Let's open it.

[Jonathan] We'd take this fireplace

at the end of the room out completely,

which would be a big job but completely worth it.

And at the other end, we could give you

energy-efficient collapsible doors,

which would give you amazing indoor-outdoor flow.

When you walk in the front door,

this is wide open

and you see right through to the pool.

-[Ben] Now, you're talking. -[Krystal] I would love that.

-[Jonathan] Yeah. -I think we the fireplace is nice

-but we have another one. -We have another one. Yeah.

Is the pool in great shape? Everything outside is fine?

-It is. -[Krystal] The pool is in great shape.

I... That was one of my other inspections.

-[Drew] Okay. -And I think, for us,

this dated '50s deck

and all of that is pretty funky, but--

[Jonathan] I mean, to me,

it makes sense to tear down this patio roof

-to let in a lot more light. -[Ben] Yeah.

-[Jonathan] Yeah? -Now, I'm excited.

Do you know what kind of aesthetic you want?

Probably a farmhouse-y feel

with some modern light touches.

-Yeah. -It...

We love the California lifestyle,

so we do wanna bring some of that in it too,

but we don't really know.

Design-wise, we're gonna depend on you guys for that.

I just...

California farmhouse?

-Yeah. [laughs] -[Drew] Yeah.

[Krystal] I like the idea of the beams.

They like warm up the space

-so much too, right? -[Drew] Right. Sure.

[Jonathan] When you look at everything

that we've just toured through

with all the problems that would have to be fixed.

The absolute lowest

I could see your budget coming in at,

lowest, would be $215,000.

But that could jump right up to 300K or more

depending on what we add on.

Yeah. You're making me nervous.

That's a lot of money.

I don't... We don't even know what's in the walls yet either.

-So I haven't-- -Yeah.

I'm terrified on some level.

Just the cost, like we've never done anything this big.

We need to live here now,

and, right now, we can't.

There's so much to be done.

You've got mold problems. You've got asbestos.

You've got all kinds of hazards.

This is not a safe house to live in right now...

-[Krystal] Okay. Yeah. -so it has to be fixed.

Has it actually crossed your mind at all

to just resell it

and find something that does not need all the work?

-Absolutely not. -Yeah.

-[Jonathan] No? -The family's too important.

They're so close. Everybody's right here.

It's gonna be a headache but I think, in the long run,

-it's gonna be worth it. -We're in a place

that we think is worth making work.

Think of Monroe.

This is all for Monroe

because she's gonna run this place.

-[Ben] She already is. -[Jonathan laughs]

[Krystal] I'm really excited being back

and to raise Monroe here

close to the family, right?

Yeah. It's a great place to be in LA too.

But then the fact that so much money

is going into electrical,

plumbing, sewage is tough

because it really eats into our budget

for making the house look fantastic,

so it's stressful.

-I can see you're nervous, but... -I am.

we'll work through the nervousness

and we're... We'll do our best to make this awesome.

[Ben] All right. Perfect.

We've got mortgage and rent,

so we're ready to push this thing along

and get into the house

-sooner rather-- -Sooner rather than later.

[upbeat music playing]

[Drew] Krystal and Ben bought this house

because it's spacious, close to family,

and has tons of charm.

A big chunk of their $215,000 budget

will go toward opening up the common areas

to create better flow,

fixing all the issues

that came with the house when they bought it,

and also updating the kitchen

and every window and door on the main floor.

But our challenge is to make sure

that, in the end, they have enough left over

to have that modern farmhouse style they want.

I know you guys have been dying

to get your hands on this nasty, old kitchen.

-You have no idea. -Oh, my gosh.

I cannot wait.

The one thing we cannot touch, the floors.

There's asbestos in this linoleum here,

so we're gonna just leave the floors for now.

But we're clear to open up this wall here

to really expand your kitchen.

So we'll start with that.

And we're also gonna tear down the wall

between your living and family rooms.

Or do you guys just wanna talk about it a little longer?

-No. What else is there-- -No. [laughs]

Go ruin something. Get... Grab a door,

-grab a drawer. -[Ben] Sure.

Stand in the safety zone underneath that hood.

-[Krystal] Okay. -Watch your head.

[shrieks]

That's how that works.

-I love it. -[Krystal] I love it.

[Jonathan] All right. It's coming. Watch yourself.

Woo!

This is the wall we wanna go through.

Just go ahead, Ben.

-Oh. -Oh!

This thing is heavier than me.

-[Ben] Nice. -[Jonathan] All right.

[Ben grunts]

-No big deal. -[Krystal laughs]

This is all where there used to be a door.

You wanna actually just cut it with the reciprocating saw?

-That sounds like fun. -[Jonathan] All right.

I love it.

That is the best.

-Take it all down. -Such a big difference.

-I'm ready. -Oh, you want the rest of it down?

-Yes. Let's do it. -[Jonathan] You wanna see the whole thing?

