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NICOLE: Coming up on "Rehab Addict"...
I'm ready to complete renovations
on my project in Detroit --
a 1920s duplex that was vacant and fire-damaged
when I first found it.
The last area we need to tackle
is the upstairs apartment's living space.
I think this ceiling just has to go.
And I'm not going it alone.
Nothing like bringing a bunch of Detroiters together.
Now, they get this stuff done.
I buy and sell houses,
but I'm not your average flipper.
Oh, my God!
Why in the hell would you cover that up?!
I just want brick.
I don't just renovate.
I restore old homes to their former glory.
It's screaming, like, "Make me pretty again."
It's day and night...
There's always one last door.
...which is not easy when you're a single mom,
but I'm making it work.
I don't know. I still think I'm taller.
My name is Nicole, and I'm addicted to rehab.
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
I've spent the last three months
working on my project in Detroit --
a 1929 duplex that has come a long way
from the fire-damaged house I first came upon.
The exterior needed a ton of work,
and we gave it a complete face-lift
and even added a huge yard by purchasing the lot next door.
Inside, the lower apartment went from boarded up and dark
to a bright, inviting, and liveable space.
With the upper unit,
we've renovated the kitchen and bathroom,
but there's still a lot to finish
before this house goes on the market.
Another delight.
The upper bedrooms, along with the living and dining rooms,
were the parts of the house
that suffered the most from the fire.
Mm-hmm.
No.
Those things are rocking.
This room, too.
So, this room, pretty much everything's going out
except for this wall over here.
Yep. Actually, there's not that much demo, then.
No.
NICOLE: Me, you, that'll do it.
Thunder, lightning.
Thunder! Lightning!
Justin, I think this ceiling just has to go.
I'm thinking so.
Yeah. I was hoping it was connected, but it's not.
We have to demo a lot of plaster,
but we're keeping as much of it as we can.
This ceiling doesn't have to come out all the way,
just where it's...
the plaster has pulled away from the lath.
And for me, I'm very short,
so this rake is actually working great today.
That can stay.
I think that's pretty much it in this room.
The fun part about working in Detroit
and the kind of crazy part
is that my parents are here every day.
So, every time I turn around,
my parents have their hands in something different.
My dad's busy getting the last details of demo done,
and my mom is putting up insulation.
Then we'll be ready for drywall.
This city has certainly fallen on hard times,
but I believe that you can turn it around one step at a time.
I'm getting close to finishing up this house,
and my hope is that getting it fixed up
will help jump-start the neighborhood.
We're starting to work on that ceiling in the dining room
that I carefully demo'd.
I've brought in Mike to help us with the plaster restoration.
We were trying so hard to save every bit of plaster,
and we're doing a great job.
This plasterwork is the reason I'm in this house,
because it's irreplaceable.
You just do not find this kind of detail in any new build
unless it's easily over $1 million.
Plaster walls are essential in an old house.
You can't beat them.
If this house had been all drywall,
Right.
Most of the ceiling is intact,
but we have some major shoring up and patching to do.
MICHAEL: Trying to save what I can on the ceiling
and then make sure that I save the centerpiece.
If that falls down, Nicole is not gonna be happy.
What I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna use an angle grinder
and go around the edge of the relief
'cause all this is ready to fall down.
And as that's moving, it's moving this, too.
You can see the crack forming right there.
I'm scared that when this starts coming down,
it's gonna drag the relief with it.
Anywhere the plaster's loose,
Mike is carefully cutting it out so it won't crumble.
The medallion is saved.
I got down all the pieces of plaster that were rotted,
and now we're ready to mud this up.
It'll really tighten up the centerpiece a lot, too,
once I add some more mud to it.
For the really big holes, we're putting up drywall
that will blend in with plaster patches.
[ Drill whirring ]
For all the smaller holes, we're just using plaster.
This is the last of the painting this house will need,
and I can't wait to get the final colors up on the walls.
The volunteers came out in droves.
It's always a great day
when I don't have enough paint rollers or brushes
because we have so many people here.
No offense to the rest of the country,
but there is nothing like
bringing a bunch of Detroiters together.
Now, they get this stuff done.
Painting a house this size is easily $3,000, $4,000.
Every dollar I save with all the volunteers
is going right back in this neighborhood.
This is the rebirth -- the paint.
I always tell people when they doubt the power of paint,
I'm telling you,
it's the paint that made a difference on this house.
Finding the swinging door in the basement -- always good news.
I am so excited!
