♪♪ This is just the start We've just begun ♪
[cell phone ringing]
-Hello? -[Brent] Christina.
Hi. How's it going?
[Brent] Good. How are you doing?
Good. Just working away. What are you up to?
[Brent speaking on phone]
Like, years, right?
[Brent speaking on phone]
[gasps] Congratulations!
[Brent speaking on phone]
Well, you know, I'm always up to help you,
but like, what exactly are you looking for?
Is it a full gut?
[Brent speaking on phone]
Okay.
Well, I'd love to help you. When do you wanna get started?
[Brent speaking on phone]
Well, do you have anyone in mind that you plan to use for a contractor
or do you want me to bring my person in?
[Brent speaking on phone]
I know we haven't talked in a minute,
but since when were you a contractor?
[Brent speaking on phone]
Brent, you're my physical therapist!
I met Brent after I had just gotten in a really bad car accident.
So, he became my physical therapist,
and he also has become a really, really close friend throughout the years.
His dad was my first divorce attorney.
I became close friends with his brother.
So let's just say we go way back.
But I had no idea that he's also a contractor.
[Brent speaking on phone]
So you work on bodies and homes.
That should be, like, your tagline.
[Brent speaking on phone]
I mean, I'm not being rude... Like, I know...
Look, I know you're talented. You're a hard worker.
But do you know what you're doing?
Have you ever done a house?
[Brent speaking on phone]
[laughing] Oh, wow. Okay.
-[Brent speaking on phone] -Yeah, of course! Yes. Yes.
Oh, please.
Please. I got this.
[Brent] I've known Christina for...
Jeez, might be about 10 years now.
I'm a general contractor.
I've never done my own house, and so
this will be interesting doing my own actual true remodel.
Hopefully, Christina can really guide us and lead us
to making sure that we're not
regretting the decisions that are made.
[Christina] Now that Brent and Ashley
have officially closed escrow on their new home,
James and I are headed over to see what this project is all about.
So, my parents' house is like 5 min from here.
-Of course it is. -[gasps] It really is!
Everywhere you've ever lived is five houses down.
Jeez, it's, like, right there.
[James] How do you know the code?
-[Christina] He text it to me. -[James] Oh.
[Christina] Because we're friends.
Okay, so they don't live here yet.
-[James] Obviously. -[Christina] That's why we can just come on in.
My God, [chuckles] this is a lot of walls.
[Christina] There's a lot of walls.
Look at this kitchen.
It's really tough because...
-[James] Oh, my gosh! -[Christina] ...it's tiny.
[James] It is tiny!
This is, like, a very small house kitchen.
Yeah. And they have four kids,
and they're all boys, and they homeschool them.
But keeping that in mind, it's a tricky floor plan.
It feels so smushed.
-[Christina and James] Hi! -Hello!
Congratulations.
-Thank you. It's so much fun. -[James] This is amazing. It's a big house.
-This is James. -Good to see you.
[Ashley] We've sold our condo, and so we have been
living with my parents for the past month
with our four boys, and they are rambunctious,
and it is time for us to be in our own space
and give my parents back their house.
[Brent] So, what do you guys think?
We think there's a very small kitchen.
-[Ashley] It's a small kitchen. -It's tiny.
[Ashley] I think we've always said that,
if we're going to move out of our condo,
we would probably have to move out of state
because of the prices of California.
And when our friends called us and said,
"Hey, can you come down to the house?"
And we said, "Sure, we'll come down."
And they just looked at us and said...
We're in here, we're looking at the house and we just said,
"Brent and Ashley need to be here.
This needs to be their house."
So we purchased our new home from our family friends.
And it blew us away.
And we had never thought that we could do that.
[Brent] The house was a great gift,
but the functionality of it definitely needs some changes for our family.
I don't think this is gonna work for a family of six.
-I agree. We're on the same page already. -[Christina] Yes.
-And you're the contractor. -Yes.
It is always a little bit nerve-racking
when you're working with a new contractor
because you don't know their style or how their work is,
but in this case, he's also the homeowner.
So this could get complicated.
This is the first time we've ever worked with
a contractor-owner. Ever.
Well, first time for everything.
If there's a problem, I don't have to break bad news
-to the homeowner. -Yeah.
-You can do it to your wife. -You have to take responsibility.
-Which is nice. -That's right.
Okay, so, why don't you guys
walk us through what you're thinking?
I'm sure you guys are wanting a bigger kitchen,
this to feel a bit more open.
Like, ideally, what would you like to see in here?
So, first thing, we... Obviously, as you said,
we want the kitchen to be bigger, make more cabinetry
because there's really not much cabinetry,
-so we wanna expand this out this way, okay? So... -[Christina] Okay.
Are we talking about closing the sliders?
[Brent] Originally, I didn't want to,
but I don't know how I'm gonna be able to get cabinets in.
We're thinking something going all the way to that wall
and then going along this wall
and basically making this a rectangle kitchen.
[Christina] What do you wanna see in here?
[Ashley] I picture all the boys sitting around an island,
and that's where we mostly function, that's where we hang out.
This does not really serve a purpose.
-[James] It's tiny. -[Ashley chuckling] Please help.
[Christina] What's your guys' styles?
-So... -[chuckling] Country.
I mean, I can guess. I didn't know we were a cowboy now.
[chuckling] When did that happen?
-Oh, you haven't always been a cowboy? -I'm a countryman.
[Christina] Okay, so it's our style country?
[Brent] Our style is two things.
-Country and the coastal... -Coastal.
...which is why I thought this would be a great fit.
-Perfect! -Yeah.
-[both] Wow! -So you get the idea.