[Jonathan] Oh.

Woo!

-Oh, that's fantastic. I love it. -[Ben] That's incredible.

It looks so much better already.

You could really tell, just in opening up those walls,

what it was really gonna feel like.

I can see us now in there,

you know, actually with the kids and with family

and entertaining.

Do you wanna see the same kind of view

-through your front door? -Let's do it.

[chuckles]

-[Ben] Ah. -There is something charming

about this.

[laughs]

But we want it gone.

[grunts]

We just rip it out?

-All right. -[Jonathan] There you go.

Here. You wanna...

This is the heavy hammer.

-I love it. -[Jonathan] Keep going.

Oh, no.

-No! -[Krystal] What is that?

-[Jonathan] Oh, no. -[Krystal] What is that?

[Jonathan] It's an asbestos pipe.

Uh-uh.

[Jonathan] More asbestos.

Are you kidding me?

So this is the vent from your furnace

-and your hot water tank. -Oh.

So it's taking fumes

or exhaust all the way up.

This is how they used to do it.

They used to wrap it in asbestos.

Tomorrow,

we have the asbestos abatement team coming...

and they're taking everything else out.

We're gonna have to tack that on

-to what they're taking out. -[Ben] Okay.

[Jonathan] It also means we have to leave a portion of the wall here

to accommodate a new vent pipe.

So we'll open this up as much as we can

but not completely.

This was your bright idea.

Right. Yeah. It's gonna be beautiful.

-[laughs] -We still get the view

from the... From the front door to the pool.

-That's true. That is. -[Ben] That's what we wanted.

So if just one pipe is in the way--

-We can keep going. -[Ben] All right. Let's do it.

-Okay. -All right.

I don't wanna alarm Krystal and Ben,

but the fact that we found more asbestos

even after Krystal had a thorough inspection done,

that gives me a very uneasy feeling.

I'm starting to think that maybe there's gonna be

more hidden problems than we were anticipating.

-Yeah. -[laughs] Woo!

-Walk through. Do it. -[Ben] It's official.

[Jonathan] And all of that gone.

[Ben] Oh, my God. Look at that.

-I love it. -And then with the patio being part

of the indoor-outdoor experience, it's gonna...

-It's gonna be better. Yeah. -Oh, it's perfect.

[Ben] You could see, finally, the vision

-firsthand, which is great. -[Krystal] Yeah.

I'm a little still concerned

about the road ahead,

just in terms of what else,

you know, Jonathan's gonna find?

Yeah. There's gonna be more,

but we'll keep our fingers crossed.

No more. No more money.

[singer] ♪♪ Stop ♪

♪♪ Just send them To the bank ♪

♪♪ To put inside your safe ♪

[Jonathan] Our aim is to get Krystal and Ben

into their house as soon as possible,

because right now they're paying $4,000 a month in rent until they're in.

But in a 1950s home like this,

it won't be an easy task.

The remediation team came in

and removed all the asbestos we found

in the floor in the kitchen as well as that pipe.

We can now tear up the rest of the flooring

and strip the walls that are staying

right down to the studs.

Demolishing the wall between the kitchen and dining room

to give this family the massive island they dream of

is a pretty straightforward job.

But to open up the wall

between the family room and the living room,

we have to remove that giant fireplace and chimney.

It's a huge endeavor

but it'll give them open sight lines

from the front of the house right through to the pool.

We've also gotten rid of all the mold

that was plaguing this home.

However, when our abatement team

was clearing out all that mold in the crawl space,

they noticed something that looked off.

-Oh, boy. All right. -Gosh.

So, basically, when the remediation team

was down here getting rid of all the mold,

they said we have some serious plumbing concerns.

Look. Right there. It's completely detached.

-That's totally detached. -[Drew] Look at this.

And you're down. Like how is this gonna drain?

We'll look all of that water that's coming down

the kitchen, the laundry,

all of that side of the house

has to make it all the way to the stack over there.

This drain pipe should be a continuous slope.

Ideally, a quarter inch per foot,

so it drains to the stack properly.

It's nowhere close to that.

That is going back up.

And you know that that's where you're gonna get a clog.

I feel like somebody cheaped out

on some of the utility function of this house,

and now these guys have to pay for it.

You can see this was added at some point.

This looks like it slipped out of the compression fitting

or it broke.

And then they have extra pieces down here.

So they knew there was a problem.

They knew this was a hack job.

[Jonathan] Oh, my gosh.

-[Drew] Heavy? -It is like filled

with rocks or something.

Something has blocked the line

and it probably had so much weight, it snapped.

You know what I should do? Let me cut this open and see.

-[groans] -[Jonathan groans]

-Gross. -[Drew] Gross.

[Jonathan] I can see in the pipe,

it is completely full.

[groans]

It's black and it stinks.

Oh, my gosh. This isn't even a waste line.

What is that? Why does it stink so bad?