So, we're gonna build a whole urban garden here.
All right.
This looks great. Nice job.
All my friends are busy bees, and thank goodness for that.
They've been organizing the basement
and have uncovered a few old house parts,
like this swinging door.
NICOLE: Finding the swinging door in the basement
is always, always good news.
This door belongs between the upper kitchen and dining room.
Putting it back in will create a separation between the rooms.
Then it will be a formal dining room,
like it was when it was first built.
Oh, this is money.
This makes this upstairs...
MAN: That is sweet, man.
...perfect.
I am so excited!
[ Barking ]
Across the street from my pretty, little house
are these two empty lots,
which are constantly full of trash.
I decided to buy them and clean them up,
and as usual, the neighbors are willing to help out.
So, we're gonna build a whole urban garden here.
To build my urban garden,
we actually are using tires as the planters,
and I have to tell you,
this neighborhood is not short on tires.
Joey and I are driving around the neighborhood,
and we're picking up all the tires.
Oh, there's a tire right there.
That one is all you.
Look at. This one's not even wet.
We've been gone 10 minutes, and we've already gotten 5 tires.
Every single corner, it's just been a dumping ground.
This is people's homes. This is neighborhoods.
These lots are all mowed, and then somebody still dumps.
It's ridiculous.
Oh, oh, oh!
Oh! Yuck!
That one was wet.
I need people full of energy,
loaded with enthusiasm and creativity.
I'm thinking, what better place to go but the local school?
I'm visiting the school down the street from the house.
It's Hope of Detroit Academy.
It's a great, old school right in the neighborhood.
Anyone seen any old tires
floating around the neighborhood?
Yes.
So, we are actually using all the old tires
to build our garden.
So, just start thinking some ideas.
I'm going to let you guys figure it out as you go along,
so there's no right or wrong way to do this garden
as long as we're all working together to do the design.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
Logan has been working on our project for quite a while,
so he is gonna be the foreman.
I live right here.
Who wants to be a painter?
Caterpillar is looking very colorful!
This is great. She's doing some splatter painting.
The more colorful, the more it stands out.
This looks great. Nice job.
Just pick two mums, dig out a hole,
pop the mum out, and then we stick it in there,
and then we want to put the dirt right back around there.
See how easy that is?
[ Indistinct conversations ]
Good. Good.
All right. Let's put the dirt around it.
I don't even know what to say about this one.
BOY: All right.
Could you please help him?
Okay. There you go.
MAN: Let me wet you guys.
I really hope this garden makes the neighborhood nice.
I painted the tires, I helped put the dirt down,
and I helped put some of the dirt in those ones.
NICOLE: You know a little bit about everything.
We call that well-rounded.
I call that -- It's such an awesome day.
I think that kid just made me [Chuckles] cry.
Give yourselves a round of applause, too.
Nice hot day in the sun!
[ Indistinct conversations ]
Whenever you have to use new wood,
you got to make it blend in with the rest of the house.
[ Sighs ]
I am, like, so into this chain-saw carving now.
NICOLE: There's always a time in the house
when I finally sit back, take a deep breath,
and I'm like, "It's gonna be okay.
We're actually gonna get to the finish."
And today is that day.
My secondhand chandelier does its magic,
taking this ornate plaster medallion
and making it pop as the centerpiece to the room.
But the real news today is that we're finally ready
to finish up re-sanding the hardwood floors.
All the guys from Hardwood Classic Floors are in here,
and we're getting our floors done.
NICOLE: This is where the fire started.
It's just charred?
Okay.
Dude, if that's the worst we have going on in here...
...it's a pretty good day, right?
I think as long as we get the char
so it's not falling apart in our hands...
Yeah, but, I mean, this just tells the story of this room,
and the truth is, is that we're lucky
the hardwood floors are even still here.
We have beautiful oak floors underneath.
After today, all these floors
are just gonna be sparkling again.
This house has gone from being burnt
to having some of the most beautiful hardwood floors
I've ever seen.
There's little things that people never, ever, ever think
to repair in their house,
and then they complain about their old windows.
And this is the sash cord.
The sash cord hooks to your weight,
and the reason they're in there --
because it's all a balance system.
They help your windows go up and down.
If these are gone, cut, painted, destroyed,
your window is no longer operational,
which is where we get into the question when people say,
"Old windows aren't energy-efficient."
So, just like that, huh? I've never done it that way.
Yeah. And it'll just hang in there.
It looks like this.
