Every forever home has its own story
and we can't wait to help tell it.
It's been in my family, you know, for generations.
Let me smash. Let me smash.
-[man 1] Yeah. -[man 2] This is the next step.
[woman 1] The next chapter in my life.
-Hyah! Whoo! -[man 3] Love it.
After you. Welcome home.
-[woman 2] Oh, my goodness. -[man 4] Look at this.
-Oh, wow. -Let's go!
It feels like home.
Come on for a group hug.
-[Jonathan] Gorgeous. -[Drew] Yeah.
Beautiful day.
Drive out to Chris and Melody's place in Burbank.
Burbank is, it almost has that small town charm...
It does.
...even though it's a pretty massive city.
We met in college.
We were in Pasadena waiting to get into a bar,
and we had a mutual friend who introduced us.
Wait a sec.
They met in line going into a bar.
I wonder who had more charm.
Was she giving him eyes?
Was Chris trying to play it suave?
More suave than when you first met Linda?
Oh...
Your line was, "Where did you get the water?"
Yeah, but... but it worked. It worked.
We've been married...
What's it? 2,000...
[laughter]
2008.
-2008. -So that's 13 years.
We have two beautiful daughters.
Arianna, who is 12 years old.
And Isabella, who's ten.
Our oldest daughter, Arianna, when she was 17 months,
she was diagnosed with stage one Hepatoblastoma,
which is childhood liver cancer.
[Melody] For any parent to hear
that their child has cancer, it's just something
that no one ever wants to go through.
With Arianna's cancer, it was just very chaotic.
We were living out of a hospital pretty much
and just renting after that,
just trying to get our life together.
And...
[Chris] She's now a healthy, happy 12-year-old little girl.
But the chemo that she was getting
caused moderate hearing loss.
So what really brought us here to Burbank
was that the school district here specializes in deaf
and hard of hearing.
[Melody] We just love the community.
Everybody here is like family.
It's just a really good neighborhood.
When we first saw this house and we saw a few houses
before we looked at this one,
but with this house we both walked in
and we just had that feeling.
We found our forever community,
our forever neighborhood.
[Melody] You know, we are just waiting
to kind of get to know the house,
get a good feel of the house,
and we're done feeling.
We needed to get things done.
[laughter]
-[Drew] Hey. -Hello.
[Melody] Hi.
Now, this is like a little wonderland here.
Like you have this beautiful garden.
Who's got the green thumb?
Wait, let's see those thumbs.
-No, you don't do the garden? -Not those two.
No.
[Jonathan] So, Arianna, I understand,
you know sign language.
Can you teach him to say Drew is better looking?
D-R-E-W
is better looking.
How do you say, 'no way'?
Thank you. Thank you.
I appreciate it.
Why don't we pop inside and take a peek?
[Melody] Okay.
You guys gonna join or are you gonna take off?
Umm, take off.
-Okay. -Don't do the boring stuff.
Not cool enough.
All right. See you.
All right.
[Melody] This is the front room.
[Drew] All right.
For how bright it is outside, all of a sudden,
it feels really dark in here.
That solid front door blocks had a lot of light.
Do you want to keep the fireplace?
-[Melody] Yes. -[Chris] That was our vision.
Truth be told, I did do a little work.
Guys, I'm all into the DIY stuff.
The mantle, I did this with my bare hands.
I stained it, but, obviously, I just didn't know like...
[Drew] Whoa! Hold on.
-Oh, so it's literally not even... -Hold on.
[Jonathan] These photos are weighing it down
so it doesn't move.
We haven't touched it since it's been installed.
Oh, my God. Okay.
-[Jonathan] Wow. -[Drew] Okay.
Just gonna lay this here.
[Jonathan] Wow.
Talk about taking on the DIY project.
Good try.
I mean, esthetically, it looked nice for that mantel,
but then it's just falling off the wall.
It's not the best way.
This seems like a bit of a forgotten space over here.
[Chris] It is wasted space.
[Drew] What is it you want in this space
if it's not gonna be all the toys and stuff?
You know, it'd be nice to have a storage area.
Behind you, we store all of our stuff here.
So this is me starting the renovation already.
Yes.
-[Drew] Is that your bedroom right there? -[Chris] That is.
[Jonathan] It's not ideal that it opens into the living room?
That's another area
that we would like to improve on.
[Jonathan] So we come out of your living room
and into the dining room, kitchen and bathroom area.
So you're dining, you're eating, you're enjoying flush.
-Yes. -[Jonathan] And that's what it's all about.
[Drew] This does make it feel a little awkward,
especially for entertaining.
Let's face it, nobody wants to be eating
while someone's using the restroom.
This is the place that makes the most sense
for the bathroom because it's between the bedrooms.
So this is Isabella and Arianna's room?
[Chris] Yeah.
[Jonathan] You know, you guys have done pretty well at making it work,
but I feel like we could find a better flow.
I mean, this house must have had an addition at some point.
[Melody] It was.
When we moved in, it had already had the family room.
-[Melody] Yeah. -[Chris] That part is the addition.
And this... this whole part is the original house.
[Drew] Okay. So this originally was an exterior wall?
[Chris] Yeah.
[Drew] Have you thought of what you would want for the bedrooms here?
Like, do you want to try and create a hallway or something?
We had thought about putting a hallway in,
but we're just not sure how it...
how it would take away from the area.
You know, we have... we have this wall here.
We have our... our counter.
It's tricky because, obviously,
if you're carving out a bunch of space like that,
you still need somewhere for your dining table...
-Yeah. -...but it pushes it all toward the kitchen.
-Exactly. -[Jonathan] And now...
-And then you have this. -[Jonathan] Yeah.
We were thinking maybe we could knock this out
and I already kind of started.
So, see, we know what's behind here.
Well, what is in behind here? Let's see.
