Today, a friend reaches out to Tarek and Christina looking to partner up on a craftsman-style home in a historic area of Santa Ana.  This house is absolutely hideous but a complete electrical overhaul and a tasteful remodel that pays tribute to the original design of the home transforms trash to treasure.

Thankfully, these guys are pros and knew instinctively what to do with this home but it never hurts to be lucky either!  This was never more true than refinishing the original floors although they originally wanted to use a high end laminate to cover them up.  This is understandable on a house this old as you’ll often find that the floors are too worn and have been sanded too many times to be salvaged.  They were brave to refinish the floors themselves as this is a recipe for disaster as sanding floors is all about technique especially in a home this old.  It’s very easy to “gouge” the floors with your average drum sander, especially if you’re working with the softer materials like pine but in the end, it worked out.

We also liked the wainscotting because it’s fairly affordable, fairly easy to work with and looks great!

We were however, a little concerned about the use of “current listings” for comparibles at the end of the show.  Using properties that haven’t been sold yet to establish a retail value is tricky business and if the numbers are the least bit tight (as they usually are) we can’t recommend doing it.  But hey, it’s TV and sometimes, they’re just aren’t enough completed comps to make an accurate comparison…just be careful!

They made money and the house looked great…what more could you ask for!