Original subtitles

- Here in newfoundland, it's springtime.

What better place do you want to be?

- Season 2, baby!

- We're going to have a busy season.

The thing is, it's not for the faint of heart.

- Aaaaahh! (Laughter)

- He just got no fear.

- What's the worst that can happen?!

- Randy! Hey! - Hey!

- It's wicked!

- So you all ready for the Reno?

- Yup, really excited.

- Man, oh man, oh man.

This ain't no normal situation.

Don't know how the house is standing up, actually!

(Folkloric music)

- I'm Randy spracklin.

Third generation builder, proud newfoundlander!

My team and I are building on one giant cliff in the Atlantic ocean.

They don't call it the rock for nothing.

We fight the elements year-round to get the job done.

It might be tough for some but not for us.

Because when this is your view, it's worth it.

(Seagulls squawking)

- You know, here in newfoundland, you go for a run in the boat.

It's springtime.

You might see the puffins, you might see the whales.

What better place do you wanna be?!

(Rock music)

You know, when it's springtime,

everybody starts getting on the move, brigus comes a hotspot.

And construction?

It goes mad!

We're gonna have a busy, busy year, we got a lot of projects

and probably many more as the season goes on.

So, I'm trying to enjoy the open seas while I can!

(Joyful music)

So last year...

We had a lot of catty, but tangly jobs!

(Grunting) - No!

- The weather here in newfoundland did its best to try to slow us down...

We got hit with the worst storm in 100 years!

Ain't movin' that! (Laughing)

- But we pushed through. We got it done.

- Oh wow.

- It feels pretty good to have all the jobs done,

and people recommending you - that's what it's all about.

- I love it!

- We're going to be spread out this year.

From St. John's to brigus, everywhere in between.

Older homes, new builds,

new renos...

And I always wanted to build

something on the lighthouse in my town of brigus.

So, it's going to be a hectic one.

Good thing my team is game for anything I throw at 'em.

The pro is that if you're busy,

everyone else is busy, the whole team, which is good.

- Tada!

- But it means I'm in the office.

Everything is gonna be going boom boom boom, ten jobs starting all at one time,

almost finishing at one time.

When I'm stuck in the office, I know everything out in the field is getting done.

- Good morning.

- Paul is my right-hand man.

He's good at anything, good at whatever you throw at him.

Problem solve right off the top of his head.

- You want to give her a couple on yours, earle?

- You know on top of everything I throw at him,

he's built his own house, he's moving in with Alison,

they got a new little dog, Wes.

Who knows, maybe you'll see a little mini-Paul soon?!

(Chuckling)

You know, the old man, he got some big changes too!

- This is a new addition to the family.

Add some more chores.

- He's trying to be in the office a little bit, he's trying to step away,

but I always got a little project for him! But you know what?

He loves it just as much as I do,

so it's not hard to convince him!

- Spracklin, where's your tool belt?

- Definitely if you're on the job site, there's no missin' Nikki.

You can be across town, and you'll still hear her.

- And it's still on the hinges!

Perfect!

- Nikki this year definitely wants to take on new challenges,

new responsibilities.

So, we'll throw her into it.

- Oh, don't go complainin' about it, get to paintin'!

- She loves to work hard, she loves to play hard.

You know, she got her husband Blair, the two kids, so playtime is a must.

- No splashing!

- On the jobsite or hangin' out, you know, Nikki's always a laugh.

- So far... whoa, jeez!

(Laughing)

- It's going to be really busy on the residential side.

The thing is, it's not for the faint of heart.

My desk is in a little bit of mess because I got resumes, looking for new people.

I got a new plan on the screen that I'm trying to price.

I got another job that we're in process doing.

All that going at one time

and I still gotta be swinging a hammer.

You know, I say we're busy, we got a lot of projects lined up, but busy's good.

You know me: I always make room for a cool project.

And we got one in St. John's, an hour outside of brigus.

We love working here in the capital city.

It's full of history and has tons of old homes, lots of challenges.

The Robbins family love their century-old home.

But they got some big Reno plans!

Even dragon the cat is on board for a massive switch-up.

So I'm gonna meet ros and Katie, make sure there's no changes!

(Bell dinging)

- So you all ready for a Reno?

