Original subtitles

♪♪ Yeah, I'm working 'til I make it rain... ♪

[Jonathan] Lots of tiles.

[chuckling] So much better in here.

Oh, my God, the kitchen is looking amazing.

-It's really coming together. -Ooh. Yeah.

When we first came in here, I was like,

"This is so bad."

This was bad. However, have you looked at the video

for Jeff and Chanel yet?

-Their place, we're gonna see tomorrow? -Oh, my God.

-That kitchen is bad. -[Jonathan] That is horrible.

I don't even know how they were cooking there.

It's like an obstacle course.

[Drew] It doesn't work. I mean, they have two kids.

And that kitchen is just so tight.

It's like an accident waiting to happen.

[Jonathan] I mean, it's in Hollywood Hills which is a great neighborhood,

but I was talking to them and they were saying

that they're having a hard time figuring out

what they can afford to do.

But they can put together around $150,000.

I just hope we can give them something

-that they're gonna love. -Yeah.

This is my nightmare.

It's really frustrating.

Oh!

This is not good.

-What? -I'm stressed.

You're not alone.

This all has to be ripped out.

I kinda feel like throwing up.

Every build.

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.

[Jonathan] Chanel and Jeff live in a great neighborhood,

but that only goes so far

because they're distraught about the state of their house.

They're hoping to spend $150,000,

but that all depends on how much work

we have to do to fix all the issues they hate.

-We've arrived! -[chuckles]

-How're you doing? -[Chanel chuckling]

-Nice to see you. -This feels like the party house.

-Good to see you. You know it. It sure is. -Oh, my gosh.

What is with all the mirrors?

[Chanel] It's the funhouse vibe.

-Mirrors on the poles, as well. [chuckles] -[Chanel] We were just...

lucky enough to inherit them.

[Jonathan] So what was the draw here? What made you say, "Yes.

This is the house." And how long ago was it?

[Chanel] So 10 years ago,

we were living our best life in West Hollywood.

-Were you party animals? -[Chanel] Yeah,

but we knew we wanted to settle down and have kids.

And not every house in LA has a yard or parking.

When we walked into the open house here,

people were walking out. They were like, "Ew!"

-[both] Why? -[Jeff] Popcorn ceiling, dirty carpet,

-uh... wood paneling walls. -Crazy wallpaper.

This was literally the ugliest house,

not just on this street, but in the neighborhood.

-I'm like, "This is my way in." -[all laughing]

-It didn't scare us. -We had an immediate...

-vision in this place. We did. We're like-- -Yeah.

"This is great. Mid-century modern,

you know, old-school vibe."

But it was above our max price.

-Hmm. -We're like, "We're gonna have to slowly...

do things as we can save

and budget to do it.

But then once we did have the kids, everything changed.

And, you know, they take a lot of the budget.

-[Drew] Yes, they do. -[Chanel] And so... we just kind of learned

to deal with things.

Everything is still like 1965 original.

-[Chanel] Like, look at this floor. -[Jonathan] Your terrazzo's...

-in rough shape. -[Jeff] Yeah.

-[Chanel] And the fireplace, that was... -[Jonathan and Drew] Yeah.

...one of the things we didn't touch...

-[Jonathan] Right. -...but we'd like to refinish it someday.

And so it does have some issues.

-I know what one of the issues is. -[Chanel] You do?

You use it to store your pots and pans.

Well, it's a dual... it's really more than one situation.

What? What are you doing here?

Do you light fires in the pots?

[Jeff] So when it rains...

-water comes through. -Oh.

So it's not a fire feature, it's a water feature.

-Yes. -Yes. [laughs]

Um, have you anyone inspect the flashing around the chimney?

-No. -I don't think so.

-That's an important thing to do. -Okay.

That's not effective?

-[laughs] -[Jonathan] Well, it's definitely not attractive.

-[Jeff] And we noticed that the floor was wet right here. -[Jonathan] Hmm.

I can guarantee you, it's coming from right here.

You can see how high your garden bed is here.

I think you're moist... actually I can even see it's wet right here.

-[Jeff] Mmm-hmm. -[Jonathan] It's wet.

We're gonna definitely have somebody come and check that out

to make sure that it's safe, but you shouldn't

have to be storing your pots and pans down here.

[Chanel] This does double as storage

because with house being built, like, in 1964,

that wasn't top of mind.

And so we're kind of busting out at the seams. The bar?

That's where even more arts and supplies...

-Mmm-hmm -...and homework and all of that--

So it's not for drinks, it's for crafts.

[Chanel] It's a little... little busy back here.

So you literally have your storage... Whoa.

-Sorry, my bad. -[Jeff laughs]

[Drew] You can't even step in here.

[Chanel] The clutter,

it just really raises my anxiety...

-Yeah. -...and my house is currently full of it.

-Anxiety inducing situation. -[Jeff] I mean, this is original.

Would you like to see the bar

-updated a little bit? -[Jeff] Yes.

This, in my mind, is gonna be the most...

well, maybe the second most romantic place in the house.

And it just started accumulating stuff

-more and more. -I can see your stress

I can see this house is really starting to annoy you.

Have you considered just selling and moving?

Not an option.

We wouldn't be able to get anything comparable

in today's market. I think we got in the nick of time.

We can't move because prices have gone up

-in the last 10 years, obviously. And... -Mmm-hmm. In that time.

...to get something in this neighborhood

right now is... we wouldn't be able to afford that.

Yeah, we'd have to leave California to probably something comparable,

but to make it be exactly what we want, is just like...

that feels overwhelming in good ways, in scary ways.

It's like a lot of emotions happening at once.

We've always had that fear too

of biting off more than we could chew, in terms of our renovations.

Start peeling back the layers and we know things can snowball.

I'm definitely the budget guy.