[Christina] So, the plan is to turn, really,
this whole space right here into the kitchen.
-[Brent] Correct. -[Christina] Okay.
Would you plan to use that as the family room
or in here as the family room?
-[Ashley] That's where we need your help. -[Christina] Okay.
Because I feel like the fireplace is also
-at a strange spot, right? -[James] It is. It is.
[Christina] It's like, the way it breaks up the room...
If we move the kitchen into here,
it's almost like you turn this into the dining room,
but then you have a fireplace in the dining room.
[Ashley] That's where you get stuck.
-Yep. -[chuckling]
[Christina] We know we want a kitchen and a dining room
and a family room, but we don't know where.
[Ashley] We need your ideas.
[Christina] What if we took this wall down and open everything up?
We'll have more of a living room situation going on over here.
We're gonna bring he fireplace back to life.
-This'll be the family room. -[Ashley] Okay.
[Christina] We're gonna make this the sitting room.
And then we'll have our dining room.
And next, we can make this whole area a huge kitchen.
Keep the sink as is, close off this giant slider,
and we'll do a really nice flip out window.
But then we just made this a massive kitchen.
This is all wrapping around.
We'll have a big slide-in range with a hood vent.
We'll have the refrigerator.
And we can do a massive 10-foot island right here.
We'll have storage. All the things.
I think that's it. Just making that a big rectangle kitchen,
have enough space to sit at an island,
-opening this completely up. It'd be nice. - [Christina] Mm-hmm. Yeah.
-We're gonna make it beautiful. -Perfect.
What else in this house?
Anything else you wanna do?
-[Brent] In this house? Yes. -Yes.
-You wanna go in there? -[Christina] Yeah.
So, Ashley home schools for, what, four or five hours a day,
and she needs a spot.
We use the kitchen table as everything.
So food goes there, all the school stuff goes away.
School stuff, all the other stuff goes away.
It's constantly having to move things and organize and reorganize.
[Brent] So the idea is, like,
literally right above us is a creative bedroom,
but it's gonna be used as a home school area for her.
[Christina] There's no other room upstairs that could become that?
[Ashley] No. There's no bigger room.
We're trying to make school disappear.
When we do school, it's in a room,
it's in one place, it's not all over the house.
And then, when done school, we shut the door, we're done.
I mean, I understand where you're coming from
-because I taught school too. -Okay.
-So... -In a tiny room?
Not in a tiny room. In a classroom.
When you leave your classroom,
you leave it the way you and the kids left it
-so you can pick up the next day. -[Ashley] Right.
[Brent] What we were thinking is,
to make it a real room, I have to have a dormer.
So, basically, that roof line right above us
is gonna go straight up and out.
[Christina] In order to add this classroom,
Brent would have to break through the existing roof line
and restructure the entire exterior.
It's a lot of money and a lot of work.
This sounds really expensive.
What's our budget?
Around $150,000 mark.
The biggest expense is
we're gonna change that whole roof line,
and pushing that out for the dormer
to make it a true bedroom.
To add this room, what are we looking at?
Normally, this would be about 75 grand,
but I believe we can do it with my own team for around $65,000.
[Christina] It's still a lot of money.
Still a lot of money, but it's...
To be honest, it's... She's there five hours a day.
I like the idea for her because I know what she has to go through,
and I know what's best for the kids.
For me, I'm just trying to figure out this,
and I understand that you need it.
I might be able to build it where I could remove it.
Okay, no. Let's not do that.
-This is gonna be awesome. -This is gonna be great.
So we wanna make sure you've made the right decision.
This has definitely been a gift to be able to come to this house,
so we wanna utilize it the best we can.
-Okay. -[Ashley] And we need your help.
We're gonna make it feel really big, really open
really nice and, like,
-your guys' home. -Perfect.
[Christina] Now Brent and his team are getting to work on demo,
and I'll check in once everything's opened up.
You know, starting with the leak over here,
and then we realized there's a second leak over here,
and as we ripped up this floor, literally, down here,
we saw mold all forming and water coming out.
That whole entire sub floor needs to be completely wiped out.
The floor was a bummer.
[Christina] The water damage was so bad
that an entire remediation team
had to come in to deal with all the mold that Brent found.
This is gonna set the entire remodel back weeks,
and Brent's not gonna know how much it's gonna cost until all the dust settles.
What's going on?
Is that coming from inside your house?
Yeah, it's like the third or fourth one, but yes.
Well, that's a first for me.
It's not been a real great experience so far,
-but yeah. -Oh, my gosh.
-[Brent] Well, we've started remediation. -[Christina] Seen better days?
[Brent] We're about done with all that.
You've literally been taking trash buckets of water
and just pouring it in the street?
[Brent] Yeah, we've got about six or seven machines in there now.
Moisture going into the system, gives out, it's actually clean water,
so we just put it right in the street.
-[groans] Let's go see it. -[Brent] All righty.
See what you think.
What? Oh, my gosh.
This is way worse than I thought.
This looks like something straight out of the movie E.T.
What are they worried about? Because of the mold?
-[Brent] Yeah, so... -[Christina] Was it that bad?
There was a pipe on the exterior wall
that was cracked all the way down.
So every time they ran the shower,
that's what was leaking everywhere. So we fixed it.
And we noticed mold at the bottom,
and we found another cast iron pipe that's broken, from the toilet.
So, every time you go to the bathroom,
you know what was just coming out onto the walls.
How many leaks were here?
-Seven. -Seven leaks? Oh, jeez.
Mold can be a serious health hazard,
and it's not something that you can cover up and ignore.
It's great that Brent took care of it,
but remediation isn't cheap, and we're not exactly sure
how much, at this point, it's gonna impact the budget.