- We are, we are, yeah, very excited.

Been waiting a long time for this!

- The old kitchen, we're demoing it.

And then we're going to put her big grand piano

standing right in the middle and then kind of like a little sitting area.

The music room right now we're going to turn into a kitchen.

We're going to have two islands, big fridge,

big huge stove, big table with a bench seating all around,

two little prep areas for coffee, big doors.

A lot of moving parts, a lot of work.

We're changing a whole lot downstairs,

but we got to go upstairs too. We got two washrooms.

We're going to bring a whole lot of colour in, fix up that old tub, make it look like new.

Then we're going to the cat washroom.

Gonna make that one look pretty catty.

We got a new kitchen, two washrooms.

Plumber and electrician, they're going to love me!

(Chuckling)

The big tear-up is going to be in the kitchen.

And the new kitchen.

- Mm-hmm. It is.

We chose Randy because he's comfortable with old houses

and as soon as I said, can you do this?

He's instantly, "yeah, I can do that."

It makes me feel better knowing that I'm leaving it in good hands with him.

- We got a whole lot going on, we got three doors.

Which one do you want to look at first?! - I don't know.

What's behind door number one?

- A lot of demo! (Laughing)

Let's go have a look.

I know you got a small kitchen out there now.

So, when we get all this done, this is gonna become a huge kitchen for yourself.

Total transformation.

- Family dinners are always separated.

It's like take your meal and go.

- Half of us are eating in the kitchen out there

and the other half of us are right here!

- Now at least we'll have a place for all of us.

- So yeah, taking a kitchen that's totally on the other side the house

and moving it into a room that was never designed for it, a little bit tricky.

We gotta get plumbing over here.

We gotta get all kinds of electrical, venting. It's a lot to do.

But, hey, it's a challenge. We love a challenge.

- Okay... - And through door number two!

Your kitchen. - It's very small.

- I can see it's pretty tight, get a lot of people in here.

This floor gotta go, the whole kitchen's going.

So, we're going to put your piano probably here?

- I'm interested to see how it's going to look.

But I'm sure it's going to look fine.

Do what you want! - Nice, nice.

- This renovation is kind of making me a little nervous

just because we are moving my big piano all the ways into the kitchen.

- And the acoustics in there,

we're either going to blow everybody out of the house in there

or it's going to sound great. One or the other.

- It's going to look deadly.

Piano here, the old brick.

It's gonna look like...

A lounge speakeasy kind of little setting.

- Yeah, I'm excited. - Yeah.

The work doesn't stop here. We got two rooms upstairs.

- That's right. - So, two more doors.

- Two more doors!

(Both): This is door number three.

- Ah... kind of makes you feel like you're under the sea.

- We call it the fish bathroom.

- The fish bathroom, yeah. - Oh, nice.

Nice cast iron tub.

- It's nice, we're hoping to keep that.

- You can definitely refinish it, paint the outside.

- So this is the catty washroom.

- See, toilet seat. - Toilet seat cat.

We're just going to tear out the tub,

we're going to actually put in the shower,

take down that wall so there's more light.

All new wall treatment.

- And, you know I like colour.

- So we'll make a lot of colour.

- Listen, I'll leave it all up to you. This can be a surprise, yeah.

- Okay. The dragon washroom.

- The dragon washroom! (Laughter)

(Meowing)

- This is going to be a fun project.

This an old house and we're tearing up another floor.

Never know what we're going to find,

Katie needs her music room because she's going back to school.

So, there's a big tight timeline.

We got four months. There's no moving that, gotta have it all done.

So, we got to get the whole team in here and everybody in sync.

And to do it all we got a budget of $240,000.

With signoff complete, ros and her family can move out

and we can move in to get this Reno started.

- Today we're starting demo.

We're going to actually tackle that kitchen.

We got the whole team with us today, minus al and the old man.

We got Paul, we got Nikki and we got Josh.

And myself.

- Can we start taking out the floor?

- Holy dynes. Look at you.

- Season 2, baby!

- So, we gotta try to get the demo done in like a...

Probably a couple or three days.

Because I got to get the heating guys come in

and then we've got plumbing, electricians.

