We are back in our old hood.
Fountain Square?
[Karen] He's taken his life in his hands right now.
Oh!
This is fantastic!
It's how far your eyes can go, not your feet.
[Cory] Oh, God. The gas isn't off?
Why isn't the gas off?
-You're trying to kill me. -[Mina] No.
I have concerns about this wing wall.
It's probably not salvageable by the time we get it off.
Like, this is a disaster.
So basically, when you walk into this house,
it'd be like robot eyes, like, whoa...
Oh, my God!
Gorgeous!
[theme music playing]
[Mina] Mom and I take on some of the nastiest houses you've ever seen.
Our team isn't afraid to tackle the worst of the worst.
That is so gross.
Holy cow.
[Mina] Then we turn those rundown houses
into some of the nicest home in the neighborhood.
-[Cory] Wow. -[Karen] I love it!
Oh. Hey, handsome.
Oh, he needs a good scratch.
I started riding when I was like ten, 11, 12
and I actually like rode pretty regularly, but around like high school
when I started working, I didn't ride quite as much.
So now I just get to every once in a while,
and it's probably been six months to a year since I rode in.
But that's like riding a bike.
There we go!
Good boy!
That was a good circle.
Hey, buddy.
Hey, Mom.
-How are you? -Good.
Mommy's tush hurts.
Hey, we were just having breakfast down the street,
so we figured we'd come, say hi.
You wanna say hi to Axle?
Tap the top of his nose.
-Say hi, Axle. -I like baby horse.
-What do you got going under there? -You like baby horse?
Well, I'm finishing riding.
I'm going to put him up, and then I got to head to a house.
I'm excited about this next project because it's in Fountain Square,
which kind of, you know, is getting back to our roots.
This is where Mom and I started,
so I'm going to get this horse smell off me.
Go pick up Mom, and we're going to go check out the house.
Jack, they have some little baby horses inside
if you want to see one of those.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, let's go touch the baby horse.
-[Steve] Sounds good. -[Jack] Baby horsey.
-[Steve] Baby horsey? -[Jack] Yeah.
So where are you taking me today?
We are back in our old hood.
-And-- -Fountain Square?
-[Mina] Mmm-hmm. -Woo-hoo, how'd you afford a house in Fountain Square?
I sold Cory for a couple of weeks to make part of the money.
This house is on Hoyt Street which is a nice, quiet spot
But we haven't worked in Fountain Square for a hot minute
because its proximity to downtown has made it
one of the most popular and most expensive areas in the city.
It's a cute house, but I think I can get four bedrooms in.
I think for the sales price, I want to get at least 400,000,
we need four bedrooms.
When you walk in, there's a living room to your right.
Keep going and you reach the dining room with an adjoining den.
Behind that is a tragic kitchen with a bathroom
and an enclosed porch off of it, and in the back is a bedroom.
Upstairs, there's two bedroo and a large landing
that's just wasted space, so definitely room
for an additional bedroom up there.
And it's all like old roof lines.
So lots of charm, but some quirkiness
-as far as where we can stick things. -[Karen] Okay.
I purchased the house for 130,000, which is a lot for us,
so we have to be careful where we spend our money on this one.
It has 1,925 square feet and is currently a three bedroom, one bath.
But if we want a chance at making a profit here,
I think we need to find roo to make it at least a four bedroom,
two and a half bath.
I think to get the price point we want,
we're going to need to put a two-car garage.
-People love a garage. -They do.
So Cory should be meeting us here.
-Oh, how delightful. -[Mina] Yeah.
Any activity with Cory is better.
He just makes every activity better.
I love that.
[Karen] Cory!
Hey, Cory.
Oh, look, he has umbrellas for us, which is super sweet.
Boy, he's taking his life in his hands right now.
[Karen laughs]
[Mina] Hi!
And you wonder why the neighbors hate us.
They hate you.
-[Cory] No, they hate you. -Thanks for bringing us umbrellas.
-[Cory] Yes. -Nice.
[Cory] All right. Let's go take a look at what we got here.
So Cory and I actually walked through this house
probably easily six months ago.
[Karen] Okay.
So when we walked through, there was a family living here,
and he had actually reached out to us to sell to us.
[Karen] The shape of the house is adorable.
[Mina] Shape is adorable.
-I definitely want to open the front porch back up. -[Karen] Yeah.
We need to strip off the old siding and give it some fresh paint.
But otherwise, I think it's a cute one.
All right, I don't want to stand in the rain anymore. I want to go inside.
-Okay. -Come, let's go inside.
Oh, look what they left.
Probably 'cause they couldn't move it.
-It's too big. -[Cory] Yikes.
Hotel furniture. You guys like that?
So if it weren't dark.
-[Cory] What is this? -Plastic.
-[Cory] These are plastic? -Yeah.
The big cabinet right when you walk in, it's kind of terrible as it is.
It's right up Mom's alley so she can have it.
It's not going back in this house.
You could fill these cross hatches in really easy with putty.
-No? -I... I don't know.
All right. Well...
-We kind of have full square... -This is fantastic.
[Karen] I love that.
How would you feel about it just being sanded down and beautiful?
