Original subtitles

[bell dinging]

[grunts]

[both grunting]

You ready to meet our new clients?

-Joon and Younga? Absolutely. -[Jonathan] Yeah.

Ten years they've been in that house.

But they originally bought the house

with the intentions of it being a starter home,

and then they just decided to stay.

[Drew] Well, they've done some renos,

but it sounds like it's still pretty rough around the edges.

They said they can't even cook dinner without blowing a fuse.

[Joon] Yeah.

-[Younga] Oh, man. -Ah, there we go.

-And you don't want undercooked turkey. -No.

[Jonathan] The good thing is,

they've now saved up enough that they're ready to make some big changes.

Let's see if we can help them finish what they started.

-Mm-hmm. -[Drew grunts]

This is my nightmare.

It's really frustrating.

Oh! This is not good.

-What? -I'm stressed.

You're not alone.

This all has to be ripped out...

Kinda feel like throwing up.

...and rebuilt.

I don't wanna finish a beautiful house

and then they aren't happy.

No pressure.

[Jonathan] My hope is that they will see this house

as everything they've dreamed of.

I love the house now,

before it was a love-hate.

[theme music concludes]

[Jonathan] When you first move into a house,

it's easy to look beyond the problems,

but when you've been living in the house for over a decade,

like Joon and Younga,

- it gets harder to ignore the things you hate about it. -[knocks on door]

[Jonathan] Let's find out if we can fix what's bugging them.

-Can we come in? -Hi!

-[Younga] Come on in. -Of course, come on in.

-[Drew] Yeah, good to see you. -[Jonathan] What's going on?

-All right. -All right.

Look at this space.

So, tell us about the neighborhood, tell us about the house.

We're very lucky we got in when we did.

We were getting outbid multiple times.

We were like, "Okay,

this one we might actually be able to get without too much of a fight."

We've had a ton of memories here with our family

-and our kids and... - [laughing]

[Joon] So, this house was built in the '20s,

and then it just kept on modifying and adding,

so it's kind of a jigsaw puzzle.

Quite a bit of work had to be done

just to make this place livable.

The house was rough.

[Joon] There was quite a bit of mold.

The bedrooms, we had some odor issues,

so we had to scrub walls to get the odor out.

-Like, musty water smells? -[Younga] No.

Like, body odor.

The smell was so strong that it actually showed up in,

like, the real estate reports, like--

-What? -There was two high school aged kids

that were football players.

-Oh, my God. -I've never in all the years we've been doing this

-heard of lingering body odor. -It was pretty bad.

But you saw beyond the stench.

We did, and this was a perfect location.

[Joon] It's a wonderful neighborhood.

And Joon's parents will be moving into the area,

and so that's one of the main reasons

we don't wanna leave as well.

They're in this neighborhood?

-Yep, about five minutes away. -[Younga] In Culver City.

Oh, my gosh, that's amazing. And--

-[Jonathan] Free babysitting. -[all laughing]

Their parents did not wanna move down here.

And finally, we convinced them,

they're like, "We're not gonna come for you,

but the grandkids, sure, we'll be right there.

-Yes. [chuckles] -Yeah.

We actually helped them acquire a place.

We actually remodeled.

We went half-and-half, me and my sisters.

[laughing] And that's part of the reason why we're so tired of remodeling.

We did plan an extension addition to this house,

and we shifted all of our resources and our effort,

uh, to helping my parents transition out to Los Angeles

to spend time out here with their grandchildren.

Now that we've renovated my parents' place,

we're ready to do ours because there's so much about it we can't stand.

[Jonathan] And you can live there while we renovate your place.

-Yeah. -[Younga] Yeah.

You have a lot of width to the house,

but not a lot of depth.

[Joon] That's right.

I've always wanted to renovate a bowling alley.

-[Joon] Yeah. -So...

Really narrow.

-Okay. -Shall we take a peek at the dining area here?

-You just have to turn and there's the dining area. -[all laughing]

[Joon] We get really frustrated by how narrow

this dining and living room space really is.

I mean, when we have family over for the holidays,

if even one person is over here,

it's very difficult to get out into the yard.

- Yeah. -[Younga] Hard to get in and out of the chairs.

What would be more ideal for you for flow?

Having a space where we don't trip over each other

trying to get out would be awesome.

But that kind of means that

this wall needs to disappear or something, right?

-'Cause we have no space. -[Drew] Yeah.

What's on the other side of this wall?

It's our guest room right now.

But it's definitely not being used to its full potential.

How many guests you have come and sit with you?

Well, my parents are finally moving here,

so they won't be guests any longer in that sense.

[Drew] What's in behind this wall here?

[Joon] It's the kid's bedroom right now.

If we could move that bedroom closer to the rest of us,

I think that would actually entice our daughter

to move out of her brother and her room

to actually get her own space 'cause she's--

Oh, they're sharing still.

-[Joon] They're still sharing, yeah. -Okay.

And she definitely doesn't wanna move on to this side,

and he has no desire to over here either.

The room is also from the older part of the house.

And so, that room is not really well insulated.

-Nobody wants to be in this room. -Yeah.

