[Karen] That's tiny.
[Mina] I love small houses, because theoretically, they're quick projects.
[laughs]
Oh, the smell just hit me, though.
Oh, my goodness, Mina.
[Mina] Very confusing.
-[Cory] What's wrong? -[Tad] You don't wanna know, buddy.
-Is it bad? -[Karen grunting]
Oh, no, Karen.
You're so brave.
This floor system ain't right.
This all has to go.
We gotta pull all this up.
[Cory grunting]
-Beautiful. -I love it.
I think she's gonna love it.
Oh, my gosh.
Wow!
Hyah!
[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.
[Karen] That is so gross!
[Mina] Holy cow.
Then we turn those rundown houses
into some of the nicest home in the neighborhood.
-[man 1] Wow! -[woman 1] I love it.
[Karen] So where are you taking me today?
We are going to Old Southside,
but first I have some exciting news.
Am I gonna be excited?
Um... for me.
[Karen] Okay. All right.
I like being excited for you. This is good.
[Mina] So I've been waiting to tell you until it was official,
but I bought an empty lot and we're gonna build
a headquarters for Two Chicks and a Hammer.
-It's very exciting. -That's very exciting.
[Mina] You know, I have the lot.
And since it's zoned commercial,
we can basically build it from lot line to lot line.
So super big.
We are gonna be able to do upwards of 6,000 square feet.
You've never had anything approaching 6,000 square feet.
-[Mina] I'm so excited. -Are you even gonna know what to do with that?
I don't know what to do with that.
[exhales]
[Karen] I think about where we came from and all the places--
What do we have, like, a 100 square feet?
Maybe a little side office room.
Maybe 120... maybe 120.
But then all the places you've landed since then,
that every time you knew it was temporary
and you had to move everything and--
So many times. Oh my God, I hate moving.
-This is so exciting. -[Mina] It's exciting.
So my plan has been taking a little bit from each house to move towards this point.
-Um... -So you got a little squirrel cash...
[Mina] I got a squirrel, so I've got the lot.
-...that says HQ. -I've got that plans.
[Karen] Okay.
I think once we finish this current house we're going to and sell it,
there'll be enough in the squirrel fund to... to get big girl done, so.
We are heading to the Old Southside on Adler.
So this will be our third house on the same corner of Adler
Cory's house, the house behind Cory's, and now this one.
This one is right across the street from Cory's house
-Next to the empty lot. -[Karen] Oh, nice!
[Mina] Obviously, we've spen a lot of time in the Old Southside lately
but it's paying off.
More and more houses are being rented there,
which is great news for this little nugget of ours.
I think it's, like, 800 square feet.
That's tiny.
So I wanna look at layout options to see if I can get
two bedrooms and two bath in there.
I think you've done it before.
-And I love small houses because... -[Karen] And they're--
...theoretically, they're quick projects.
Yeah. [laughs]
Theoretically.
And I think that it's current floor plan is just like weird and choppy.
You walk in the front door into the living room,
off to the left is one bedroom,
to the right is the dining room and kitch
then there's a shed additio on the back with a bathroom
The size of this is going to limit our buyer pool.
It's just a different buyer pool.
[Mina] Yes.
I purchased this one for $34,000.
Like I said, it's pretty small, around 800 square feet.
And right now it's one bedroom, one bath.
But hopefully, we can make it into a two..
two bed, two bath in no time.
This is it. Over here on the right.
Oh, it's a little nugget. It's super cute.
[Mina] Yeah. It's a little nugget.
But it's starting to rain, so grab the umbrella.
[Karen] So thanks for taking me out on this lovely day.
We'll make the outside part quick.
-[Karen laughs] -[Mina] It's got cute rooflines.
-[Karen] Yeah. -I think it's got a decent size.
Obviously needs everything new.
We gotta get the old vinyl siding off,
freshen up the color and possibly move
the front door, so it's facing the street.
-[Karen] Yeah. -Because this house is so long and skinny.
Wherever we place the front door,
it's really going to inform the rest of the floor plan.
[Karen] You want people to feel invited
and when the door is on the side
and you can't see it, it doesn't say, "Hello, I'm friendly."
-Well, we'll talk more inside. -Okay.
-Let's get inside. -Okay. Let's go.
-[Mina] Watch out. Watch out. -[Karen laughs]
There are tigers in this tall grass, I tell you, tigers.
I feel like this window could come back
into the house somewhere, take it out of the door.
[Mina] Potentially.
[Karen] And we've got a higher ceiling
because we've got the traditional drop ceiling.
[Mina] Yeah.
And if we move the front door, it makes sense to turn this into a bedroom and bathroom.
So it's like a pretty standard shape.
Oh, the smell just hit me, though.
-Yeah. It's not a great smell. -I wasn't ready for that.
Not a great smell. Let that... let that go, Karen.
-Let it go. -[Mina] Whew.
Yeah, that was a little rough.
[Karen] What else we got?
[Mina] There's enough space in this room to add a bathroom.
So then you would have two ensuites on this side
of the house away from the public areas.
[Karen] All right.
What else we got?
All right.
Not bad at all.
That's the dining room, I would assume.
This whole shed addition, I think it's... that's gonna have to come off.