[Mina] If it could be like natural, I would love that.
The wing walls, like if we could get them back to natural wood,
they painted with oil-based paints over the varnish.
And when you do that, the paint doesn't stick very well.
So you hit it with heat, come...
Joke's on them.
Yeah, it comes right off, it's amazing.
[Karen] Wait. They left a beating stick.
No, that's a door sweep.
[Karen] No, it's a beating stick.
-[Mina] Okay. -I've got one, too, Karen.
[Mina] All right.
Cory, in addition to Mom, it's instead of like hurting a cat,
it's hurting two cats that are like be bobbing off each other,
and it's putting clothes on a cat while you're hurting them
and then you have two of them.
[Mina] All right, come on, children!
-Put the toys away. -She started it.
[Mina] Okay.
So we've got these four spaces.
[Karen] You're saying four, but there's only three.
-There's the entryway. -Oh, the entryway.
Yeah, that are kind of four spaces.
[Karen] You're counting as four, okay.
And then there's the living room, this big dining room
and what looks like a small den next to it.
So living room, open this up, kitchen dining, is what I'm thinking.
I think if we open these four up and do the kitchen kind of here,
so there's a big island that floats background of kitchen.
-And dining over there. -Outstanding.
-Yeah. -Let's keep going.
[Karen] And you know what?
The orange cabinets with the purple walls
and the green and the black.
I mean, we've got everything in here.
[Mina] And since we're moving the kitchen up towards the front of the house,
I think this can turn into a half bath and a big pantry.
Kind of butler's pantry-ish.
Oh, that'd be nice.
'Cause this is going to be a high-priced house.
So I feel like making it a little boujier pantry-wise than we usually do.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
And I think this opening kind of creates a hallway.
That corner...
-[Karen] ...is a main. -[Mina] Oh.
...is a main.
Wait. Why did you just say oh?
I just said oh because you're going to get super distracted
when you see the paneling on the porch,
so we should just do that and get it over with.
-Okay, all right. -She's right.
-I can, I can totally see this happening. -[Karen] Wait.
[Mina] You can just look at it and be excited.
-Oh! This is fantastic. -[Mina] Deer and birds.
[Karen] We have dear, we have Canada geese.
We have little barn, you know, like farm scenes,
so what we do is we cut that little square out.
-Yes. And then this little square out. -[Karen] Yeah.
And then that little square out.
-Yeah, exactly. -And then it tells a story.
Yeah, exactly.
We're going to save it.
And this is a little bit of nostalgia for me
'cause I've done this once before at the very, very start.
I saved the wood paneling, I cut out the little scenes
I cleaned them up and I framed them, and they were so cute.
[Mina] They look awesome her
They look like a piece of ar that you would buy.
That's what we should do on demo day.
-We better get there early. -That's all I can do.
-This is-- -Should we get there early?
-Yes, we should. -Yeah.
I think when we look at it from the outside and go underneath,
-like it shouldn't be on, like this is an enclosed. -Oh, it should go away.
[Mina] This goes off.
And does it come back on? And maybe this is our deck area.
-[Karen] Okay. -[Mina] So let's go down to the basement.
[Karen] Well, we got a little bit of seepage.
-[Cory] It's not terrible. -[Karen] That's not terrible.
-[Cory] No. -What's all this stuff?
-[Mina] What's in there? -Hang on.
Let's see what's in here.
[Cory] What is happening over here in this pile?
Oh, there's Christmas lights.
We have dishes, it's mostly dishes, mostly trash.
But that one's okay.
Ooh, look, a whisk.
What, did something creep up on you?
Something just crossed my peripheral, and I'm freaked out right now.
We are getting out of here.
Let's see what's behind the door.
[Karen screams]
[Cory] I'm freaked out right now, we are getting out of here.
[Karen] Let's see what's behind the door.
[Karen screams]
-Nothing. Nothing behind the door. -[Cory] Stop it.
-Stop playing. -[Mina] Cory is such a baby.
-[Cory] All right, now we're getting out of the basement. -[Mina] All right.
Can we go back upstairs?
So this stair is going to have to be rebuilt.
[Cory] What's happening up here?
-This space is massive. -[Cory] Mmm-hmm.
[Mina] So we have two bedrooms up here already
and we have enough space up here to add another.
-This can be a bedroom. -[Karen] Yeah.
And then the bathroom over here.
[Karen] Yeah.
Okay, you can see bathroom, bedroom, bedroom, bedroom.
[Mina] Yeah.
Having three bedrooms and a new bathroom upstairs,
plus a first floor en suite is going to be really, really appealing
to Fountain Square buyers.
But they don't just want a good layout.
They want all the bells and whistles.
So we're going to have to get really creative on this one.
I think at the price point with the location here,
garage is going to be expected,
so we're going to look at the backyard.
[Cory] Ooh, this is decent size.
-[Karen] Yeah, this is a nice little yard. -[Mina] Yeah.
So if they make us come ten feet out the alley,
this is where the garage would end.
Wouldn't be end of the world, but it would, it would take a good chunk out of our yard.
But it's worth it for how much it'll increase the resale.