Look at that. It's like black tar.

It's been building up for a decade

or more. Who knows?

Krystal was so afraid of getting this house

and now we find something like this.

We have to run new plumbing

from one side of the house

all the way across to the other

and rip out all of this stuff

that was clearly not done by a professional.

With the remediation of the mold,

having to do the other plumbing work, this plumbing work,

now, all of a sudden, it's getting into a big number.

They were aware of all the problems

this house was gonna have with the plumbing

from the house to the street.

But now there's all this additional expense

that they're gonna have.

Almost the same amount or more could come here.

-I'm getting out of here. -[Jonathan] Okay.

-We need to get the others in. -[Jonathan groans]

We need these guys to come back.

I want Ben and Krystal to be here.

I want them to see the good stuff, the progress,

but I want them to understand the problems

that we're encountering because they're big.

[singer] ♪♪ I'm all business ♪

♪♪ And I ain't about to live it easy ♪

♪♪ No, no ♪

[Jonathan] Well, you guys, go in first.

Oh, my gosh.

-Are you serious? -[laughs] Oh, my God.

-[Ben] What? -[Krystal] Oh, my gosh. It's totally different now.

[Jonathan] It's a shell, huh?

[Krystal] Oh, my God.

[Ben] This is exactly what we have in mind.

-It's so wide open. -[Jonathan] There's the ceiling.

I think coming in today and seeing how open it is

is starting to feel like us.

You didn't even notice that the chimney's gone by the way.

You didn't even comment on that.

[Krystal] That's the best part.

And you can see completely to the back now.

So I'm fired up about that.

Well, when you have it at this phase,

this is where you can really see

any of those issues deep

-inside the walls. -Uh-huh.

-[Jonathan] Stuffed inside... -[Ben] Ah, nice.

[Jonathan] that area there are all these little papers

-from when we were born. -1978.

Complete kitchen $1,495.

[Krystal] Yeah. Call them right now.

-[Ben] Right now. -Stuff like that

is fun and funny.

Other stuff not so much.

You already have more open concept

for your kitchen?

-[Krystal] It's so much space. -[Ben] Wow. It's huge.

[Jonathan] Do you want these to be case opening

or do you want me to open these up absolutely

as much as possible and do clean drywall corners?

What do you think?

Originally, we talked about matching up the two openings

and having it the same, but we realized

that opening over there has the potential to be wider

-than this one does. -Oh.

SO I don't want to reduce that one down to match this up.

I think maybe we just open it all up.

-[Drew] I say open it up. -Yeah.

Me too. I love it.

You can kinda start to see...

I could see the island going

right down the middle here, correct?

And the light coming from the windows in the back

-make a huge difference. -[Krystal] Yeah.

-[Jonathan] Yeah. Absolutely. -[Krystal] Oh, my gosh.

Now, let's talk about the problems.

The main line, the sewer line of the street,

as you feared,

has to be completely replaced.

We have to trench out

and, unfortunately, it goes right under the driveway,

so we have to break up the driveway

to get to it.

It was not in the budget.

We're looking at $12,500

to do that.

-Yeah. -[Krystal] That's bad.

[Ben] We anticipated some cost for that.

It wasn't $12,000.

We also found the plumbing right underneath the house

that comes from the kitchen and laundry area

that goes all the way out, drains to the main stack...

-[Ben] Yeah. -completely detached,

-completely clogged. -[Krystal] Ugh.

-[Ben] That's it? -[Drew] It stinks.

There is no waste in this line.

This is literally just from the kitchen

and it is completely blocked.

-If it's-- -Hmm, that does smell.

-[Drew] It does. -[Krystal] So it's additional

outside of the sewage issue we had before?

-So it's additional-- -[Jonathan] It is. So it's more plumbing.

When we're doing all the plumbing for your new kitchen,

we need to move lines around.

We wanna accommodate

for things like the island and whatnot,

but we did not anticipate having

to replace the drain line,

which will be an additional cost.

Okay.

So we'll replace that.

We're not the first house to have this problem.

It's frustrating because I can't afford the add-ons

'cause we're paying for the sewage.

Every time I wanna do an add-on,

I'm gonna say,

"There's your sewage pipe. Isn't it pretty?"

This surprise costs just kind of keep coming,

but we can only do what we can do.

We can only afford what we can afford.

So we're hoping we don't have

to forego some of the design ideas

and hoping the brothers can help us

like rectify that and save some costs elsewhere

so that we're not absorbing all of it.

We'll push through... We're in it now.

Yeah. We have no choice now.

[upbeat music playing]

[Jonathan] Now, that Krystal and Ben know the score

when it comes to the plumbing,

we're replacing all of the pipes under the house

and the connections to the main stack.

It's an unexpected cost

but it absolutely has to be done.

The more we open things up upstairs

means the bigger our footings have to be downstairs.

So we're putting some massive posts down into the garage.