Come off. Bathroom over here.
But look, this is real tile on the wall.
Oh, my God. If it wasn't so crappy, I would love it.
[Karen] Yeah.
So you can see, this bathroom is part of the add-on and it's just got to go.
The framing is very questionable.
[Mina] Yeah.
Kitchen.
[Karen] This is real brick.
It's brick veneer where they sliced a bunch of bricks.
[Mina] Nothing special there.
So we've got the three spaces in the front.
If that becomes our private bedroom area,
then we can move the front door here
and make this our living room and this our kitchen.
[Karen] Yeah. Okay.
Basement.
Let's see, stairs aren't bad.
[Mina] No.
So, it's really interesting 'cause if you look behind you,
like, I don't know if this was original footer and they dug it out.
I was a little confused by some of it.
[Karen] Yeah, it's very confusing
and not necessarily sitting on the ground.
Definitely that's a problem, though.
[Karen] Yeah, but the rest of it looks pretty good.
-Center block. -[Mina] Yeah. The joists aren't terrible.
[Karen] I wanna take a peek up in the attic real quick.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, it doesn't look bad up here at all.
[Karen] Not bad at all.
Ceilings are super high.
I mean, it's disgusting and dirty.
Oh, feces. Yay!
[Mina] Raccoon? Human?
[Karen] I'm gonna go with...
I'm gonna go with cat.
All right.
So... Oh, my goodness, Mina.
-[Mina] Very confusing. -[Karen] Yeah. Very confusin
[Mina] Let's see what else.
All right, so... Oh, my goodness, Mina.
The wall that's holding up the roof is leaning outwards.
This has got a bad lean on it.
[Mina] Very confusing.
Yeah. Very confusing.
Also looks like they've tried to support a little bit on the porch,
but the support is not enough,
so that's gonna have to be addressed in a really robust way.
All right. I'm coming down.
[Mina] Okay.
[Karen] Let's go back here.
So it looks like the original house had a hinge roof
over a porch and then at some point
they turned some of the porch into interior space.
-Yeah. -[Karen] I don't know.
I can't tell.
So what did you pay for this place?
-[Mina] So I bought this house for 34,000. -[Karen] Okay.
[Mina] And I think it'll cost us about 120,000 to renovate it
and get two bedrooms and two baths out of it.
-[Karen] Yeah. -And sell it 200, something like that.
I feel like your, the classic chop and pop might be overbuilding here.
-Yes. I think so too. -Yeah.
Cory's house was our loss leader, um, in the Old Southside,
and he got it under contract so early we didn't make
anything on it, but by the time he closed,
it appraised higher than what we had it under contract for.
So the market's already changing.
We didn't make a huge profi on our last house over here but it was more than Cory's
So with each one we do, the profit creeps up,
so hopefully this one will deliver
and give us the final push we need to break ground
on our Two Chicks headquarters.
So to get the most out of our money,
we're gonna need to add a bedroom
and a second bathroom to make this a true two bedroom,
two bath, which will mean reconfiguring the layout.
I wanna move the front door so it's facing the street.
We'll also have some foundation issues
to take care of in the basement,
along with some roofing issu in the attic.
All right. Let's get out of the rain.
[Karen] Yeah.
♪ It's a rainy day ♪
Oh, well, hello, gentlemen.
-[laughter] -What's up?
I didn't even see you sitting there.
Thanks for showing up. That's nice of you.
How long have you been waiting?
Oh, like, you know, I show up early.
It's the thing I do. It is demo day on Adler.
Jack is sick, so Mina is staying home with him.
So I am leading the demo brigade today.
-I have no partner in crime. -Yeah.
And I have no idea what we're doing.
But I happen to know Austin knows what we're doing.
So, Austin, come on up, take the stage.
Looks who's in charge today.
Run the show. Yeah! Yeah!
-[Cory] Oh, my God. -[Austin] What's up?
So I guess the reason that I came to be in charge
was because I'm the one that filed the permits
and called the dumpster company, and that's really about it.
So what... what are we doing today?
So this is just coming down to the studs.
Exterior off, interior off, down to the studs.
The inside's relatively clean from what I've heard,
so it shouldn't be too bad of a demo today.
No. It's not bad in there. Yes, another question.
-Next question. -Mina is not here.
And since that's the case, uh, I think the cats are coming out to play.
-[laughter] -[Cory] All right.
-Let's go. -[Tad] Burnin' too hot!
-[Cory] Let's get to work. -[Tad] See you, guys.
Okay.
-I got it. -[Karen] Perfect.
Beautiful.
Oh, God.
-We came to do business. -Yeah.
Yes!
[upbeat song playing]
You've really upped your jort game to a robber game.
Jortveralls.
So satisfying!
This is how you know I'm serious about my job today.
[Cory] What y'all up to?
[Tad] Do you wanna check the toilet?
-You checked it? -[Karen] So, that's the problem?
[Cory] What's wrong?
-You don't wanna know, buddy. -Is it bad?
[Karen] Oh, it's not bad.
You can unscrew it and then we can just lift it up.
-[Cory] Oh, no! Oh, no! -[Karen] You missed?
[Cory] Oh, that's got poop on it.
That's like letting a lady pump her own gas.