[Younga] And I'm definitely done with this kitchen.

It looks old, dirty,

and it's been like this for the past ten years.

[Jonathan] I can't focus on anything other than the green tile countertops.

We can't keep those?

-[Drew] No. -They're my favorite.

[all laughing]

[Younga] I scrub those grout lines with every single chemical.

That's the problem with grout. You can't...

It literally is like a sponge.

It soaks in the stains and bacteria.

The floors are nice and dirty looking as well.

[Jonathan] I do love the look of terracotta.

I don't love it inside the house

just because you cannot get it looking clean.

-[Drew] Mm-hmm. No, for sure. -Would you like to have hardwood everywhere?

We would love to have one continuous flooring.

-[Younga] Yeah. -Right? Just because there's different levels

-and different finishes. It's just-- -[Jonathan] Yeah.

[Joon] Yeah, it's kind of a hodgepodge.

We've got to try and level everything out.

[Younga] There's more that I despise about this kitchen.

We have an ugly wet spot on the ceiling.

-Oh, yeah. -[Joon] That's actually new.

-That was, like, last week or a week before. -Yeah, from all the rain.

[Jonathan] Oh, so you've got moisture

-getting in under your roof material. -[Younga] Yeah.

Yeah, and our range hood vent is terrible,

it barely works.

When we cook, usually, the smoke detectors

are going off in the hallway.

Is this even venting out?

-No, it does not. -Oh, no. Oh, yeah.

And the fridge, once it dies, we can't move it out of here

-because it will not fit through any doorway. -[Jonathan] Oh, really?

[Drew] How did it get in here?

[Joon] Up and over the counter.

It's here for life.

-Unless something changes. -No, no, no, no, no.

When we take it out, we're gonna take that out first,

-so that we can get it out. -[all laughing]

[Younga] I hate that there's no light above the silence,

so I bought a little stick-on light.

I don't know what that's called.

[Jonathan] Quick fix?

Ooh.

-Isn't it amazing? -[all laughing]

-That's the-- -[Younga] And it always falls.

[Jonathan] Genius!

Okay, there's a lot of work that has to happen aesthetically,

but also there likely are going to be issues

that we come across inside the walls

that will have to be addressed.

Yeah, what freaks me out is just

what's hiding, right?

And just what's unknown at this point.

I can tell you with the age of the home

there are gonna be problems behind the walls.

You never know fully what to expect until you open it up.

[sighs wearily]

That can really take a chunk out of the budget fast.

I mean, the wall you wanna remove

is the longest wall in the house.

-[Joon] Yeah. -[Jonathan] That's a huge beam, the structure alone,

plus you wanna renovate the kitchen,

and make a new kid's bedroom.

You're gonna be looking at $250,000

without coming across

any other big question marks inside the walls.

-[sighs] -[Joon] Oh, wow.

Okay, that's a lot of money,

you know, and a little scary.

Yeah, I'm feeling a little ball in my gut

as we're talking about it.

[Joon] But because we wanna stay here long term...

-Yeah. -[Joon] ...we wanna make the bones

something that we're very certain is not gonna fall apart.

Yeah.

We have to do the renovation just to make this place functional.

Younga and Joon's situation is they're trying to buy a home,

they're being outbid.

And finally, they decided to go to a neighborhood

that was up and coming,

and a house that had a lot of problems

that they could afford to get into

'cause it was making all the other people run away.

You know, when you bought the house

that everyone else was running away from,

you better know your stuff,

otherwise, you're gonna have a handful of problems.

[Drew] We have over 25 years experience doing this,

and we are still nervous about this house.

I can only imagine homeowners taking on a project

and the anxiety that they feel about it.

[Younga] It definitely makes me nervous.

[Joon] But we're very, very done

with the house the way it is right now.

Okay.

I don't know what I am more excited for...

Smashing out the green counters,

or just seeing the look on your face

when everything is clear and we can get the fridge out.

All of the above.

[hammering]

-Oh, nice. -Oh, yeah.

-[exclaims] Whoo! -[Jonathan] Boom.

[hammering]

[Younga exclaims] Whoo!

How does that feel?

-Hallelujah! -[Jonathan laughs]

I'd like to say we're almost done,

but we still have

a fridge sized hole that we need to cut.

[reciprocating saw whirring]

Let's do it.

[laughs]

Clearly, you've had some pent up frustration with this thing.

-It feels good. -It does.

-So... -Wow.

...you guys wanna take a fridge out?

-[both laugh] -Yeah.

I've never been more excited.

[Joon laughs]

I think it's gonna fit.

-[Younga exclaims] Whoo! -[Joon laughs]

-And... yes! -[Younga] Yes!

-Whoo! -[Jonathan laughs]

-We beat you, kitchen! -[laughs]

Let's look at the structure. Let's bust a hole open over here.

Sounds good.

[Jonathan] How would you feel about the idea

of having a full flip to your footprint?

Getting rid of the guest bedroom,

then moving the kitchen over

would feel so much more appropriate

for the layout of this home.

And that would allow you to add a second kid's bedroom

on the other side of the house.

