"Property Brothers" stars Jonathan and Drew Scott have met a lot of interesting clients, but a hunky firefighter who starred as Mr. February on a "Red Hot Firefighters" calendar? That may be a first!
"It was for charity," Matt says with a laugh in the episode titled "Growing Boys, Grander House."
Matt and his wife, Nicole, have three young boys—two of whom are twins—and suddenly the 1,200-square-foot starter home in Canada they bought six years ago feels more than a little cramped. Especially since it has three bedrooms and only one small bathroom.
Jonathan thinks he can rip the dated '50s home apart and build it back up again for $70,000. If he can swing it, Drew estimates that their home can be sold for close to $800,000, rather than about $650,000 as is.
Meanwhile, the burning question for Drew is whether or not he can find them a new home with more bathrooms in a neighborhood that's not too far from friends and family, on their budget of $925,000. It seems like a big ask, but if the Scott twins couldn't stand the heat, they wouldn't be in the kitchen.
Along the way, they come up with some smart advice for the buyer and seller in all of us. Take a look!
Give your kitchen island or peninsula an overhang for seating
When Jonathan and Drew walk into the family's kitchen, they find a peninsula. But there isn't really room to pull up a chair, because of the shelves below. Drew immediately resolves the situation by kicking out the shelves—now there's plenty of space for his knees.
Color the kitchen
"I don't want to do just a white kitchen," Jonathan tells Nicole as he officially starts the renovation. "Now we're seeing a lot more color trending."
He advises using soft, subtle green undertones. But Nicole is not good with that—she prefers all white and neutral.
"Trust me," he says. "We're seeing greens and blues—that's what's trending."
He promises her he'll come up with something buyers will love, and he does—deeply dark blue lower cabinets with white, marbled quartz countertops. It is divine!
Low-profile furniture helps a room feel roomier
Jonathan is rearranging the master bedroom to make it seem more spacious. He wants to place the bed under the window, which will work only if he can find a very low bed frame. And, of course, if the bed frame is low, he points out to Drew that the bedside tables must be low as well—it would be really awkward to have to reach up from your bed to get a glass of water or turn out the light. Once the room is filled with low-profile furniture, however, it feels much more spacious!
If you have only one bathroom, go bold
Jonathan is determined not to let the fact that the home has only one small bathroom work against him.
A vertical pattern of 2-by-8-inch tile in white glass "will carry the eye from the tub and shower all the way across to the vanity, making it feel larger," he says. "Everything about it is going to be bold, dramatic, increasing the price of the house. There's only one bathroom, so it has to wow."
Millwork is a valuable bonus
Jonathan makes great use of space in the small dining area by building bench seating along the wall, and bookending it with built-in bookcases. A table is placed in front of it, and it looks so elegant.
"Millwork adds a ton of value to the house," he explains. And sure enough, potential buyers are impressed.
Consider the neighbors
Meanwhile, on the house hunting front, Drew finds the family a beautiful home that checks all of their boxes, but there's one more factor they forgot to consider—it shares a wall with another house.
Matt and Nicole don't have a problem with that, but with three rambunctious boys, "our neighbors would probably hate us," says Nicole. Even though the house is big and beautiful, potential tension with the neighbors overshadows everything else.
The one question buyers rarely ask, but should
Drew eventually finds Matt and Nicole their dream house with a huge, finished basement that's even big enough for a pool table. They know, because there's a lovely pool table sitting right there in the middle of it!
Drew suggests they ask the sellers to kick in the pool table when they sell. Although it rarely occurs to buyers to ask for extras like this, it often works out.
"Most of the time, people don't like to move pool tables because they're so heavy and it's too time-consuming, so I can write it into the offer," he suggests. Same goes with pianos, large plants, or anything heavy or hard to move.
Do the brothers deliver?
Although the dream house Drew found for the family is priced way over their budget, at just under a million, he points out that it's substantially overpriced, has been on the market for quite some time, and has been reduced more than once. He suggests they make an offer anyway, at the top of their $925,000 budget.
Of course the offer is declined, but the sellers make a counteroffer: $940,000. Cheeky Drew asks Matt and Nicole if they want to counter that—even though the sellers have already come down over $50,000. So the couple come back with an offer that's only slightly higher—$930,000. It's accepted, pool table and all!
Meanwhile their old home goes on the market for $800,000, and gets two offers: one for asking price, the other for $810,000. Guess which one they take?
"This is so spectacular!" gushes Nicole.
And the Scott brothers have to agree.