-I just need to find a way... -[Cory retching]
Oh, no, Karen.
Oh, that's got poop on it.
I just need to find a way... [Cory retching]
Oh, no, Karen.
You are so impressive right now.
-[Karen laughing] -You look so good carrying that toilet.
I have no understanding of why the toilets
are so difficult for these boys.
[Cory] Oh, no, Karen.
You're so brave.
This is not bravery.
Bravery is a charging bear.
-[laughs] -And I get big and go...
-[screaming] -[Cory] Yeah.
-You're brave, aren't you? -That's bravery.
How does she do that, dude?
-[Tad] I don't know, man. -[Cory] That is impressive.
[Tad] I'm gonna work on the outside.
Heads up.
-[Karen] Nicely done. -[Austin] Very nice.
[Tad] Oh, Lordy.
There's so much lath in here.
It's on the walls, it's on the ceilings.
It's literally all over this house.
-It's everywhere. -You know what?
I'm tempted to save the lath from this house, because...
Don't break it. If you can take it off in little pieces.
Somebody sent me a picture, 'cause what they did
is they have a whole wall and they used lath to do a marquetry pattern.
Look at this.
Oh, that's sick.
[Karen] How amazing is that?
[Cory] It looks like a tedious process.
[Austin] It is a very cool wall.
Somebody on social media sent me a picture
of what her husband had done on the wall
in the dining room and it's lath marquetry.
So you can tell they've demoed this house and they've saved the lath
and they've cleaned it up.
And then they made this really cool pattern on the wall with the lath.
Are we onboard with saving lath for this project?
Yeah.
[Karen] I am so excited about this project.
I think this is gonna be a huge feature in the house,
maybe even the most eye-catching feature in the whole house.
You know what?
We're gonna have a house that has a lot of lath and that's a great idea.
Even without Mina here, I think Austin and I led the demo charge pretty well.
[Austin] Yep.
We all got to have some fun and nothing got destroyed
that didn't need to be destroyed.
I call that a successful demo day.
Hey-o!
[Mina] Hey.
-What are you making? -You got plans?
Oh, yeah. I've got plans to do a lot of things today.
-What are you making? -Smell it... Taste it.
-No, no, no, no. -It smells like a fruit.
It looks like it smells like seaweed.
Taste it. It doesn't... This one does not taste like seaweed.
I'm okay.
Good stuff. Okay. So, we got Adler here.
Yeah, right across the street.
This is the second home we've done that's just
within a stone's throw of Cory's house.
Just keep on increasing my property value.
Thank you very much.
Unlike these other ones, though, uh,
this one is not getting the chops,
not getting a pop, staying a little tiny nugget,
but I definitely think there are things we can do
to make it feel bigger, function really well.
Um, it's gonna be good.
The front porch is almost as big as the whole house.
[Cory] Yeah, the front porch is gigantic.
So front porch, you reframe and make it.
So the porch is mostly inside space.
So 16 feet of the 19-foot porch
will now be given to inside the house.
-Yeah. -That's pretty cool.
And we're actually, uh, not having to do any form
of like footer or addition to gain real estate space.
We're gonna get it from the front porch.
Yes.
I don't think we've ever pulled a stunt like that before.
[Mina] So now when you come the front door, which is way further out,
you've kind of got this open walkway entryway
and you'll have the living room at the back
of the house in front of you wide open,
the kitchen at the back of the house
to the right wide open, and then the front of the house
is the two bedrooms and two bathrooms.
[Cory] Yeah.
And they're petite, but they fit and they function.
No, I agree with that. There's not-
We'll do a new patio out back, privacy fence, new sidewalk in the front,
get some nice, like, landscaping along here.
I think it's gonna be like a perfect little postage stamp downtown house.
[Cory] Yeah.
The client for this house is similar to you.
-Yeah. -It's gonna be like...
First time homebuyer, eh?
First time homebuyer, young, professional.
It's small. So you're good with those?
-[Cory] Oh, yeah. -[Mina] Start putting it back together.
-All right. -Thank you.
-[Cory] Thank you. -♪ Go on ♪
♪ Do your thing Do your thing ♪
♪ Do it ♪
♪ Knock 'em out the ring ♪
♪ Knock 'em dead Do it ♪
Before we get too far along on our Adler house,
we have to do some foundation repairs
in the basement to make sur our roof system has all the support it needs
So no more walls were leaning out
like mom found when we first walked the house.
With everything shored up, we can get our new roof on.
Definitely wanna get it on before it's rainy or too cold.
So we can keep doing everything inside.
We finally began framing and we're boxing
in the old front porch to give us more square footage.
But we had to replace some of the old floorboards
that were rotten and immediately found an issue.
We need to get in this basement.
Yeah. We gotta to pull all this up.
This all has to go.
We gotta get to the source here.
This whole corner is out. Something fierce.
[Mina] You can tell it's going down to that angle.
Yeah, this floor system's...
ain't right.
Yeah. We gotta pull all this up.
This all has to go.
[Mina] You can tell it's going down to that angle.
Yeah. This floor system's ain't right.
This floor back here is wonkity, technical term.
So I want Cory to get it up so I can see what's happening under it,
because I can tell by looking at it and walking on it,
the whole floor is slanting down toward the back of the house
[hammering]
[Cory grunting]
Things I do for you.