So I'm the guy who, kinda, shutting it down,

-and we're thinking about it, and we shut it down. -Yeah.

-But now it's time... -Yeah, it was time

-when we moved in, but-- -...to clean this up and get it done.

It's time. It's really time.

-Yeah, you wanna be able to do it right. -[Chanel] Right.

[Jeff] And also, like, what aggravates me about this room, especially,

is that it serves no purpose, except to throw things into it.

I think this used to be a dining room.

-That's weird. -Um... but it is... it is weird.

Like, I can go off on this whole area.

[Chanel] Kind of this space, that's right in the middle of the house,

that we always have completely shut off.

And that's just stressful for me.

'Cause right now, you can't...

-I literally can't even see the kitchen. -[Jeff] Yes.

-You can't even get to there for the sofa. -[both] Yeah.

-[Chanel] Right. Yeah. -[Drew] Climbing over.

[Chanel] I know. Yeah...

We can pull it across if you really wanna climb over it.

Oh, this is tight. Okay.

-You weren't kidding. A long galley. -[Chanel] Yeah.

[Jeff] We flat out hate this kitchen.

If she's here at the sink,

and I have to get in the refrigerator,

I have to tell her to move over. Okay?

Then imagine Thanksgiving when we're doing the ovens too.

-[Jeff] Then imagine the oven-- -Also, your dishwasher

is not even installed properly.

-[Jeff] No, it's... that's loose. -[Chanel] Yeah.

-[Jeff] Then over here, you guys, over here... -[Chanel] I don't know why.

...the gas will come out, but you have to... we have to...

[Chanel] We had it repaired a few times,

-but it always breaks again. -...we have to light it with a lighter.

Do you guys wanna hear how this explodes?

I don't wanna be in here when it explodes.

-[Chanel] It's fine. -Wait, what do you mean?

[Jeff] The oven creates a little explosion

as it turns on.

-[light explosion] -[Jonathan] Oh, my gosh, this is so unsafe, guys.

And the dogs between the feet, it's just...

[Jonathan] Okay, hold on, you're smiling right now,

but that would be so frustrating.

Because if we don't laugh,

-[laughs] -...we're gonna cry. [chuckles]

This is... not good.

-[Jeff] Yeah. -This is not a good situation.

I can see how this would be stressful.

-But it's a safety thing too. -It is a safety thing.

[Drew] This wall is the biggest thing that annoys me.

-[Chanel] Right, right. -There is no point in having this so squished in your face

-so that you can't move in here. -Yeah.

[Jonathan] If we got rid of that useless catch-all room,

and opened everything up,

we'd have space for that big open kitchen

and mid-century modern vision you've been dreaming of.

Not only that, you'd have this sightline through to see

your guests and the fireplace and the other rooms,

you'd have a room for a breakfast nook,

you'd have room for an island.

You'd have so much more usable space here.

-[Jeff] Beautiful. Yeah. -But it's...

I mean, it's a lot of work.

You're looking at... I mean, if we're looking at flooring,

and we're looking at structure work, moving things up,

the cabinetry, repairing leaks,

and the fireplace, the bar.

-I mean, you've got-- -Sounds expensive. [chuckles]

Yeah, you've got... well over $200,000... $210,000.

[Jeff] Mmm-hmm. All right.

That is a lot of money and it's a little bit too high for us.

We're gonna have to try and figure something out,

figure a way to get it a little lower.

What do you think your threshold would be?

We gotta get to $190,000 tops.

Like, all, all in.

We'll look at the budget, we'll try and plan things out.

We'll start with your priorities, like the kitchen,

but you might not get everything you want.

[Chanel] We can't live like this anymore.

So it's scary to think that we...

our dreams may be bigger than our budget.

Um, because

if we're gonna invest all of this money

we want to make sure that it's really, truly what we want.

So a little nervous to see what we might have to scale back on.

It's a scary amount of money.

-It really is. -Yeah. Yeah.

-Mmm-hmm. -It's... yeah, it's getting up there.

♪♪ Take a pic, girl send it to your friends ♪

♪♪ Matter of fact, even better ♪

♪♪ Please show it to your man It's like... ♪

Jeff and Chanel have a reno budget of $190,000

and they have made it very clear that is their absolute max.

I just hope that's enough to give them everything they want with their house

because they have a long list of grievances with the place.

Most of that budget will be going towards giving them an open floor plan

by getting rid of that useless catch-all room,

expanding and overhauling their dysfunctional kitchen,

redoing the bar and upgrading their fireplace.

We also have a few moisture problems

that I'm hoping won't be a big deal,

but we won't really know what we're dealing with

until we open up the walls.

I think it would be so amazing

to open this up

because we wanna open, that's the whole goal.

-And to-- -Yeah, and if you're pulling this back

-and getting rid of these walls here... -Yeah.

...that'll help fix your kitchen woes,

but knowing your strict budget,

I think we'll have to leave these support posts

to help keep your costs down.

[Chanel] We like saving.

I'm pretty confident that inside...

it'll be like the...

-just like... round metal poles or... -Another treasure?

O-M-G!

-Oh. -No.

-That is... wild. -[Jeff] Oh.

-[Jonathan] It's ornate. -[Chanel] Is it wood?

-[Jonathan] It's wood. It's real wood. -It's wood.

But the only thing that is concerning, though...

is this wouldn't meet the standards

to support the entire weight of the roof.

And that means, to me, like, I wonder if this is also load-bearing.

So sometimes you get... funny structural things are happening...

-[Chanel] Yeah. -...where every wall ends up being load-bearing,

-which again, can be-- -[Chanel] Expensive?

-Yeah. -That's why we've been scared to do this.

[Jonathan] Turns out, underneath these built-out boxes

are just these ornate spindles.

And I don't know that this is...

actually rated to hold the weight that it's holding.