And what's happening upstairs?
We were not planning on doing anything up here.
[Christina] Well, now we are, apparently.
[Christina] Having done a lot of flips in houses that look like
they're falling apart from the outside, you expect it,
but this one looks so nice.
We walked in this house so many times,
and didn't notice anything,
but it was all trapped in the walls.
How much is all this stuff costing?
Well, we haven't factored everything in yet,
but right now we're... Electrical. Plumbing.
You're probably looking at, you know, $10,000 just in plumbing.
Oh, Jesus.
-What about your bathroom? -[sighs]
-[Brent] So... -[Christina] Don't tell me you have to redo this.
It looks nice.
We might.
It's leaking at the shower pan,
and we know where the leak's occurring,
we just don't know what they were doing
because the water is coming out somehow.
So, there's a chance you actually have to rip out this really nice shower, too.
There's a chance,
and I'm doing whatever I've gotta do to not make that happen.
You have quite the work cut out for you here.
Now that the water damage is behind us,
Brent has moved on to framing and electrical.
It's been a couple of weeks,
so I'm headed over to see how things are coming along.
-Hello? -Hello!
-Hi. -[Brent] Hey, how we doing?
-I'm good. How are y'all? -[Brent] Good.
I'm just finishing tightening these caps.
As you can see, all these things...
None of these nuts were on.
We pulled the drywall off.
These black and white hit each other, and poof.
-You can try it. You wanna try it? -No, I'm good. You can.
-I mean... -[laughing] I love that you're actually gonna do it.
Okay.
-[pops] -[Christina shrieks]
-There you go. -Okay.
-We have no more mold. -Great. That's good news.
Did we figure out, as far as these walls,
what's load-bearing and what's not?
Yes. So this one, we can remove.
-[Christina] Okay. Good. -Which is the main thing we wanted to,
that you mentioned about looking out, you know, and entertainment.
So I really liked that idea of moving this away.
-How about this? -So this is a shear wall.
And how we know it's--
-That's a shear wall? -This is a shear wall.
-It's a weird place to put it, no? -[Brent] Yes.
Yes, there is a large footing underneath this,
which is why we cannot remove this.
Wait. We have to leave this whole wall?
I'm not happy with that either, but...
When I saw it, I was like,
"Holy crap, this messes everything up, like,
we can't do anything, like, everything that we wanted."
-It just doesn't work. -Let's talk this out.
This beam right here, we're gonna extend it
all the way onto the hole down here in the middle.
So by putting it here,
we can do what you're wanting to do by opening this area up.
-Just this stays? -Yes.
What the heck are we supposed to do with just that?
What do you plan to put here, like, in your head?
I don't know.
We are missing a pantry area.
I don't know what we're gonna do with that, but...
A floating pantry in the middle of the room? Just a pantry?
[chuckling] It's gonna look like...
It's gonna look like an elevator to nowhere.
You won't know that it's a box until you kind of
-walk around the whole thing. -Until you walk in the front door?
Yeah, 'cause you walk in, you're gonna see, like, "Oh, this is a wall."
You don't know how wide it is 'cause you won't see the whole...
-Yeah, you will. -Yeah, you will!
There's gotta be a better solution. How much would it cost
-to get rid of this? -[Brent] We can't get rid of this.
[Christina] I mean, I just wanna know a number, just so I know it.
-Close to 100 grand. -100 grand?
I would have to bring the specialists in for this.
I'm thinking this is, what, 30 ft.?
We literally have to crane a steel beam,
open up walls, you know,
I mean, bring it through the front door,
come through here. I mean, this is a whole...
I mean, I feel like, if we have to leave it, we leave it,
but we have to, like, we have to make it look like it was intentional,
not just, like, it's a floating box that we couldn't get rid of.
Well, that's where you come in.
Well, you're not making it very easy.
Okay, you're telling me it has to stay.
We'll make it look nice.
You know, having a little bit of a tough time visualizing
how it's gonna look like it makes sense,
but we'll figure it out.
-I have a question. -Yeah?
[Christina] What was your original budget here?
Oh, yeah, we were around $150,000.
What are we at now?
We're about another $100,000-$150,000.
So, it went from $150,000 to probably $300,000.
Yeah. Okay.
[Brent] Yeah, with the home school thing,
I don't think we're gonna be able to make it happen.
What?
You've seen everything that's going on.
You've seen everything that's going on,
I don't think we're gonna be able to make it happen.
What?
-Let's just figure it out. -Can't open up that roof now and do all that.
[Christina] Well, I know that's Ashley's one big thing that she really wants.
So there's gotta be a way that we can figure this out.
Okay, so walk me through what the most expensive parts are.
Above us right here, it's just all solar panels.
-[Christina] Okay. -[Brent] Okay. I didn't think that was a big deal,
-because you usually just relocate them. -Yeah.
The company, they gotta redo the whole thing.
Almost 30 grand for the solar panels,
and that's on top of the $65,000
it'll cost to build everything out.
Instead of messing with the roof,
and the dormer, and all those things.
What if you had, like, a loft, you know,
like, with the sloped ceiling and everything?
[Brent] So don't make it, like, a bedroom anymore.
-Just a true loft. -[Christina] Yeah.
If we did that,
the only negative that I see, when you walk in,
-you're walking into, like, a... -[Christina] Yeah.
[Brent] You're probably looking at close to 4 ft. on this end.
Well, how far do you get to walk in until you're 4 ft.?
Somewhere in this vicinity.
-[Christina] Yeah. -So about 4 ft. from this wall.
And it'll start there, right?