That's exactly the one we wanted to open, isn't it?
[Mina laughs]
[Cory] Ah, I'm feeling fat right now.
All right. Are you going in the hole down?
[Mina] Yeah.
You look at this, the new joists
that were put in were put in overly notched.
-They're at an angle. -[Cory grunting]
[Cory] Yeah, I see that.
-[Mina] And that's why it's angling down that way. -[Cory] Yeah.
And then over here we need like a header
because this beam is stopped and cut.
So nothing supporting any of this except two nails here.
-Four, four, four. -Well, we gotta get this.
We have no hangers, we have no header.
The joists are not to sit on the exterior foundation wall,
which isn't the end of the world,
but the other end of those joists
are just nailed into a random board.
In this board, it ain't attached to anythin
So the problem is that this can all just go, fwamp,
when any certain amount of weight isn't there.
Hey, I know framing was supposed to have been done
for weeks, but it's all... It's all wrong.
From upstairs, you can tell it's going down to that angle,
but it's... it's angled, so those are over notched.
These are just toenailed in.
Here's what I'm thinking is if this top of this foundation wall
is level with this one, we need to have
continuous twelves going to this wall here.
Well, I'm sure it's not level, but we'll make it level.
[Cory] Yeah. This is an easy fix up.
But we already fixed it theoretically.
Cory's favorite line is like, "Oh, it's no big deal.
No big deal. It's not a big deal."
I know it's no big deal, but we just did it wrong the first time.
Did we do it right the first time?
Well, no. We did it wrong.
The framers did it wrong.
Well, you did your job wrong if the framers did wrong.
[laughs]
So new floor joists that span the entire width
of the basement will go in so everything is supported
and leveled which will cost time and therefore money.
How much time and money is to be determined?
[Cory] That's the scary part
-You have so many little gray beard hairs. -I know.
It's all salt and peppery. How old are you?
Uh, not old enough to have grays.
-I'm 34. -Okay.
Uh, you gave 'em to me, though.
-100%. -[Cory] Yeah.
[Mina] As we were afraid, the framing issues at Adler
have been holding up the progress for a couple of weeks
and are setting us back several thousand
unexpected dollars to get everything right.
To keep things moving, MJ and I are gonna make
some decisions on the desig so we can hit
the ground running once these issues are fixed
-[MJ] Some lath. -[Mina] Mom's project--
[MJ] Oh, yeah.
...for siding and then some paint colors.
For Adler?
For Adler, yes.
So a recent development is that we have a buyer for our little Adler house.
I only listed it a couple of weeks ago
and she snatched it up super quick.
The buyer's name is Aliye and she is moving to Indie
for her doctorate program and it's gonna be
the perfect little house for her.
And while we don't do custom homes,
-I think we can get some inspiration from her. -Exactly.
Now, we don't have to appeal to a large buyer pool.
We just have to make one person happy.
-I'll start on the outside? -Yeah.
So with our siding, I wanna do the vinyl shake.
I knew you're gonna say that.
A little bit more expensive, but still less than regular siding.
I'm very into that.
It's very like beach side, seaside,
like a blue-y gray and then black windows
with that would be a little bit more urban, right?
-[MJ] I love that. -Okay.
We could do this for, like, the accent for the door, not vinyl, but the color.
100%.
Our corner of Adler now has Cory's dark gray house,
our white house that we just finished,
and I think this bluish gra is gonna be perfect
to kind of complete our color palette.
Exactly.
And the shake shingles are gonna give it
that beach bungalow Hamptons vibe.
[Mina] Which will be perfec for Aliye because she told m
that the beach is her happy place,
so giving her this calm coastal design
is gonna be perfect for her spending
her days there studying for her doctorate.
Well, if the outside super, super cool,
we have to find a way to warm it up on the inside a little bit.
-Mm-hmm. -Let's start with the floors.
Yeah.
So this is EVP and we have enough left
from another project because this is so small.
So I think we try to use this here
and it's that light gray color we want.
-Accent walls. -I love that.
I don't think the whole house should be this.
Just the bedroom.
[Mina] Just the bedroom and then the rest
of the house, this, like, soft oyster color.
[MJ] I love that.
And in the bathrooms, I kind of wanna go with this beige.
Oh, you're gonna like this, Outer Banks.
-Well, if you look at all the names... -Oyster.
Oyster white, pool house, Outer Banks.
Oh, lovely. We've got all waters name.
[MJ] There's a vibe. There's a vibe.
[Mina] There's a vibe. Okay.
The kitchen will have white cabinets
and a marble countertop that continues
all the way up the wall for the backsplash.
So it's a lot of white.
So I want to have a custom cabinet built,
but this I want in like a natural oak.
[MJ] To warm everything up, that's exactly what we need.
[Mina] And I want it to be glass.
[MJ] A countertop China cabinet situation.
Yes.
Oh, and I know you had sent, um, a general furniture plan,
and this was one of the pieces you want, which I love.
[MJ] Oh, it's so large.
This is several thousand dollars
'cause you and I both have the most expensive taste.
Correct.
But we have a vanity that legit is almost identical
to this that we didn't end up using 'cause the top broke.