[Cory] Mmm-hmm.
[Mina] The whole house is going to need a lot of work, though.
Outside, we need to open up the front porch.
Inside, we need to open up a lot of the main floor
to create the kitchen and living space and create a main suite on the back.
Upstairs, we need to add a bedroom and a bathroom,
not to mention, add the garage.
So with the garage, two-car, right?
How much did we sell this plot before?
1,925 square feet at $214 a square foot would put us at 413,875.
All right.
And we've got 130,000 in it already without even touching it.
-Yes. -Ooh.
But we could put 200,000 in and still have a $75,000 profit margin.
Well, I guess we're going to find out once we gut her.
-Yeah. Yeah. -Right?
Maybe we can save some paneling and really make it cheaper.
You're so dumb.
You're going to get all the bad jobs on demo days.
Get the toilet. You just earned the toilet.
-The toilet's clean. -I am not keeping this.
[upbeat music playing]
Where's Cory? I need him.
He's supposed to be here early to help me with this.
During the walkthrough, Cory and I decided that we would get here early
on demo day to remove the woodland paneling so it wouldn't get damaged.
Well, I'm here early to do my job.
Cory, nowhere to be found.
But when he does get here, he's in trouble.
Nice.
I see tools.
Did you get some fresh jorts Tad?
-They're super... -[Mina] Stretchy?
-They're not gonna rip? -Yeah, I can do anything. I can do anything.
Just a few things of note are like full permits are still in process.
So we have a strip permit, which means just inside for now.
Outside, will be coming off, but not today.
Inside, pretty much go ham.
Is it full gut?
-[Mina] Full gut. -Full gut.
Not keeping any doors or any doorjambs, right?
Cory, as we arranged, I got here early,
started taking the paneling down.
-Oh, nice. -[Karen] I don't know where you were.
-Not awake yet. -I know, me neither.
I missed the part where she wanted me to show up before demo.
-I missed it. -It's not a thing.
And yeah, I didn't get that call.
-We better get there early. -That's all I can do.
Should we get there early?
-Yes, we should. -Yeah.
I think she made that last part up.
Oh, and there's wing walls right inside the house.
-Don't break, though. -[Mina] Oh, yeah, don't break the wing wall.
-Okay, go inside. -[Karen] All right, go inside.
[Mina] Come on, go see it.
[Karen] Oh, my.
-Where's MJ? -[MJ] Right here.
Okay, so we're going to strip these down to the natural wood.
That makes me really, really happy.
[Karen] Yeah, it's going to be really nice.
We're taking the paint off.
So I've had this experience before where people have painted
over varnished wood and the paint just... just comes off.
[Karen] MJ, how easy is it coming off?
It's butter.
[Mina] Tad, be careful.
[Cory] Get it, Austin.
Uh-oh.
Oh, God.
[Mina] What was that?
The gas isn't off?
Why isn't the gas off?
[Mina] Whoa.
[Cory] Uh-oh.
Oh, God.
The gas isn't off?
Why isn't the gas off?
-I'm like, "That's the gas." -That's the gas.
We always have the gas off.
No excuses.
Oh, God. You're trying to kill me.
[Mina] Well, don't hit it with the sledge.
Ay-ay-ay.
I always love a good blame storm.
"Should have been off already." Blah, blah, blah.
This and that.
Luckily he didn't actually break it, so he could just...
he just turned it off.
All right, now the gas is off. Now we can do demo.
Herding cats.
[Cory] Demo day!
Whoo!
[Tad] Argh!
I think once we can get that upstairs all opened up,
I'm really going to start getting excited about this house.
And I think we're going to b able to do three bedrooms and one bath up there,
which is really what we're going to need
and I think what Fountain Square buyers are going to want.
[upbeat music playing]
[Mina] Okay.
There's your skinned apple, is it good?
How are you doing over here, little lady?
Can I have a bite?
There you go.
-Good morning. -[Mina] Good morning.
She didn't cut that up for you?
She just gum it to death or what?
[Mina] She's got four teeth.
You have four teeth? Let me see.
Oh, there they are.
That's pretty cute.
-Hoyt. -Hoyt.
-All right. -All right.
So got the garage.
That's probably going to start construction a little like
midway towards the project because we do have to get the variance to get that on.
Hmm.
'Cause we really need to do as much as we can to get over that 400,000 price point.
Yeah.
For this house to be able to be priced upward of 400,000,
we do need to build a garag and then make a little bit
higher end selections on everything else to get it to that price.
Yeah, I think the outside is going to be super cute,
but we need to get the whole porch opened up
and make it much more inviting.
-All right. -So we walk in.
We've got our really cute little foyer, got a bench.
We've got some closets, so we're keeping the wing wall.
-[Cory] Yeah, we're taking out this wall. -[Mina] Yep.
So open up, living, dining, then pull the kitchen up to the front.
And we also usually don't have like a walkthrough or walk-in pantry.
We'll have a mud sink in there. There's a window.
[Cory] And then the main bedroom is going to be back here.
-[Mina] Yeah. -We're going to vault the ceilings back there, right?