We've dug out some holes.

We'll be forming up and pouring

pretty substantial reinforced footings.

[Drew] Yeah, these footings are gonna be big.

They work out.

Put one in each corner.

[Jonathan] And because we've completely removed the wall

between the old dining room and the living room,

we're putting up a beam to reinforce the structure

so the house is rock solid.

I know Krystal is anxious about escalating costs,

so I'm gonna give her a call and just see how she's doing.

Hi.

Hi, Jonathan. How are you?

I'm good. I...

Actually, I guess the real question is how are you?

I've been hearing that you're having some anxieties

or some stress.

[Krystal] I'm anxious about the renovation.

We've been thinking, you know,

after we talked with you and Drew

about all the things

that... You know, that needs to be done,

just... It's a little overwhelming.

Trust me, I get it.

It's not fun when you get a place

and you have all these big dreams

about what you wanna do with it

and then you discover all the not-so-nice stuff.

How is Ben doing?

[Krystal] He's trying to stay positive,

but I do think the money is starting

to wear on him a little bit though.

-Yeah. -I was thinking

about everything costs

more than you think it's gonna cost,

and so we don't wanna pay rent and mortgage

so we're moving in with my dad.

[Jonathan] That is a great idea.

The money you save on rent

can help cover some of the overages that have come up.

I wanna make sure, at the end of the day,

that you move into this home

that is gonna actually make life better,

it's gonna help function better for you,

and we can get you to a point

where it's a house that you absolutely love.

You are not going at this alone.

This is all manageable stuff.

Okay. I like that.

Moving in with Krystal's parents will definitely ease

the burden of the extra costs.

I mean, we're gonna be going for another couple of months,

so that's gonna save them, at least, $8,000 in rent.

All of this just kind of puts

that extra pressure on Drew and me.

We have to get this done

because I'm pretty sure they would rather be sleeping

in their very own beds.

[singer] ♪♪ Yo, yo ♪

[upbeat music playing]

[singer] ♪♪ Yo ♪

[Jonathan] One of the main things

that convinced Krystal and Ben

to buy this house was its gorgeous pool.

But right now there's an unnecessary roof

over the patio that not only obscures the view of the pool

from the inside of the house,

it also stops the light from flooding in.

Knocking it down is gonna make a world of difference

for this family.

One, two, three, go.

[man] Get that sledge.

[Jonathan] Hold on. Hold on.

[man grunts]

One, two, three, go.

Hold... [chuckles]

Hold on. Ready?

Get that sledge.

Hold on. All right, ready?

-And one, two-- -[laughter]

-It's all on me. -[man] It's all on you, Jon.

-[Jonathan] One sec. -[man] Oh, wow.

Watch it come... Watch the sliding

back this way.

[man grunts] My gosh.

[Jonathan] Well, they're gonna use the--

[grunts]

-Most unsatisfying situation. -[laughs]

So you know why I did that?

They're sheeting material continued

-up onto the roof. -[man] Yeah.

Well, that was pretty anticlimactic

and I did feel like we were maybe The Three Stooges.

But we got it down and didn't damage the house anymore.

It looks like the rest of the roof

will come down without a fight

or, more importantly, without incurring any extra costs.

After all the financial hits

that Krystal and Ben have taken,

they were long overdue for a little win,

so I'll take it.

[upbeat music playing]

[Jonathan] We're starting the massive job of fixing

all the pipes that run from the house out to the sewer.

It's expensive, completely unavoidable,

and, unfortunately, we have to break up the driveway to do it.

And we're replacing this house's leaky, decrepit windows

with energy-efficient ones that will last a lifetime.

-Okay. Okay. -All right.

All right. I need you to push forward towards the doorframe.

[Drew] We have this collapsible window wall, which is amazing,

because if you have friends and family over,

you have that indoor-outdoor flow.

It brings in a ton of natural light.

And also that wall gone

between the back room and the front door,

it just means that the entire flow

right from when you walk in the house

is all the way to the backyard.

If there's anything in this entire house

that will make Krystal love this house, it's this door.

-Why is that? -So the view to the backyard was key.

She loved the pool and that's all she cared about.

She actually hated the house.

Now, she can see the pool

all the way from the front.

[Jonathan] See, all we're trying to do

is get her to love the house.

All right. Let's close this up.

Test it out.

[Jonathan makes sound]

This is one problem solved...

still 50 others on the list.

Yeah. Let's get to the others.

[upbeat music playing]

[Jonathan] Our crew continues the grueling task

of running our waste pipe to the city sewer.

If I can think of anything positive

I can offer Ben and Krystal about this,

it's that it will all be over soon.

And now that everything's updated and solid behind the walls,

we can start putting up the drywall.

We've really had to do the unavoidable

and expensive work of making this house safe

and sound for the family.

Now, we can focus on aesthetics

and cutting costs anywhere we can.