Yeah, I think so, and you're right.

The kitchen going directly outside would be amazing.

[Jonathan] I was hoping you would like the idea of flipping the layout.

Imagine your new kitchen here.

There would be a ton of cabinets,

a sink on the far wall,

central range, stylish range hood

that actually works.

Then a big island with a curved countertop, barstools,

and a dining table on the other side,

so there's tons of seating for your family and guests.

This is a load bearing wall, I'm sure of it.

So, if we take it out,

we're gonna need a steel support beam.

We're doing a beam this long all the way across,

it has to be steel.

-You wanna keep smashing? -Yes.

[Jonathan] Okay.

[hammering]

[Jonathan] Oh, my God!

You will not believe what I just found.

This is the original knob and tube.

This is not legal anymore, you can't have knob and tube.

I bet you this is still active.

-[beeping] -[Jonathan] Yep, it's still hot.

[Younga] Didn't they say, they turned it all off.

[Jonathan] Yeah, we shut it off for this whole room.

That should not be live.

These buried wires must be connected to a different part of the house.

So, you guys replaced a lot of the electrical?

[Joon] Some of it, yeah.

[Jonathan] When they replaced, was it specific areas they were focusing on or did they--

[Joon] It was the whole house.

It's unfortunate that it's still hot

'cause you guys spent a bunch of money

-having a bunch of work done. -[Joon] Yeah.

I would assume if it's here,

-we're gonna find it in some other places. -[Joon] Yeah.

[Younga] It's so frustrating

to know that there is a safety concern behind our wall,

and the cost that's gonna go into that.

[Jonathan] Yeah, depending on how much we find,

this could easily be five to 10,000 more.

And, like, the more stuff like this that we have to repair,

the less money we have for the pretty things.

-[Joon] Yeah. -[Jonathan] So...

[Younga sighs]

[Jonathan] Okay, let's go over where the other side

of the beam will be anchored to the new hallway between the bedrooms.

I brought the floor plans to show you the new layout.

I want you to have a little bit of the lay of the land

about how everything would work.

So, technically, this is kind of where your closet would begin

-for the bedroom here. -Oh.

The new hallway would continue straight in line,

so basically, just over that way a little bit.

But you'll notice, it's problematic

-because you have different levels... -[Joon] Yeah.

[Jonathan] ...in the different areas, so step down here,

you've got two steps down.

So, your big steel beam that comes across.

So, that area right there

where the steel beam is supported,

is essentially right about here.

So, I assume we'd have a massive post right here

with a massive footing underneath it.

If you need to see underneath,

we actually do have a big crawlspace under here.

-[Jonathan] Sneaky. -[Joon] Yeah.

That actually makes things a lot easier.

Here, I'll pull this out.

[Joon] It's like a secret hideaway.

-There we go. -[Jonathan] Oh, nice.

Oh, there's stairs.

There's a lot of concrete work down there.

I can pretty much guarantee that

the footings that are here

for these support walls will not meet today's standards.

-That's a lot of weight on that beam. -[Joon] Yeah.

Most of your roof will be supported by this end.

That means we'd have to break up all of this concrete, excavate,

and then pour more underneath it.

Sounds expensive.

[Jonathan] That's gonna cost about five to 10,000.

Steel is expensive.

Thirty plus feet.

I mean, at that point,

you're getting into massive loads

that can take up a huge chunk of your budget.

-[sighs wearily] -[Jonathan] Yeah.

We've already spent money on renovating parts of this house already,

so it's a lot to take in.

I'm a little worried about the numbers at this point.

I think it's worth it

because nothing is gonna transform

-how narrow your house feels right now... -Right.

-...than getting rid of that middle wall. -For sure.

We bought a fixer upper, we knew there were gonna be problems,

um, we didn't know it was gonna be this extensive.

[Jonathan] Sometimes, you get a house and it's like,

"Oh, it hasn't been well maintained.

Stuff is falling apart.

We need to fix that stuff."

It's not even really that with this house.

It's a bit of a Frankenstein project.

No engineer would be able to just look at this house and be like,

"Well, we know that they definitely did it XYZ way,"

'cause no, nobody could know.

The only way we can know is to start punching holes,

get underneath.

I wanna hop down there and take a quick peek.

I need to hop up above.

At this point, I don't think there's anything else

that you guys really need to do.

Why don't you call it a day.

When I have answers,

when an engineer tells us what they think,

we're probably gonna have to make a tough decision.

[Joon] Okay.

-Thank you. -All right, thank you.

Oh, my gosh, this is all solid concrete.

[exclaims] Argh!

It's just gonna be a pain.

Oh, my gosh.

Hey, guys!

Can you come back for one sec?

-[Younga] Yeah, hey. -Okay, yeah.

[Jonathan] Uh... This doesn't happen often.

Usually, I find things that cost us money.

-Uh, not only have I found you guys some change... -[both laugh]

There is a check here for you.

[Joon] Oh, really?

There's a check.

It looks like a phone bill reimbursement.

[Younga chuckles]

[Jonathan] Fifty-five bucks.

[both cheer]

It is probably expired. It's from 2013.