[Mina] Yep. Where the staircase goes up and down, it's too steep.
So we're going to have to mo that anyways
to make room for the bathroom over here.
So when you come upstairs, you got the bedroom on the back,
bedroom on the east and then on the north.
I think getting the four bedrooms in the house
is what we need to be over that 400,000 price point.
-All right. -I'm going to put them down.
Bye. Say bye.
[Cory] Bye. Thank you for your assistance.
God, you're cute. All right.
Bye, Jack. You're cute, too.
[Mina] We finally got the permit to begin demo on the outside of the house
So to give this house a more inviting feel,
the boys are opening up the front porch.
All right, let's rip this porch out.
Right.
Oh, my gosh!
I've never seen this side of you, MJ.
Yep.
We got some pent up anger here.
Oop-uh!
[Mina] Along with the front porch, all the siding
and that back porch additio are coming off.
Inside, we've moved the stairwell to make room
for our new three bedrooms upstairs, and downstairs, the vaulted ceiling
and the main bedroom is just the kind of extra this house needs.
So framing is wrapping up and of course, the guys
think they've already found a problem.
So what are our issues?
Okay, well, first off, let's just mention that, you know,
we're keeping this, we're leaving this open,
so definitely need to get it refinished.
This wing wall is my favorite thing about the house,
and I don't want to just paint it white and make it look brand-new.
I really want to strip it down so you can see that it's original
and it's character from the original house.
So when buyers walk in, they see it and they know
that this house is something special.
This is like a whole week's worth of work on this little feature alone.
-Yeah. -It's our baby.
[Cory] But this is where Tad and I have concerns about this wing wall.
This does need a lot of love, like sanding.
They gouged a little bit of it during the scraping process.
It's probably not salvageable by the time we get it off.
Yeah.
[Mina] Ay-ay-ay.
[Cory] This is where Tad and I have concerns about this wing wall.
It's probably not salvageable by the time we get it off.
[Tad] Yeah.
It's not that the wood isn't salvageable,
it's that it's going to take a lot of work to sand it
and you don't want to do the work.
Yeah, this is Karen's, this is Karen's mission.
No, Mom started it, but this is... you were going to finish it.
You are officially in charge of Operation Wing Wall.
No, I think we're just going to paint it and call it good.
-It's what we're going to do. -Nope. I want, I want natural wood.
Well, it sounds like a kamikaze mission to me.
Well, get it done.
[Cory] All right. And here, I love this little open staircase detail.
[Tad] Yeah. This is quite nice.
[Mina] So that it makes it feel bigger,
-even though that's not functional space. -[Tad] Right.
It's how far your eyes can go, not your feet.
We need to figure out how we're going to trim this out.
I wonder if you'll see the railing detail through this opening.
-You see what I'm saying? -Yeah, that could be cool.
[Mina] We had to rebuild the staircase because it was so steep,
it wasn't up to code, and this was a big problem area.
But now that we have it rebuilt and we have this cute little cutout,
uh, it's really charming and, you know, eye-catching.
[Tad] All right. And we have this huge butler pantry,
which I don't think we've ever really had in any of our houses.
[Mina] No, I love the pantry.
We actually have like a walk-in, walkthrough pantry in this house,
and we're going to have ton of really amazing, like, closed storage.
So the pantry is still going to be pretty
'cause you can see it from the house.
So we'll probably do, um, uppers as lowers.
-Eighteens. -Or...
No, uppers are 12 inches deep.
-Uppers are... -[Mina] Uppers are 12 inches deep.
-I thought they were 18. -[Tad] I thought they were 18.
[Mina] You guys are wild!
-[Tad] Whoa. -My uppers have been 18s.
-[Tad] Yeah. -No.
None of your uppers are 18s.
I don't know how you guys are employed still.
All right.
[Tad] I don't know, either.
-Every day is a mystery, isn't it, Tad? -Oh, I think it looks good.
-[Tad] It is. -I'm excited.
[upbeat music playing]
[Mina] Over at Hoyt, to give the house some curb appeal,
we're putting in these quain cottage-like windows.
Siding's going up, we're building our back dec
and the new garage is really coming together.
[Mina] Oh, hey, we got a garage.
[Mina] Inside, we have drywall going up and Operation Wing Wall
has commenced with Cory and Tad sanding away any gouges in the wood.
With everything taking shape it's time to turn our focus to design.
We have so much crap.
This bag is heavy.
It is super cute on you, though.
Yeah, it's a little more inspiring than the office.
Sometimes, MJ and I like to work out of District Co,
because let's face it, our current office is a mess.
It's cluttered. We have no space for anything.
There's really nowhere to sit anymore.
No, it's definitely much calmer here,
but I really, really hate lugging all of this stuff around.
We need a new office.
Like right now.
-Okay. -Tell me about Hoyt.
I mean, kind of cottagey.
We've got some board and batten.
It's got like those old, like traditional peaks.
It's not overly modern-looking.
So I think like an updated cottagey, vintage-y vibe,
-like the lived-In vibe... -Yeah.
-...like it's not a new construction. -Which it isn't.
-No. -But...
But it's pretty much new construction.