But none of that matters if we don't have enough budget

left over to make Krystal happy

with the finishing touches.

[upbeat music playing]

I'm telling you this is gonna make a world of difference.

-Krystal's gonna love it. -Oh, yes.

After pushing Krystal to go for a fixer-upper,

Ben wants to make amends by doing something nice for the family.

Since we got rid of the old laundry by the kitchen,

he suggested that we place the new one

close to the bedrooms and not down in the garage

so it's easier for everyone to do their laundry.

We stole a bit of space from a bedroom closet

to make a great laundry nook that opens up

into the hallway. And to make this happen,

Ben's putting in a little sweat equity to help me build it.

I am very happy that you brought up this

-as a must-have. -Yes.

And that we're able to find a spot for it.

Well, the original location that we were thinking of

was in the... In the garage.

And it's walking up and down the stairs,

walking around the cars. Nobody wants to do that.

Just to have this right outside the bedroom,

tucked away in the hallway

is gonna be perfect.

And I know that this has been stressful.

I know, you know, Krystal didn't even want this house.

You really were fighting for it.

And then now that we're into it,

there are all these headaches popping up and these expenses.

So anything we can do that will actually make

Krystal's life easier moving forward,

-I think, is key, so-- -[Ben] This is great.

I know typically we don't insulate interior walls,

but because it's a bedroom,

we wanna make sure that there is a sound barrier

-for the laundry. -Oh, great. So...

[Drew] We're really trying to reduce overages. We've spent a lot of money.

But the good news is running plumbing to this location

for laundry is cheaper than if we were to run it

all the way down to the garage.

We're also trying to add as much style

and function as possible.

And I have some great ideas to keep cost down.

We're reusing your washer-dryer,

trying to stay on the budget here.

To add a little bit of interest without a lot of expense,

we could do some shiplap detail.

We could have floating shelves up above.

Something that's easy to access and looks nice.

And we're gonna have a beautiful door.

It's gonna be a nice big slider.

Excellent. Anything to add a little detail

and engage her a little bit more

-is definitely appreciated. -[Drew] Is she a shiplap fan?

[Ben] I think she is. Actually,

as we were watching on videos

and searching around for the style we like,

-she often pointed out shiplap. -Okay. Good.

The laundry, I think it's just gonna make things

a lot easier.

Drew, this is gonna be great. This looks awesome.

I'm excited about it. But being away

from the house is tough.

We are not sleeping in our own environment.

We're currently staying with my father-in-Law.

Our daughter, Monroe, just started school this week

and us not being in our own space,

it's been somewhat of a process

trying to get her kind of into a schedule.

And so it's been difficult. We're ready.

We're ready to move in as soon as possible.

[upbeat music playing]

[Jonathan] With all the extra cost that have come up,

one thing we've been able to do is stay on schedule.

And today is a big milestone.

The flooring is going in.

The flooring's gonna draw you into the space.

We're gonna run the boards from the front door

all the way to the back of the house.

And I think the flooring is gonna be exactly

what ties together all the spaces.

Krystal said she wanted as large a kitchen

as we could manage,

so we're bringing in a ton of cabinets

to give this family as much storage as possible.

She wants this kitchen to be the main hub

for family get-togethers,

so we have to get it right.

Lighting delivery.

[Jonathan] Yes. Yes.

I actually need some consultation as well.

As you know, Krystal and Ben hated everything

about their old family room except the beams,

so they want us to integrate them somehow into the design.

So there's gonna be another beam going in here and then--

We're cladding the beams, right?

[Jonathan] Well, I'm still debating...

'cause we hit so many issues with this project

and we went so over budget. I'm like...

I love that aesthetic of cladding these beams out

and making it look rustic.

That would be absolutely beautiful,

my first choice.

But it's an entire additional layer

when we could just clean these up,

paint them out, and they would still look gorgeous.

What would the price difference be between

keeping it like it is and just cleaning it up and cladding?

-Several thousand dollars. -Let's find the savings.

-We need it. -Yeah. I'm--

-[Drew] We're still over budget. -This is the...

[groans] This is where I'm a little nervous.

'Cause I feel like we've spent so much money

inside the walls, fixing all these problems.

I don't wanna take away

another one of the really classy,

-cool features, the details. -[Drew] No, I know that,

but the whole thing is...

I know Krystal will be happy aesthetically

if we do all these things, but, at the end of the day,

both of them are gonna be unhappy financially

when they see how much it went over their budget.

Let's keep the beams as is, save the money,

and hopefully Krystal and Ben will be impressed

with the savings and the stylishness

of the refurbished beams.

[Jonathan] Since we changed the inside so significantly,

we thought we'd give the outside a facelift as well,

touching up the stucco in a fresh coat of paint.

Inside, we're adding a dark stain

to the refinished beams.

They'll add warmth to the space

and give the family room more height and depth

by drawing the eyes upward.