-[Brent] Yeah, so... -[Christina] Yeah.
-So that's plenty of room. -[Brent] You could open it... I mean, I could do that.
I just... The only thing is how...
I don't know how that looks when you walk in.
You're gonna walk into a...
[Christina] I mean, look, we just make that back area, like, storage.
We can do a few cabinets, a countertop,
and that way, she has a place where she can store all of her supplies.
-I guess you need that anyway. So, all the books. -Yeah.
She's in there five hours a day.
-I'm trying to do something for her. -[Christina] Yeah.
How much would that cost?
That saves us a at least... I mean, a big chunk.
So that would probably put us at around $35,000,
-not knowing all the... -Versus, like, $95,000.
[Brent] Yeah, that's a good idea.
I think this sounds like the quickest solution.
Easiest. It serves the purpose.
It'll save money, and it'll be cute.
Awesome.
-Okay. -[Brent] Good.
I think this project has really been a lot for Brent.
On top of everything else, and going way over budget,
he also has a really demanding day job as a physical therapist.
So I'm headed over to go over the budget
and anything else that he wants to talk about.
Truly, I don't really know how he's holding it all together.
-Hi. -Hey, there you are.
-[Christina] How's it going? -Good. How are you doing?
-[Christina] Good. Hi. -You didn't sound real good on the phone, so I...
I'm not joking. I had Leslie set up an IV.
You could just say, "Would you like an IV?"
To be honest, the way you sounded on the phone
and then now that I see you, you look tired,
like you need an IV, so I wanted to...
Wow. Nice to see you too.
I was trying to be nice, not trying to be mean.
-I mean, I'll take the IV, but... -[Brent] You want the IV?
-Yeah. -[Brent] Sure.
-Leslie, we got the IV? -[Leslie] Yes.
[Brent] We're gonna give you glutathione and magnesium,
give you some energy.
So I know I called you about the budget.
I wanted to, kind of, just simplify things, if we can
-and try to get things down. -[Christina] Yeah.
I was originally thinking $150,000,
-which is what we discussed. -Right.
And you were worried that had doubled to, like, $300,000, right?
That's gone down.
The school room and everything that we've discussed,
-just not doing the roof, opening up the roof anymore. -Yes.
If I'm gonna help Brent get his budget back on track,
I need to know about all the setbacks along the way and what they've cost,
such as the water damage and mold.
What's going on with the mold?
They originally were projecting upwards of around...
$75,000, I think, was what they were mentioned.
-$75,000? -$75,000.
Good news about that is,
the upstairs, it's not mold,
but there's just all that water damage we're gonna remove.
We got that number down to about $20,000,
and then they were able to push it back down
to closer to, like, the $15,000 mark.
-So that's where we're at now. -Wow. That's huge.
-That's huge. -What are you at now?
We're probably... Minus that, we're now...
It's $230,000 expected.
[Christina] And what do you wanna be all in at?
I mean, I wanted to be $150,000-$200,000.
-Okay. -So, I'm still trying to get down.
Some of the stuff, we can't... It is what it is.
But I'm wondering if there's anything in the ideas you have...
What I don't want is the floating pantry.
But what I could live with, and I think would look fine,
is if we kept the shear wall,
but just made it do an arch, like a focal feature,
as opposed to just, like, a box floating in the middle of the room, right?
So, instead of having a floating pantry,
-leave that wall. -[Christina] Yeah.
And then, I think we create, like, a nice dining room on that side,
the living room on the other,
and I think that it'll look like it was always meant to be there.
And truth be told,
I'm kind of, like, steering away from floor plans that are completely open.
I actually think it's nice to have, like,
a couple walls here and there.
It's still gonna be wide open. We'll just do a nice arch.
But I think, like, a little bit of separation's good.
-Arc for the dining room area. -[Christina] Yeah.
-Looking into the dining room from the entryway. -Yeah.
And then it defines the spaces.
Okay, that would save huge.
Okay, so I know another big cost was the bathroom.
So where are we at with the plumbing in the bathroom?
We have to redo the plumbing.
[Christina] Brent was hoping that the leaky shower in the primary bathroom
would be able to be fixed without demo.
But unfortunately, that looks like that's not the case.
So, whatever we can preserve, when it comes to tile, I would just leave it.
Obviously, you don't wanna do a full remodel in there.
And then I'm sure we can patch in any other tile that gets broken.
But I mean, we don't need to do a full gut.
I mean, that saves, like, I mean, almost 20 grand
-if you know what you're doing. -Yeah, it's huge.
Whatever else you can, I don't know, think of
that could help us out, I obviously appreciate it.
I can obviously hook you up on flooring,
-for sure. -Awesome.
And I'll reach out to my contacts.
Yeah, that should be below $200,000.
It's gonna be a beautiful home.
I'm excited. It's just...
-It's a roller coaster right now. -I know.
I mean, working three different jobs.
I don't think most people know that,
-but you know, I'm here, I'm doing IVs. -[Christina] This.
The construction. And what's the other one?
-[Brent] Well, I'm doing... -Besides being a cowboy, of course.
All right, we're gonna stop there.
-Really? -[chuckling] That's not the third?
Being a cowboy? That's my... No, that's not my job.
What's the third job?
Coaching, you know, the three kids,
and doing, obviously, the construction,
and then trying to, you know, take care of everybody here
all the patients, looking at MRIs,
early mornings, waking up at 3:00 in the morning.
It's just getting a little...
-It's a lot. -[Brent] It's a lot right now.
You can't keep doing the life that we're doing right now.
-Yeah. -We're doing a thousand things and...
Four kids, three jobs, a wife who's homeschooling.
You're living in her parent's house.