Oh, oh, it's still the original lath and plaster, okay.
To give you separation from the bathroom,
but still keep enough space for the dining area,
we can build a short wall over here.
Banquette seating along the newly-built wall
and a slightly smaller dining table
will actually give you even more space
for your dining area, not to mention privacy.
And cooking all those meals for the people who sit here
is all happening back here?
-[Chris] This is where it all happens. -Yep! This is it.
Oh, which, by the way, what is...
what's the deal here with this?
[Chris] There are, trophies that are there.
Our vision was to call this the champ's corner.
[Chris] Champ's corner.
Arianna, she's into softball.
And Isabella, she loves soccer.
I like it.
I mean, that's celebrating the kids' successes in sports.
And I mean, we had that, too, from karate to basketball.
I love showing off my medals and trophies.
Drew had one of his trophies made into a necklace
-so he could just wear it around... -Yeah.
...show it off a little.
He's jealous because he didn't have any.
I had some.
[Jonathan] Well, as far as the kitchen goes,
it's not the most functional.
There's not a lot of prep space.
[Chris] Not a lot of counter space.
[Melody] Yeah, it's very cramped.
We're bumping into each other a lot.
Obviously, you have a big area that's not utilized great,
because everything's just sort of thrown in there.
But if you had actual built-in storage
on either side of that, it would probably function better for you.
-[Chris] A lot better. -[Melody] Oh, yeah, a lot better.
Another thing, we want to make sure
that we're there with the girls.
It would be awesome if we were to be able to be in the kitchen,
see into the dining room, see into the family room.
[Melody] Yeah.
And it also helps out with... with Arianna who depend...
who's dependent on lip reading.
So for her to be able to see us talking
-and... and also hear us is important. -Yeah.
[Jonathan] So ideally, you'd like to actually
- pull this wall back if possible. -[Melody] Yeah.
-[Chris] If possible. -[Melody] Yeah.
[Jonathan] Okay.
But let me just point out one thing, though.
On behalf of Arianna, she's almost a teenager,
she doesn't want you to be able to see her all the time.
That's exactly what we needed.
[Drew] Mom and dad are always watching.
[Chris] This is for us.
[Melody] Yeah, for us, that's right.
The front living space,
that's more of your casual hangout place.
I take it the big room at the back, the family room, that's for the girls.
-That's where we hang out. -[Melody] Yep.
-[Drew] Okay. -[Chris] All right.
[Melody] This is where we hang out.
So you have a desk.
Is that the time-out chair?
Who works where and...
[Melody] This is Chris's little desk space.
[Chris] And ideally, I'd like to get out of that
because the girls are getting to that age
where they need their own space.
So are you thinking you want a flex space
for an office or what... what's a priority?
Yeah.
Yeah, I would like to get out of there and just have like,
a nook for myself, for... just for work,
-because I do work from home. -[Jonathan] Okay.
I assume this is the family cuddle zone.
Yes.
This is where we end up at the end of the night.
Challenge here is, it's a bit of a narrow room,
-but it's a very long room. -[Chris] Yeah.
[Jonathan] We don't need to take down walls
to make this work better for you.
New wood floors, a fresh coat of paint,
more modern furniture and a better layout
would make a world of difference in here.
Do you want to level out the floor here,
so it's all one level?
[Chris] The step down doesn't really bother me.
[Jonathan] Okay.
Are you kind of on the same page with style
and design or what...
What would you say your style is?
-We are. We are. -[Chris] Yeah. We're, yeah.
We kind of like...
We kind of like, like, alien, eclectic type.
-Did you say alien? -[Melody] No, I'm kidding.
-Alien eclectic. -[Melody] That was supposed to throw him off.
[Chris] I know, I was like, "What?"
This is not what we talked about.
-[Jonathan] That is the first. -Wait, wait what? No, no.
We kind... we like, like farmhouse.
[Chris] Farmhouse, modern.
That's nice for families. Warm and inviting and...
[Melody] Yeah. Yeah. Exactly warm.
So for budget, have you discussed that?
Is that something you agree on as well?
-We have, yeah. Yeah. -Yes.
And we're looking at 190,000 being our... our max.
[Drew] Okay. Okay.
That's a great budget for the living room,
dining, kitchen and this family room.
We'll be able to do a lot with that.
But keep in mind, if you want to open everything up,
-that can get really expensive. -Yeah.
-[Melody] Okay. Okay. -[Chris] Okay.
So keep it under 190, we'll make sure that we jump in right away.
If you guys are good to roll up the sleeves,
we'll do some demo and we'll figure out
-some options and get going. -I've been ready.
[Drew] Oh, yeah, I can see it.
You were asking us if we were ready.
-[Melody] Yeah. -She's been ready for years.
You can tell by the holes and...
I want to get that farmhouse feel inspiration for you.
I will take you to look at a place for inspiration.
I think it's really cool that you're on the same page,
because not a lot of couples are.
-Yeah. -[Drew] All right.
Or at least at this point, you say you're on the same page.
We'll see.
We're so ready. Yeah.
We are so ready for this renovation.
We are so ready. Yeah. I mean...
It's gonna be life-changing.
But we have so many memories in this house.
We built so many memories.
We just need to make
the... the house a little more functional.
We want to feel like it's our home.
Like, we had some say
onto the... the flow of the home.
Exactly.
I'm very excited for multiple reasons.
One, to smash out your mantle
that already is about to fall off the wall.
But also just to show you guys the potential
that you do have in this space.
-We can't wait. -Can't wait.
Can't wait. It's exciting.
Today, though, I want to pull those kitchen cabinets out.
And if we have time, I want to punch a hole
from the kitchen through into that living room area.
-Let's do it. Let's do it. -Do it.
I feel like I could have said anything right now.