- Josh, how mad would you be if I hit you in the head with the cabinet?!

- This used to be dragon's treat cabinet,

this is where all the good stuff was kept

so hopefully they don't mind us removing it.

- So I got Paul working on the team to get the demo started.

I'm still trying to figure out some planning.

Getting the engineers, getting the excavator.

- I got the power turned off, so see that little box right there...?

- Paul got a handle on it.

That's the beauty about having many hands,

that'll be able to take stuff on.

He's looking after the demo

while I'm in here trying to get the next steps going.

- Gotta do the plumbing.

You got your water shut off?

- Water, there's no water. I just checked.

- Randy got me left here now holding the reigns,

to get everything rolling,

and hopefully he'll have time to pitch in,

give a hand, and we'll get it all finished up!

- Paul, if you got that turned on for badness,

I'll come up with my foot that fast.

- After being here a little bit now

and starting to get more experience, I'm getting more comfortable with jobs.

Less stress on me knowing that I can go in and tackle the job.

I'm still not as fast as the boys, but I'm getting there.

Come on, back now. I can't get a turn on it!

- It's not that tight!

- I'm trying to stay clear of that rookie title this year.

I'm sure the boys are going to keep it up, but I'm going to try to lose it.

- Jeez! I was there tightening it, that's why it's not working!

Give it to me, I got it now.

- What were you just saying ten minutes ago about no rookie?!

- Bite me.

Ready?

- Got her? - I got her.

Oh, how cute it that?

- Oh, look... - Wait, I want to read it.

- Katie was here!

- Karen the ostrich. Isn't that cute?

You should do that in your kitchen!

You just gotta have a baby, now!

- In the kitchen, we're going to remove that drywall, expose that brick.

- Look at that.

- Today this demo is totally satisfying, getting into it,

you're actually seeing progress, we've found a beautiful chimney,

just totally making Randy's day.

As you can see, demo's rolling the way demo should be!

- So far so good... whoa!

(Laughing)

- Whoa, jeez!

- Our massive Reno in St. John's has taken a scary turn!

Nikki was in the right place at the right time.

- Womp womp.

You're an idiot, like.

My new best friend.

- It's Nikki junior!

- Nikki junior.

It's about getting him this year.

We got to get him and we got to get Paul.

I'll get 'em. (Randy laughing hysterically)

(Roaring)

- Oh man!

Problem after problem.

This little vapor barrier, it's not all here.

This whole wall was supposed to have plastic on it.

To keep the moisture in.

So now we're gonna have to remove all the drywall, right to the ceiling,

put on a new vapor barrier.

You know, they always say, don't start a new thing on a Friday.

I'm starting to think now, never start it on a Thursday either.

Bad luck!

(Folkloric music)

While my crew pushes through the demo at the Robbins house,

we're starting a really cool project down the bay.

So, I'm here in carbonear today and I'm here looking at an old root cellar.

It was built back in about 1880.

But it needs some, you know, a little bit of a fix up.

I love these old structures, its part of the newfoundland history, you know.

People had root cellars because that's the only way you kept all the vegetables.

You put it in the root cellar, it would last the whole winter, it'd get you by.

And if your neighbour needed a feed and didn't have anything, they'd come over to see you.

- The house is 200 years old. It...

One of the things that we really loved was the root cellar.

We don't want it to fall in any more disrepair.

I mentioned to Randy if he knew anyone who could fix a root cellar

and he said, you know, anything is worth fixing if you really love it.

- So, this is inside the cellar.

It is spacious. Huh, huh...

How many creature lives in here, I wonder?

But uh, minus the spiders, it's a deadly place to be able to have like a wine rack,

a rack for vegetables.

We're into building houses. We're not really into landscaping,

but it don't scare us away.

You know, my old man kind of worked on rock walls.

I kind of worked on it with him.

So, I know the process, I know what to do with it.

Still in really good shape on the inside.

It's just the outside needs fixing up.

That concrete is the biggest disaster

because it's almost falling off the top.

The wall on the side here is falling away.

That's one part of it

but actually we got a lot of work to do on this side.

This is what's holding up the root cellar. It's after falling.

All these maples, even though they're nice, they're starting to push the wall out.

So now we've got to fix it up.