And that's not all.

I mean, this island...

-Big. -is gonna be big.

It's gonna be beautiful.

It's gonna have so much storage, prep space.

This would never have been possible with the old layout

and the walls in the way.

Well, before this kitchen was a tiny little kitchen

and got a tiny little dining room,

and now it's all opened up

to have one big flowing space.

It really is gonna feel like a massive kitchen.

[upbeat music playing]

[squirrel squeaks]

[Drew] I think, at the end of the day, the biggest thing

that makes me nervous is that Krystal and Ben went over budget

and there's so much that popped up

that they're not gonna see as beautiful features

of the house when we're done.

It's behind the walls or the ceiling.

Everything they have has gone

into the renovation budget

and so if we don't get this right,

this is gonna be hugely problematic for them.

[machine whirring]

Ready for the payoff?

-Oh, my gosh. -The piece de resistance.

If this doesn't make them scream and jump for joy,

-I don't know what will. -[chuckles]

They have a good indoor-outdoor flow.

They bought the house for the pool and the view.

Now, they have an interior that matches the beauty

of the outside. Ben, from the get-go,

was a lover of this house, Krystal was not.

So, at the end of the day, she is the one that's gonna be the decider.

My hope is this gets Ben off the hook

and she realizes the beauty of the home.

It is a beautiful home.

It was an expensive renovation

and a lot of stress, I know.

The only way to find out if we brought her over

to the Ben side is by getting them in here.

[Drew] Yeah.

[upbeat music playing]

[Krystal] Last night was intense.

[Ben] I don't think we slept.

It has been a struggle being away from the house.

This is the biggest investment of our life though

and we're hoping that it's all that we want it to be.

But it's been a sacrifice, you know...

-Yeah. That's a good point. -to be able to do this

but also be able to pay for it.

But we're pushing through. [chuckles]

Oh, my goodness. [laughs]

Ta-da.

[Krystal] Look at the outside.

-It looks incredible. -[Ben] Completely different.

The color changed everything.

It looks like a modern house now

-and not like a 1950s hot mess. -[Ben] The yellow--

[Drew] I thought yellow was supposed to be mellow.

-No. -Let's leave that to the plants.

Oh my goodness, you guys.

Windows are new.

I'm trying not to look at the rest of the house, though.

Don't look beyond the windows.

-Should we go in? -[Krystal] Oh, boy.

-[Jonathan laughs] -[Krystal] I'm so excited.

You're gonna get even more excited in two seconds.

[Krystal] Oh, I can't breathe.

-[Jonathan] Three... -[Krystal] Oh, my God.

-[Jonathan] two... -[Krystal] Oh, I can't--

[Jonathan] one...

[upbeat music playing]

-[gasps] Oh, my goodness. -Are you serious?

Can we live here right now? Is that...

[Krystal] I think so.

-Oh, we're serious. -Uh-huh.

-I wasn't expecting it. -When you walked in

and you said, "It's too closed off," fine.

-[Krystal] Oh. -[Ben] Opened it up.

-Look at that. -[Krystal] No, this is everything.

[Ben laughs]

Oh, my gosh.

-[gasps] Look at the pictures, honey. -[Ben] Look at the chimney.

[Krystal laughs] My gosh. It's perfect.

-[Jonathan] I'd like to point out... -Just the fact that--

after all the stress and throwing Ben under the bus,

you just said you love this house.

-Yes. -Hey.

-[Ben] Yes. -[Drew] Yes. It paid off.

[Ben] Exactly. How many inspections?

-It's my favorite. -[Ben] A dozen?

-It's your favorite? -[laughter]

You were right, honey. How about that?

-[Jonathan] Oh, my goodness. -[Drew] Hey.

Yo, what's the date?

Can somebody please record this?

[Krystal] You were right.

[Jonathan] Check out your new living room.

-[Ben] Oh, my goodness. -[Krystal] Oh, my goodness.

Look at this living room, honey.

Look at the fireplace and the--

-[Ben] Oh, my goodness. -[Krystal] Oh, it flows

-so well. -[Ben] The furniture.

It's not the same house.

-It's just not. -[Jonathan] No.

[Drew] Well, you wanted to have somewhere

where you could gather with friends and family,

somewhere comfortable, take a seat.

Oh, it feels like home.

Like I'm... We've been so disheveled

and moving to get to family,

and now it feels like

-we can do this here. -I'm ready to settle,

ready to sit down. You're gonna entertain.

[Krystal] Oh, the boys are gonna just freak out.

-[Drew chuckles] -[Krystal] That is what it's all about, this family.

-[Ben] Yeah. -[Krystal] And we are so grateful.

[Jonathan] You know, it's one thing

to have a great lounging space,

but you guys talked about the heart of the home,

the kitchen.

Oh, my God.

Look at this kitchen, Benji.

-[Ben] That's incredible. Look at all the seating. -[Krystal] It's enormous.