So I'll have to have the engineer take a look.

[Jeff] We've been dying to open this up

ever since we moved in.

This is crazy.

I've been looking forward to this and also dreading it

because it's the moment of no return.

[Chanel] Scary to finally dig in, that's really where you find

whether you're gonna have to start investing more money

in things that maybe you weren't planning on.

When we were, uh, moving some stuff away,

we did notice...

[Jonathan] Oh, yeah.

-[Chanel] We're like, "Uh-oh." -[Jeff] ...which, which...

-you know, made me worried about the budget even more. -[Chanel] Dollar signs.

[Jonathan] That is... very clearly water damage.

The thing that's crazy is...

that means if it's going that high,

there's so much moisture

-that it's wicking it up... -Yeah.

-...into the wall... -Yeah.

...and then causing a lot of problems.

That's all moisture damage.

You have that leak we already saw

over by the fireplace that's coming in.

The same one here.

-So... cha-ching. -Yeah.

-Cha-ching. -Yeah.

Well, we have a budget. You guys came to that budget.

Max budget. It is a max budget.

The challenge is we're not gonna be able to do...

all new flooring,

-and all new, you know, water-proofing... -Yeah, okay.

...and all new kitchen and all new fireplace.

The safety definitely comes first.

It kinda feels like, with these things popping up,

my dream is, like, going from pie in the sky

to, uh... [mimics tires screeching]

Just being, like, reduced to the kitchen.

[sighs wearily]

We really wanna see this vision come to life,

but the vision is shifting a bit,

so a little nervous to see um...

when we put pen to paper with the budget,

what we're really gonna actually be able to achieve.

♪♪ Oh... yeah... ♪

♪♪ I don't think you have Have what it takes ♪

[Jonathan] My crew continues to demolish Chanel and Jeff's kitchen,

but I wanna get to the bottom of why there's so much water damage along the wall.

So I'm going outside with Itay from my crew

to figure out how all that moisture is getting in

and what can be done about it.

Oh, my gosh.

The positive waterproofing is just really, really bad here.

[Jonathan] What is this? It's like a cement mix,

but it's totally useless.

There's no proper transition.

You need to have some kind of flashing,

so that you can get the water away.

This is just creating a pocket

where any moisture coming down is going right in.

This stucco is terrible.

Oh, that's totally wrong. Look at that.

-[Itay] Oh, man. -So actually,

some of that moisture that's in the wall,

that's not even coming from down below,

it's leaking through right up here.

This is not good.

I feel, first thing, obviously, we should test the slope,

'cause the concrete is the big thing,

but after that, the transition

between the concrete and the stucco should be just...

uh, redone.

You know, we'll probably have to break the stucco

a feet or two feet going up.

This is gonna be...

a massive project.

It's gonna cost between $10,000 to $20,000.

I would rip out all the concrete,

rip out all the stucco,

water-proof everything.

Now we have to deal with that.

♪♪ Work, work it good ♪

♪♪ Like you know you should ♪

♪♪ I'mma show you what you got ♪

♪♪ I'mma be comin' in hot I'mma be comin' in hot ♪

[Jonathan] We continue to tear down walls

in Chanel and Jeff's home,

but we can't tear everything out

without doing some significant structural work.

The engineer came by and confirmed my suspicions

that the walls we want to demolish to open things up

are all load-bearing.

But luckily he approved a plan that would get the job done

and keep costs down.

To open everything up and get rid of that useless catch-all room,

instead of one massive steel beam,

we'll be putting in five smaller support beams

to carry the weight of the roof

instead of those original walls.

And we'll be keeping two support posts as well.

When the beams are all covered up with drywall,

the whole space will be completely open

and seamless.

Unfortunately, our moisture problems have gone from bad to worse.

The water damage at the house is a lot more serious

and extensive than I thought.

I'm definitely glad that Chanel and Jeff

are comfortable staying with family,

'cause things are getting a lot more complicated here.

I've asked them to come by and see it for themselves.

Obviously, gave you a heads-up.

The issues are bad.

-Okay. -Yeah.

[Jonathan] Okay, so...

there's a lot of places where there's no paper at all,

so you can see, like, down here,

that's the stucco.

Any of the cracks that you see

-the moisture is getting right in. -[Jeff] Uh-huh.

-It just came right through. Okay. -[Jonathan] Comes right in.

This window, usually we'll put and expanding foam or something

-around it to seal it properly. -Yeah.

[Jonathan] There's nothing around it. And we essentially have to redo

the house wrap, the stucco,

the insulation, the board,

-everything would have to be done. -Yeah, um...

-You have over 40 feet... -[exhales]

...of stucco that would be needed.

This alone would be like $22,000.

Oh.

That's one thing.

-It's a lot of things already. -[Jonathan] It is.

It's a lot of things in one.

This is... this is my nightmare.

I've never seen a leak, except over there.

Speaking of the chimney, so we had our guy go up.

-[Chanel] Okay. -So you have no cap at all.

So, this is the top, on top of the chimney.

-[Chanel] Just totally exposed. Okay. -[Jonathan] Yeah, so...

-the water's coming down the main part... -[Chanel] Mmm-hmm.

...and then you also have a lot of cracking on the bricks

that needs to be repaired as well, so it's another $4,200

-to do all of that. -[both] Okay

That sounds cheap compared to $20,000.

Yeah, that sounds great. [laughs]

Well, it does, except we also have the sill at the back door.

[Chanel] Okay.

-Wait, there's more. -[Jonathan] So... yeah, exactly.

Not good news.

So we obviously saw the moisture coming in here.

And we can tell you have a negative grade

-which is why they have... -[Chanel] Great.

-...a drain here. -[Jeff and Chanel] Mmm-hmm.

By the way, your three drains are all clogged,

which means when it rains,

all that moisture just comes right into the door

and right inside.