-[Younga] Thank you. -[Joon] That would have been useful.

We'll take this as good vibes.

Let's find more good things.

-[Jonathan] Yes. -We will find more money.

-I will keep looking in your creepy crawlspace... -[Joon and Younga laugh]

...and see if I can find anything else.

The only way Joon and Younga could move into their Culver City neighborhood

was by getting a starter house.

Ten years later, they're taking on a long overdue renovation.

But a 1920's house with lots of additions

is bound to have some issues.

We found some concrete steps in the kids' bedroom closet

exactly where we wanna add a footing for a support post

and have a hallway.

Let's divide and conquer.

Sammy, why don't you and I go over on this side.

All right.

[Jonathan] So, what did the engineer say when he came and looked at it?

Now, we only have to demo the top step.

-Is that what the engineer said to us? -[Sam] Yeah.

Yeah, I mean the rest of them can say

because we already dig under the foundation.

Our pad footing is actually on this side from this retaining wall.

So, we don't have to jack all this out?

-[Sam] No, we can keep it. -[Jonathan] Oh, my gosh.

-That saves so much work. -Saving our demo there.

[Jonathan] Instead of what could have cost up to 10,000,

this will now be about 2,000.

So, we'll just get rid of the one, and then we'll be good.

This saves us actually a lot of time and money,

not having to demo the stairs.

So, reimagining this whole space

and trying to deal with what is a substantial

variation in floor height,

we're gonna have to figure out a way that we step down once

as you come into the hallway.

In an ideal world, all floors are all the same height.

It's just not feasible in this house.

It's too high over there.

Well, for right now, then why don't we just

-kinda clear the hallway. -Yeah, clean this out.

We're gonna demo the closet.

[hammering]

[machine whirring]

[Jonathan] Oh, yeah.

I'm getting hallway vibes.

-[Amos] Like this? -[Jonathan] Yeah, exactly.

[hammering]

[machine whirring]

[Jonathan] Now that we've got the former closet looking more like a hallway,

we continue our demolition in what used to be the kitchen.

And I have to say, I'm wishing that the check I found

which made out to Joon and Younga

was for much more money.

Every board we open, it gets worse and worse.

Like, look at that.

-Look at all the termite damage. -All rotten, yeah.

I think it's water damage.

[Jonathan] And none of these are attached to the structure.

The floor joists, they're just sitting on this ledger

-which also is not connected. -[Sam] Yeah.

[Jonathan] It's actually gonna be dangerous.

If we tried to put in new flooring,

new everything into this structure...

within a year they'd have problems.

See the laser line.

We're level over there.

-We're five inches below over here. -Going down here.

That is insane.

So, you can see this room just drops off.

But the crazy thing is the ceiling drops off as well,

but they framed it that way.

So, it was almost like, they're like, "Well, the floor is crooked,

so let's do the ceiling crooked."

This is so bad.

Not only are we gonna have to rip out all of the floors and re-do it,

we're gonna have to rip out the entire ceiling and re-do it.

And then, we need to insulate underneath.

-There's no insulation down here. -[Sam] No.

No insulation in the walls.

It's all old, like, hundred years ago,

and it's not that good.

And it doesn't help that...

termites, water damage,

and the structural, everything is...

whipped up into a demolition disaster here.

I think I need to get Joon and Younga here to see it in person

because there's literally no way we can pull off all of this

and keep it within the budget.

We have some serious issues here.

The good news is we don't have to remove all those

concrete steps under the bedroom.

-Wow. -[Jonathan] Yeah.

But we have some serious issues here.

This is worse

than anything I've seen in years.

-Wow. -[Jonathan] So, this house,

it turns out, all of your framing

with your ceiling, with your floors, totally not allowed.

It's all two by three construction.

Two by threes are not allowed to be used for a floor.

There's too much weight.

When we were doing all of our demolition,

and we're trying to figure out why...

If you see my laser line there...

We use the laser to try and level everything out.

You are five inches lower

-in this corner. -Gotcha.

Part of it is because your floor joists

aren't even attached.

At some point, they actually did a renovation,

and I think it's because there was a lot of termite damage,

and they sistered all of these

with new two by threes which are also not allowed.

This has to be resolved.

And for the bath fan,

they've got a flex pipe which you're not even supposed to use,

and it just terminates on the surface of a vent,

but doesn't actually go outside.

So, a lot of that humidity, that hot, humid air is coming back inside your attic

which causes even more problems.

[Younga] I just didn't know there was mold

-in the attic. -Attic, yeah.

But it explains my allergies.

[Jonathan] You do not want moisture in your attic.

Electrical here, they've tied knob and tube

into newer copper wire,

that is completely illegal.

All this knob and tube is still active and hidden up inside your ceiling,

so that will cause power variations

and issues with breakers tripping,

but it also can cause a fire.

If you come over here, this is the worst part of it.

Right now, we have this temporary framing up

to support until the massive beam goes in,

but when you look at all the weight of this whole ceiling

for the front of the house right to where the wall used to be,

it's all two by threes.

Some are completely split.

All of this would have to be ripped out and replaced.

Wow.