You just want to make sure you're matching the gauge
of your original sash cord.
Doing all the repairs that we're doing today,
each window will cost just about $20,
and that's if I have somebody else install the glass.
If you do it yourself,
you're just down to about $9 per window.
While Josh is finishing up on the front windows,
I'm gonna have to do something about the one across the room.
The window frame was destroyed in the fire,
so we had to build a new one.
The sad truth is, with this fire,
we used up every bit of salvage wood we had and then some.
So, we had no choice but to go with new wood on this one.
Whenever you have to use new wood,
you got to make it blend in with the rest of the house.
So, I do a lot of stain mixing where I experiment.
"Does this color go? "Does that color go?"
[ Sighs ]
I hate using new wood.
It never looks the same as the old wood,
which means I'm gonna put 20 more layers of stain on this
to darken it up.
The "D" -- We'll do a "D" right there.
Well, the chain saws are back.
I had the dead trees across from my urban garden,
and I thought, "I just can't leave them like that."
I am, like, so into this chain-saw carving now.
Working alongside these guys has just been a trip.
I've seen a lot of carvers starting out
and not nearly as good as that.
If I did tree carvings at every single house --
My son already says that I have man arms.
I can only imagine lugging a chain saw around
from site to site.
But this is definitely one that --
This Detroit project needed some art in this neighborhood,
and so thankful that we are able to do this.
People always ask, like, "Your houses look so beautiful.
Who did you use to stage them?" Me!
I got to say, look how damn good that thing looks.
Now you would never believe that there was a fire.
Well, I guess at least it waited to start raining
till, like, right now, you know?
Staging my houses is always a lot of fun
because I simply drive around, Criagslist, garage sales,
and get a bunch of furniture.
People always ask, like, "Your houses look so beautiful.
Who did you use to stage them?"
Me!
That's such a silly question to ask.
House staging can cost $2,000 to $3,000.
Why would I do that?
Okay.
Okay.
See?
Buffet. Done.
And I got a nice little workout.
I always have felt pads in my back pocket.
That way, if somebody comes in and moves my furniture,
it's not scratching my floors.
Now, this looks like somebody tried to sell it
in a garage sale and then they gave up.
So, you know where it ended up? In their garbage.
Garage-sale leftovers end up in my truck
and used to stage all my houses.
So, keep throwing your stuff in the trash.
I'll keep picking it up.
I give all the furniture a good wipe-down --
some simple lemon oil,
some darker lemon oil to cover up any scratches.
But it's my take that old furniture should look old.
I like it to show the wear and tear.
A lot of the time, old furniture pieces are really just dry.
Wood needs to be oiled over the years.
A quick wiping down like that, and it's shiny and beautiful.
Many times, I see pieces like this,
and people will paint them.
You're on my naughty list
if you paint a piece of furniture like this.
I got to say, look how damn good that thing looks.
All right.
Mm-hmm.
When I first stepped into the Campbell Street house
a few months ago,
it wasn't looking good, to say the least.
Fire and water damage had the house standing vacant
and had definitely taken its toll.
But I had faith, and after a ton of work...
...we got the outside looking pretty again,
the downstairs apartment looking stunning,
and in the upstairs unit,
the bathroom and kitchen looked amazing.
The past couple of weeks,
my focus has been to fix the upstairs living room,
bedrooms, and dining room.
The formal dining room didn't feel so formal.
The crumbling ceiling was the scariest thing
I've ever seen in a house
because we could see this medallion in the center,
and I knew one wrong move with refinishing the ceiling
and we'd lose it.
We not only preserved the medallion,
we repaired the plaster ceiling
and bought a secondhand chandelier,
refinished the floors, added the swinging door,
and now it's just an elegant formal dining room.
We have two bedrooms in this upper apartment.
The front bedroom was less damaged,
and it looks adorable now.
The back bedroom was burnt to a crisp.
Now you would never believe that there was a fire.
The upstairs living room, floors weren't looking so great,
and you could see the soot damage.
Everything was pretty much black from the fire.
Left all the floors natural,
so this upstairs living room is very light.
You feel kind of bouncy in this room.
The Detroit project's done,
and unfortunately, I have to go home.
The greatest city for me to work in is my hometown.
It's Detroit -- so rich in architecture and history.
I'm a Detroiter.
You can count us down, but don't count us out,
because when we work together, we can pull off miracles.
And on our Campbell Street project, we did nothing less.
At the end of the day,
I came to Detroit to save a house, and I did it.