Some great news is that we already have some potential buyers for this house.
Katie and Brice are moving from Chicago,
and they've been looking for homes for a little while, and they really like the charm
and the character of the mor original looking Fountain Square houses.
So we are going to jam pack this sucker full of charm for them.
-Okay. Exterior. -Yes.
-Are these your propositions? -Yes.
-Okay. This is too dark. -[MJ] Okay.
[Mina] But we can keep that for maybe inside.
I like these three.
This one, I think I like better,
but it could come off color magenta, green
and this looks muddy, but it could be perfect.
So we'll do a sage exterior.
-[Mina] Clean white trim? -[MJ] Yep, beautiful.
And then interior, alpaca with the white...
-[MJ] Pure white trim. -[Mina] ...trim.
If we go with this floor, alpaca will work.
A little bit lighter, a little bit brighter.
-[Mina] And this is a little too blonde. -Yeah.
-So that guy. -[MJ] Yep, love it.
And then because we have this kind of like vintage-y vibe,
I want to try to sprinkle it in lightly in a couple of
other places using some wood somewhere.
We should definitely have iron and timbers build,
some kind of built-in situation.
Yeah, I love it.
And then do the railing for the stair rail, matte black metal.
We have this little cutout that you can peek into the stairwell from,
like the main body of the house,
and I think it's an opportunity to do something very charming and cool.
And we did this metal staircase a while bac with our friends,
Mel and Curtis, when we did their house.
So I'm thinking maybe we'd d something kind of like that
Something kind of similar, less modern, a little more dainty,
a little more cottagey and just kind of cute.
[Mina] Kitchen cabinets, honestly kind of living in that range, too.
-[MJ] More of a cream. -[Mina] Slightly more cream.
Yep. I want to do this bold petal backsplash.
You'd love it. Promise you'd love it.
[Mina] I do love it. And it's a little vintage-y feeling.
And then maybe some kind of really bold accent wall in the main en suite.
-Like Rocky River? -Yeah.
Because that actually looks pretty with those.
Just as long as it's not the whole thing,
-I think it could look a little dark. -[MJ] Yep.
Okay. This is going to be super cute.
Basically, when you walk into this house,
it'll be like robot eyes, like whoa...
[Mina] Over our house on Hoyt, our sage green paint is apt,
and we're working on installing the railing on the newly opened up porch
On the inside, our quaint little entryway is coming together.
And to play up the vintage cottagey look,
we're adding lots of natural wood accents.
So the entry bench will be stained to match the wind wall,
with Tad and Cory are still scraping and sanding like crazy.
And today, to bring an added touch of natural wood to the kitchen area,
Cory and I are installing the saloon-style door for the walk-in pantry,
if we can figure out the tricky double swing hinges.
-[Mina] Like that? -I think.
[Mina] Okay.
This does not feel right.
I think the most difficult thing about installing the hinges
is we just haven't done it before,
so there's a slight learning curve.
How to install a double hinge acting spring hinges.
This panel...
Oh, he has it cheated all the way out till the edge of the doorjamb.
We had it centered within the jamb itself.
Okay, let's try that.
-Like that, right? -[Mina] Yeah.
[Cory] You love it, don't you?
This house has almost all new construction.
It needed something that made it feel like it was a little more
like lived-in and collected, which I think we accomplished with the door.
And then when MJ brings in the furnishings...
It's gonna be like a one-two punch.
Phow-phow.
You got the wing wall we're repurposing and making--
No, I do one punch and now you do the other punch.
Oh, okay.
-No, just do one. -Wait.
Phow-phow.
-Wait. Am I-- -It's going to go. Phow-phow.
-Am I on the same time? -No, you're the second. You're the--
-Okay. Okay. -I'm the phew, you're phew, okay?
-Phew! -Phew!
-No! Put this arm down. -Okay.
That one's going down.
-Phew! -Phew!
-Wait. -Try again.
-Phew! -Phew! There you go.
-[Cory] That's so sick. -[Mina] Whoo!
[Cory] I'm obsessed.
With our powers combined, we can install pantry doors.
-Phew! -Phew!
[Mina] Since we have a young couple interested in our Hoyt House,
we're adding fun details to really set this place apart,
like herringbone floors all throughout the first floor.
Ahh!
It's going to be so pretty.
I'm so excited.
And today, I've asked MJ and Cory to check in on the built-ins
that we want to do in the living room.
Morning!
How aggressive of an arch are we going for here?
These look pretty aggressive.
-They're pretty aggressive. -Yeah.
It's going to be steel, mixed of wood for the doors.
Essentially what we're building are
arched built-in that has a TV stand
or a media consoles in the middle
and then wooden doors that open and close.
I love that.
I'm ready to see these arches.
This metal bender that they have is super high speed.
That's eight inches tall.
Eight inches, we're little more seven and three quarters.
All right, send it.
So typically, when I'm bending metal,
which is most mornings, you have to be really careful to get the...
the end of it right before it leaves the machine or it's going to go crazy.
He wakes up and fabricates metal every morning.
-Every morning. Yep. -For breakfast.
I love that.
So this is what you're shelving unit's going to look like.