So, you're looking at...

Oh, my gosh, for the additional demo alone

is about five grand

to take all of the structure out.

In addition to the beam that we were already doing,

we now have to re-do all of the ceiling joists.

That's another five grand.

All of the drywall insulation up in the attic and the walls.

Five thousand dollars to re-do the floor structure

with new sub-floor plywood.

And then, also insulate under there

'cause there's no insulation at all.

All in it's almost $30,000

over your max budget.

-Okay. -[Jonathan] Yeah.

This is sketchy place.

You have to do it now.

Can you find the money for that?

-Um... -[Younga] Kinda feel like throwing up.

[Jonathan] I know this is bad news.

I know this is not what you were hoping.

Yeah.

Can you find the money for that?

I mean, what are we gonna do?

[sighs wearily]

I think I'm just feeling overwhelmed.

I mean, if we take it just with the budget the way it is right now,

we're gonna get to the end and we're not gonna have the money

to do our stone or cabinetry or something, like it's...

Yeah.

We're gonna have to find the money somewhere,

and it's definitely gonna impact our lifestyle and our budget

because we're gonna need to find money for it.

[Joon] We've been in there ten years.

You know, we've taken out a fireplace,

replaced flooring,

HVAC, everything. All that was new,

so it's hard to know that

we were kind of building on things that were not in the greatest shape.

[Younga] On top of the renovations we did

in Joon's parents new condo,

so they can move into our neighborhood,

it's gonna take a little bit of time to recover from this.

And the extra $30,000, it's a lot,

you know, to... [sighs] ...to have to come up with,

but it's the right way to do it.

[Amos sighs] That's not good.

[phone notification rings]

[Jonathan] Sometimes, it only takes one text

to ruin your day.

Are you kidding me?

[phone ringing]

Hey, is that Joon and Younga's place?

Look at the pipes that are going through there.

Those are the main water lines,

and they've got all the weight of the chimney

precariously balancing on one brick.

If and when that brick gave way,

and the chimney fell,

they would flood the entire crawlspace of the house.

[Jonathan] Well, we've got no choice,

we have to take out that old buried chimney,

so we can continue the floor joists work in the corner

of what will be a new bedroom.

Next, we're removing the brick from the exterior.

That plus repairing the roof

will be about $2,500.

But at least we'll remove any threat of a plumbing disaster.

That's where it's seeping down into the roof.

-That's all rotten. -[Drew] That's not good.

Look how saturated that is.

[Drew] I feel for Joon and Younga.

This has been so much expense and all these surprises.

And the fact that they've been living in this house with all these safety issues.

I don't think these guys can take any more bad news,

and they can't take any more costs.

Well, they're living in everybody's

-renovation nightmare. -Yeah.

[Jonathan] If you can cut me...

some plywood that is 22 inches...

by 22 inches,

by the time you get back,

I'll probably have this stripped.

And can you guarantee this will solve all woes

with leakage and issues in this corner?

Well, there's definitely nothing that can come down now.

There's no brick left.

We'll have our decking come nice and clean.

Everything will be sealed properly.

Making the house safe, imagine that.

Now that Joon and Younga have gone over budget by $30,000,

plus 2,500 for the chimney,

we don't have enough money left

to get all of the furniture that we want

for the furniture design.

We can't change what's already spent,

but we don't have to spend any more.

Over at our warehouse,

we have a lot of pieces that have been left over from other projects

or even some personal pieces from our houses.

If we can find even just a few pieces that are right,

it will keep some of the rooms from looking too bare.

Every time I come in here, everything is changed.

[Mike] Jonathan is always in here moving stuff around.

So, I'm your favorite brother.

You're definitely my favorite.

See, I knew that, that's good.

[Drew] I can tell you this much,

if I didn't have Mike here to help me find things,

I would be completely lost.

What do we got for chairs?

[Mike] I got a couple chairs right here, I pulled one for you.

I can recognize this already.

-This was on the list. -Right.

The shape of that is just so nice.

-[Mike] Right. -I love it.

Yeah, up there, too.

This isn't Jonathan or my ladder, it's Zooey's ladder.

-Her band's ladder. -[Mike laughs]

Okay, so what do we got?

That one right there was on the list,

but I pulled a couple more.

[Drew] I do like that piece there.

-Let's bring this one down. -[Mike] Okay.

[Drew] This will make a nice side table for the new bedroom.

It's actually nowhere near as heavy as I thought

-it was gonna be. -[Mike] Nope.

You're just much stronger than you look.

Even though this is really nice,

I actually still prefer this one, so.

It's one thing to see these in our photos,

but to see it in real life,

gives you a better idea what the design looks like.

-So, check. -[Mike] All right.

[Drew] We don't want this design to feel hodgepodge,

we wanna make sure that it feels like a cohesive design.

For rugs, we have a lot to choose from.

[Mike] All right, we got 'em right over here.

[Drew] A lot of options.

-We want something sort of muted tones. -[Mike] Right.

[Drew] That's too bold of a pattern, I think.

This is too colorful.

This is nice, but I think there's too much of the dark.

It has a nice blend.

This isn't bad.

