Nicole has almost completed the upstairs in her 14-Mile house. Now it's to time to unveil a bigger and brighter master bedroom. To get the look she wants, she has to knock down some walls, open up the ceiling and bring in a very special feature.
Conclusion. Nicole finishes her surprise build for a subcontractor and his family.
Part 1 of 2. Nicole surprises one of her subcontractors by finishing a renovation they put on hold when their daughter fell ill.
Nicole tackles her grandfather's red barn, which has fallen into disrepair and requires a structural overhaul.
Nice returns to Campbell Street to help her 85-year-old neighbor repair his home.
Nicole tackles the exterior to improve the curb appeal of her grandparents' midcentury home.
Nicole revamps the basement bathrooms.
Nicole tackles the basement, one of the toughest spaces in her grandparents' mid-century home.
Nicole faces a dilemma while tackling the bedrooms in her grandparents' first home when she tries to fix the previous owners' design flaws.
Nicole tackles a living room and dining room for her grandparents.
Nicole tackles her grandparents' apartment.
Nicole tackles the original mid-century bathroom in her grandparents' house.
Nicole tackles a family room in her new home.
Nicole tackles an indoor pool her grandfather built by hand.
In the seventh season premiere, Nicole tackles a large kitchen in her grandparents' home.
Once a boarded-up eyesore, Nicole's first-floor solarium has the potential to be the best room in the house. With the help of her dad and a yard-sale crockpot, Nicole starts with an often overlooked detail: window hardware. Boiling the hardware removes years of paint and leaves them shiny and new, a great first step in making the solarium a bright and welcoming entryway to her Grand Blvd. estate. Some antique mirrors and light fixtures go a long way to make the room feel cozy and fresh, while maintaining the antique-feel of the 100-year old home. Nicole takes a much needed break with her son to celebrate a Thanksgiving parade in her home city, Detroit.
Nicole is ready to tackle the 2nd floor of the house - but one rainy day proves just how damaged the 100 year old roof is. Severe leaks are threatening to destroy multiple rooms, so Nicole gets on top of the house to inspect the damage. Most people would tear up the original clay tile and do a complete replacement, but not Nicole Curtis! Despite the extra cost, new tile is blended with old to keep the original, unique look of the house. Once the roof is water tight, two upstairs bedrooms are ready to be restored. A fresh window seat, antique glass knobs, and a stairwell re-do get Nicole closer to finishing her Grand 2nd floor.
Nicole knows that a ground floor powder room will see a ton of guests, so what will she do with a broken window, paint-covered floor tile, and an out-of-commission toilet? Avoiding the impulse to demolish and replace everything, Nicole restores the tile and sink fixture with elbow grease and an all-nighter. She adds dramatic wall color for flair, as well as a toilet and original glass that matches the classic style of the home. Nicole proves that when it comes to restoration, it's better to leave it, clean it, and make it functional again.
Nicole makes a spur-of-the-moment bid and wins a house sight-unseen at auction. Will this Grand Boulevard tudor be a case of buyer's remorse? Nicole visits the 6-bedroom, 3-bath manor and falls in love with its historic details and rustic charm. With some new paint, a landscaping overhaul and custom woodwork, the former eyesore begins to look revitalized. By working with the home's original style, Nicole is able to enhance its curb appeal without losing any of its early-Twentieth Century grand beauty.
It's a family affair as Nicole tackles an old shack that desperately needs some loving restoration. With the help of her brother, her nephew and her son, Ethan, carpets come up, there's new paint and a new fence. Since this is basically a crash pad, Nicole tries to keep her costs to an absolute minimum. But at the end of the day, Nicole transforms this unlivable space into a cozy new home.
The century-old Tudor house is one thing, but Nicole Curtis also wants to make sure the garage is up to par. Over the years, the structure has been neglected so there's a long road ahead: roof repair takes a lot of time, but Nicole is able to salvage some important tile and wood. By re-using original ceramic roof tile and finding new replicas, the look and feel is restored rather than forgotten. A restored porch is added off the solarium, as Nicole gets started on making the laundry room a warm and inviting space.
Nicole's 1913 mansion in the heart of Detroit is topped with an old, dusty attic that was once servant's quarters. Though some homeowners might have just seen room for storage, Nicole sees the opposite: a master suite! A sitting room, dressing room and gorgeous master bedroom take form, thanks to a little salvaging and a lot of hard work. Nicole never wastes original fixtures, even if it's an ancient broken mirror or a period chandelier from a local commercial building. From gross to gorgeous, Nicole makes her master suite a million dollar space on a "Detroit budget."
