Renovation Realities

Jamie and Kim Biddle decide to completely renovate their family room in the dead of winter. The 60 year old colonial home they bought from the original owners needs a lot more work than anticipated; they've basically had to gut most of it to the studs. The family room has holes in the wall and floor, and was previously only heated by a wall space heater. They're camping out at his mother's house, with 2 small children and mom is looking forward to getting her life back. An extended renovation finally becomes urgent, when the first winter heating bill arrives. over $300. They plan to pull out a large window, reframe it, run HVAC to the room, and hang dry wall in four days. Jamie is a painter and a carpenter and he's in uncharted waters on this project but he's not worried. On the other hand, Kim has some anxiety about this unknown expedition, especially when it requires going down into a creepy crawl space. Watch how bad weather, wrong measurements and extremely tired homeowners collide to form the perfect storm of renovation.

Geff and Tiina Vitale have a home just down the road from the Jersey Shore. They have an old deck attached to their house and they want to try to salvage as much as possible. Also, the Vitales would like to rework the deck in the dead of winter, so they can enjoy the renovated deck in the spring and summer. Geff's idea is to detach the deck from the house, knock out every other plank, save the remaining ones but add new wood to create a sturdier, bigger deck. Geff and Tiina have a newborn, and Tiina's limited with the amount of work she can contribute, so Geff recruits his best friend, Jay. Jay, however, is the last one to know that he's in it for the long run. Aside from the deck being a bit of a bear to restructure, below-freezing temperatures only add to the difficulty of the job. This is one show that truly tests friendship during the renovation process.

Tyler and Amy Stanton are a young couple about to have their first child. Tyler has procrastinated on renovating their master bathroom until now, a month before the baby's due. With timing already an issue, everything goes wrong for this couple who wants a more spacious bathroom. Tyler thinks that he can handle everything including soldering the plumbing until the fixtures catch on fire. There are drywall mishaps, a mix-up on tile quantity, plus two broken vanities. But, things turn serious when Amy gets sick and winds up in the hospital, causing jeopardy in finishing the renovation.

Simon and Christi dreamed of living in a warehouse beside a body of water. The one they finally found literally has a river running through the property but is completely empty: devoid of walls, kitchen, and insulation. Little by little they are building their dream home, inside the warehouse, but with two small kids they are ready for a master bath. Combining new materials and some they have saved for this day from their architectural salvage business, the plan is grand and the time frame is tight. They want to raise the floor, frame walls, install a sink, shower, toilet, lighting fixtures and new windows in just five days. Luckily Christi has secured five days of daycare and lots of help from friends and family for child care in the evening hours. This well laid plan starts to erode when their daughter gets sick on day two and can't go to daycare. The plan erosion turns into an all out explosion when their second child falls ill. Watch these two try and accomplish some part of their plan for a master bathroom with two sick kids right in the middle of the work. Bring some earplugs!

Araceli Kopiloff bought an old building that once housed a mortgage company. Araceli's dream is to convert the space into a chic little cafe/boutique called, Rue La Fayette. Since contractors told her she'd be spending an estimated $180,000 to renovate the building, Araceli decided to take a bite out of the budget by recruiting two friends to help her turn the building's foyer into a cozy welcoming area for guests. One of Araceli's friend is a passionate Argentine chef named Natalia ... the other friend is the café's PR director, Starr. Their goal ... tear out a wall to open up the space, rip out existing tile in the foyer and replace it with more updated tiles and create a cool little counter out of a pair of old doors. Add to the madness, the women only have three days to accomplish their goal since they're hosting a preview party on Monday night.

Haven and Jessica Fuller decide to completely gut and renovate their kitchen. Updating the 80's style room includes making it more functional for a family of five. Haven is fairly handy, but this is Jessica's first attempt at renovation. She, however she doesn't hesitate to challenge Haven's logic here and there. Their plan is to tear out their entire kitchen, replace the floor, the cabinets and countertops, and expand their kitchen by removing a bathroom. Problems plague the Fullers when a one day demolition turns into a three day nightmare. The HVAC unit in the wall compromises their design plans and an extremely complicated cabinet installation almost does the family in. Even with their 9 year old son Max chipping in, after 4 days the kitchen is still torn up, and only the cabinets are done.