[Mike] That one's nice.

Okay, let's go with five, you know where that is?

Yeah, it's all the way in the back.

-Of course it is. -Right.

Courtesy of Jonathan.

-Start tossing. -All right.

[Drew] We found a lot of great existing pieces at the warehouse

that fit Joon and Younga's design.

I just wished that we had more suitable pieces

or more budget to buy furniture and decor,

but we don't.

So, we have to work with what we've got.

But thankfully, we're making progress at their house.

[upbeat music playing]

[Jonathan] Joon and Younga's house was narrow and cramped,

but now that we've installed a steel beam in the ceiling,

they'll have an open concept layout.

We're also giving them new HVAC with proper venting

to keep mold out of the attic.

And new electrical wiring

means they can confidently insulate the walls and seal them up

knowing that a fire won't spark.

Doesn't it feel good to be at this phase

where we have drywall and we have structure done,

this is when you want your clients to come in.

Usually, we make them wait until the very last pillow is fluffed,

but Joon and Younga have put in way more money than expected.

It's a huge investment,

and they're telling us that they're anxious to see the progress.

If you don't see something, in your mind,

you can build up the worst case scenario

and it can really stress somebody out.

So, that's why we wanted to bring Joon and Younga back to the house to see

things are actually looking pretty great.

I just hope we can give them some peace of mind.

Love it. I love how it feels.

Get the floors straightened out.

-Hey! -Hey.

-[Younga] Hi. -Ta-da!

♪♪ I'm calling up ♪

♪♪ But you don't answer back ♪

[Drew] We just won't have squeaks.

As long as everything is nice and flat.

-Hey! -[Drew] Hey.

Hi.

[Jonathan and Drew] Ta-da!

-Wow! -Wow!

[Joon] This feels so different.

Our biggest thing is we just want you to come back and see the house

because there have been so many safety issues,

a lot of expense,

and I know there were a lot of headaches.

I didn't want you stressing at home

not seeing that we're actually making really good headway.

[Jonathan] I want you to look at this beam and tell me

if this checks the boxes for you.

-[Younga] Absolutely. -[Joon] Yeah.

[Younga] It's amazing.

It was a beast.

I actually didn't think this was possible.

It's way more than I ever expected.

Yeah.

-I mean, it feels so different. -Yeah.

-Way bigger. -[Joon] Yeah.

[Younga] So spacious.

[Jonathan] If you like it now,

imagine how it will look with a reading nook

that has convenient access to the yard

via two tempered glass doors.

On the other side, you'll have a living room space

that's big enough for a huge sectional

and a widescreen TV.

And roomy new front closet that functions as a divider.

Forget about how the house used to be,

forget about that house completely.

This is a new house.

-Definitely. -Oh, it definitely is.

We don't want you to see too much, right?

We need to make sure we kick you out and wait till the end.

Definitely, looks like we're on the right track.

-Thank you for letting us see it. -Yeah. [laughs]

[grunts]

Looking good.

Wait, this is how to make a solid floor.

Kick your end.

All right, can we kick it this way?

-Just there. -[Drew] Yeah.

-And then, I can screw it in like that. -Boom.

-All right. -this is what they needed.

Solid floors, higher ceilings, open flow.

The hardwood we're putting in is nice and thick.

This is gonna strengthen everything up.

Everything now will be rock solid,

no bouncy parts.

This is definitely going to be much better.

[machine whirring]

[Jonathan] Yeah.

[machine whirring]

[hammering]

[phone ringing]

[Jonathan] Oh, it's Joon's sister.

Hello.

Joon said you might be calling.

Well, nice to meet you, Saejin.

Who?

[laughs]

There's no other brother.

He is with his baby.

[Jonathan] Yeah.

There's so much work happening at the house.

Our goal is to get it to a place that will make life easier.

What kind of stuff are you thinking that you would wanna do?

Is there something there that you can help with?

That would be incredible.

[Jonathan laughs]

I'm gonna let you guys go. This is amazing.

Let me pull together some ideas for the kids' spaces.

I'll talk to you soon.

Bye. [chuckles]

[Drew] We're in the kitchen,

and this is a very cool feature that you don't see in many houses.

Instead of the backsplash for this part of the kitchen,

we're gonna have a window.

Originally, I wanted to do

-an eight foot window. -[Drew] Yeah.

It gets so much natural light coming in.

Basically the entire backsplash here would be that.

But with the structure and the way everything came in, the posts,

we had to build up in here.

Could not make it happen.

Yeah, that's second post in here.

-All right, two posts, yeah. -[Drew] Yeah.

So, I feel like this still gives them a stunning feature.

It'd be cool to see right through.

-Mm-hmm. -[Jonathan] It's gonna be beautiful in here.

[machine whirring]

[hammering]

Nice.

Look at that window!

[upbeat music playing]

[Jonathan] Joon and Younga despised their old kitchen

and the cumbersome fridge.

We're installing new wood cabinets that will look gorgeous

and also boast a built-in fridge.

And we're putting in the window backsplash,

a standout feature for what used to be a starter home.

Pop it in for a second.

Just a hair your way, Drew.