You'd be like, "Yes! Let's do it."
-I'm ready! -[laughter]
All right. Finger test. Is this safe?
Let's see how safe it was.
-Yeah. -Oh, my...
Not good.
Sure, there was a few things I could've maybe
did, like, a bit better, but...
And we just didn't put the mantle on there quite, you know...
But that's how you don't walk into...
-...flush to the wall. -...someone's house and touch things.
You're not supposed to touch things.
Just look. Just look and appreciate things.
Well, this is...
Oh, my gosh.
I'm gonna... I'm going to use this now to demo the kitchen.
-How did you do that? -[Melody] Yes.
-[Chris] Dang. -I work out.
[Chris] Tearing down those cabinets, that was pretty cool.
Yeah. That was awesome.
A little, a little harder than I thought.
Jonathan just comes and takes it down with one...
Like nothing. Like nothing... With a finger.
Yeah.
Just like he did with my mantle.
I got it started, he just finished it up.
[Melody] Yeah.
-Did you just give it a... -[Melody] I did. I did.
-I kicked it. -It deserved it.
So what was the reason for this?
-Just a burst of like, "Help!" -[Melody] Yes.
I wanted to see what was behind the wall.
And then when I saw, I stopped.
-This does feel awkward. -[Chris] Yeah.
I'd like to see this opened up, but I'd...
I'd like to make sure we have at least one option
where we put enough of the budget
toward the structural work needed
-to get rid of this completely. -[Melody] Yes.
There's most likely a load coming across here,
so there's probably a post right in here.
This also might be a load bearing wall,
so we'll have to check all that out when we open it up.
[Melody] Okay. Clear?
-Yeah. Don't hit... -All clear?
No, no, no. This isn't right.
-This is right. -[Jonathan] Oh, yeah.
It was the hammer that was the problem.
This is a lot harder.
Yeah. Give me this hammer.
I think... I think the overexertion has gone to your head.
My gosh.
Talk about overbuilt.
This could be a bit of an issue.
So you have a cluster of studs here.
You have a cluster of studs here.
That means that this is a load bearing wall
and there's a point load coming down right here.
Quite a bit of weight here.
So we're dealing with structure
in two directions. That can be complicated.
There's going to be a good chunk of the budget
that has to go toward structure.
Okay.
The more we want to open it,
the more that's gonna eat that up.
We are gonna strip all of this back
and then have the engineer come in
and look at the post, look at the beams,
look at everything to see what we can do.
At this point, I'm not 100% on what our options can be.
I'm still trying to figure that out.
My engineer has to give me a lot of information
about what we can and can't do and what the cost would be.
But at least I know a few things
that I can keep pushing ahead,
so we can get to the point where I can get options.
We might have to add two more walls in this area.
What?
What do you mean, two more walls?
-I'm totally messing with you. -[laughter]
What?
That is not the vision I thought.
[Jonathan] My crew is at Chris and Melody's house
tearing back the layers to see
what's load bearing and what's not.
We're still trying to figure out our options,
but no matter what we do, the kitchen,
dining and living room and family room
need to be opened up as much as possible.
The main bedroom entrance into the living room
needs to be relocated to get this house functioning
a lot better for them.
To do it, we'll have to sacrifice
one of their two bedroom closets,
but the layout change will be well worth it.
All right. You're excited?
-Super excited. -Really excited.
What are you hoping to see?
[Melody] Let me just tell you, I'm not afraid of color.
She's a little more bold. I'm... I'm a little more basic modern.
Melody and Chris described their style as farmhouse
with a modern twist.
Well, I'm not exactly taking them
to a farmhouse for inspiration,
but this place does have a modern touch
and there are some great rustic elements.
Oh, wow. You have to see this. Look at this.
-[Chris] Wow. -[Melody] Oh, my gosh.
-[Chris] Yeah. -[Melody] This is beautiful.
-[Drew] What do you think? -[Chris] Really nice.
And I... I really like this bench.
You know, it has a nice, rustic farmhouse style.
But the one thing that I like
is that you have a lot of options here.
Look at all the different wood tones throughout.
You have that more reddish tone in these floors,
this whitewash on the center table, a blond over here.
That's what I like for the floors. That color.
-[Chris] I agree with that, yeah. -[Melody] Yeah.
[Chris] I like that.
It's, you know, it's farmhouse modern with the whitewash.
-Yeah, I like that better. -[Melody] Yeah.
[Drew] Okay. Good to know.
I mean, what do you think about the fireplace?
I really like it, but I feel like it's missing my mantel on there.
[Drew] Right.
Well, but that wouldn't be up here.
That would be laying on the ground, right?
I feel that if we maybe just clean up what you have
and get a new mantel, maybe that is a better spend
and save the rest of that money
for other areas of the design.
-[Chris] I agree. Yeah. -[Melody] I agree.
[Drew] I want to take you to the back. All right.
What do you think of the dining area?
-[Melody] Ooh, this is nice. -[Chris] Oh, yeah.
[Drew] This does have a farmhouse sort of feel to the table.
-Yeah, I do like this. -Yeah.
Chairs are very plastic, contemporary looking.
-They're just not my style. -[Drew] Yeah.
So natural elements. No plastic.
Come on in the kitchen.
So you can see this is not a massive kitchen,
but it feels big.
It feels nice and open with the way it's laid out.
-[Melody] Yeah. -[Chris] Yeah.
I really love the... the openness,
having the sight lines into the family room.
Obviously, that's very important to us.
[Melody] Yeah. I love all this wood.
Look at the cabinet color too.
[Chris] And the counter space.
I mean, they have counter space to do a lot of things.
[Melody] Yes. It's so beautiful.
[Chris] It's something we don't have right now.
You're already saying you love the cabinet color?
-[Melody] Yeah. -[Drew] Do you love the style?