Yeah. You need an IV.
Yeah, I need an IV.
-I understand it's a lot. -[Brent] Yeah.
So I'm happy to help.
[Brent] A little overwhelming, but it's good.
-Thank you very much. -[Christina] Of course.
-[Brent] Feeling all right still? -Yeah.
I mean, I'm stuck here for a while, so... [inhales]
I'm just gonna relax.
Wow.
-[Brent] Hey. What do you think? -Looking good.
-I mean, much better than last time I saw it. -[Brent] Yeah.
[Christina] What's going on in here?
Well, I was trying to lay out some things for Ashley,
make sure things are lining up
and she can visualize how the kitchen's gonna look.
What's that blue tape you're stepping on right there?
This was gonna be a square island.
I know we haven't even discussed it.
[Christina] Like, this wood is a rectangle,
or we could do the blue tape square.
The actual blue lines, as you see here,
is gonna go from here to the edge of that wood right there,
and it's just gonna be a square.
[Christina] Why is it a square?
[Brent] It's kind of been a back and forth thing going on.
She was saying, when you open the door,
she'd like to see the whole island,
that it looks weird to see only half of it.
She thinks it's too skinny.
But maybe it's just opinion. I don't know.
[Christina] I think that looks way too small for the kitchen.
If the island's just way off centered
and your kitchen's all the way over to here,
and you're just gonna have all this weird dead space.
If you're here at the sink and you wanna just
step back and put something down.
You can't do it anymore. You have to, like, hop over here.
-Do you agree? -I agree with it. I mentioned that. I just...
-I'm trying to... -[Christina] Is this more stressful
doing this with your spouse than it is for other people?
Yes, 'cause I'm trying to get involved in the design,
which I usually don't get involved with.
So I'm trying to make her happy with that.
It's so much harder doing the project for your own house
-than it is for somebody else's, right? -100%. 100%.
[Christina] To address the question of will it look weird
not seeing the entire island when you walk in the door?
I think the whole room's gonna be so much more balanced
in the way that we're gonna utilize furniture,
-I really don't think that's gonna be an issue at all. -I agree.
[Christina] The loft's looking good.
-Happy? -[Brent] I am.
I think it closes it in a little bit
and I'm a little concerned with that,
-but at the same time... -[Christina] Well, it's done now, so...
[Brent] It is done now.
Realistically, most houses
don't have these really high ceilings throughout.
So when it's done, you're gonna get so much more use out of the space.
Ultimately, you're gonna forget that I was even there.
-I think this is gonna be something she loves. -Yeah.
I'll go source stuff.
In the meanwhile, try not to stress.
-I'm not that stressed. -You look stressed.
[tools whirring]
Normally, this is a little bit early in the process to be choosing paint colors,
but I wanna do painted cabinets in the kitchen,
and so the sooner that we lock down these colors,
the sooner we can start installing the cabinets.
-Hi, guys. -[Ashley] Oh, I'm excited.
-Look at all this. Hello. -Hi. Nice to see you.
-[Brent] How you doing? -You look like you just came from work, though.
[Brent] I did.
How's everything going?
-Good. -Coming along.
I'm excited that all of the hard things are behind us.
-Yes. -[Christina] The plumbing. Electrical.
-All the issues are buttoned up. -That's right.
-Now we can focus on the fun stuff.
-Yay! Okay. -[Christina] Color.
So, we have a plethora of color.
-[Ashley] I love it. -I've pulled some options, but I mean,
as you can see, there's a ton to choose from.
We're doing the walls all Extra White.
-[Brent] I like that. -[Christina and Ashley laugh]
-We have a nice neutral palette to play off of. -Yeah.
You don't wanna do an all-white kitchen?
-No, we're not sterile. -[Christina] No.
-Give you color. Okay. -Okay. Good.
-I love the idea of doing a two-tone cabinets. -Yeah.
So, doing the lower in one color
and then doing the uppers and a whole different vibe.
Green is really all the rage right now.
This is Shade-Grown, really pretty.
And then I think it looks really nice with this Svelte Sage.
That is pretty. Do you like that?
-He's having a heart attack. -You have to love green.
-So if you don't love green, there's other options. -[Brent] I don't love green.
-I don't, I mean... Is there another... -It's country.
Isn't your style country?
-Yeah. -Green's country?
Yeah. Very country.
You want more coastal?
-Or country coastal. -[Christina] Oh, okay. Okay.
So another option would be Storm Cloud and Morning Fog.
Very nice for you. Storm Cloud.
-You cause storms. -[Brent] I actually kind of like that.
-I cause storms. -[Christina laughing] Yes, you do.
[Brent] So, the creamy would be the uppers?
The creamy could be the uppers
and then this would be the island and the lowers, the Morning Fog.
Storm Cloud's awesome. We don't have any storm clouds.
We're gonna go with Morning Fog.
-Yeah, that might be a little too dark, right... -Really?
-...for you guys. -Yeah. Yeah.
[Brent] I mean, I like Morning Fog too.
I just don't want it to look like baby blue, but...
Okay, look, if you pull a color
-that's more in the blue family... -[Ashley] Oh, yeah.
-...you can see that this is definitely not blue. -More gray.
Yeah, I like that now.
-[Ashley] I like that. -[Brent] So, creamy, the uppers,
-Morning Fog, lowers and island. -[Ashley] I like that a lot.
Yep, with the extra white for all the walls.
You guys are both good with that?
-I like that. I mean... -Is it still country?
Now you want country again?
-You just said, "I wanted coastal." -I want country and coastal.
There's a country and coastal...
There's a very nice blend of all the...
We'll just kind of push him this way.