The rocks are all stacked in a way to hold the structure up

so one wrong move, it all comes tumbling down.

Don't want that to happen!

They don't really use this flower bed

so we're going to remove all this and we're gonna make a nice big deck.

- My two boys are great musicians

and outside we would love to have a great entertaining space

to step 'er down, as my grandfather would say,

shake the spoons, the ugly stick, you name it, it would be fantastic.

- So we're gonna have a fire pit in the middle, a rock patio,

probably an arbour, a nice place for the family to be able to come out in the night time,

have a fire going...

Plus it's their wedding anniversary soon

and they'd love to host a party... I can't wait to tackle it.

- We want it done as soon as possible

because we want to enjoy our short summers here in newfoundland.

Instruments can't be played in the freezing cold of winter because your fingers go numb.

So as soon as possible, we're right on board to get it done.

- I'm going to bring the old man along on this project.

Guaranteed, I'll want to take that down with an excavator.

He'll want to do it with pick and shovel.

See who wins.

- The what? - Huh?

- I wanted to try to learn on the mini but hey, he likes old school.

I likes hydraulics!

It's the stupid stumps... That was gonna be hard.

- He should listen to the old man and dig a hole around the stump and pull it out.

Make it a lot easier.

- I can't dig in that side anyway.

(Laughing)

- Biggest concern is getting stumps out.

Tryin' to haul them out.

- What about that rock, big piece of concrete right over the top of that

on the greenhouse? No concern? - No.

Snap that and it will fall right down.

- When you're tipping that, this whole thing is tipping,

the whole corner is lifting and tipping towards me.

I think you're going to have to come around and take this corner out.

- I was going to take that concrete down tomorrow, but I got to do it now.

That tree is in the way and as I'm pulling it,

it's actually pushing out the front wall and I'm afraid the concrete is going to fall over,

hit the green house.

- I think it's gonna flop down there, hit that, then go through this.

- Don't matter unless it's going through that.

- We don't want that to fall

so I had to move around, set up again so I could catch it.

I don't want to break that greenhouse.

- Randy loves to demolish stuff.

It's, it's a challenge, I think.

- When I tap it, it's going to fall right down alongside of it.

- Alright. We'll see what happens.

- It just don't want to go!

- Randy! Hey!

- It just don't want to go!

We're in carbonear today, so I brought the old man along.

It's a root cellar and a rock wall.

I was going to take that concrete down tomorrow, but I got to do it now.

- This tipping, hitting this and then, falling into the greenhouse.

That's the biggest worry.

Randy, hey.

He just got no fear.

That's what it is.

I'm not sure it's all skill. It's just no fear.

- What's the worst that can happen?

- Scrap... underneath this...

Too easy!

Went good.

You know, the concrete fell, didn't take out the greenhouse. Went good.

- I'll give it to you. It comes down really easy. His way worked.

Thumbs up.

- Not a scratch.

- The fun.

Done with the excavating and on with the building.

Make a corner and move on down the line.

One rock at a time.

- A traditional rock wall is just rocks and dirt.

There's no concrete, no rebar,

so every rock that gotta be stacked gotta have fill go into it,

then stack another stacked layer.

- This will be a half-decent rock.

Got a nice face.

Anything that's got a flat side or flat edge,

you place it then you try to find one that's going to match into it.

Nice and snug together.

- You just keep doing it, doing it till it's done.

- Built a hundred plus rock walls all over between St. John's to carbonear.

- Me, maybe, I'm gonna say ten.

- He helped dad.

- It's demo day, boys!

Nikki, Josh, Paul and myself are back at the Robbins' house in St. John's.

Time to rip up the old living and dining room and turn it into a kitchen.

The new kitchen will have two islands, loads of counter space and all new appliances.

Plus... I have a deadly idea to put the kitchen sink into the old brick chimley.

It's a risk because I don't know what shape it's in,

but if it works... It'll be mint!

- That fireplace is going,

we're going to expose all that brick chimley so save it.

That's the thing. Save what we can.

- Start demo? - Start demo.

- Perfect. - Let's get the tools.

- First piece!

Before we can build anything in the new kitchen,

we've got to rip up the floor to make room for all new plumbing.