[Chris] Shaker style with the white, I like that.
If you're wanting that lighter tone
for the hardwood to come all the way through,
we want to consider what we have
for the countertop color and the backsplash.
Okay.
Um, you know, actually, going all the way through,
I... ideally, I would love to have tile
maybe like a checkered tile, something cool in the kitchen.
Oh, she is looking for statements.
-Yeah. She is, yeah. Yeah. -Yeah. Yeah.
Your kitchen is this little niche off to the side.
So it is its own little space.
No problem terminating the hardwood
-before we come into the kitchen. -Right.
I really like that checkered pattern style.
-That's cool. -Yeah.
[Drew] And it will look great with the cabinets.
Countertops, this is quartz.
But what do you... what do you think color wise?
[Chris] I like the... the gray or a lighter shade of gray.
[Melody] Yeah, like a warmer shade... shade of gray.
[Chris] Yeah. Okay.
And we can have a farmhouse sink if you like, too.
-[Chris] Yeah. -[Melody] Oh, yes.
-The white... -I would love that.
...with the farmhouse sink, yeah, that's what we love.
What do you think for the backsplash pattern?
-See, I like the backsplash. -[Melody] Yeah.
[Chris] You know, it's kind of like the...
the white with the little...
I don't know what that's called.
Yeah, looks like a bunch of little fish
going to party or something.
This is gonna be a pretty styling house.
-He's feeling it. I love it. I love it. -I love it.
Ah, now I know what modern farmhouse
means to Melody and Chris.
And I also know that Jonathan and I
can put together some great design ideas
and layout options to make their house look awesome.
Also make it functional and better for their family.
This to me is the backdrop for a modern farmhouse.
[Drew] Yeah.
I want to talk about a couple of things that I thought would be cool.
In that front entry coming in, cleaning it up,
getting rid of the bedroom door that's facing that front room,
shifting it around the corner
so that it opens into the hallway.
I still want somewhere that's functional
for hanging jackets and bags and things like that.
Yeah.
Remember the game where you had to put
the little round peg in the little round hole
and you couldn't seem to figure out
why the little square peg wouldn't go in the round hole.
What if we do some kind of
almost like a peg board feature,
so that it's interesting, it's cool,
it blends in, but... I don't know.
[Drew] So you mean, for, like, the front... coats,
-like, hanging all the coats? -[Jonathan] Yeah.
It doesn't have to look exactly like that, but I think...
Jeez.
-Well, so much for that peg. -[Drew] Yeah.
[Jonathan] We'll get that one from the pool later.
So Melody had mentioned,
they do not want hardwood in the kitchen, they want tile.
[Drew] Yes.
[Jonathan] Are they wanting to go a little bit more rustic?
[Drew] Melody was clear that she wants checkered kitchen floor tiles.
So I'm thinking we do them in gray and white
and I prefer the squares.
[Jonathan] For the cabinet color?
The main thing for them is they don't... they like light,
because their kitchen has been so tiny,
unfunctional and dark for so long.
So if we wanted to do,
you know, a two-tone with the uppers and lowers,
or we can just go white
and then find other ways to pop up some interest.
[Jonathan] I would go white.
White will help keep the light bouncing around.
If they do want a little bit of that rustic farmhouse,
I think it does look nicer to go black,
so you can do black knobs and pulls
that'll look nice on the cabinets.
[Drew] For the backsplash,
let's do a tile that can match
the color tones, but it's just different.
[Jonathan] Yeah. This would be nice.
I vote that I'll wrap this up and you can try and fish
that peg out of the pool.
[Jonathan] Here.
[Drew] Oh, perfect.
Oh, my gosh. My... my good catching.
[Jonathan] You're gonna start to see that there's no going back.
Oh, my gosh.
[Jonathan] And this is nothing.
I want you to take a peek at what's around this corner.
-Okay? -[Chris] Let's do this.
-Oh, my God. -[Chris] Oh, wow.
[Melody] Oh, my goodness.
[Jonathan] This is what the inside of your house looks like.
-Actually, it looks better. -Yeah. Okay.
So do you want to know the good news
or the bad news right now?
-[Melody] Oh! -Give us the bad news first.
What a pessimist.
Yeah, yeah. Give us the bad news first.
[Jonathan] Okay.
Bad news is, as you know,
this originally was an exterior wall,
so there was probably a slider or something right here.
This is the header over top of the slider.
And so someone wanted more space.
They wanted more light.
You can see that it's sagging a little bit.
All of this roof structure, all of these ceiling joists,
all rest on that right there.
-Oh, my gosh. -[Chris] Wow.
So that is not how you do it.
One really big earthquake and you can see some
-real problems happen. -Oh, my goodness.
[Jonathan] All of this roof structure,
all of these ceiling joists, all rest on that right there.
-Oh, my gosh. -[Chris] Wow.
[Jonathan] So it's still safe for us to be in the house,
but that is not how you do it.
-The good news is... -Yes.
-Bring it on. Bring it on. Good news. -Yes.
We can do whatever we want.
If we want to open it up completely,
if we want to open it up partway,
obviously, the beam work,
the more we do costs more money.
[Chris] Right.
So we should probably jump into the options.
-Yeah. Okay. -Okay.
[Jonathan] Option one
would completely open all of this up.
You wouldn't have any posts, any walls.
You'd have a flush straight ceiling,
and you'd be able to see clear
from your kitchen into the family room.
[Melody] Oh, that is awesome.
[Jonathan] You'll get your checkerboard tiles,
beautiful light gray counters.
And with the walls gone, you'll have room for an island
with breakfast bar seating so the whole family can enjoy
the kitchen together without feeling crowded.
-[Melody] Wow. -[Chris] Wow.
[Jonathan] The family room is where you spend the most time.