The plan over here to fix it,

so you don't have that moisture penetration at all,

would be to pull out this door,

cut out the concrete here

and make sure it's sloping the way we want it to slope.

$12,500.

-Okay. -[Jonathan] So when you're adding up...

-[weeping, laughing] -...this stucco and the chimney...

I hate to be the bearer of bad news,

but we're looking at $40,000.

[Jeff] Nightmare.

We're looking at over $40,000.

[Jeff] Oh.

I mean...

we can't turn back now.

So what do you think? What do we do?

I mean...

I'm telling you because... if this was my house,

I would wanna do it right,

so I never have to worry about leaks again.

-[Chanel] Right. -[Jonathan] And it's not gonna affect our timeline at all.

But it's your money, it's real money.

Is there any other areas that we could save on?

Any where we can save money...

like the fireplace, for example,

if we don't touch the fireplace,

it's gonna save you $12,000 in stone cladding.

-[Chanel] Ooh. -[Jonathan] Maybe we also...

don't spend money to completely rebuild the bar.

We definitely are not at a point where can afford to do that kind of stuff.

-[Chanel] Right. -[Jonathan] So we can reface it.

And that again, would save us thousands of dollars.

-Okay. -Okay.

So you just wanna go ahead and do it?

-Um, yeah, I think so. -Yeah, I think we have to.

-Yeah. -We wanna do it right.

We really thought our budget was gonna get us

everything we wanted.

The fireplace, the bar, those are definitely areas that need some love.

So to know that our max budget

still may not get us there...

-that's just kinda like, "Ugh." -That's disappointing.

We'll do it and hopefully the next time I have you back here,

it's all tears of joy.

No more bad news allowed, okay?

Yeah.

The unfortunate reality is, with compounding issues like this,

they don't really care if you have a max budget.

They just have to be fixed.

So we'll have to redirect a big part of their savings

from their big wish list items

towards repairing the leaks.

Even with the fireplace and bar savings,

their overage is still about $18,000.

So we'll try to find ways to bring that number down

wherever we can.

This was literally Chanel's big fear

coming into a renovation

that they won't get all of the things they wanted,

that they'd been saving for for 10 years.

Yet they'll still have to come up with extra money somehow.

I just hope they don't still hate the house once all is said and done.

[Jonathan] Can you reach on top there?

-[Drew] Yes. -[Jonathan] Okay.

We're installing the beams that will make it possible

to give Jeff and Chanel this big open kitchen

that they've always dreamed of.

Five smaller beams may seem unusual,

but it made sense in their case.

Adding one steel beam spanning the whole space

could have involved spending a lot more money on new footings,

re-running joists and extra labor,

which this family can't afford right now.

[Drew] It's kind of funny looking at celling, though,

when you think...

like, it looks like overkill.

Beam, beam, beam, beam, beam.

-Beams everywhere. -[Itay] But that was the...

most economical way to overcome

the load-bearing walls.

When the drywall's back up, nobody's gonna know the difference.

All we know is that the engineer says this is safe.

It saved a lot of money

because they need every saving they can get.

We literally have no more money.

Well, now that it's all open,

we can start levelling up the floors, and then we'll pump up

the mid-century vibe with this beautiful new terrazzo throughout.

-Got it? -Yeah.

[Jonathan] We'll still looking for ways to save

because at this point, we're about $18,000 over their max budget.

So much of Chanel and Jeff's money

is tied up in fixing what's behind these walls,

like bringing their original 1960's electrical up to code.

I'm just hoping the silver lining of a safe home

is enough to make up for the big compromises we're having to make

because I know it's been weighing on their mind.

[cell phone ringing]

[Jonathan] Hey.

-[Jeff] Hey. -What's happening?

I know we had agreed to do all that extra work,

but we can't afford to do that all at once.

It's just too much.

-Okay. -So we figured a way to help out,

that is, since we're gonna be doing some work in the backyard anyways,

the whole back portion of the sliding door,

-and going in-- -[Jonathan] Pool decking and stuff like that?

We just... we'd rather wait for that.

Yeah, 'cause you guys said you're gonna do a bunch of pool work

and, and... and deck work out back

in the future, so, that sounds good to me.

We can still do some stuff to make sure you're not,

like, setting yourself up for a problem

until you do that renovation.

If we clear all those clogged drains,

it'll stop the water from running under your sliding door

until you fix the slope on the concrete.

But the real issue is all on that other side,

kinda over where the kitchen is.

That work, I feel like, has to be done.

We agree. I agree with that.

I'd like to do the chimney flashing.

Make sure we can fix the seal on the chimney.

Yeah, I'd like to use those pots for real pot things.

So if we're taking the work off of the back,

the concrete work, the sliding door,

I feel like we can probably

get closer to your original $190,000 budget

to get all the other work done.

That's awesome. That's... even better than I thought,

savings wise. Thank you.

I get why Jeff doesn't wanna do

all of that additional work at the back right now.

When you have a limited budget,

sometimes you can't tackle everything.

So we'll buy them enough time

until they can save up to do that extra work in the backyard.

♪♪ Go, go, go for me now ♪

♪♪ When you go enough, they'll be showing up ♪

♪♪ Go, go, go for me now ♪

♪♪ When you go enough, they'll be showing up ♪

[Jonathan] We're cutting up the slab to run plumbing...

This house has no storage whatsoever.

And the clutter is really aggravating Chanel's anxiety.

So we're hoping that adding a massive island with tons of storage

will be just what the doctor ordered.

And maybe, just maybe, they can store their pots and pans in the kitchen,

instead of the fireplace. What a concept.

We were also hoping to run some design ideas by these guys.

Just too busy with work but Chanel said she can make time and come right over.

I feel like the bar is your area.

[Chanel] The bar is my area.