- Easy.

- It's demo day, but really it's salvage day.

We're trying to save everything.

That hard wood we're going to try to save. The old boards.

Instead of coming in with a sledgehammer, even though that's fun,

but we want to save everything and make something out of it.

- I'm excited...

This is an old, old home in the capital city

and this whole main stretch is very historic homes.

So I'm excited to see what's underneath.

The quality of craftsmanship in this house already

is pretty high, so us trying to keep that par is going to be nice, too.

- This job is one of my favourite types of jobs

because I prefer to renovate over new construction.

It's a little more challenging and keeps things interesting.

We're going to make it modern

and we're going to save a lot of the original.

So, it's going to be a good twist of new and old put together.

- Look, santy clause left a present!

Hay!

Thinking of a master plan but I really don't want to think about it.

Making a kitchen sink in here.

Why do I think of that stuff?

Gonna get messy.

We gotta be careful, we don't wanna like tear up everything, that's plaster,

so we don't want to break that, we don't want to touch the ceiling.

Every smash is crucial.

And you know what? Look, years ago they built it solid.

Jeez!

Like a rock!

Definitely you don't see the hard wall plaster any more,

it's a thing of the past, no one wants to do it.

New modern way is drywall.

Who wants to plaster a whole wall?

That's misery.

See how the lats and the plaster is over it?

All little pieces of wood.

Can you imagine the labour that had to go into that?

- With these old homes was before drywall.

So hard wall plaster is little strips of wood

and then you mix up mud and smear it on the walls.

So, you had to be pretty caddy, because them whole walls had to be done with plaster.

So, they were pretty talented years ago.

It don't look too bad of a shape.

It's good as is but once you start playing with it, it mightn't be that great.

It is 150 years old.

We gonna make a big hole,

sink that sink back into, might be a different story.

So, we gotta get a Mason in, have him have a look at it.

But hey, if not it's a great feature.

Found a little bit of newspaper, so we should be able to get the year!

Easy, now! Easy, delicate!

1929.

April.

- 2.75 for suits, 3.75, 4 dollars.

- Jeez! You can't get a bag of candy now for 2.75!

The old brick and the newspapers are great finds

but hopefully the real treasure is under the floor.

If we're lucky, we'll find hundred-year-old boards

and I can use 'em for a custom piece.

Anyway, let's get the floor ripped off so we can see what's underneath!

Damn!

- Anyway, let's get the floor ripped off so we can see what's underneath!

Demo at the robbin's century-old house in St. John's is on the go.

- Damn! It's not old wide boards.

Not good!

- It's old but it's not newfoundland old.

Darn!

At least we got an old beam here.

Make a nice mantle!

So that's a plus!

The plan is to remove all the old flooring

and existing joists for the new floor.

Once it's opened up, we can easily run all the plumbing and electrical.

We'll pour a concrete slab, add new hardwood

and then it's ready for the new kitchen!

It's going to be deadly!

Big hole down there!

By the end of the day, we're hoping to have all the floor joists gone.

But hey, look at them old timbers.

- There's always concerns when you're renovating, you know,

a hundred-and-fifty-year-old house.

You never know what we're going to find.

When we're tearing up these floorboards, you know, you might find some rot.

You might find some stuff that you don't want to find, the way the piping is joined.

So, there's always a risk.

Jeez!

I'm wondering if that wall's settling, you know.

She's all sloping down this way.

- You just don't know what you're going to uncover.

- Right here in this doorway,

it actually sloping down so that probably settled a little bit over time.

Not very good at all.

So, what's that one? How come... Where did he run out?

Is there a beam underneath that one?

- Out there's these sleepers, beams, whatever you want to call 'em.

They're cut off, and then that's it.

- End of the day, we found two beams that's carrying the second story.

The only thing that's holding up that floor right now is a 2x4.

Don't know how the house is standing up, actually!

Not what we wanted. We wanted to find goodies, not problems.

- In an old home, there's always surprises

and there's always half-done renovations so anything's possible.

- This ain't no normal situation.

You know, we're after dealing with a lot of houses between the two of us.

And it's still... This is still a surprise.

- It's a lot of planning got to go into it,

because you don't want to make more trouble than what you already got.