I'll add hardwood floors,
a comfy sofa and a big coffee table.
I'll mount the TV up on the wall
above a beautiful media cabinet
that you can use for storage.
I'll do a soft white color palette
with pops of color to really up
your family room experience.
For the living room, I'll relocate the bedroom door,
shifting it into the hallway around the corner,
so you can utilize the entire wall for storage.
I'll replace the dated laminate floors
with mid tone hardwood and give you a new front door
with windows for added natural light.
The fireplace gets a coat of paint
and a new mantel that stays on the wall.
And Chris, I'll move your home office
out of the family room
and make you a nice office space in the living room.
Sounds exciting. Yeah.
It would honestly be a dream.
It sounds beautiful.
I mean, it gives us all the options
-that we want and gives us the sightlines... -Yeah.
...you know, to be able to interact with family.
[Melody] Yeah.
Option one comes in at $190,000,
and it would take ten weeks to complete.
-Okay. -Okay.
[Melody] So what is option two?
Shut up, Jonathan.
Just get to the good stuff.
Option two, everything would be exactly the same,
except for the kitchen,
where we would save you a little bit of money
by not opening it up completely.
We would leave a post to support the load.
And since the sightline won't be as open or unobstructed,
I'll add an interior window
so you still get the benefit of seeing
into the dining room and the family room.
But the big advantage is,
we can extend the amount of counter space
and kitchen storage by having a wraparound peninsula.
You'll still get the checkered floor tiles,
gorgeous counters and new appliances.
-I love it. I love it. -Yeah.
So option two comes in well below your max budget,
$175,000 and I can get it done in eight weeks.
So you'd be back in here and it would be beautiful
in a very short period of time.
The main difference is we would not
remove this post,
so you'd have a little bit of structure here,
which saves us essentially $15,000.
Okay.
God, well, it sounds so good.
This is... Yeah, this is tough.
There's no wrong choice, because you guys can choose.
It's essentially what's more important to you
having more counter space or having more sightline?
More counter space is actually really good.
I think it is. Yeah.
We're bumping into each other a lot in that kitchen.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
[Chris] Plus option two gives us an extra,
you know, $15,000 in our pocket
-and, you know, some... -Yeah.
...that's definitely a good savings that we could use.
Yeah, we are already pretty stretched.
Right. Right.
What do you think? Option one or option two?
[Chris] So what are you thinking?
-I'm thinking option two. -Option two.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
[Jonathan] Okay. All right.
I think this is gonna be transformative.
-It's gonna be incredible. -I... I agree. Yeah.
But for now, take a break.
Kick back, put your feet up,
and when you come back, it's gonna be done.
-Oh, thank you. -Thank you.
Oh, my God.
[Jonathan] Melody and Chris chose option two,
which means we'll be keeping
the post in the kitchen to avoid
some very expensive beam work.
Instead, we can focus our reno budget
on shoring up the structure,
upgrading the electrical and plumbing
to today's code requirements,
and giving them an interior window for better sightlines
from the kitchen to the family room.
The bathroom door opens straight into the dining area,
so Adam and I are gonna add a new hallway
just outside the bathroom.
It makes sense to have separation
also for the privacy of the bedrooms, too.
[Adam] Yeah.
This is a better location for the door to this bedroom
instead of the front
and having a built in banquette here,
much better use of the space.
So this... this will make
everything balanced in the universe,
giving them a separation.
And they said they wanted this.
This is important for them.
So, wanna throw a top light up?
[Adam] Sure.
Boom! We have some privacy.
Who knew that a five foot wall span
could make such a difference?
I'm always the guy who's tearing down walls.
Fortunately, I remember how to build them back, too.
[Jonathan] With the electrical now completed
and all inspections passed,
we're patching up the drywall
and closing the entrance to the main bedroom from the living room.
Relocating this door will completely change
the functionality of their front room.
Melody and Chris will have privacy and peace of mind
when they have guests over.
Plus, we'll be able to add Pegboard storage,
which will be a big improvement
over the single coat tree they had before.
Their new kitchen with expanded storage
and prep space is coming together,
while Adam and I do some heavy lifting
to allow more light into the front entry
in the living room.
Oh, gosh.
So this door is solid.
It's a beast.
Really, it just needs to be sanded down, painted out.
You could even add a detail to it, it'd be nice.
Problem is, no matter what you do to this door,
it will never let the light in.
The new door is beautiful,
'cause it's got all the glass.
It's still got the energy efficiency and the security.
So you want your first impression to look good.
And also, don't you want to see
who's ringing your doorbell?
-I... I think I do. -[Jonathan] Yeah.
The peephole is one thing, but, you know,
this is like a lounging area, sitting area.
It should have lots of lights.
-[Adam] Yeah. -[Jonathan] So...
The lights are everything for this room especially.
Exactly.
But, maybe there's something else
we could do with it.
Even though this front door visually isn't very appealing,
I feel like we can rework it
into some shelves for Champs Corner.
That way they have a little bit of the old house
mixed in with the new.
The new door looks amazing
and definitely lets in a lot more natural light.
This is gonna be something that
really improves their living room.
That is a much prettier door.
Melody and Chris chose option two,
which saves them 15 grand
by not doing any expensive beam work.
Since their family relies on lip reading to help Arianna,
I still plan to give them sightlines from the kitchen
into the family room.
And we're doing that with an interior window.
-Oh, hey. What's up? -What's up, man?
This is gonna be a cool feature for them,
because they did not have to spend
all that extra money on the structure
that it would take to open this up
so they can spend on other things.
But I do want to make this feel special.
Give it like a New York loft kind of feel...
-[Adam] Right. -...and put a window in.
So if we can do something cool with the grid...
Okay.
...making it like a cool, basically like four panels.
[Adam] We have what?
We have 36, so we'll be 17 on each side.