But there just isn't any money for it.

-So we cannot rip out the bar... -[Chanel] Yeah.

-...and rebuild it completely. -Yeah.

Right now, the color scheme doesn't work.

-Especially with the black leather. -Right.

And then against this stone.

[Chanel] Yeah. Burnt orange, not gonna work.

But, what if...

we actually do this in, like, a fluted wood

-that we paint dark green. -[Chanel] Mm-hmm.

[Jonathan] So that this color actually felt like it...

Was in keeping with the mid-century vibes you have going on.

We could create a palette that's consistent with the age of the house.

So there'd be warm wood tones throughout the design.

And with furniture that has a sleek, cool look,

this bar would feel perfectly integrated in here instead of out of place.

Yeah. I'm loving the direction we're headed here,

tying those '60s vibes into the bar.

And actually, I need to show you guys the bar stools in the garage.

They came with the house.

-[both] Really? -And they were really cool.

I'll show 'em to you later.

Uh, you'll show them to me, yeah, now.

-Now? -I'm grabbing this chair.

Hold on one sec.

I don't know if they're buried in there though...

-[Drew] If they are... -[Jonathan] We will find it.

-[Drew] Okay. -[Jonathan] Going on a treasure hunt.

All right. Where is it?

-Obviously not these guys. -[Chanel] All right. Let's see, let's see.

They're probably in the back somewhere...

Ah. Under that bag.

-Oh, this here? -[Chanel] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Here, hold this.

[Chanel] In the back because they haven't been used

-in eight... -[Drew] Take the mop.

[Jonathan] Oh, my God.

-This door hasn't been used in years either. -[Chanel exclaiming]

[Chanel] The door? The whole...

-The thing just accumulated. -You're dragging something. Hold up.

Okay. All right.

[Chanel] All right. Let's check this out and see if it's as good as I remember.

[chuckles]

-Okay. -The big reveal.

-Will it work for their new colors? -I'm excited.

-[Chanel] Let's see. -[Drew] Ready?

-Oh, wow. Cool. -Cool.

-They are nice. -They're kinda cool, right?

-Very cool. -Oh, my gosh. That will go really well

with these options.

One more way that we're able to stretch your budget.

Did you just read my mind?

-[gasps] Yes. -[laughs]

I have another really great money-saving idea.

-Okay. -[Jonathan] To fix a lot of your water issues.

-[Chanel] Mm-hmm. -[Jonathan] But I did warn you

that we might be getting our hands dirty.

-[Chanel] Hit me with it. -[Jonathan] So...

we have a lot of gunk

-in your gutters here. -Okay.

And knowing you have a negative grade toward the house...

-[Chanel] Mm-hmm. -...all the moisture when it rains,

everything comes down here.

If this gets clogged,

it's gonna go right past this and into the house.

Maybe we'll clean the drains.

-Yeah. There you go. -There we go.

Well, you said "we." "We?" You're gonna do it with Jeff?

By "we," I mean Jeff.

[both chuckle]

You might even have to do it twice a year

-if it's that bad but you just... -[Chanel] Yeah. Okay.

-...do not want these to get clogged up. -[Chanel] Yeah.

I'm glad you wore your drain-cleaning plumber clothes.

You know, I come prepared.

[both chuckle]

Pop the covers off.

All right. So this is a snake.

It'll grab on to clumps of leaves or whatever it is

-and it'll push it through. -[Chanel] Okay.

-So we wanna see this come out the pipe. -[whirring]

There it is. Okay, get it through.

-Any gunk? -Oh, yeah. Yeah.

-[Chanel laughing] -Okay.

[Jonathan] All right. I'm gonna run a little water there

and we'll see how much flow we have on Drew's side.

-[sputtering] -All right.

[Drew] Torrential downpour.

So you see as all that water fills up,

all of this debris is gonna get shoved into that pipe

and cause more problems down here.

Yeah. That seems like it could cause some big problems.

[Jonathan] All right. This seems to be draining pretty good.

-So we're clear here. -[Drew] Okay. Go for it.

-These aren't water-proof. -No.

Okay, you don't have to use the gloves.

Just throw it off to the side here.

All of this was clogging your drain.

[Chanel] Oh. Well, that's...

Was that, like, an old pipe right there?

-Yeah. That does look like it is an old pipe down there. -What's... Look at that.

Looks like a old clogged pipe.

-Do you wanna look at that? Tell me what you think. -It's totally clogged.

[Jonathan] Oh, my God. Look at this.

It is completely clogged with mud.

So that's your actual yard drainage down there.

-And that's... packed. -[Chanel] Completely clogged.

-That's not good. -[Jonathan] No.

[Jonathan] So this here is completely gunked full.

And that is your yard drainage.

And it's got roots even.

We got problems back here.

I'm gonna throw some water in that drainage. See how bad it is. Okay.

Chanel, I'm gonna get you to turn

-the water on in a second. Yeah. -[Chanel] Oh, yeah. Okay.

[Drew] It's definitely more clogged just within its first...

Oh, my gosh. This is... solid dirt in here.

[water flowing]

-There you go. Yeah. -[Chanel] Is anything coming out from that...

[Jonathan] This is filling up like a bowl.

[Drew] Nothing's coming my way.

-[Jonathan] Nothing? -[Drew] No.

I literally have no water coming on my side yet.

Okay. Well, that... that solves that. So...

right now, we'll snake from there down to the street.

That way we know this is gonna be clean.

We'll unclog this line across here

so at least the overflow will go there.

And when you guys do your yard repair,

you gotta redo all the drainage here.

[Chanel] Yeah, that's a big red flag.

What we're doing today is definitely gonna help.

It's gonna divert water where it needs to go.

But you have to maintain it.