- Man, oh man, oh man.

This is definitely going to delay us a little bit.

We gotta get an engineer in today.

We've got to figure out what the game plan to put it all back together.

If we don't figure out a solution here very fast,

then we're definitely on hold and this needs to be done in four months.

They said there'd be days like this.

They just never said how many!

(Folkloric music)

(Grunting) - He weighs a ton too.

In carbonear, me and the old man are back at fixing the rock wall for the root cellar.

The wall is taking shape.

We got that side around the corner pretty well done,

so now we're working our way across

and hopefully by the end of the day, we should have all the rock wall done.

(Accordion music)

Luke, the homeowner's son, knows just what I want to hear when I'm working.

(He plays happy birthday.)

- Hey!

Jeez!

We got cake, is it?

- Happy birthday, young man! - Look at that!

- Happy birthday, young man. There you go.

- Good luck too. - You know what his wish was?

"I wish it wasn't me birthday!" (All laughing)

- Thanks, guys. - You gonna take the cake?

- Oh, thank you.

I try to hide away from birthdays.

But looks like someone found out!

Balloons. Cake. Not too bad, the cake.

Balloons is pretty nice, too!

- Progress is going pretty good.

We got all the wall done, so the cellar is all safe.

The next step is to dig four holes

to put in four posts for the pergola,

put the stone patio down, do the fire pit.

Then we're done. Bring out the accordion.

- 1, 2, 3, go.

It's gonna go in that hole, be shy around fourteen.

- Does it matter?

- Can't do too much thinking, we got an hour before the stone comes.

- So, you better hurry up!

- Last one in.

- I'm working.

- We got all the posts in, we got it on great,

just wait for the slinger to come, just gotta bang it off

and we're ready for the stone.

And hey... - But they're late.

- They're three minutes late. We're on time.

Now we're waiting.

Deliveries is outta my control and I love everything to be planned out.

We're waiting for the stone, we got all the posts in,

but apparently it might come late this afternoon.

So, when something like this happens, yeah, throws a curve ball.

Not fun.

So... no slinger today?

The work outside the cellar in carbonear may be on hold

until the gravel arrives, but inside,

the old man's getting a jump on some custom pieces.

- We're making a wine rack for the cellar

and we're making a vegetable storage rack.

- My dad and I love building homes,

but we also love working in the shop.

- We're keeping it rough-looking

just because it fits into the design of the cellar.

The rock wall is probably 150 years old,

this tree is probably 100-some-odd-years-old where it comes from

so let's leave it rough. It'll work out great.

(Folkloric music)

- Today is a big day.

We're in carbonear today and we're gettin' ready.

Slinger's supposed to come, hopefully on time today.

The old man's here puttin' the header in over the cellar.

Stuff's moving ahead.

- We found an old weathered piece there at the woodshop.

It'll work out fine.

- I got my pants dirty now!

So, the slinger is here, we're gonna take his boom,

reach it out as far as he can go,

and just start slinging the gravel into this little area.

- That's not gonna shoot down there.

- Captain negative down there!

It'll reach.

- No, it won't. That'll be all over the shed.

Over all the grass.

- The old man's concerned that it's gonna get messy on the grass,

or it's gonna be hittin' the shed,

but the boys know how to operate it, so we're all good.

- We'll be picking rocks out of the grass for a week.

- And I thought it was gonna be a mess. (Laughing)

- Definitely deadly little machine

and it saves a lot of labour.

You imagine, we're up on top of the road taking gravel,

shootin' it in.

You know, back in the day, it would be wheelbarrows.

- Thought I'd be picking rocks up for the next week.

I was wrong. Hate to admit it.

- Stone done!

And the old man doubted me!

(Rock music)

(Whistling a tune)

- A hundred-and fifty-year-old brick.

No mortar, just dry lay 'em. Look good.

- This drives me crazy with all the odd angle rocks.

I like using square and, you know, straight lines.

And Randy, he like the odd shapes, the odd angles.

It's just 'cause he odd.

- If you actually went and got rock and they're all perfectly square,

it kinda defeats the purpose. It's too perfect.

You know, you're lookin' at an old root cellar

that was built in the 1800s, so why use rock that's perfect.