Or...
[Adam] I love that. I like that better.
[Jonathan] So you know what that means.
-If we did this and this... -Tic tac toe.
Tic tac toe championship.
-[Adam] Let's do it. -Yeah.
-Oh, okay. -[Jonathan] All right.
Okay.
Stand by.
All right.
You want to go first?
All right. Are you X's or O's?
-I'm Xs. -[Jonathan] Okay.
I'm gonna go... Yeah.
Okay.
Oh, I see what you're up to.
So there is actually a trick
where you can guarantee your odds
way better than somebody that does not know the trick.
The problem is, I've read the trick a million times,
and I keep forgetting what it is.
[Adam] That's a tie, dude.
[Jonathan] That is disappointing.
The last five years in this home
have been a whirlwind for Chris and Melody.
With moving out to Burbank
and getting Arianna and Isabella
settled into their new community,
it's finally time to make this house their own.
And we're taking every opportunity
to personalize it for them.
Melody is getting her checkered floor tiles,
and for something a little different,
we're setting them in a diamond pattern.
It means more cuts, it means more material,
but it just looks a lot classier
when it's on a 45 degree angle.
In the family room,
they're getting new white oak hardwood throughout.
It'll still cozy things up in here
for family movie nights.
In the living room,
Melody gave her best shot with a DIY mantle,
but this time, Drew and I are doing it right.
-[Jonathan] Okay. -[Drew] Okay.
Looking at this, I'm thinking so much better
than what was there before.
[Drew] It's way better. This is such a chunky mantle.
This is so perfect for what... what we need here.
And we have to make sure that this mantle
doesn't fall off like the old one.
-This would hurt. -Well, look at the bracket on here.
This thing is never going anywhere.
We even extra drilled on the side here
so we can anchor into every single stud.
Now, my question, though, is,
we're gonna have the clean cut on both sides.
And this is a very rugged, very rough.
[Jonathan] Yeah.
[Drew] Do you want to clean it up a little bit or what are you thinking?
Yeah, I was gonna sandblasted or even just take,
like, a wire brush to it.
This has nice color on the side.
I'm still gonna sand this down
and then distress it up a little bit, but it'll look nice.
-Oh, we can make a mantle. -I know we can.
I'm not throwing shade at Melody,
but we're like professional DIYers.
[Jonathan] It's what we do day in and day out.
I know we can do this.
[Drew] Oh, that's not helping.
-Hold on. -Oh, my hand.
But, you know, sometimes mantels can be
-a little bit finicky. -Yeah.
I mean, sometimes they need a little coaxing
or a little gentle persuading.
I'm gonna need a sledgehammer.
If we don't get this thing up here,
-I mean, we're out of luck. -We should just retire.
Okay. You know what?
Honestly, I think we need to open
these hole up a little bit more.
-You think so? -[Drew] Yeah.
We're so close.
Melody cannot find out about this.
Shh! We keep this to ourselves.
[Jonathan] We're priming in the living room
where we'll be relocating Chris's home office.
That way the girls have the family room to themselves.
We'll be painting the walls a soft white
to up the brightness factor.
One of the reasons Melody and Chris chose option two is,
it provided them with more kitchen storage and prep space.
I think they're gonna love this new functionality.
We had to move Champs Corner to make way for all of this,
but I think our idea for Champs Corner 2.0
is gonna be way better.
I'm so glad we're not wasting this door
because it is still a nice solid door.
Yeah. I like that it is so solid.
It's been providing security.
It's been providing them, you know,
that efficiency of having a solid front door,
but it has not been providing them
with the light that they needed.
-[Drew] Yeah. -So no need to toss it out.
We want to have somewhere for Champs Corner.
Why not make shelves out of this
so that Champs Corner can live on?
One, it's gonna save us some cost.
And two, it's still gonna look awesome and it's solid.
-I mean... -Yeah.
...these are gonna be great shelves.
-All right, let's do it. -You want to run a...
if you center eight inches right there.
-So if you want to... -[Drew] All right.
-[Jonathan] That looks good. -[Drew] You want to mark it?
[Jonathan] What happened to our awards, by the way,
-for karate and everything? -I have them all.
How do you have them all? Half the awards were mine.
If I display all of them, people think
that I was more the karate pro than you were.
-Did you just call it karati? -Karati.
If you can't pronounce it, you can't claim it.
You already claimed our coin collection and that...
What the heck is that?
That's why I'm the champion.
You weren't fast enough to respond.
Because my ninja skills
told me that's clearly not a threat.
-All right. -All right, let's cut.
[Jonathan] Looks so much better than just tossing this door out.
-That... that is a solid shelf. -[Drew] That looks great.
I mean, we can bond the end here,
-fill that look and then paint it. -Oh, yeah.
That'll... we'll have a clean up real nice.
-I like it. -Bam!
[Jonathan] The challenge in this reno was to work with the structure
we had to improve the amount of flow
and kitchen prep space.
They're getting light gray marble looking counters.
It's a beautiful, natural esthetic
that will work well with their farmhouse sink.
I think we got the ratio of farmhouse to modern
just right for them.
We're on the home stretch, adding the finishing touches.
It was a challenging floorplan with an unusual layout,
but we were able to open things up a lot
to create a much more functional space.
Chris and Melody moved their young family to Burbank
to provide their daughters, Arianna and Isabella,
the best community and the best school district for their needs.
Fancy ideas of home renovations
went onto the back burner
while they settled into their new community.
Our goal was to transform this home into a place
that feels like a warm family hug
and a place that works
much better for everyone forever.
[Drew] Okay.
Can't even get it on my head?
Your head's too big.
This is such a better use of the space.
They needed to have storage.
They needed to have a wall like this
where they can just hang a whole bunch of coats.
-Somewhere to put the boots. -Great.