So what if we use the piece we have and we can find a marble remnant?
You can get this look for way less.
So what I'm hearing is you're gonna find this and then bring it to me.
It exists. I know it does.
-Got to do a little digging. -Yeah, okay.
It could be literally anywhere, but I'll find it.
We have nine different storage units across the city,
and I swear that vanity is in one of them.
And once upon a time we had them all organized
on spreadsheets and everything.
But then everybody just started shoving everything everywhere.
So I think it's gonna be quite the scavenger hunt.
Fun for me.
Elephant in the room.
So small. Yeah.
Um, mom's doing something with that,
so I wanted to bring in a couple of pieces, so it's in your brain.
So whatever we end up doing with this is gonna be really cool,
but it's gonna have to be big and impactful.
I feel like this is very like niche.
And now you're making me anxious
because we have a buyer and she wants the house,
but that is not on the spec sheet
that she agreed to for the house.
So I feel like a phone call to her is probably merited.
-Okay. -[Mina] Um...
Good morning.
-Good morning. How you been? -Good.
We are going through and finalizing some of the design decisions here.
Sneak peek.
And so I just wanted to touch base with you
because there's a lot of this and this is not anything we talked about.
How are you feeling about the appearance of this lath?
I like it for sure.
I'll actually be up there in the next two weeks,
so I... I'd love to see it and hopefully get
a sneak peek of everything that's going on.
And you can kind of help me reel Karen in and we'll get something
that you really want 'cause I kinda wanna do
something bold 'cause we have a ton of lath.
-Okay. -That's amazing.
And I'm excited for you to get a little sneak peek.
-Okay. -Okay.
-Bye. -Bye.
[Mina] It took a couple of weeks to get everything level
and safe at our little coastal cottage, but now we are flying.
Framing, windows, and drywall are done.
Our weathered gray floors are going in and the kitche is well on its way.
Outside, our seaside bluish gray siding is up
and concrete is being poure for our back patio and front walkway.
This is the one.
I know it.
[Mina] And today, MJ and Austin are on a bit of a scavenger hunt.
[MJ] The blank-th time is the charm, right?
[Austin] Yeah.
Feeling good about this one.
Fingers crossed once again.
So Mina came up with what seems like
it's gonna be a really good idea.
We have a very expensive vanity
that has a lot of drawers on it
that could definitely be a console table.
Mina just doesn't remember where it is.
So Bobcat and I are riding around trying to find it.
-We're on the hunt. -Nope.
Okay.
How many more?
-[Austin] One last one. -All right.
It's gotta be here, right?
The next one is gonna be back in Bates-Hendricks.
All right.
One more.
[MJ] We have, like, nine storage units,
and we've been to nearly all of them looking for this vanity.
We have storage units pretty much everywhere.
We've got no central location right now.
Our office is kind of just wherever you are in the moment.
[MJ] It's, uh, inefficient and impossible to inventory
when you've got stuff in that many places.
And I'm assuming super expensive.
This better be the one. I'm done driving around to these things.
The gas is gonna be empty if it's not the one.
If this isn't the one, we're just gonna buy the thing I wanted originally.
-[Austin] Uh-oh. -[door clatters]
Going rogue with the money.
This one has to have it.
Oh, story of my life.
[MJ] This one has to have it.
-Oh, my God. -Oh.
Oh. I'm assuming this is it.
[Austin] Okay. That looks like it.
Okay. I love this.
We can probably get, like,
a remnant piece and have it mounted on top of it.
-So that's the one? -[MJ] This is the one.
It has to be. Let's get it out. It's hot.
[MJ] It is real hot in here and I hate this.
So basically what we have is a very, very fancy cabinet
with the holes in the back cut off for plumbing.
But if it's gonna go up against a wall,
there's no reason it can't be just like
a sideboard or a buffet or whatever you call it.
-[sneezing] -Bless you.
Sorry, I'm allergic to these storage units.
[Austin] This whole juggling act of storage units
is getting very old, and I think it's really wearing on everybody.
So we... we desperately need to come up with a new office.
[MJ] Yep. Tomorrow. Like, we need it tomorrow.
It'd be nice if it was built and done yesterday.
♪ Gonna make you look good ♪
♪ It'll take a second ♪
♪ No, you can't get enough ♪
♪ Bet you want some ♪
♪ Turn your head like "What!" ♪
♪ Wait a minute ♪
[Mina] Back at Adler, the cabinets are getting installed.
And while we wait on the tall custom piece,
we're going ahead with our marble counters,
and the kitchen is starting to take shape.
And look at this cutie patootie coming through the door.
-[MJ and Cory] Hi. -[Karen] Hi.
[Mina] Mom and the boys are working
on their lath project with the help of our buyer, Aliye.
-Welcome. -Aliye?
-[Aliye] Aliye. -MJ.
-MJ, nice to meet you. -[Karen] Karen.
-Hi. -[laughter]
I heard through the grapevine that our homeowner Aliye
likes to get her hands dirty, likes to do a little project,
and wants to do a project in this house.
So I'm gonna run past her my idea for a feature wall
made out of the lath we found during demo.
I wanna show you what we're gonna do
'cause you're gonna get super excited.
-Yeah. -Look at this.