♪♪ Choose... your... life♪

♪♪ Choose your life, yeah♪

[Jonathan] Now that we've dealt with the moisture

at the back of the house the best we could,

it's time to tackle the much more serious leak affecting the whole sidewall.

We're getting rid of all the soaked

and damaged stucco along the side of the house.

We can then make sure the house wrap

is done properly and install the new windows.

This costs over 10% of their entire budget,

but will protect their beautiful,

new kitchen finishes once they're installed.

A beautiful sight.

[Itay] You talk about watertight? That's watertight.

You can tell the difference this makes. Oh, yeah.

I mean, all... Every little penetration,

everything sealed up nice and clean.

What a difference. What was here before.

I mean, we were missing entire chunks

-of the paper. -[Itay] Yup.

They're dual-glass and also give us about an inch overall on the opening.

-[Jonathan] Yeah. -[Itay] Uh...

to get this beautiful view of the mountains.

[Jonathan] Yeah. We're gonna throw a little expanding foam in there.

We'll seal this up, which they didn't do before.

Which is another reason why they were having

-the leaks and what not. -Yeah.

[Jonathan] Their insulation was only put in a few years ago.

-[Itay] Yeah. -[Jonathan] So if we can

pick out all the stuff that's in good shape,

we can reuse it. Don't have to...

have it go to a landfill. Don't have to waste money.

♪♪ One, two, three, go♪

[Jonathan] I wouldn't wanna close up the drywall

unless I was 100% sure we're not gonna have

the moisture problems they had before.

We fixed all those problems, so we can close with confidence.

[clanking]

-You're safe. -All right.

In order to prevent the waterfall in the living room,

via the fireplace,

we need to make sure we put a cap on the chimney,

-and seal all the way around the back... -Wait, wait, wait, wait.

Are you saying...

having a gigantic hole above your living room

is not a smart idea?

-Can you see the pots and pans in there? -[Jonathan] Yeah.

[echoing] Hello.

I want them to keep their pots and pans in the kitchen

in the cabinets. Not in their fireplace.

I can't believe...

there was no cap at all. Whoever decided,

"Oh, a giant hole into our living room. That's fine."

What do you think's gonna happen when it rains?

What about when birds just stand on the edge and poop down there too?

That's just gross.

[Jonathan] You always go with the poop.

-You ever notice that? -I have a one-year-old.

-Straight to the poop. -It's all about the poop.

There are a lot of issues that are eating up our budget

that you're not gonna see in the end.

But it's important to have that done.

I just hope that we have enough left over

to make this an impressive reveal for them.

Once we've done the aesthetic portion of the job.

I can't say 100% at this point that I feel confident

that we're gonna be able to make them happy.

♪♪ New attitude, boss moves On the avenue ♪

[Jonathan] With the walls finished at Chanel and Jeff's,

it's finally possible to see how open

and airy their new floorplan is.

And most importantly,

it's gonna allow us to give them a state-of-the-art kitchen

that's twice the size of that uber-dysfunctional original one they despised.

I mean, it took us a little bit to get to this point,

but now it's starting to feel like a kitchen.

I can see the big islands.

You look at the lack of function that was here before

with that tiny, squished kitchen.

That kind of weird middle area that was just like a pile of furniture and toys.

Fingers crossed this gives them the space, storage, and sanity they need.

I mean, having the cabinets here is one thing. But also...

the way we're laying everything out,

is really gonna double down on their storage issues.

We've got this massive floor to ceiling pantry wall.

Another huge pantry over by the garage.

And this island has storage in the front and back.

There's no doubt that they're gonna have enough space.

And welcome to big island.

♪♪ Look at you, look at you now♪

[Drew] When we first got here, Chanel and Jeff

said they hated their bar because it was a literal mess.

Just a place to store arts and crafts,

and anything else that's lying around.

But they had always dreamed it would become

date night headquarters.

Well, the problem is, we have no money in the budget to do a full rebuild.

So we've been trying to work on how we could refresh without spending.

First, we took off the outdated

and overbearing black leather surround

and with Chanel's blessing,

we put some wood fluting instead, which will give it a lighter,

more sophisticated mid-century vibe.

We're also touching up the great, original stool

which had been gathering dust in storage for years.

I really hope all of this would be good enough

to make their romantic bar dreams come true.

[whirring]

[Drew] It looks pretty good.

By the way,

don't know if, uh, you noticed.

I actually tried to make these seats match your butt.

Do you wanna try it and see...

Why do you make everything creepy?

[Drew] Look. Like, that's a bootied seat.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

It fits... fits like a glove.

This... [laughs]

-This is... -[Drew] Awkward?

A little awkward. But I will say

these seats are nice and deep.

In an ideal world,

I would like to just do a real nice natural seal on it.

The problem is...

-there are too many of these darker imperfections. -[Drew] Yeah.

[Jonathan] That I think if we just seal it the way it is, it's gonna look bad.

[Drew] We have colors if you want. Gonna move this up.

Yes. Anything to stop talking about...

the face that you molded these after our booties.

[Drew] I have the samples here.

[Jonathan] Polyurethane.

Yes. Beautiful dark walnut? I like it.

-Oh, green. -I mean...

go a little snazzy with the-the color here.

-[Jonathan] Snazzy? -[Drew] Yeah. This one.

-[Jonathan] This is, uh... -"Snazzy." That's the word dad used to use.

[Jonathan] Okay. So...

Well, see, this...

The natural seal that I'm doing is gonna look the best.

But it's not accurate because this is a clean grain.

[Drew] Oh, wow. That green's really nice.

Okay, so start with the latest.

So that's your natural...

But again, it's not gonna look that pretty.

It's very imperfect.

We do the darker one.

-I mean, that's pretty. -[Drew] Kinda nice.

And then, the green.

A li-- little unorthodox.

[Drew] Uh, we would need a couple more coats to take that darker.