I mean, in this whole area,
just the flow feels so much better now.
I can't wait to see their faces when they come in here
and then I can't wait to see their faces
-when they see the rest. -[Drew] Um-hmm.
I feel this is a very moving design.
[Jonathan] I get it. I get it.
This feels so much more spacious.
Ripping out the old closet that was here,
expanding the kitchen, wrapping it around
and losing this wall that was closing it off.
[Drew] I think this is better.
And so weird layout for a kitchen,
but we have actually made it look amazing
and we've maximized every square inch.
It was a weird layout for kitchen.
Now it all makes sense.
We just need to put a couple of homeowners in it.
Let's get them.
[Chris] We are so ready to be back in the house.
[Drew] Yeah.
[Jonathan] Well, we can wait a little longer if you want.
[Chris] No. Please, no. Please, no.
[Melody] No. We need to get back in.
I'm... I'm done.
Last night, I was so anxious coming in.
I just kept like having this dream that, like,
I was gonna walk in
and not much was gonna be changed.
Can't wait to be in the house already.
It looks gorgeous.
You and the girls are gonna love it.
Oh, my gosh. Look. The front door.
[Chris] Wow. That's awesome.
[Drew] Just a little different.
[Melody] Oh, my God. That is beautiful.
It beats the kitchen door that we had there before.
[Jonathan] Yeah, that's right.
[Melody] Oh, my gosh, Chris.
Wow.
-It looks so good. -Wow.
- Awesome. -[Melody] Oh, my God.
Oh, my gosh, Chris.
Wow.
-It looks so good. -Wow.
This is beautiful.
-Awesome. -Oh, my God.
[Chris] This is so cool.
[Melody] This is not the same house.
-[Chris] No. -[Melody] What the heck?
-Wow. -[Chris] Yeah.
[Melody] That door is completely gone.
I mean, the wall is beautiful.
-[Chris] Yeah. -[Melody] I love it.
No bedroom door in your front entry?
This is very inviting.
You have a beautiful mantel and cleaning up the fireplace.
-[Melody] I love that. -[Chris] I love it.
[Melody] It looks so clean. I love the mantel.
- I love it. -[Chris] Yeah. The mantel, that's awesome.
Hold on. Let me make sure...
Oh, it's secure.
This just blows my mind. I just... Wow.
You also have an office. How is that?
-[Chris] Yes. -[Melody] Wow!
-[Chris] This is perfect. -[Melody] Oh, my God.
[Chris] I'm gonna enjoy working.
[Melody] If this doesn't motivate you to work...
-[Chris] Yeah. -[Drew] Yeah, exactly.
-[Chris] Yeah. -...then you're a bum.
[Melody] It's such an inviting space,
not like before.
Before you just bypassed really quickly
'cause there wasn't anything to see, feel or touch.
[Jonathan] This is all bonus all day,
because you guys didn't even really use this space before.
-[Chris] No. -[Melody] No.
[Jonathan] Now it looks inviting.
You've got the mudroom set up.
We decided to put the pegs all the way across
'cause who knows how many friends
- the kids are gonna have. -[Melody] That's true.
[Drew] This is what it's all about, right?
That's what it's all about. That's...
[Jonathan] So that's why we did this.
That's Arianna after cancer treatment.
-Oh! -It was our first outing.
We went to the LA Zoo.
Since, I mean, getting married,
having Arianna, being pregnant with Isabella...
Yeah.
...and then Arianna's cancer journey,
which was the hardest time of our lives, obviously.
But we've just been trying to catch up on everything
and trying to get Arianna and Izzy up to speed.
The house just wasn't a priority.
Now, having our... our forever home
and making it a place
that they could truly grow up and it's awesome.
[Melody] And this just means so much to have it all put together.
We could finally rest. Yeah.
-Rest and enjoy our family. -Let's do it together, ready?
[inhale and exhale]
[Jonathan] This is just the tip of the iceberg.
Wait till you see your beautiful dining room.
[Chris] Let's check it out.
-Oh, look at, Chris. -Wow.
-Chris, look. -Look at this.
Look, look, look. Oh, my God.
-[Chris] Look at this. -[Melody] Look, look.
[Jonathan] We've got a wall here separating the bathroom.
-[Drew] We have a hallway. -Separation.
The bathroom is so far now.
[Chris] Yes.
No more...
Yeah, I know.
We were worried by putting the wall in that
there wouldn't be enough space,
but, I mean, there's plenty of space here.
I mean, I could perfect pathway into the family room.
[Melody] I'm sorry. I'm still in shock here.
I just didn't know how all this was possible.
[Chris] Yeah.
[Melody] Everything is so much better than
what we had before. It's beautiful.
I could definitely see us sitting all here,
breakfast, lunch, dinner.
-[Chris] Yeah. -This is great. Look at this.
[Chris] I mean, this is... this is awesome.
[Jonathan] Sitting there, this chair also comes with massage.
-Take your time. -You have to pick up after me.
-Take your time. -[Chris] I'll take on, yeah.
Did you see that? Did you see how he did that?
[Chris] I was taking notes. I got it.
[Melody] Look at the pictures.
This picture up here on the corner,
that's when we had first moved into the house.
This is what's so important, right?
All those family moments and to be able to have
that as a part of the design,
makes it feel more personal.
-[Chris] It does. For sure. -Yeah.
It's wild because this feels like a much better use of space.
Yeah.
Hallway here, privacy to the bathroom, to the bedrooms.
[Chris] Yeah.
[Jonathan] Instead of having the bedroom at your front door,
-you've now got it in the hallway. -Right.
[Jonathan] It makes more sense.
-Yes. -Yeah.
But here, we have such a great use of space...
-Wow! -...for your kitchen.
-[Melody] Oh! -[Chris] Whoa!