-Yes. -Okay.
-[Ashley] Hi. -[Christina] Hi, gorgeous.
-How are you? -[Ashley] Good.
-[Christina] The sheer wall looks great with the arch. - [Ashley] Yes.
[Christina] What do you have?
-Oh, dear. -Flooring.
[Christina] No, we already have flooring.
No. Just take a look at it.
[Christina] It does not work with the design.
It is way too cool of a color to go with what paint colors we've chosen.
It's gonna look very depressing.
You need to go more warm.
-Okay. -I've already said this. Thank you.
-Thank you so much. -No, no, no, no.
So, here's our chosen paint for the cabinets.
-We're still good with these? -[Ashley] It's cool to see it.
-Yeah. -[Christina] Isn't it pretty?
-I like it. -I like that a lot.
-And we can do a shaker, traditional... -Oh.
...or micro.
-We like the thicker... Yeah. -Okay.
And how do you feel about brass handles?
[Ashley] I like it.
Everybody's doing the black and white, so I like it.
-It's different. -Good.
These are two different backsplash options, okay?
-This one's a little bit more safe. -[Ashley] Okay.
It's that glossy white, picks up different hues in the light.
And then this is a stone.
-I like the stone. -Yeah.
-I actually like the stone a lot. -Good.
[Christina] I think this stone is perfect for
the country-coastal look that Brent and Ashley are going for.
It has a rugged country vibe but still feels soft
because of the light color.
-Counters. -Okay.
-A little more simple. -Yep.
[Christina] And then a little more busy.
But I brought this one for this one,
-and this one for this one. -[Ashley]
So, you were saying, with the subway tile, the busier...
Yes, this would be the star,
and this is the star in this case.
I think that combination looks busy.
-Yeah. That's a lot. -It's too much.
[Christina] Too much. Okay.
[Ashley] I would lean towards the less busy.
I love this, so, whatever goes around it
to make this stand out looks good.
Good. Okay. That was easier than I thought.
And then, with the beautiful flooring
that adds a warmth to the room.
-Just real quick. Look. -[Ashley chuckles]
-No! [laughing] -Let's go grab a cocktail, okay?
Yeah, seriously.
-[Brent] It's like yellow. -[Ashley] I like the knots in the...
[Christina] It is not yellow.
The color's looking different than it'll actually look like
'cause the room's so stark right now and looks very sterile.
But if you just lay it out.
-White room. -[Brent] It looks better down there.
I told Brent I'd help him save him costs wherever I can,
so I'm hooking him up with my flooring line.
It's luxury vinyl, which happens to be durable, low maintenance,
and best of all, budget friendly.
Trust me. I've done it a million times this color. It's really pretty.
[Brent] I like it.
Just to reiterate, because I know we've gone back and forth a little bit.
We're doing the big rectangle island.
-Yes. -Okay. Perfect.
-So this'll be all the lowers and the island. - [Ashley] I love it.
[Christina] And then we have all the uppers
-in this pretty cream color. -[Ashley] Yeah.
[Christina] And then this stone would go behind the range,
-behind the windows. -[Ashley] Okay.
[Christina] And I would also like to do it for the fireplace.
-[Ashley] Oh, fun. -[Christina] Like, floor to ceiling.
-I actually like it. I really do. -Yay.
-[both] Yay! -[Brent] I like the combination. Looks good.
-Victorious. -Yeah. We're moving on.
[Christina] The cabinets have arrived and they're being painted.
This is a huge milestone.
And that means that Brent and Ashley are that much closer
into finally moving into their home.
This is the color.
Oh, yeah, I love it.
I think it looks a little baby blue,
but they said it'll soften up with, maybe, the flooring
-and all that, so... -[Ashley] I like it. Looks good.
-Hi. Hi, guys. -Hey!
-Perfect timing. -How are you doing?
-Looking good. -[Ashley] It looks awesome.
We got the stone. The hood's gonna go in today.
-What do you think about the two-tone? -[Ashley] I love it.
I feel like it's still, like, that little baby blue, but it's...
-That's not necessarily bad. -You have to wait till everything goes in.
[Christina] And does the flooring look too yellow still, too?
-[Ashley] No. -[Brent] I actually don't think
it looks as yellow as the sample did when I saw it.
So I think it looks good.
-I like it. -Why don't you hold it up next to the cabinets and see?
[strains] All right.
-[Christina] Do you like it? -[Brent] Yeah, I like it.
-You're gonna love it. I can't wait. -We got approval.
I can't wait till it's done and you're like, "You know what?
Looks fabulous."
Definitely out of my comfort zone, that's for sure.
[Christina] Okay, so, for the loft,
I'm thinking we do the two-tone as well.
-Cool. -I like this. This is fun.
More color.
-The boys will love it. -[Christina] Okay.
So, what I would like to do is four desks on the half wall,
and the desks would be in the light color, right?
-[Brent] Cool. -[Christina] And then, on the tall wall,
-I'd love to do, like, a lot of storage. -[Ashley] I love it.
-[Christina] And that would all be in this color. -[Ashley] Okay.
Unless there's anything else that you want to see in there.
Is there a way to, like, have, like a craft area,
like a cleanup area?
Are you thinking, like, a sink?
If we can do a sink, that's awesome.
We have a sink 10 ft. away.
I know, but it's, like, messy, and so, maybe...
-Yeah, this is school. -Yeah. Right?
You could just walk right around the corner.
-But then, if they've got... -[Christina] I thought you wanna keep them in the area.
Actually, you have two sinks. You can go this way and you can go that way.
Isn't your bathroom on the other side of the wall?
-Isn't that pretty simple? You just tap it in. -The wall...