Oh, that's sick.
[Karen] How amazing is that?
[Cory] It looks like a tedious process.
Now, because she's the homeowner
and this is a really bold look.
I really want her to sign off on it before we start.
Something wild just happened in my brain.
Oh, shocking! Shocking! That never happens.
And I think you might be really into this.
-Okay. -What just happened in your brain?
-And I hope you're really into this. -Okay.
-[MJ] What if we did all the way up to here?
[Karen] So there's our top of our chair rail, estimate.
[MJ] And we do it in a herringbone...
-[Aliye] Okay. -[MJ] ...all the way down.
I think that's cool. I like herringbone.
[MJ] I think that would look really cool.
Could I even possibly paint it in the future?
-[Karen] Absolutely. -[MJ] Totally.
You know, if I wanted it to match the trim.
-Whitewash a little bit or something? -I think, yeah.
-I really like white tones. -So maybe that could be our finishes, whitewash.
-We're gonna get along. -Yeah.
[Aliye laughing]
[MJ] Beautiful.
I really love the herringbone pattern that MJ had the idea for,
and I think using the lath all along the wall gives it a really cohesive look.
[Karen] Okay.
That should hit all of it.
I'm so excited to see the finished product.
I think now I've gotten a taste of what it's gonna look like,
so it's been awesome to see everything come together
and I'm looking forward to see it finish.
So we still have a lot to do,
but we want you to have some surprises so we're booting you out...
-[MJ] You gotta go. -...and we're gonna get back to work.
-So go, go, go, go. -[laughs]
-Okay. -Thank you for joining.
-Okay. -Thanks.
-Bye. -See you later.
-[Cory] We'll see you soon. -All right. Come on, guys. We got work to do.
-[Mina] Hello. -[MJ] Hello.
-How's it going? -Good to see you, guys.
Good to see you.
MJ and I are popping by Todd and Rod's office,
um, because I wanna get the ball rolling on our HQ plans.
So I want to get as much square footage
for storage of things and people
while not looking like a giant commercial building, um, as possible.
The location of the headquarters lot
is in residential area of Bates-Hendricks,
so we gotta make sure it blends in with the neighborhood,
which will be tricky since it's gonna be so big.
So what we did is we've gone as wide as you can go on it,
and then what if we do a gable front.
-More like traditional for residential home. -Exactly.
So if we come in with a gable...
You're so good at that.
-[laughs] -It's a really nice straight line. Okay.
I think we also wanna look at how do you take
that front facade from being a flat piece.
It may be that we say, okay, let's bump out, you know, a gable.
Now we'd need to kind of match the residential details of the neighborhood.
So you've got your corner trim,
you've got trim underneath the gables,
-trim around the windows, nice thin profile... -[Mina] Yeah.
[Todd] ...double hung windows so you can get fresh air in...
They really know how to give us that home facade
with the warehouse vibe that we need to fit as many people
and as much stuff into this building as possible
without it looking like just a giant storage unit.
You get the idea that it's not a big cube, um,
and it's gonna feel like a home.
I think your new building is gonna look something like that.
-[MJ] I love it. -I like it.
This is definitely next up in the queue.
So if you guys can start working on plans
and we can get them into the permitting process, that'll be huge.
-And we'll get some drawings. -Can I take this one with us?
Even showing just this to the team, they're gonna freak out.
-Yeah. -This is very... This makes it very real.
[Rod] Awesome.
[slow rock song playing]
[Mina] We're down to the finishing touches at Aliye's house.
Our kitchen appliances have been delivered
and our marble backsplash is in.
Oh, you guys, it's looking good.
-How's it going? -Oh, I love it.
This looks amazing.
[Mina] And our custom counte to ceiling cabinet is going
to add the perfect touch of warm natural wood to this all white kitchen.
Awesome.
There we go.
Should be ready for the doors now
and then we can check out the hardware.
[exhales]
[Mina] It's so pretty.
-Whoo! -You know, I think--
-That looks smoking. -I love it.
I think she's gonna love it.
Thank you, guys.
♪ Live it up ♪
♪ Please don't cut ♪
♪ We'll keep dancing ♪
♪ Till the sun's coming up ♪
♪ Live it up ♪
♪ Can't get enough... ♪
[Mina] As we near the end of our little Adler house,
mom is finishing up her little lath wall with a light whitewash.
'Cause I watered it way down, you still have the tonality, which I like.
-Yeah. -But you don't lose all of the distinct colors.
-Yeah. -I think it's gonna be good.
[Mina] And now all that's le to be done is landscaping..
-Hello. -Yay!
[Mina] ...which will really pull everything together.
So we have five roses.
We're gonna do one juniper on that corner,
one juniper on that corner.
We're at our little Adler house, and we're doing the cutest,
fastest landscaping you've ever seen
'cause it's a little itty-bitty house,
and it doesn't need much to look amazing.
Oh, what do you see?
It's a tiny little house, but we have to...
we have to put plants in it, right?
We have to dig. [growling]
Come on, Adele. Let's go dig some holes.
When it's more than just me and one other person, it goes fast.
I have all the helpers in the world today.
-Yeah. -You had four helpers.
[man 2] Oh, Adele, you're trying to seek refuge in some shade?