- Look at this. Wow. -[Melody] Chris, look.
My checkered floor. My checkered floor.
-That was what she wanted. -That's exactly what I wanted.
I liked it.
As soon as you like something, your first thing is,
"Oh, Chris. Chris."
-[Drew] Yes. -[Jonathan] Yeah.
-I know we're doing all right here. -Yeah.
[Jonathan] I mean, these floors turned out...
-[Chris] Yeah. -[Jonathan] ... beautifully...
[Melody] They're awesome.
...because sometimes you would just do it in a straight lay.
We decided to swap it to a diamond pattern,
because I think it makes it a little more elegant as it flows through.
But letting the black and white contrast
happen with the door, the window,
the light fixtures and doing the gray and white on the floor,
just really makes it feel elevated.
[Melody] Yes.
[Jonathan] Reimagining this kitchen,
opening it up in here, not making it feel so closed off,
getting rid of the closet so we could build in storage.
[Chris] Look at this.
And even with the additional counter space,
I mean, it's still extremely roomy in here.
It's so spacious.
[Jonathan] The way things have been reconfigured,
just work so much better for the flow of this house.
[Chris] Yeah.
[Jonathan] This odd shape for the kitchen now feels purposeful.
-[Chris] Yeah. -And we're able to see through.
-We have those sightlines, -[Chris] Sightlines, exactly.
- We wanted. -[Melody] that we wanted, yes.
And this will help.
This will make it so much more functional
for our family with Arianna and Isabella.
You know, Arianna does
a really depend on lip reading from far distances.
So this is great.
And when she orders a snack up...
uh, boom!
-You can throw it straight out there. -You know her so well.
She's always ordering those snacks.
I love this back here, too. It's so fun.
[Chris] This is awesome. I love this sink.
[Melody] Oh, my gosh. Look at this. It's so big.
-[Chris] Yeah. -You can take a bath in here.
[Jonathan] All right. Let's try it out.
[Jonathan] I also love the color of the countertop.
It's very unique.
-[Melody] Yeah. -[Chris] Yep.
[Jonathan] You have a state of the art kitchen.
-You have a stylish kitchen... -[Chris] Yeah.
[Jonathan] ...but most importantly, you have a family kitchen.
I can see a lot of time being spent in here together.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
But to tie it all up in a pretty bow...
[Chris] Yeah.
...I want you to see your beautiful living room.
Your new living room.
-Oh, wow. -Oh, my Goodness.
-Yes. -[Chris] Wow.
[Melody] This is beautiful.
- Wow. -[Chris] This is amazing.
[Melody] Oh, my gosh. Look, Chris.
Look how they put all the little pictures in there.
Mind is blown.
[Drew] This is really set up for entertaining.
[Chris] It's all connected.
The family room, the dining room, the kitchen.
[Melody] And the kids are now at the age
where they want to have all their friends come over.
-Yeah. -And so this is... this is great.
-Yeah. -[Drew] From the kitchen
put out food, people can access it from this side.
[Melody] The surveillance area, I'll just be there.
-[Jonathan] Yeah. -Monitoring.
They're not getting away with nothing.
[Melody] That's right. That's right.
-[Chris] Oh, this is... -[Melody] Oh, look at this. It look so cushy.
-Oh, it's so good. -Oh, this is so comfortable.
[Drew] You guys deserve cushy.
-[Melody] Yes, we do. -I'm not gonna lie,
you guys are so amazing.
The energy that you have,
the beautiful family that you've raised,
you deserve a finished space like this
where the house is giving you a big bear hug.
-Yeah. -Thank you so much.
-Wow. -Look...
-Champ's corner. -Champ's corner.
[Jonathan] Champ's corner has a new spot.
[Melody] That is awesome.
[Jonathan] You probably have to upgrade Champs Corner
year after year.
We actually took the wood from the old front door
and used it for those shelves.
-Did you really? -[Jonathan] Yeah.
-That's your old front door. -Really?
-[Jonathan] Yeah. -Is it really? Wow.
Kind of a nice nod instead of it all going to a landfill.
So you have a lounging area for a little reading.
-[Melody] Yeah. -[Chris] I love that.
[Melody] That has my name all over it.
I have to fight the kids. I already know it.
I love seeing you guys so happy in this space.
I mean, you know, we're always nervous doing a design
to make sure did we get it right?
-[Melody] Oh, you really did. -[Chris] For sure.
[Melody] This feels like home.
This is home.
[Drew] Being here to be a part of this process
almost makes us feel like family and...
-You guys are family. -[Drew] Oh, thank you.
Yeah.
It's been a joy to be a part of this with you guys.
[Chris] It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for everything.
-You've been sprinting for however many years. -[Melody] Yes.
-Now you have that house that can let you stop. -[Chris] Yeah.
Have your little cool down
and then start the next chapter in your lives.
-Yes. Thank you. Yes. -Definitely.
-That's the idea for sure. -[Melody] That's exactly.
But it doesn't feel totally complete.
We need to get the girls.
-Let's get the girls. -[Chris] Let's go get them.
[Drew] Bring them in and and see what they...
[Chris] I can't wait to see their reaction.
[Melody] They'll be so excited.
We cannot wait to just... just use up this home
in every way possible.
[both] Oh, hello.
-[Melody] What do you think? -[Drew] How are you?
[Arianna] It looks so different.
I think it's very important for the girls
to see everything we put into this home
because we want them to know that we just love them so much.
We love the life that we've created,
and this home is for them to enjoy throughout the future.
I just feel like we've been waiting a very long time...
-Yeah. -...to get to this point
to be able to share this beautiful space together as a family.
This is such a happy home
and you guys have such a bright energy as well as a family.
So I'm excited that the home now matches the family
that lives in it.
So we will get out of your hair,
show your home, and we'll be here for the first house party.