It's not meant to be perfect.

It's the natural stone to kinda blend into it,

so what you're standin' on is what the cellar is made out of

and it kinda ties into the area.

- It's just not fun trying to make them fit.

Randy, you want to fit the last three or four?

(Groaning) - What?

- You want to finish the sod?!

- Sure.

It's hard on the knees.

- With me and the old man tied up on the patio,

joanne's out-sourced some of the finish work to a local sub-trade.

- It's a really old table

and I'm sanding it because mother's gonna redo it all

and put it in her greenhouse.

- Hey, man. How's it goin' on?

- Good.

- Good job sandin'.

- Yeah.

- Do you want to be hired on?

- Sure. - Yeah?

- Fifty bucks an hour. - Oh, man.

You're expensive.

- Sometimes it's difficult to get the kids to do chores, or help out.

- Depends on the chores. Changin' beds, no.

Takin' out the garbage, no.

Takin' the dog for a walk, none of that.

- They enjoy painting for the most part, or washing the quads, which are here.

Things that involve them or that they think are fun activities, they love to do.

But anything that's considered work,

not so much for the ten and twelve-year-old.

- Yeah, definitely when I was his age

I was always out with the sander and chisels,

whatever I can get meself into.

I never got 50 bucks an hour, though, so...

I think he's the win-win on this one.

Future hire-on.

Not bad.

Not for that price though! (Laughing)

(Folkloric music)

In St. John's, the Robbins' family Reno is off to the worst start I've ever seen.

Man, oh man, oh man.

A huge structural issue in the new kitchen has put the whole job at a standstill.

Back to the basement!

Our goal with any old house.

We want to make it safe.

And hey, we are in newfoundland.

Everybody ends up being in the kitchen.

So, you have about like 50 people in this kitchen with all the big appliances,

we're putting a big dining room table, two big islands, big stove.

A lot of stuff gotta go in this room.

So, we don't want it to settle anymore.

- You can see right here, they've already macguyvered a little.

- No wonder she's settling there.

- No.

- We're trying to figure that out.

- We got the engineer in.

We kind of need him to do up a plan.

To find out how much load is carrying on that wall.

Because that's a two-story house,

and that full wall is carrying the second level plus the roof.

- Then we discovered we got a beam that's carrying...

- Nothing, or everything that's on nothing.

- Yes.

- Yeah, most likely above this is a load-bearing wall for the second-floor, right?

- Yes.

- So you'd be better off just putting in a load-bearing wall through here.

- Just put a footing in there?

- Just put a footing and set up here.

- Oh, okay.

- So to kind of make it all good,

we're going to have to put more concrete.

So we're going to have to dig around probably about four feet deep

and pour a new concrete wall.

I got to talk to the homeowners.

Not what we had planned, not what we had scoped.

Yeah, it's going to hurt. Hurt both ways.

We're on a little bit of a standstill.

You know, there's still a fair bit of demo in there.

Seems like the more demo we do, the more problems we run into.

But we're going to put our thinking hats on

and the next couple of days, we'll be able to get back at it full steam ahead.

With St. John's at a standstill,

down the bay is a different story... it's time to celebrate.

So we're here in carbonear.

Big day to show off the root cellar,

the outside entertaining area and get the boys to play some music!

This root cellar was built 200 years ago

so to be able to put it all back together, that's what it's all about!

The homeowner's never seen it all finished up, and actually it's their anniversary.

So, we get to celebrate two things.

The root cellar done, and their anniversary.

- Wow, joanne, look!

- What do you think of it? - Oh, wow!

- Can you remember where we started?!

- Yeah.

- It was in hard shape when you came!

- Beautiful.

I'm in shock over what Randy's done here.

I almost cried, but I didn't wanna ruin my makeup,

so I tried to hold that back!

- And the inside is looking good too.

You wanna have a look?! - Yes! Definitely!

- Let's take a look! - Oh wow.

- That's spectacular.

- It's wicked! It's wicked.

There's so much space, I can't get over the space in there.

- It's so much space and the thing about it,

we didn't do any work in there other than build the crates.

All that stonework was as is, how they built it 200 years ago.

We just fixed up the outside so the inside didn't get damaged.

- Oh my gosh.