[Ben] Remember where you were worried about how much space would be...

-[Krystal] Oh, my gosh. It's like-- -[Jonathan] on the either side

of the... Of the island?

Look at this ceiling.

Oh, my goodness. I love it.

[Jonathan] In between the millwork,

we changed the paint color, did like a really nice,

soft linen so that it punches up the white on the middle.

Yes. It makes it stand out so much.

I think the detail in the ceiling

stretches the room out more.

[Jonathan] It does. It seems even bigger.

[Krystal] This is insane. There is...

I can't even think of it being any better than this.

-[Jonathan] Yeah. Yeah. -Get in there. Make yourself--

That was that farmhouse sink that you've been asking for

-for 10 years now. -Yes. Oh, my. Forever, right?

[laughs] Look at the gold.

This is like heaven.

I'm so happy right now. Oh, this is so warm.

[Jonathan] Everything about this kitchen is transformed.

-The sink-- -[Krystal] We are fancy, fancy.

-[Krystal] Moving on. [laughs] -[Ben] I feel like we made it.

We got a pot filler.

Yes, we have, honey. Oh, my goodness.

-The light-- -[Ben] It made all the difference.

[Krystal] That's the thing. It was so dark in here.

-Do you remember? -[Ben] Right. Right.

[Krystal] Like horrible.

This just... All the light's...

Oh, my gosh. Look at the windows.

Well, also, do you remember too,

your kitchen before was pretty much here...

-Stop... Right. -to just over there?

-[Krystal] Yes. Yes. -[Drew] It was so tiny.

-[Ben] Yes. -[Ben] It's expanded threefold.

And I was really worried about how much space

was gonna be over here, but this is... This is perfect.

[Krystal] It doesn't feel narrow at all.

[Jonathan] This is the backdrop

for all the memories you wanted to create within a space

for family, for entertaining,

for all of the things that you said you wanted to do.

-Yeah. -[Krystal] I'm so excited.

[laughs]

What's going through your mind?

This is just like why we came here, right?

To be with family and to have a place like this

-so we can all do this together. -[Ben] Right. Right.

It's pretty priceless.

-I love that. I love it. -So that's good stuff.

[Krystal] Look at this dining.

Look, we can like actually sit

and have a meal at a table too.

-[Ben] Right. -[Jonathan] Imagine that.

I totally didn't even see all of these cabinets.

-You have so much doors. -Look at all those drawers.

[Krystal] It's perfect. And look at this.

-Can you move out the way? -Oh, yeah, yeah. I'm out.

Drew, you're blocking the view.

[Drew] Right, right, right.

-Look at this. -Oh, this is...

When is the last time we had a legit pantry?

And now a legit coffee station.

[Krystal] Yeah. This is perfect for us.

You can have your espresso machine there

-and ready for the morning. -Right.

Right next to the breakfast table.

-Yeah. -Perfect.

Oh, my gosh. It's so much space.

And test out your... I love it.

-entertaining hub. -Uh, yes.

-[Krystal] Ooh. Oh, my God. -[Ben] Oh, dishes.

-Look, we got dishes too. -[Krystal] Dishes.

-We got dishes and snacks. -[Ben] We're silverware-ing.

The kids might actually decide

to keep coming back more and more.

Yes, they will. Yeah, they're gonna say--

-No. We don't have enough space. -We can absolutely...

[laughs] It just feels like...

-[Ben] It's like it's a... -[Krystal] a brand-new house.

-It really does. -[Ben] Right. Right.

[Krystal] I think I was terrified

when you decided that we were gonna do this.

Yeah, you were. Yeah.

But I'm just really grateful that I called the brothers...

[laughter]

-so we'll stay married. -[laughter]

[Drew] Okay. Let's check out the family room.

Oh, my goodness. Look how... [gasps]

-Look at the door, honey. -[Ben] What?

-Isn't that amazing? -The door is fantastic.

You didn't even look at this door

that's not gonna drop you down the stairs anymore.

It opens away from the stairs.

-[Ben] Ah, the safety hazard. Of course. -[Krystal] Thank you for that.

[Ben] Look at that television. Is that...

[Jonathan] I mean, is it big enough?

No, but it looks good.

[Krystal] This looks amazing, guys.

-[Ben] This is perfect. -[Krystal] It is perfect.

[Ben] It's exactly...

You gotta show me how to work these.

When you wanna come in and out, open.

-Nice. Look at that. -Oh, I love that.

-Yup. Slides all the way open. -Look at that.

-Oh. -This is what we thought.

This is what we thought.

Look at all the light that just came in.

-It's beautiful. -Oh.

Oh, honey, I love it.

[Jonathan] This is about that indoor-outdoor flow.

-Yes. -And now when you come in the front door,

-you can see all of this. -Right.

-This is great, yeah. -Yeah. That's exactly what we wanted.