I love that.
[Mina] Back at the house, our kitchen cabinets are going in
and our tile for the backsplash is installed.
In the main suite, MJ is painting a budget-friendly accent wall,
and Tad and Cory are still sanding,
sanding and more sanding to bring this wing wall bac to its original glory.
This wing wall has come quite far...
[Tad] It really has.
[Cory] ...in all reality, and it's still not done.
[Tad] We're almost there.
We just have like, you know, another 60 hours and we'll be done.
What about all this stuff where we have gaps and stuff?
-[Cory] Oh, no. -[Tad] I think we just trimmed it up.
It's drywall mud.
That's exactly what it is. Pushing it out.
Operation Wing Wall has officially become the bane of my existence.
Yeah, a few weeks back, some trim work happened
and it didn't get done very well.
And there's some huge gaps.
It's just frustrating, hours upon hours upon hours polishing this turd,
only for someone to come with some shoddy work.
[Tad] Yeah, we got to cock.
It's getting stained.
We can't caulk it.
We can't caulk it at all?
[Cory] It won't, except stain.
[indistinct]
We got to fill it somehow.
I mean, I can appreciate the wing wall, but this...
this should have just been demoed out, seriously, like this is a disaster.
I mean, I can appreciate the wing wall, but this is a disaster.
This should have been pushed up, too,
so that it didn't have this reveal here.
Character.
No, it's wrong.
It's not character.
So the gaps in the top wall just aren't up to snuff.
So the fix is we need to remove it, we need to cut it down.
We need to sand it down.
And then we're going to reinstall the top board
so it sits flush against the wall.
Sitting on up there.
Oh, yeah.
I think we've done what we came here to do
in terms of cleaning up this edge,
getting the header board sucked to the wall more.
-Pretty happy. -This is 100% better.
Next up, we're going to add a little bit of wood filler
to those small gaps we have remaining
and then we're going to stain it and away we go.
So Operation Wing Wall was a success.
-Yeah? -I would call it a success at this point.
I walked away with a couple of scars, a couple of tears,
a few drops of blood.
But other than that, I'm all right.
So a success it was.
[Mina] At Hoyt, we're pourin all kinds of accents into this house
in hopes of winning over our potential buyers.
Ooh, I love it!
[Mina] MJ and I are adding some quaint wallpaper to the half bath downstairs
which plays well with the vintage cottage loo
It does look good, though.
[MJ] It does. It's very cute.
[Mina] And Mom has a special project in mind to bring some new life
to an old idea.
-Here's the thing. -[Cory] Uh-oh.
I don't like to do the same thing anybody's done,
and I don't like to do the same thing twice.
-All right. -Thank you.
And we have an opportunity with these woodland panels to do something fresh and new.
And we've already done the whole woodland wall paneling,
cut it out, hanging on the wall.
And that was nice in its day, but I felt like we needed to elevate this.
We're going to make a folding room screen.
-Okay, like a room divider. -Right.
So we're going to hinge the shutters together.
We're going to cut these panels to the size that fits in this hole.
So these wall panels are in terrible shape.
I don't think there's a single one that's in good shape.
[Cory] Mmm-hmm.
[Karen] So maybe we try tracing over the pictures with the marker
and then whitewash it.
-It could be cool, right? -Perfect.
Okay.
I traced some of the woodland scenes, made it a little more modern,
and then we did like a whitewashing on top of the
and then we were able to retrofit them into the framing.
And now we have a room divider.
[Cory] We're going to reveal it to you.
-[Karen] Okay. -[Cory] MJ, go ahead.
-Here, one... -[MJ] One, two, three!
Oh, it looks fantastic.
Looks really good.
High fives, all around.
With an interested buyer on the hook for Hoyt,
we're pushing to get it don to show it to them.
We've got sod going down and MJ is taking over the wing wall project
along with our artist friend Justin,
in hopes of giving this newly sanded wood
just the right amount of distress.
I think that the best thing we can do for this whole situation
-is go in with the charcoal, which is why you're here... -Yeah.
...to kind of get some of the variation.
[MJ] I mean, this wing wall has really been through it.
So hopefully, today, with Justin's help, we can get it to
where it needs to be for it to just be finally done,
and the wing wall saga can come to a happy ending.
[MJ] Because we don't want this historic piece to look like new wood,
we want to bring out some of the darker tones of the grain
by tracing over them with charcoal.
The charcoal really adds a different level of strength in there.
[MJ] Totally.
And the wax will protect the charcoal, right?
-[Justin] Yeah. -[MJ] Okay.
And then we're using a wax stain over that charcoal
to give it some subtle natural color.
[Justin] Oh, okay.
I think that's going to work, MJ.
[MJ] So much better.
So because this is one of our high-dollar houses,
we want as much detail and flow as possible.
Now that means that the wing wall
and the bench and the pantry shelves and the pantry door,
that wood tone has to flow throughout the entire house,
so it feels really cohesive
And I think that detail is really going to pay off.
[Mina] We've reached the fin push over at Hoyt,
and we're installing the metal railing on the stairs.
