Last night on Property Brothers season 11, Jonathan and Drew helped Karen and Rick find a new home. They are empty nesters with a special request. They wanted a retreat inside the house where they could hang out with their grandsons. They have three grandsons that love to play and fight like brothers do. They are currently living with Karen’s mom and things are a little tight for them. Their budget is $770,000, Rick would like to stay under, but would also go over if that meant they got what they were looking for.
The first house they go to look at is for inspiration so that Jonathan and Drew can get an idea of what Karen and Rick are looking for in their new house. They get some ideas about their style and also find that they really would like a space that is one level with an open floor plan. Now they can start looking at houses!
The first one they look at is four bedrooms, three bathrooms and has 3300 square feet. The ceilings are a little low, but Jonathan thinks that they can raise them up a bit to make it feel a little less closed in. It needs a little updating, but they can re-purpose the cabinets and just brighten them up. The house sits on an acre of land has a great backyard for the kids. The house is listed at $649,000, but Drew tells them that it is overpriced. He thinks that a good target price is $550,000. The renovation would cost about $210,000 and take eight weeks. Gives them a $10,000 buffer.
They go on to look at a four bedroom, three bathroom, 3300 square foot home as well, but this one has a huge pool in the backyard for the boys. The inside of the house doesn’t even look like it has potential, but Jonathan tells them that he could open everything up and really make it a space that they can enjoy with their family. Karen thinks that the yard and the pool would be too much to take care of. The house is listed at $599,000, but Drew thinks that they can bring the seller down to $575,000.
After thinking about it for a bit, they are pretty split about which house to buy. Karen likes the first house, Rick likes the second. Drew tells them that if they go for the first house they have to jump on it now. They do decide to go with the first house and Drew offers them $550,000 and the seller countered at $555,000, but Drew calls them back for a better price after finding out that none of the electrical is up to code. Drew tells the seller that because of the added cost of changing all the electrical, they need to bring the price down to $540,000 and they accept that offer. This is what the house looked like before the renovations.
Gallery: Before the Property Brothers Renovations
The house needs a lot of work, but we have seen Jonathan work miracles in worse houses. They go in for demolition day and bring the grandsons in for some extra muscle. Jonathan then heads up to the attic to see if they can bring the ceilings up a little and turns out, they can! Karen and Rick couldn’t be more excited about that.
They continue to gut the house so they can open it up and get some idea about the electrical issues. Jonathan finds a few issues with the front entrance of the house, but nothing that they can’t fix with a little extra money. Good thing they have a bit of a buffer in their budget Here are the design ideas that Jonathan had for Karen and Rick’s new home!
Gallery: Jonathan’s Designs for the Property Brothers Renovation
After going over the options of how to deal with some moisture issues in the entry way, they are able to fix the issues. They remove all the cabinets and get them ready for refinishing, but Karen and Rick show up and she really wants all new cabinets instead. Jonathan tells her that they are looking at $10-15,000 if they replace the cabinets instead of sanding and painting the current ones. Rick is blown away by that and really expected Karen to buckle, but she doesn’t and she really wants new cabinets. Rick gives in and they decide to donate the old cabinets to charity.
Jonathan brings the boys shopping for some table top game ideas. Meanwhile, the inside of the house is getting dry-walled. Now they have a decision to make about the fireplace. They have to replace a lot of the bricks in the chimney in order to bring it to code so they can use it. Rick and Karen really do want to have the fireplace instead of just blocking it off. Rick is okay with spending the extra money to bring it up to code.
The kitchen is being installed and the chimney is getting fixed. This project is coming along very well and it’s starting to really look amazing. After the finishing touches and the furniture is all moved in, it’s time to show Rick and Karen their new home! This is what their house looks like now!
Gallery: After the Property Brothers Renovation
Even though Karen and Rick went over their $770,000 budget, they got everything they asked for and more in this beautiful new home. Let me know what you think of the transformation of this house in the comments below, on Facebook or on Twitter!
Where are the couches from on this episode?