-Yeah, the green's just not gonna come through. -No.

I'd say dark walnut.

-It'll help cover some of the imperfections. -[Drew] I agree.

-The green just isn't doing it. -Okay.

Once we paint the fluting, it should give us that proper color.

And we'll use some small offcuts from the island to save money on the counter.

♪♪ I've come in to shake it up ♪

[Drew] We are getting down to details at Jeff and Chanel's.

They've been dreaming of this reno for ten years

and the kitchen was their number one priority.

We've had to sacrifice some pretty big projects in order to stay on budget.

I'm just hoping that we're still doing enough to make them really happy,

and give them that mid-century design they were really hoping for.

To help protect their big investment,

we're giving them a self-setup security system

and on the outside, we're finishing the last step

at our fight against water damage, the new stucco.

I know it's painful for Jeff and Chanel

to have all this money put into the walls

and areas that they don't see at the end of the day.

But they also get a house that is not gonna leak.

[Jonathan] Everything drains away the way you want.

I wanted to give them peace of mind.

-I think they've got it. -We've given them peace of mind and some.

[exclaims]

Do not get it dirty.

Okay.

This turned out really, really great.

I liked how...

sometimes you have a find...

that's a real gem.

[Drew] I think that the chairs look amazing

and I loved that it saved us thousands of dollars.

Yeah. If we had to buy those, it would've been pricey.

I felt that tingling sensation at the back of my brain.

Because we've been a little restricted by the tight budget.

But I hope we pull it off.

This was a no-budget bar.

I feel like when you do walk in,

now this pulls together the pops of green we have everywhere else.

-Yeah. -[Jonathan] But is it enough?

[Chanel] Knowing that the budget was...

stretched very thin because of the water damage,

I'm just really nervous that

some of the original vision is gonna be compromised.

I'm so stoked to see this.

Little bit worried. What does my bar look like?

And the island. Am I gonna actually like the island?

[Jonathan] Why don't we just get you in there

and see if we checked off all those boxes.

[Chanel] Go, babe.

-[Chanel gasps] -[Drew] What do you think?

[Jonathan] There's one way to figure out whether or not we got it right.

-Let's get inside. -[Jeff] Okay.

-Oh. -Well, all right.

-[Jonathan laughing] -Oh.

[Jeff] This is, uh, what we've been waiting for.

[Chanel chuckles]

-[Drew] What do you think? -[Jeff] Um...

-I don't even know what to say. -I'm...

-I usually... -I thought I was gonna know what to say.

But I don't know what to say. This is... this is beautiful.

'Cause I'm not used to seeing more than four feet in any direction

-when I walk in this house. -[Jonathan laughing]

I can see the whole place.

Can we just have a moment for the terrazzo?

-[Jeff] Yes. This is unbelievable. -[Chanel] Yes, it is.

[Jonathan] And it's very, very mid-century.

Ah.

Oh. This is...

-this is great, you guys. -[Jonathan laughing]

[Jonathan] You know, before, you had a designated playroom.

But, in reality, it was a storage room.

[Jeff] Yeah. What we wanted was to open this up.

And I think you guys got rid of five walls.

-[Jonathan] Oh, yeah. -[Jeff] You know. Eat in the kitchen.

-Can I... Let's all... -[Drew] Have a seat.

-Get in there. -I love the fact that I can run around

here and not hit three walls

-before I get over here to our... -[Chanel] Oh, gosh.

...brand-new kitchen table.

-What do you think? -This is insane.

-'Cause I'm used to... I'm used to avoiding things. -Thank you, guys.

I... just...

I just have to ride away, like...

[Drew] The other thing too is clear all this stuff off of here.

-[Jonathan] Crafting and... -[Chanel] Oh, my God. Yeah.

-...homework. -[Chanel] Baking.

Whatever the kids need to do.

-[Chanel sighs] -[Drew] I love this table.

I mean, especially with that mid-century modern flair. It's gorgeous.

[Jeff] Oh, yeah.

-Let's go take a walk around. -Yeah.

[Jonathan laughing] No wasting time.

-Go check it out. -Yeah.

-Let's just get right to it. -[Jeff] This, um...

-This is... this is, um... -Oh, my God.

more room than I thought I was gonna have here. This is great.

This is really, really great.

I'm just blown away.

[Chanel] This island is giving me a lot of feelings right now.

Describe your feelings in three words.

Sexiest island ever.

[all laughing]

-It's huge. This is massive. -It's gorgeous.

I mean... I'm...

You can... not only can you see everything, which we keep bringing up

'cause I-- That's my favorite thing right now is I-I can see.

Everywhere from this spot right here.

[Jonathan] Everything feels so connected.

Right. Connected. That word right there.

Because before, everything was just kind of...

-mismatched together. Segmented. -It was very segmented.

You could tell the things that we had updated.

-The things that we had never touched. -Well, if...

-if you wanna move over here real quick. -Things that weren't original.

This was... this was... this was my kitchen.

-Yeah. This was it. -From here to here.

It was-it was actually dangerous.

-When you have doors open and things happen. -[Chanel] Yeah.

[Jeff] Yeah. I was stressed about that.

I'm gonna have room to actually cook

-and someone else is gonna be able to actually use the sink. -[Drew] Yeah.

I felt like we were never gonna get here.

You guys have so much storage.

Storage galore.

Everywhere. Anywhere you need to tuck something away,

-tons of storage. -[Jeff laughing]

[Chanel] So when you're bad,

-that's where you're gonna be exiled to. -Crawl in there.

-There we go. -That's it.

-[Chanel] All right. Let's go look at the rest... -I'm done.

-...of the house. -I'm not washing the dishes.

All right. You even have storage

-all the way... -[Chanel] All the way?

-...across the back side as well. -Let's check it out.

-Come look. Yeah. Open that cabinet there. -Oh, cool.