-It's a little over, but we could... -Yeah.
[both] You just tap in.
-[Christina] Yeah. Just tap in. -We'll just tap in.
Anything's possible,
especially when your husband's the contractor.
[Brent] So, there's a, kind of a big issue.
Countertops were supposed to come on Friday. [clicks teeth]
That's not gonna happen now.
What?
They came in. All four slabs are damaged.
Damaged? How so?
[Brent] They came with big gauges.
We can't polish them out, so...
So, do you know if they have any in stock that are not scratched?
-We're trying to figure that out. -Okay.
[Brent] They didn't act real confident about it.
It's gonna push us back with the stone,
which then pushes us back with the uppers
'cause we can't put the uppers in until that's done.
So we're now set back probably another week, possibly two weeks.
[Christina] So, are you still wanting the same counters, though?
-Yeah. I like them. -As close to it.
It's not, like, a crazy counter
that's not completely uncommon,
so I feel I could source something very similar
-that's in stock. -That's what I'm hoping for.
-We'll get it sorted. -[Brent] Yeah.
[tools whirring]
[Ashley] Wow.
[Christina] Welcome to the schoolhouse.
[Ashley] Oh, my gosh. I love it.
-[exclaims] It looks so good. -Right?
-I think it's perfect. Look how big the desk is. -[Ashley] It's so cool.
-And then we have this whole situation going on over here. -Yay! Okay.
-Is this the, like, art station and... -Yep.
Were you able to get the water line?
I got the water line.
-All the way through here. -Nice.
So we got a sink going.
It's the perfect boy's room. Do you think the boys are gonna love it?
I think they'll love it.
-For you, it's gonna be a game changer. -Oh, yeah.
-I'm getting emotional just looking at this. -Aw!
This is really cool.
-I like it. Thank you. -Aw.
We do have something we could potentially add,
but I'm gonna leave this up to you.
We can do an accent wall right here
with some wallpaper.
I think it's gonna draw your eye,
make the room feel fun,
a little bit bigger.
Hold on. Can I go and get something?
-I got something to show you. -No.
-Let me... I'm gonna get something to show you. -No.
-His wallpaper? -I'll be right back.
-Look at this. -You have one roll.
-I don't think that's enough. -It's enough for that wall. That's why it's perfect.
That's what made me think of it.
If we do that wall, this will be enough.
-Look how perfect this goes. -[Christina] We can't add another shade.
-Look, it's... -Why do you love it so much?
Because I think it's perfect.
If someone were to buy these cabinets,
you would say, "Hey, it's sold with this."
-You know what I'm saying? -No, I feel like you're kidding.
Nobody buys cabinets with wallpaper.
As it turns out, Brent is actually
a pretty impressive contractor.
The work looks incredible.
But I'm still glad that he brought me in to design
because I don't think that design is his strong suit.
I mean, ultimately, this is not your room.
-Ashley's gonna be spending the most time here. -That's obvious.
[Christina] So, I think that we need to let Ashley decide.
We don't want it dark.
It's cool, but I think this would be
-the right way to go. -Sorry.
You lost again.
-I'll just put the wallpaper in. -[Ashley] Thank you.
-You're the best. -Thanks.
-Okay.
[Christina] Oh, my gosh, what is happening?
Hey.
Why is the backsplash still on the floor two weeks later?
Why is it not on the walls?
This isn't even the backsplash. This is the fireplace.
We're waiting on the backsplash
because we have to have other stuff done yet.
I know it's a backsplash and it's a fireplace,
but it's been sitting there for two weeks.
A week and a half.
Aren't we supposed to be done in a week? Like...
This doesn't look like it's gonna be done in a week.
-Wow. -[laughs] I mean,
I truly thought I was gonna walk in and, like,
all this is gonna be done
because I came here to talk about our plan for furniture,
and this is not in a state of being ready for furniture.
Normally, I'd yell at the contractor, but that's you, so...
[exhales]
Well, I got Ashley giving me pressure about getting in here.
Now I got you giving pressure, and everybody else.
-Or just more wondering, like, what... Why? -[bells tinkling magically]
We had some little mix ups, all right? We had to fix this.
Found out we don't have doors for the fireplace.
-When you last came here, there was no flooring. -Okay. Yeah.
But you don't see that there's no flooring because it's all covered.
I'm glad the flooring's in.
So that is what we've been waiting for.
-I have a question about this. -[Christina] What's the issue?
I have a feeling, with that big piece like that,
it might make it look like it's bigger on this side.
So this side should match this side the best that we can.
-This is gonna be, like, just awkward in there. -Okay.
[Christina] Those big pieces, they should just be
mixed in more up high where you have more room.
Will it look weird to have a bunch of small pieces at the bottom
-and then you have bigger pieces at the top? -No.
Your eye is never gonna be drawn to the bottom.
It's gonna be drawn to the top.
I would say, like, once you hit here,
you just start, you know, staggering.
Anywhere around here is fine.
And you're good with going all the way to the trim?
-Yeah. -That's how we have it.
-Yep. That's where they'll put it, probably. -Okay.
[tools whirring]
[Christina] After two weeks of intense work,
Brent is finally getting a little bit of downtime.
That way, my team can come in and stage
and do all the finishing touches.
-All right. You guys excited? -Oh, yeah.
It's been about six months since we started.
I was a little nervous going into this,
not gonna lie, working with you.
[all chuckling]
But thank you for trusting me.
It looks phenomenal. I'm so excited for you and your family.
I think it's gonna be such a great home for you guys.
-So, all right. Are you ready? -[Brent] Let's do this.
Thank you.
-[Brent] Oh, my. -[Ashley] Wow.