The curves give it a quaint cottagey vibe,
which is echoed in the littl accent piece the guys lifted up for our cut out.
The curves continue in the living room with thei amazing built-in, too.
It's so pretty.
[Mina] I mean, it's definite an improvement on what was here before.
[Karen] Karen's feeling strong today.
Oh, yeah, she is.
[Mina] And Mom and Cory are adding some colorful landscaping
to bring this adorable cottage to life.
What's the rundown here? What are we planting?
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.
-Herbert azaleas. -[Cory] Purple flowers.
[Karen] Yeah. Green and purple on opposite sides of the color wheel,
so they contrast really well.
What's this little guy?
[Karen] This is a wisteria and it will twine up.
And if we put little hooks, it'll twine over.
[Cory] So it'll be wisteria hysteria.
[Karen] Yeah. Well said.
Good dad joke to warm you up this morning.
Uh! Yeah!
[Cory] But this looks great.
Lovely.
We're at Hoyt, and, um, it's kind of like all the last little touches.
The original wing wall reall inspired the entire vintage cottage style of this house
so we're adding lots of natural wood,
neutral colors and texture to make it look lived-in
and inviting and not like a brand-new house.
[Mina] So with this wall gone, it makes it so much more open.
[MJ] And it's open, but it's also kind of still...
-[Mina] There's still separate areas. -Totally.
At this price point, I think having that is important.
I have some first-time homebuyers that are
very interested in the property.
They're moving from Chicago, so this is going to be really good for them,
like it's spacious, there's room to grow if they want to,
and it doesn't feel like, you know,
cookie-cutter new construction, which I feel like...
-Totally. -...first-time homebuyers
will settle for but don't necessarily want.
So I'm hoping when they see it tomorrow,
it'll feel like home right away when they walk in.
-Cute. -Lovely.
There's so much space.
[Mina] So good.
-[Karen] Hey! -Hello. How's it going?
-[Mina] Hi! Are you excited? -[Karen] It's going great.
-Super excited. -Yes.
Yes, we're so excited.
Today, we are revealing Hoyt to a lovely couple, Katie and Brice.
Katie is actually from here so she knows the area well
and really loves Fountain Square,
and they've actually been looking for a while.
So I'm giving them first look at our little Hoyt House
because they are definitely motivated.
I heard a story that you're living with your mother.
-Yes. -How is that going?
In my parents' basement.
-Loving it. -I'm so ready to get out.
Well, hopefully this house is going to be one for you guys.
-Yes. -Oh, my God.
-Curb appeal looks amazing. -Yeah.
-It looks awesome. -[Brice] Love the front porch.
[Karen] So you have lovely azalea, it blooms purple in the spring,
and they do really well in Indiana.
And then you have two wisteria and they smell divine.
And while the house has a lot of the character,
because it's not new construction,
everything in it is practically brand new.
So new siding windows, all that good stuff.
And the windows have this fun grid that plays
into the quaint cottage look of the entire house.
It's just unique. I don't know.
Yeah, definitely.
[Mina] And the front porch used to be enclosed, so we opened that up
and it just has so much charm now.
I feel like we should get inside
-and we'll show you the rest of the house. -Yes.
Thank you.
-Oh, my God! -[Brice] Wow.
Gorgeous!
[Brice] It looks so good!
Okay.
-Oh, my God! -Wow.
-It looks so good. -Awesome.
-Wow. -Immediate wow factor with this.
Yeah.
[Mina] We loved the original wing wall so much
that it took a lot to restore it.
MJ, along with Justin Vining, he's an artist, he's incredible.
He came in and artist'ed the stain
-because it was so difficult to get to-- -[Katie] Wow.
It looks like a part of the original house.
-It's awesome. -Yeah, good character.
-[Karen] And the bench. -[Katie] Yes, love the bench.
[Karen] So when you come in, you can take your shoes off.
[Mina] When you came in before, you could comes into this room,
but there was a wall that separated off those spaces.
So we have this very, like, much more clean, modern look now.
I love how the woods match.
I mean, the black accents, too.
It just modernizes it, but still gives it like a super homey feel.
And herringbone is beautiful.
[Mina] And these are vinyl.
[Katie] Okay.
So if you do end up convincing him that
a puppy is the right next step.
I don't know.
Did you just read our minds because that's what I want.
Another very exciting thing, to us, probably not to most people,
but we have a kitchen and the dining room.
We definitely don't have that space, I feel like,
in the Chicago apartment, and so this is pretty cool.
Something we did a little bit differently in this house is we have that opening.
I think it makes it feel a lot bigger.
-[Brice] Definitely. -Yeah.
You're so right, it does really open up the space.
It's not just a closed wall, which is awesome.
Either of you guys cook a lot.
-She dabbles. -Yeah.
Well, then let's check out this kitchen a little closer.
[Katie] It's gorgeous.
[Mina] The kitchen used to be on the back of the house,
so we pulled it up closer to the front to make it more inviting.
We did our, you know, counter-to-ceiling wall splash,
quartzite counters, which are just beautiful, kind of like a different,
more modern play on like the veining of a, of a marble.
Okay.
And this is what we call a baby washing sink.