-Okay. -[Jonathan] Yep, right there.

-And then? -Pop that in.

That looks pretty good.

After several weeks of renovation,

it feels like we're getting close to finishing,

but not before we add a unique feature to the kitchen.

Before, Joon and Younga didn't even have a properly vented hood.

So, we wanna build them a beautiful and functional range hood.

For the vent hood detail.

-I love the-- -Oh, this is the new stuff.

-[exclaims] Ooh! -[Drew] Look at that.

-That is beautiful. -[Sam] Looking so good.

[Jonathan] I did fluted details all over my house

because I just love a beautiful fluted material.

Building it out,

so that we can still see the tile around and making a statement,

it's gonna be gorge!

It needs to be the same width as the range itself.

-So, it's 30 inches for this. -[Drew] Okay.

[Jonathan] So, our range is 30, so I would go just over 30.

That's actually gonna look perfect.

I think it's nice when you walk in the front door.

The first thing you see

should be something with wow factor.

This is what you see.

-[Jonathan] Yeah. -And nobody else is gonna have this.

It's a custom piece that will speak to just them.

Do we wanna do it Drew and Jonathan height?

Or are we gonna do it Sammy height?

No, they are my height.

This is what I marked as our hood height.

Thirty-four from there.

-[Drew] Thirty-four from the countertop, okay. -Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's nice. I wouldn't wanna go lower.

That's gonna be nice and comfortable.

You can access this even if you're taller and not hit your head.

I can walk under it.

Yeah, exactly.

We want you to be able to go in and go up on your toes,

-and you're still good. -[all laughing]

Now that we know we wanna go 30 inches across,

I can cut the pieces...

-Okay. -...so that we're prepped.

-All right. -Sounds good.

For a cohesive look,

we're gonna use the same cabinetry and quartz countertop

in the adjoining powder room.

As well as a natural seagrass wallpaper that I love.

The plan is also to put wallpaper on the entryway closet we built.

-Okay! -[Drew] Don't hate me.

I know you've been putting effort and time into cutting all these pieces.

I don't think we should do the paper

-inside the trim. -A little too casual?

[Drew] Yeah, I don't know.

If this is the first thing you see when you open the front door.

I'll leave it in there, but...

The doors are pretty nice.

I think that the door itself is even more beautiful.

So, I was thinking it'd be nice to kind of break things up,

so it's not too much wood.

We're using the grass cloth in the powder room.

We've got different textures going throughout, wallpaper over there.

I just think that this might be okay as solid wood

without anything breaking it up.

I'm fine for us to take a vote right now,

and see what we think.

But this would basically be...

Okay.

I mean, it does look cool.

It does look cool.

I just think that it's gonna take so much time

to get it nice and tight and cut perfectly.

I mean, it didn't take me that much time.

This doesn't take a lot of time.

[Jonathan] And just like that we decided yes to adding storage space,

but no to more wallpaper.

There's no guarantee that Joon and Younga will love their new entrance.

But I know for sure

that the self-setup security system we're installing

will help protect their big investment.

[funky instrumental music playing]

[Jonathan] This massive renovation is finally winding down.

With a few more finishing touches,

we're well on our way to having this house ready for Joon and Younga.

I love that Saejin pitched in

to make sure the kids' rooms were beautiful.

Without her, we couldn't have all this extra furniture and decor.

My hope is that they will see this house as everything they've dreamed of.

Because, I mean, it definitely cost quite a bit.

I think the only way to know if we got it right

is to go and get Joon and Younga.

[Younga] This has been an emotional experience,

unexpectedly actually,

because so many things were found in the home

that were unsafe

and we survived.

[Joon] So, we're super excited to see the house.

My heart is beating really hard right now.

[Jonathan] Yeah.

I know you had a lot of headaches with this house.

It felt like a money pit.

And the budget went over, landing at just under 285,000.

But do know that now it's safe.

-It's more functional. -[both laugh]

[Drew] And it is very beautiful.

-You wanna head in? -[Younga] Yes.

Here we go.

[gasps] Oh, my God!

-[Joon] Wow! -[Younga] Oh, my God!

So nice.

-[sniffing] It's beautiful. -You said you weren't gonna cry.

I know, I know...

So beautiful.

I feel like I could actually say I love the house now.

Before it was a love-hate.

But now I can... It's so amazing.

Thank you.

Wow. This is a lot more than we could have ever hoped for.

It's gorgeous.

[Jonathan] Your living room before, it just felt like a bowling alley.

-[Younga] Mm-hmm. -[Jonathan] It didn't feel welcoming.

When you see how open this is, it's pretty amazing.

This is amazing in terms of like, just that...

people coming in are just gonna be wowed.

I love the color palette, it's amazing.

It's soft, but modern.

[Younga] This is beautiful.

-Yeah, storage. -[Younga] The cabinets and feeling like

we have space to put our stuff away in.

-That's so much storage. -[Joon] Yeah.

That's amazing.

And no more excuses for the kids to drop their bags

-here or there. -[Joon and Younga laugh]

[Jonathan] They'll still do it.

-[Joon and Younga laugh] -[Drew] Yeah.