Jana Schmieding and Abby Lovett own an apartment in New York City. They want to protect their investment and raise the value of their home so they're taking a long weekend to renovate their kitchen. They both teach at the same public school and their principal has given them Friday off to get the job done. But renovating in the city is not easy. From getting supplies and tools to the site to their lack of construction knowledge, everything seems to stand in their way. Before its all said and done, they have to ask for an extra day off and battle a snow storm as they try to complete the job. They almost complete the kitchen but it takes a couple extra weekends to get it 100 percent complete.

Robert Hopkins and his son, Grayson, own a houseboat that leaks. Robert, a modern day pirate, is a tour guide in Charleston, South Carolina and has already let one summer go by without any work on the boat. His plan is to fix up the boat as a surprise for his son, including the leaky roof, but has no idea where the leak problem starts. After pulling down the ceiling Robert finds good news and bad. The structure of the house boat is in better shape than he thought but this job is going to require two people if any progress is to be made in three days. Grayson agrees to help his dad as long as it doesn't get in the way of the fraternity parties planned for the weekend. Robert, with occasional help from Grayson embarks on a weekend project in the ocean which starts with a good surprise and then descends into rising tides pulling the boat loose, a barge lifting off the top of the boat, gale force winds and torrential rains, all while trying to have a little father son time...AARG!

Aaron and Darcy, their two children, and Darcy's mom, Hiroko all live in a quaint North Carolina home. Five people in a small house can seem crowded at times, especially in the kitchen, where both Aaron and Hiroko love to cook. The problem is that their kitchen has seen better days; it's dark, cramped, out of date, just plan ugly and they're tired of it. Both Aaron and Darcy have really busy schedules, and want to take advantage of Darcy's Spring Break to finally renovate their horrible kitchen. However, this gives them only a week to gut the entire kitchen and add new walls, ceilings, floors, cabinets, countertops, electrical outlets, and appliances. While Hiroko watches the kids, Aaron and Darcy run into all sorts of issues in this kitchen overhaul. From delays in getting the cabinets, to arguments over ice and trash, to drywall disasters, and a missing child, this renovation proves to be a bigger headache then they bargained for. Especially when a huge electrical problem is discovered, causing Aaron and Darcy to reflect and realize that this renovation saved their lives. This is one renovation that's truly life changing.

Ian and Mabel Williams live in Preston, MD. They own a beautiful farm house, built in the 1900's. Needless to say, they have a lot of work to do to it. They have renovated their kitchen together and are now ready to totally redo their living room. They want to make the room more efficient and update its look by replacing the old walls with drywall and adding insulation. They also want to tear out the big window in their living room that's driving up their heating bill. While Ian has some experience with home improvement, neither of them has ever installed windows. They need to do their project quickly since both of them have to get back to work. They're allocating 5,000 dollars to the project.

Marcel and Daryl Fingers are a busy couple with demanding jobs, leaving them with no time to renovate their bland, boring master bath. The room is despised so much that they no longer use it, instead opting to use their small, cramped guest bathroom. After months of using their tiny guest bathroom, they're finally ready to renovate the master bath. Taking a couple days off of work, they plan to take out the shower, the walls, and countertop and infuse the bathroom with their style; contemporary Asian, or contasian, as they refer to it. From the beginning, Marcel is forced to wait on Daryl. Whether he's doing his morning routine, answering work phone calls, or having to go into work, Marcel learns that she can do renovation projects just as well Daryl can. Especially, when he hurts his shoulder and wants to quit. She's the one who won't give up, and completes the bathroom herself, with little guidance from a friend, as Daryl heads back into the office.

Tim and Annie Lucas are desperately in need of a play room for their kids. Their craftsman style home is getting filled with toys as their girls get older and it's time for a solution. Luckily there is a spare room on the back of the house, but it is an eyesore to say the least and needs a lot of work. This renovation begins with renting a sandblaster to take the paint off a brick wall and follows our couple through tearing out a new door opening, bringing the door home on top of the car, tearing out carpet, using fabric for the wall covering, and installing a new laminate floor, all the while Tim dragging his feet and Annie cracking the whip to get this room into shape.

Lori and Marshall Mitchell have purchased a fixer-upper in Austin, Texas. Problem is, both Marshall and Lori are wheelchair users and the home they've purchased is not wheelchair friendly. On top of their priority list is to convert the existing master bathroom into a space that both Lori and Marshall can easily access. Since the job's going to involve a lot of work which neither Lori or Marshall can do, they've recruited their son-in-law Adam to help. However, none of them are too familiar with plumbing and in a master bathroom that's going to be gutted to its bare bones, that could be a problem!