It's like the finishing touch of a house.
It tells people we really cared about this house.
-All right, we're done. -We're done.
-We did it. -We're done.
-That was so fast. -That was the quickest one yet.
Killed it. I know, right? It's 'cause I had four of you.
Got some roses to match the roses we planted.
We're wrapping up Aliye's house today
so we can show it to her tomorrow.
[MJ] And getting that massive vanity from the storage unit
was an undertaking, but it totally works
and it's totally worth it with the coastal cottage vibes.
It's perfect.
Was this super expensive having this cut?
This remnant was probably 400 bucks.
And that piece you wanted to buy was like several thousand dollars.
And I like this better.
I don't like how, uh, much travel time
it took to get it here, but that's okay.
We'll solve that eventually with the new closer warehouse,
maybe on this side of town maybe...
I've been working on it.
-...eventually, pretty soon. -Yes.
Saving money on things like this is exactly
the kind of smart moves we need to be making
to squirrel away all the pennies to build headquarters.
So I'm really glad this worked out.
I like the blue.
It's very, like, soothing.
I feel like it's a good study place.
Homing.
-Okay. -I love it.
I think she'll like it.
All right.
[MJ] I'm obsessed with this thing.
I... Legit, I think I want one at my house.
[MJ] Yeah.
This is a small house, so keeping everything light
and airy will really help make the space seem bigger.
It's perfect for one person and Aliye's is going to be
a lovely addition to our little corner over here on Adler.
She still has to sign on the dotted line, though, right?
Yes.
She's bringing her boyfrien tomorrow and hopefully,
she still likes it when she sees it and we're good to go.
-[MJ] Last touch. -Step stool.
So, she can get all this cute stuff off the top.
You know, or just make a climb on her counter like I do.
Okay.
♪ It all starts With one spark ♪
♪ Let your color shine Right from the heart ♪
-[Mina] Good morning. -Hi.
-Hello. -[Karen] How are you?
-Come on, guys. -All right.
It's been a little while since you've been here, right?
Yes. I'm so excited to see it.
-It looks a little different. -Oh, wow!
Wow!
Oh, my gosh.
It looks amazing. I love the blue door.
I think it just looks really welcoming and bright.
Originally, the entire, I don't know, it was, probably,
15 feet was exterior front porch and the door was on the side.
With not being able to see the door isn't super invitin
[Aliye] Yeah.
So we were able to get some more square footage inside
without having to add an addition and then also get
the front porch a little more welcoming with the door on the front.
[Aliye] Yeah. I love it.
And I love the wreath and all the flowers.
You did a great job, Karen.
-[chuckles] -Thank you.
And landscaping makes a big difference, doesn't it?
[Aliye] It does. It does.
Last time, it was all covered up
and there was no landscaping really, so.
-[Karen] Right. -[Claude] Grass does wonders.
-[Aliye] It looks awesome. -[Karen] Yeah. Grass is lovely.
It's just like laying down like a fresh rug, fresh carpeting.
Absolutely.
[Mina] We went with the, like, composite shake.
It's a more expensive product, but I really wanted to do it somewhere,
so it made sense here.
[Aliye] Yeah.
[Mina] And paired that with the black windows
to kind of give it like the seaside, but urban vibe.
-[Aliye] Yeah. -[Claude] Definitely your vibe.
[Aliye] It's... it's 100% my vibe. Yeah.
-[Mina] All right. You wanna go see the inside? -For sure.
-[Mina] You ready? -[Aliye] Yes.
[Mina] All right.
[gasping]
-Oh, whoa! -Oh, my gosh!
Wow!
[Mina] All right.
[gasping]
-Oh, whoa! -Oh, my gosh!
Wow!
-Look at the wall! -[Claude] Looks amazing.
-[Karen] Look at your wall, girl! -[Claude] Oh wow!
-It's amazing. -[Karen] Right?
-It looks so, so good. -[Karen] Yeah.
-[Aliye] Adds a lot of texture... -[Karen] Yes.
[Aliye] ...and it used up all that old lath that we saved from the house.
[Mina] Did you use all of it?
-[Aliye] Uh, I don't know if we used all of it. -No, no, no, no. No.
It's at our warehouse. There's still lots of lath.
-So you can make more things out of lath. -We can get more.
-Yes. -Yeah.
-So you can see right here, this was the porch. -[Aliye] Yes.
-Okay. -[Mina] All of this.
-[Aliye] Wow! -[Mina] And the door was kind of right there.
-[Aliye] Yes. Okay. -So we didn't get another bedroom by closing it in.
But you have like an entry way and enough room for a sideboard...
A window.
...and you're not walking into a wall or a hallway.
Before, you would have been walking right into this wall, which is not inspiring.
[Aliye] Right.
[Mina] Seemed like it's functional, but not inspiring.
Now you walk in and you kind of see
all the pretty things in the house.
Yeah.
I'll show you the living room and kind of how we reworked the floorplan.
Wow!
Oh, my gosh. I love the lights.
So white and bright and brassy.
-I love it. -Yes, and brassy.
-Perfect. -[Aliye] Yes. [Aliye laughing]
So this actually... this back chunk was the kitchen.
It was very tragic. It was like faux brick.