- The cellar has been here so long,

having the opportunity to save the cellar I think was great for...

For not only the property, but our family.

- My god, joanne, look at all the wine.

- Jackpot!

- Your own personal wine rack.

- Well, Randy, look at all the shelves.

- Made all them shelves custom.

You got your vegetable storage with the baskets.

- Before I was just throwing like empty flower pots in here as a storage area

and not really using it for any real purpose.

But I mean, this obviously shows the purpose that it was meant for

and it looks really, really good.

- This is amazing. I love it.

I was afraid to come in here before. (All laughing)

- Inside here we wouldn't be able to have a big party.

But outside is another story.

- Sounds good to me. - Let's go outside.

- Oh, this is wicked.

- That's spectacular. - It's wicked!

- A little bit different from before?

- A lot different!

- Great entertaining place for the whole family.

- Yeah. - Sit down, have a drink.

- That's really nice, Randy. I gotta say. It's really, really nice.

- If you remember, this was all collapsed, we fixed up all the wall.

Made it nice and flat with a stone patio.

- It's a whole new space.

It's opened up a whole new part of the property that wasn't there

and the work that's gone into the rock wall, Randy is... is amazing.

- It was a lotta work. I can't take all the credit.

You know, the ol' man definitely gave me a big hand in building that rock wall.

- I just can't get over how beautiful the space is.

Like, you know, for us, we always wanted the safety feature fixed

but uh, this is outstanding.

I don't know what you're all doin' for the rest of the afternoon,

but I'm gonna sit there for the rest of the day.

I'm all set to go, it is perfect.

- And I love having a fire. Especially on the weekends.

- It's a simple design.

We just stacked the old bricks that came from an old house in brigus.

Nothing's gonna happen to them bricks. And then look at the patio.

It's kinda old stones that we carved outta the side of the hill.

Like they kind of did back in the day.

So, this whole space got a little bit of history.

- So 200-year-old rocks that are gonna be repurposed for another 200 years.

- Perfect.

- Well, I can't wait to open some wine... (Laughing)

I'd love to be able to have a toast with our friends and family

and for us just to sit back and enjoy this beautiful space.

It's time to step 'er down.

Break out the music and the drinks and the food.

(Live music)

- Happy anniversary, mom and dad, this one's for you.

"Cellar on the hill."

(Playing folkloric music)

- It's one of those things, if you can't do a job

and come after and have a drink, we never did our job very good.

- It's one of the great rewards of doin' a project is in the end, the homeowner lovin' it.

- My grandfather had a root cellar that was very similar to this one.

And he used to tell me stories when I was a little girl.

- It's nice to finally see where Randy and Scott's been hidin' out

and to see the inside. It's pretty catty.

Randy!!!

You often hear of newfoundland cellars,

but this was physically my first time in one.

(Randy laughing)

- Listen, it just goes to show when you look at the quality of the work,

like, him and the old man still got it.

He can operate more than just his cell phone.

- It's been fantastic, 'cause it just came together,

and it just coincided with our anniversary.

So, you know, as my family would say, it's a large day.

- This is definitely gonna be, you know, top of my special projects.

Just because me and the ol' man... you know, nice sunny day, comin' down,

buildin' the rock wall... This cellar means a lot to them

and means a lot to carbonear history.

- You know, we turned that cellar into a great thing,

great place for your family to be able to sit back, enjoy.

Next for me, now this is all done,

get to have a drink, listen to a tune, then on to another job.

So happy anniversary!

Here's to cellar on the hill. (Cheering)

(Cheering)

- This season on rock solid builds.

- View is amazing!

- Oh, lord dynes, look at that!

- What? - Look at the bubble!

- Today's a big day.

You're gonna see a lot of change in this old house.

- Did he say don't break anything?

I wouldn't do such a thing.

- Oh yeah.

- There's a storm coming.

It's gonna be a bad one. (Glass breaking)

Lord. Jeez!

- The thing in the pipe broke everywhere!

- You broke it!

- Ah!

Oh!

- You ready? - I don't know.

- Have a look. - Aaah!

Oh, my god, I don't know where to look.

- This is not our house! - Here's to robbin's roost.

Subtitling: Difuze