So if you wanna be indoor or outdoor,

-you have an option. -[Ben] That's right.

[Krystal] Guys, look at this couch.

Honey, it's long and deep just for you.

That's exactly what I need.

[Krystal] Oh, look at this one.

[Jonathan] Taking out the fireplace,

which was so overbearing...

-[Ben] Right. -[Krystal] Yeah.

that was the right decision,

but you wouldn't wanna take out the beams...

-[Ben] No. -[Krystal] No.

'cause they were actually adding a nice element.

[Krystal] Did you stain those or...

-[Jonathan] Yes. -[Krystal] Oh, my gosh.

-They turned out fantastic. -[Ben] Right.

It feels like this is how it should have always been.

-[Ben] Always. -[Krystal] Exactly.

I love this texture.

-Oh, it's texture? -And it just brings

like a beautiful pop of color in here, right?

It's warm, right? The blue looks great.

[Krystal] Yes. I love blue.

[Ben] It looks great with the wood...

-The color on the beams. -Oh. Oh, my goodness.

And then they have the same design

on the wall to the ceiling in the kitchen.

-[Krystal] I love that. -[Jonathan] Yeah.

[Krystal] It came out so... Look at that.

It's like it flows all together.

-Right. -Everywhere you look,

-there's a little something. -Yes.

Even down the hall.

Now, you may not know the detail of this.

-[Krystal] Mmm-hmm. -But Ben wanted to do something

extra special for you.

He said there's no way that he wants the love of his life

to have this beautiful new home

and have to trek all the way to the garage

-to do laundry. -[laughs]

So he thought it'd be great

to have the laundry where the bedrooms are,

and so we took a little project

to move them into the hall.

-[Krystal] Are you serious? -[Ben] You ready?

-Yeah. -You're not ready for this.

-You knew about this? -[Jonathan] You wanna show her?

You wanna take her down there?

-Let's go check it out. -[Jonathan] Yeah. We'll wait here. You go down.

[Krystal] Oh, I can't wait to see this. [laughs]

Oh, my goodness.

-Are those barn doors? -[Ben] Yes.

But wait, wait. Let's see what's behind

the barn doors though.

Oh, my goodness.

-[Ben] What? -I love it.

Oh. Okay. Okay.

[Ben] All right. See? Doesn't it make sense?

It didn't before but I think I'm a believer now.

I love it. I wanted it to be out of the kind of main area,

-but it's so tucked away. -Right.

Like it's not impeding any of our living space.

-And this door is gorgeous. -[Ben] Right.

Like it's perfect, honey. I was wrong.

I'm saying that a lot today, aren't I?

-You are. -Yeah. It's gonna stop.

-Oh, my goodness. -Good surprise?

[Ben] What'd you think?

[Jonathan] That's all, Ben.

-Yeah. I love it. -His idea.

[Jonathan] It really makes a world of difference.

You hated this place in the beginning.

You did not see any future...

-[Ben] Right. -[Jonathan] in this place.

Let alone any near future date of moving into it

-'cause there was so much to do. -[Krystal] Right. Right.

-[Ben] So much. -[Jonathan] But it's been a 180.

Oh, my goodness.

It is everything I think he thought it could be

-and now, you know, over time, I... -[Ben] Right.

[Krystal] kind of, you know, jumped onboard,

but now I am fully onboard. [laughs]

Everybody's gonna be coming over

and they're not gonna leave.

-[Krystal] No, that's true. -Party hub.

-[Ben] Yeah. Right. -They are so excited.

-[Drew] Why don't we-- -And, like we said, they're super close.

-Let's get them in. Yeah, let's do it. -[Jonathan] Yeah. That's good.

-[Krystal] Yeah. -Bring everybody over.

We gotta have a party.

[Ben] Everything came out perfect.

We definitely went over budget a little bit,

but I think we still didn't lose

-in any of the design elements. -Yeah.

-[Krystal] Come on in. -Oh, yes.

-I know. Hey. [laughs] -I'm excited.

Okay. So this is totally different.

Oh, my God.

[Krystal] We've made a decision

over a year ago to, you know,

pack up and move from the East Coast here.

And the goal was to be with our family.

And so to now, finally,

be in a place that's ours

that they can come to and spend time with us

in their space, you know, being back in California,

this is exactly what we did this for

and it is finally here.

It's finally here.

-[Monroe] I like it. -[laughter]

-[Drew] Yeah. Yeah. -[Ben] Yeah, you do.

[Krystal] We love it.

[Jonathan] How does it feel having them back here

-closer to you guys? -We love it.

-Oh, wow. -[woman] Love it.

Their house for Sunday dinner.

-That's right. -[all] Yeah. Yeah.

-Wait. Wait. I heard-- -Taco Tuesday.

Yeah, Taco Tuesdays, Sunday dinner.

Oh, and Thanksgiving for sure.

-Yeah. -Thanksgiving.