But now you have a nice and bright living room.
There's so many windows for how little the house is.
-I love the windows. -Lots of natural light.
And I think just a really, a functional little kitchen aisle if you wanna...
-For sure. -Yeah. Go check it out.
Yeah. Wow!
I love that cabinet.
[Karen] You need to see how those doors feel.
I love open shelving.
But I like that it's open, but it's still closed.
[Karen] It's all movable, so you can adjust them
for whatever your guy's needs are.
There's actually an outlet.
So if you wanted your coffeemaker in there
or your toaster or anything like that.
[Aliye] And the wood color is gorgeous.
So pretty.
Not to take from this, but I love the island.
[Karen] Fantastic, isn't it?
And the storage right there, I put all my pots and pans there...
-[Aliye] Perfect. -...and my ugly dishes.
Out of sight. Out of sight. Put the pretty ones in here.
-Absolutely. -Yeah.
[Karen] Where the kitchen is now there used to be
a dining room with the one and only bathroom off the back wall,
and now that we've reconfigured
the floorplan, this is quite a nice kitchen
No, I love it. And I love the sink.
That would be so good when I'm prepping and I love to cook, so...
-[Mina] Oh, good. -[Aliye] ...lots of space.
This is perfect prep space.
So you do have a lot of space and it's all, like, in close proximity.
So here, if you're cooking and entertaining
and making cocktails and there's people out back,
it's all just so close that you're not feeling left out.
[Karen] So let's go to the backyard.
-[Claude] Oh, wow! -So this is your backyard.
This looks amazing.
Wow! Oh, my gosh!
This is like the perfect place to just...
-[Mina] Right? -...hang out, study, have a tea.
That'll be perfect.
[Mina] Before the renovation this backyard was pretty rough.
No fence, no patio.
And now you have your own private outdoor space in the city.
And I love the grass.
Extra green space was always a good idea.
But it is a nice sized backyard.
You don't expect it when you see how tiny the house is.
All right.
We're gonna go back inside and show you guys the bedrooms.
Okay.
-Wow! -Wow!
Oh, my gosh!
I love this. The desk in here. That's perfect.
-[Claude] I love the color. -[Aliye] Yep.
[Mina] There's only one bedroom.
So this would have been a pa of the living room right of the front door.
But because we closed in the front porch,
we were able to wall this of to get a bedroom.
So we set it up as an office.
So, you know, I know you're still doing some... some bookwork and whatnot.
[Aliye] That's awesome.
[Mina] You guys wanna go see your bedroom?
Yes.
And the main ensuite.
Wow! Oh, my gosh.
-[Claude] Wow! -[Aliye] This is beautiful!
Glad you said you like the blue in the other bedroom, too,
'cause obviously this is the same color.
You and I just disappear up against this wall.
-Yeah. -[laughter]
They can't even see us.
-[Mina] So we have a queen sized bed in here... -[Aliye] Cool.
[Mina] ...um, which you could fit a king if you wanted,
but you have room for, like, a nice side table.
[Aliye] Yeah.
You could put a tallboy dresser if you need that as well.
-[Aliye] Yeah. -Good closet space.
This was already a bedroom space up on the front,
but there wasn't a bathroom up here,
so we pretty much had to chop out
a whole chunk to be able to get this ensuite bathroom
-[Aliye] Okay. -Uh, and I... You'll see when you go in there, um,
you do have a tub shower, having a tub is... it's just important, so...
Yeah.
...we made it happen if you wanna go check it out.
-It's the cutest little tub you've ever seen. -[laughter]
-A soaker. -[Karen laughs]
Oh, wow! This looks amazing!
Wow! This is awesome! And I love the double vanity.
[Mina] They're about, uh, 15, 16 inches,
and they just fit the scale of the space a little bit better.
[Aliye] Yeah. They're so cute.
And I love that we have two sinks in here.
That's good.
Let's go back out to the kitchen and chitchat.
Okay.
So, you obviously already have the home under contract.
Yes.
Um, and I think I got an email literally
this morning about our close date Friday next week.
-Yes. -So you're still on the hook, I'm assuming.
I am on the hook. 100%.
-[Mina] Okay. All right. -Even more so now.
Oh, she's totally buying this house.
There's no way she's walking away from this deal.
She loves every single thing about this house.
[Mina] So I bought this house for 34,000.
The renovation budget, we hung around 130,000.
So we're at about 165, all i and it's under contract for 204,000.
This is our third property that we will have renovated
and sold in this southern chunk of the Old Southside,
which is really exciting.
Well, I'm really glad that furnished this looks...
It all works, you're loving it.
You'll be in and out, right?
'Cause you're still a busy bee.
Well, probably more in than out 'cause I love this place.
-[laughter] -All right. Good.
I'm glad that's a selling point for your Indy visits.
He didn't say because I love her.
-Right, right. Right. -[Karen] He didn't say that.
He loves the house, which I'm okay with.
You're in the doghouse. You're in the doghouse.
And the best news of all, I think this is the last drop
in the bucket for us to be able
to start construction on headquarters.
I mean, I remember when it was just the two of us.
Look how far it's come.
It's definitely been a long time coming
and I cannot wait to get started,
and thanks to this last little house, we can.