[chuckling]
[gasps]
[chuckling]
-[chuckling] -Oh, my...
Christina.
Oh, my gosh.
Holy cow.
-Wow. -It's like a magazine.
[Christina] It feels so grand now.
Remember the pony walls right here?
[Brent] Yeah, that big wall that was right here. That's right.
[Christina] And right where you are standing,
-this was another set of walls. -[Ashley] Yes.
-[Christina] More walls. -[Ashley] Here. Here.
You made this work.
[Christina] I love that you can stand here and see the entire house.
I mean, nice work, first of all.
You pulled it off.
It looks incredible.
[Brent] I can't believe how much has changed.
I saw it when it was empty the other day.
The staging and the furniture makes it feel like a home.
It feels like what you guys described.
A little bit country. Some coastal.
It's so simple and just clean.
It was a perfect combination of country and coastal
what she's brought to our house.
We feel like we're at the beach,
but in the country at the same time.
-Yeehaw! Yeah. -Yeah. I love it.
I love the stone.
[Christina] That stone looks stunning.
I like the flooring. Your flooring looks awesome.
Thank you. Does it look good?
-[Ashley] Really good. -[Brent] Flooring looks good.
[Christina] The color's pretty, not too yellow.
No, not yellow at all.
[Christina] So pretty.
-Don't let the boys in. -Let's go check out the kitchen.
[Ashley] I love it.
Oh, the stone looks so good around there.
-[Christina] Isn't that oven pretty? -[Ashley] It's so gorgeous.
I wanna stay right here.
It just feels big, right?
Before, the kitchen was just tucked over here.
It's not like we added square feet.
It's crazy what, like, some big windows
and new configuration, taking down some walls can do.
I was nervous about the long island, but I like it.
-[Christina] You like it? -It's very pretty.
[Christina] So, what do we think about the cabinet color?
-[Ashley] The cabinet color is perfect. -[Brent] I like it.
[Christina] My favorite part is that flip-out window.
Like, you're gonna use this all the time.
I'll show you how to... Here, stay here.
You literally just push this down.
Push that open.
-So easy. -All right? [claps]
This is on a whole different level
than what I was expecting when we started.
-[Christina] It looks fancy. -I'm glad you helped us, so much.
I'm so glad we didn't leave the pantry in the middle.
-Yeah. -[laughs] I know.
[Christina] And with all these cabinets, you have more than enough storage.
Because we were able to move that,
we were able to create the island,
create the open space
create the flow.
I love it. Every little detail is perfect, so...
From the cabinet colors to the stone. I love the stone.
-It's my favorite. -[Ashley] The stone is my favorite.
[Brent] I think the cool thing is...
This is gonna come out, maybe, bad.
-You know how I am. -Oh, no.
...is that I would never have picked anything that you chose
but trusting the process and going into the end,
if I walked into someone's house
and this was somebody else's house, I'd be like, "This is what I wanna do."
It's different. It's unique. That's what I love about it.
Thank you. That was actually a very big compliment.
[Brent] It's difficult going from a contractor
and homeowner at the same time.
Usually you just deal with the homeowner only,
-but now we had a bunch of different opinions. -Yeah, that's how I feel
when I do my own house, too.
It's so much harder because there's so many options.
And then, also, when you wanna make your wife happy.
-Yep. -[Christina] Then you have me bothering you about things.
And then you're thinking about the kids, so...
I think you did a great job.
You guys did a great job of blending your styles together, so...
You listened to what we wanted. I love it. Thank you.
-[Brent] I'm really pumped up. I'm excited. -[Christina chuckles] Good.
I'm excited for you guys.
And I know the kids are gonna be here soon.
-Yeah. -His mom just text us that they're just outside.
-So we can go get them. -Go get them.
What do you guys think?
Whoa!
That's so cool.
[Ashley] Are you excited? Yay!
You guys, there's another surprise for you.
-[boy] Where? -It's upstairs.
-You guys wanna go? -[all agreeing]
-Whoa! -[Christina chuckles]
-Oh, my gosh. Look at it, you guys. -[Brent] Wow.
Do you guys love the wallpaper?
[boys] Yes.
The kid's room is a game changer for us.
You've got my art station.
[Brent] This makes it more of a relaxing experience.
They have a place specific for their school now.
[Ashley] Guys, we get to do school up here.
[Christina] You guys love it?
-[all] Yeah! -[Christina] It's so cool, huh?
You did a great job with the wallpaper, by the way.
-[Brent] I like it. -It pops, though.
It adds, like, a little friendly element.
Oh, so cute. He can spy on everybody. [chuckling]
And Brent, you were able to fix the primary shower without gutting it,
which kept us under $200,000.
-Happy? -[both] Very happy.
I'm gonna give you guys some family time.
Thank you so much. It was such a pleasure
-working with you. It was so fun. -[Ashley] This was so awesome.
-Thank you. -[Christina] Thank you for trusting me.
-I did. Brent does too. -Thank you very much. It's awesome.
-Very impressed. -Thank you. We'll work together again.
-Bye! -Bye!
At the beginning of this project,
we were a little unsure about
how this house would fit for us, to be honest.
There was a bunch of work.
There was a bunch of hiccups that came up
during this project that we were not expecting.
But now I can't imagine a better house that we could have.
Love the desk.
-[Ashley] You love the desk? -Yeah.
[Ashley] Why don't you go sit in them? Come here.
I love this house, and we're so excited being here.
I couldn't have done it without very special people.
Guys, this is pretty darn cool.
It's amazing.
Everything you've worked hard for is here.
Good job. It looks good.
-We're blessed. -Yes.