Last night on Home Town season 2, Erin and Ben are helping Caroline and Cory who are moving back so to the area to open an old fashioned men’s clothing store. They are looking for a very rustic, but refined home with light colored walls but pops of color in the art and decor. Their all-in budget is $150,000.
The first house that Erin and Ben bring them to see is the Myers House, it is a three bedroom, two bathroom home with 2400 square feet of living space. It is listed at 59,000 which leaves about $91,000 for the renovation. The outside of the house need some TLC, but the driveway needs to be redone. The inside of the house isn’t too bad, the floors need to be refinished throughout, there is a nice little library room that needs some cosmetic work, but the kitchen needs some serious updating. There is also a really nice office area which they need because their store doesn’t have one. The renovation on this house is only going to run about $83,000 which would bring them under budget.
The second house they look at is the Ratcliff House and it’s a three bedroom, two bathroom home with 2400 square feet and it’s listed at $80,000. It’s not the cottage they were hoping it would be, but it has some great potential. The entry needs to have the carpet ripped up, the floors would need to be sanded. The office is right off the entry and the living room is on the other side. The fireplace in the living room needs to be refinished. The kitchen cabinets just need to be refinished and a pantry would be added. They would also knock down the wall leading the the dining room. The renovation is going to be about $65,000 which would still bring them in $5000 under budget.
The chose to go with the Ratcliff House and this is what it looked like before Ben and Erin got to work:
Gallery: Before the Home Town Renovations
When they start the demolition of the entry, they find that all the walls under the sheet rock are completely different. Some of it is bead board and some of it looks more like ship lap. They decide to cover all the wood with sheet rock except the bead board on the side of the stairs. Ben and Erin then move onto the front porch to open it up a little. They head back into the house and start taking apart the kitchen cabinets. Ben plans on using the uppers for a chopping block for Cory and Caroline.
They move their way into the living room and start removing the wall above the built in and realize that the original fireplace is made of some really great Chicago brick. Erin has the idea of keeping it exposed but cleaning it up. Inside the dining room, they find a wood board with the date the house was built written on it. They remove the wood plank, I’m sure they are going to do something really awesome with it too!
As they continue working on different areas of the house, inside and out, they find that part of the front porch is going to have to be rebuilt. Erin goes to visit a local shop to have the wood plank framed and made into a piece of art for the inside of the house. Ben finds more bead board inside the wall that is just hanging there, it’s not structural or anything, Ben takes it to his shop and decides to make a coffee table out of it! It looks pretty awesome.
The project is coming along really nicely and it’s time to dress up the fireplace and build a China cabinet for the dining room. They put a really great wood mantle around the fireplace. They bring the old brick from the fireplace to a guy they know who is going to slice them so that they can be used for the back splash in the kitchen. I can’t wait to see that! Erin and her father are putting the mosaic tile down for the hearth of the fireplace and it really looks pretty.
The back splash is being put up and I can’t wait to see it after it’s been mortared. Ben is back in the wood shop and him and one of the other guys are working on the chopping block table for Caroline and Corey’s house. The finishing touches are being put in, the appliances, the pantry doors, the rest of the decor and they have Ben installing a new light fixture for the entry. The wood plank has been framed and hung in the dining room right where they found it.
It is now time to show Caroline and Cory their new home! Here is what their house looks like now:
Gallery: After the Home Town Renovations
Let me know what you think of this transformation in the comments below, on Facebook or on Twitter!
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