This breakfast bar, this was a wall before.

[Younga] I love it.

[Jonathan] How cool is this

that it is now set up for connecting people and entertaining.

Our family is in town right now,

and so we can't wait to get in here.

[Joon] I mean, this is a much better kitchen layout than what we had before.

I mean, before, It was really difficult to cook

just because limited counterspace.

This is so much more space.

[Younga] There's so much light in here now.

-[Joon] It's beautiful. -[Younga] So beautiful.

[Joon] It's a gorgeous backsplash.

It'd be nice to see the kids that they're in the yard

and just feeling connected all the way through, like inside-outside.

-A little hidden surprise is in behind. -[Younga exclaims] Ooh!

-Tons of extra space, extra storage. -[Joon] Wow.

Oh, man!

This little nook is amazing.

And the pantry space is huge.

[Joon] The wallpaper is gorgeous.

And all of the storage is so amazing. This is great.

Everything can be closed away.

-Even your microwave... -[beeping]

-[Joon] Controls, wow. -[Jonathan] ...tucked in and it can be locked on.

-That is the craziest microwave. -Wow! [laughs]

-[Joon] Wow. -Impressive.

My love-hate relationship included hating the countertops.

Oh, beautiful.

And then, the little fluting we did here.

We thought that would be nice to break up the wood

a little bit with a different texture.

[Joon] So, we've got actually a working range hood.

-It will actually take away the smoke and the smells. -[Joon and Younga laugh]

[Joon] Which would be nice.

Are you picturing here, your guests come in

and you're like, this is your posing spot.

[all laughing]

"Oh, hello. I was just whipping something up."

[Joon] We had a lot of struggles just with the layout of the house,

when it was the way it was.

[Jonathan] You look that way at the dining table.

Isn't that a cool space?

[Younga] Uh, so peaceful.

It's gonna fit all of us, all of our family.

Yeah, it's gorgeous.

This light was inspired by one of my summer hats.

[all laughing]

Check out powder room.

[Joon] Oh, wow.

[Younga] It's so pretty.

-Oh, I really love this wallpaper. -Yeah.

And then, of course, you have to have a nice lounging space as well.

Before you were worried about accessibility issues.

[Joon] It was difficult just to have people in this space

- because the space was so cramped. -[Jonathan] Yeah.

-[Joon] And not ideal to host anybody, honestly. -Look at this now.

Now, when your parents move here and come over,

there will be lots of space to get around.

It's so spacious.

You have... Every area is well defined.

But then once you're in here, it feels very cozy.

[Jonathan] So, there's still more to see.

You used to have an uninviting guest room where your new kitchen is,

when what you really needed was another bedroom for the kids.

We wanted both of them to feel like they have great rooms.

-Yeah. -Mm-hmm.

And, so did Saejin and family.

And so, Saejin donated a whole bunch of stuff for the kids' rooms,

-so both rooms could be special. -Aw.

-[Jonathan] Check it out. -Come here.

-Oh, man! -Oh, wow.

[Younga] Elijah is gonna freak out.

[all laughing]

[Joon] This is so different from what they had before.

The trip hazards and the different levels.

-[Joon] Yeah. [crowd laughs] -[Jonathan] Yeah.

- It actually turned out... -[Younga] So nice.

[Jonathan] ...so fantastic.

I was so worried with the floor,

but having everything level

all the way in that little nook at the back is perfect.

[Joon] That's surprising, it's amazing and--

-[Younga] We love your sister. -Yeah.

[both laugh]

Now, Amelia has no idea what to expect with her space

because at least for Elijah, he knew the footprint...

-Mm-hmm. -...here, right?

So, I'm gonna hop across the hall and see Amelia's.

-Oh, my goodness! -Oh, wow.

[Younga] So pretty.

[Jonathan] And to think there was nothing here before.

This is all completely new.

-[Younga] So nice. -[Joon] She's gonna lose her mind.

I mean, that reading area...

She always kind of got the leftovers as the second,

so this is gonna be amazing,

to get her own room,

and it's personalized for her.

And she loves everything pink, so.

-[all laughing] -[Jonathan] Oh, yeah.

-So does Jon. -We leaned in.

-So do I. -[all laughing]

It's more than I could have asked for, or imagined, truly.

We really didn't think we're gonna be able to do it,

and now it's become a reality.

A dream come true.

[Joon] We're super thankful for you guys to...

come and make this a reality.

This was a big financial endeavor for us.

But it's a place now that I think we can stay

for years.

And definitely, worth every penny of the investment...

-[laughing] ...that we made. -For sure.

-[kids screaming] -Come on in.

-What do you think? -Oh, my goodness!

What? What?

Can the whole family fit on the sectional?

-The family reunite. -[Saejin] Let's see!

-Go! -And who gets this chair?

Squeeze in, everybody, squeeze in.

That was such an amazing transformation from day one.

He was here when we got the house.

He smell the odors.

-[all laughing] -He knows it all.

I love the space. [laughs]

[kids exclaiming, screaming]

[screams]

[kids exclaiming, screaming]

[Saejin] I love it!