-Yeah, it's nice to have additional storage. -I feel like... Okay.

Because we have had nowhere before to, like, put the kids' art stuff.

The bar was really arts and crafts central.

-[Jonathan] Mm-hmm. -[Chanel] And clutter drives me crazy.

This is just our size. Height. They can help themselves. So...

I feel so much peace right now.

I know we had a lot of additional expenses

that creeped up that you weren't expecting.

-I mean, this wall... -This wall.

...was basically cottage cheese.

There was so much work that had to be done over here to fix the issues.

But we have all new stucco,

we've sealed everything properly. It's safe.

[Jeff] That gives us, on top of the beauty,

it gives us the peace of mind.

When we bought this house...

if it had looked like this, we wouldn't have been able to afford it.

-Oh, yeah. -Yeah. That's so true.

This was literally the ugliest house in the neighborhood.

but we immediately saw the potential.

-[Jeff] I'm getting shaky thinking about it. -[Chanel] Me too. Like...

[Jeff] This is what we wanted

but would never gonna be able to afford.

But now you have the neighborhood

and the house that you actually wanted.

[Chanel] This is my dream realized.

-This feels like a dream. -This doesn't feel real.

-Like, my day dream. -Yeah.

I love that you're so excited over here

but you said the bar was so important to you.

We wanted to give you a space that when the kids go to bed,

you can have a romantic drink together.

And now I think it looks a little better.

-This is for you. -All right. Let's go check it out.

Drum roll.

Oh, yeah.

Nice, you guys. This is what I'm talking about.

I love the color too.

[Chanel] This is, like, killer.

-Did you see the stools, babe? -[Jeff] Let's do it up.

-[Chanel] These are the stools... -Your stools.

-Oh. -...that came with the house.

-Those are the OG stools. -[Chanel] Look at this.

Look how gorge they look.

[Drew] So Chanel pulled these out of the garage.

-[Jeff] Yeah. -[Drew] And we looked at these and thought

-these are gorgeous. -[Jeff] Yeah.

We can actually have them back where they belong.

This was not the original plan either

because we didn't have budget for this.

-[Chanel] Right. -We're trying to make this feel special.

-[Jeff] This looks great. -You know, I was worried because

the last countertop was one of the ugliest

pieces of marble I've ever seen.

[Drew] What we ended up doing is we had some of our off-cuts from the island...

-[Chanel] Okay. -...to be utilized for over here.

-And it looks amazing. -[Chanel] Yeah. It's so gorgeous.

Everything just flows right into each other. It's very nice.

I mean, all the color tones throughout, they're sophisticated,

there's warmth with the wood tones.

-[Jeff] Which I like. Which is classic 1965. -[Drew] Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Perfect. I'm not used to everything being perfect.

I'm used to living with so many quirks.

-[Jeff] Yeah. -[Chanel] And, like, weird things.

This is gonna be a whole new life.

[Jeff] Can't wait to be mixing it up here.

[Jonathan] Everything feels outdated.

In fact, your fireplace over there...

it felt authentic to the home.

The only real issue we had before was that you had pots and pans

-catching all the water. -[Jeff] Yeah.

[Jonathan] We have a brand-new cap on the chimney,

new flashing, everything's water-tight.

So you don't have to worry about using it for storage.

You have this brand-new island with storage on both sides.

-[laughs] -Potentially, you could use that.

-This is... -Let's go and sit over here.

This is where Thanksgiving will be.

-There you go. Come on. -This is.

This is the adult table.

The kids can have the kids table.

This space was not a space

that had any intention of work.

It was kind of like the afterthought.

And now seeing it like this, it's like...

what it was always supposed to be.

And this is still all the kids' domain.

-We know this. -Yeah.

-And look... -All this.

[Chanel] These are like, this...

-most special toys to them. -[Jeff] I can sit and supervise.

[Chanel] Oh, yeah. Good.

[Drew] Anyway, we just spruced up the living room area a little bit.

But I feel it's... it's more inviting. It feels more comfortable.

[Chanel] Oh, my God. [laughing]

That is so nice.

[Jonathan] And it's nice because it actually ties in

to the aesthetic of the whole place now.

-Let me see this. -Come here.

-Let me see this view. -It's that pretty amazing?

-Yes. -This is crazy.

[Jeff] This is beautiful. We can see everything.

I'm extremely happy for you guys because

I know how stressed you were with the size of the kitchen.

The complete lack of storage,

the leaks, the water damage, the broken down 1960s design.

This must be this massive...

-relief on all those stresses. -[Chanel sighs]

-[Chanel] It is. -[Jeff] Thank you.

Your time here is gonna be so much more fun.

In fact, I think we should get out of here so you guys

can actually enjoy this space.

I've been waiting to kick you out of here.

-Yes. -You guys.

-All right. Enjoy your house. -Get out.

You guys, congratulations.

-This is gonna be an amazing party place. -Thank you.

-You're new... -Thank you.

[Chanel] Seeing something that we've daydreamed about

so much, just like... [exclaiming] So perfect.

-Yeah. I... -That was crazy.

[Jeff] ...couldn't have imagined our house looking like this.

-What do you see? -Whoa.

-What? -This is splendid.

-[girl] I know. -[boy] I'm like...

-I like all the color. -Yeah.

We're gonna have to take our relationship to a new level

-because we're not gonna be getting in each other's way. -[Jeff] Yeah.

[Chanel exclaiming]

[Chanel and Jeff exclaiming]

[Chanel] It's our savings. It's what we've been working really hard for.

[Jeff] For the money, yes, it's worth it.

[Chanel] To just see this dream come true,

spending the money is in the past. It's still worth it.

Let's go enjoy our house. That's how I feel.

[cork pops]

Jonathan, Drew, shall I get two more glasses?