You do not have to wash babies in it.
But you can wash a baby puppy in it.
-Yes! -Yeah, you can.
-Yeah, absolutely. -Oh, no.
-Coming together too quick. -[Katie] Yeah.
[Mina] If you don't want to wash the puppy in the main sink,
you can wash it in the pantry sink,
which can be like the messier one.
So if you guys want to go in there,
you can check that out a little closer.
-[Katie] Oh, my God. -Wow.
This is awesome.
[Katie] Gorgeous.
I love the wood accents.
Definitely.
It matches that wood out there as well.
[Karen] That was the hope.
[Mina] This used to be the old kitchen, but now you have this
great pantry mud room, which makes so much more sense
for the back of the house.
I mean, this is gorgeous.
And I want you to take a peek outside.
You have some more wisteria back there
and you have some lilacs back there,
-so you're gonna have all the lovely smells. -Oh, my gosh.
Awesome.
-Wow. -Wow, look at this.
-[Katie] This looks awesome. -[Brice] Awesome.
-Tons of space. -Yeah.
Look at all the landscaping over there.
[Brice] Landscaping looks great.
[Katie] And the garage, too. Super nice.
[Brice] Definitely.
-Awesome. -Cool. Perfect.
Not usually wild and exciting, but we wallpapered the half bath,
so I want you guys to hop in and check that out.
[Karen] There you go.
-Oh, my God. -Wow, look at that.
It's kind of the same color as the outside of the house a little bit.
-Yeah. The green. -Yeah.
And there wasn't a half bath before.
So now you have a powder room, which is, you know, for guests.
[Katie] It looks amazing.
Well, we're going to head behind you guys to your en suite.
[Katie] Okay.
So your main en suite over here.
-Wow. -Wow.
Your eyes, just like immediately go up.
Yeah, 'cause the ceilings are high anyways and vaulting them
-makes it feel so much bigger. -Yeah.
[Karen] One of the things we found during demolition
is this woodland seamed wall paneling, so we saved it
and we made this lovely room divider.
-[Katie] Wow! -[Brice] Wow, look at that.
And it kind of emphasizes how high your ceiling is because they're tall.
That is awesome. I love that.
They also did kind of an updated chair rail wall design,
but I think it turned out kind of cool.
[Brice] I think it's perfect.
[Mina] You'll notice the flooring is all the way
-through here as well. -Yeah.
It's going to go into your en suite bathroom.
[Mina] Here is your main en suite.
Double vanity, walk-in closet, nice, big size shower.
[Brice] Great size vanity.
[Katie] I love the mirrors.
-The leather. -The leather.
Oh, my God.
And this is gorgeous, too, the wood.
[Mina] There used to be stairs down to the basement here,
but we moved those back to make this bathroom bigger.
That is awesome. It looks beautiful.
All right, uh, let's head upstairs.
-Okay. -All right.
So upstairs, we have three bedrooms and another full bath.
Okay.
Did rebuild the staircase, so it's much wider, less steep.
And then we had this custom piece built,
so we didn't have to have a wall there.
-[Katie] Yeah. -I think it just makes it feel way more open.
[Katie] Definitely.
So this is one of three bedrooms upstairs,
and you kind of can set up this little office.
Yes.
We do have a lot of, like, really unique rooflines
that I think add some charm to it.
No, I love the ceilings.
I think it feels brand new, but it still has that charm.
All right.
Well, let's go back downstairs and we'll kind of talk
through the numbers and everything.
-Okay. -All right.
Go ahead.
[Katie] Thank you.
Come sit around your lovely quartzite bar top here.
Talk about how much you love this house and how much you want it.
Yes.
It's listed for 425,000, four bedroom, two and a half bath,
and we did add the garage because I think at that price point,
that's kind of what... what people are looking for.
-Right, definitely. -So it's yours if you guys want it.
-Yeah. Yeah. -I think it could be the one.
-We're pretty sold. I'm sold. Are you sold? -I'm sold.
I think it's exactly what we're looking for.
We've been looking around for a while.
And, you know, I think immediately we felt like,
-you know, it was the one, so. -Yeah.
If that's what you're thinking,
I can get everything drafted up
-and sent over to you this evening. -Awesome.
-That sounds great. Good. -Okay.
-Let's do it. -[Mina] Yeah. Whoo!
[Mina] We purchased this house for 130,000
and put around 200,000 into it.
We made it more functional with the extra bathrooms
and garage and gave it lots of unique vintage charm
With all those bells and whistles, we were able to list this
higher than we planned and put it under contract for the list price of 425,00
It looks like you nailed all the details
and you nailed the sale!
-High five. -Not so aggressive.
Yes, I did. Yes. It's very exciting.
What do you want to look at again?
Let's go look at something again.
The butler's pantry.
-[Karen] All right, yeah! -The backyard.
[Karen] Let's do it.
I really loved coming back to our old stomping grounds in Fountain Square,
it's been a while, and it makes me
a little bit nostalgic to see how far the neighborhood's come.
And I like to think we had a little something to do with that.
-Maybe a little bit. -Just a teeny bit.
Just a tiny, tiny bit.