If Nicole is going to turn the entire third floor of her Grand Blvd. estate into a master suite, a custom new bathroom will have to be the first step. She starts with an overcrowded, neglected bath that doesn't fit her grandiose plans. By knocking down a wall and changing some angles, the floorplan is expanded to include a double vanity, claw-foot tub and walk-in shower. Despite a small plumbing mishap, Nicole's new bathroom is shaping up to be one of the most original and inviting spaces in her 1913 auction home.
What's Nicole Curtis' favorite kind of bathroom to renovate? One with almost entirely original fixtures! Nicole is able to transform the Jack and Jill bathroom in her Grand Blvd. home without sacrificing its antique integrity.
When it comes to restoring kitchens, Nicole Curtis' rule is that it should look old and work like new! In her Grand Blvd. home, she has to work with a large kitchen that offers little wall space. After a couple of re-designs and some custom woodwork, she finally settles on a layout that allows for new, modern appliances while maintaining important design elements, such as the original upper cabinets. Despite some setbacks - including a literal hole in the wall - Nicole combines the old with the new to create a gorgeous kitchen that maintains its original charm while offering the comforts of the 21st century.
Nicole's newest home is 100 years old, and unsurprisingly the living room needs work from top to bottom. Despite major setbacks, Nicole is up for the challenge. The outdated textured ceiling is ripped down for electrical and water line repair while the ugly green walls are given a fresh update. Nicole sees the beauty in the original hardwood flooring by polishing and staining the existing oak. By utilizing as many of the original details as possible, the living room begins to finally take shape as a classic example of restoration done right.
A dark basement that could have easily been overlooked as an unsalvageable and unusable space is transformed into a gorgeous family room. Exposed brick and an amazing fireplace are too beautiful for Nicole to ignore, so she sets out to elevate the room from subterranean cellar to functional family room. Nicole sources local salvaged pine for the flooring and restores it to its former shine, while using cost-effective new trim, stained to match. Finally, a vintage art Deco bar is hauled down below to serve as a focal point for the new space. Using as much as she can from the original home and time period, Nicole rebuilds a basement beyond even its original potential.
What do you do when thieves have stolen priceless windows and hardwood flooring from your twentieth-century estate? If you're Nicole Curtis, you adapt and recreate! As Nicole tackles the spacious dining room of her tudor home, she must use custom leaded glass and modern oak flooring to mask the missing details. In order to restore her formal dining room to its former grandness, Nicole makes sure that the new elements blend seamlessly with the original style of the home. A combination of antique and reproduction furniture, glass, and flooring leave the space stately and polished.
Hard working mom, Nicole Curtis is on a mission to create a master bedroom for mom Melanie in the final episode of the Lebron James Family Foundation house. The attic room turns from an overheated dumping ground to an air-conditioned oasis in just a few short days. Nicole comes up with a genius and inexpensive storage solution in the awkward space and in just one week, the whole house is finished. Time to bring the family in, this is a reveal you don't want to miss!
Nicole, LeBron and the LeBron James Family Foundation continue with their project to renovate a needy family's home into a renovated beauty. 11 year old Mariah deserves a room fit for a princess, just not a pink one! And her brothers will no longer share a room and get to pick their own colors for their own rooms. To finish on time LeBron's army of volunteers steps up, the family lends a hand and Nicole puts her personal touch on each room for these special kids. What will they say when they see their rooms?
The interior is coming along beautifully and now it's time to give the exterior of the family house in Akron a facelift. LeBron and his kids spar off with Nicole in a duel of diggers to tear out the front steps and regrade the yard. A tricky design challenge makes laying the new path stretch late into the night, but it's all worth it come morning. Lebron helps put up the flag and now the family has a home they can be proud of.
Downstairs is done at the Akron, Ohio house Nicole is rehabbing with LeBron and his foundation and now attention turns to the bathroom. This bathroom is a gut-job but the saving grace for Nicole is a beautiful, old built in cabinet which she and her army of volunteers restore. Leaving her tilers for an hour or two Nicole gets dressed up and heads to a huge stadium event to welcome the basketball superstar back to Akron.
Nicole teams with basketball superstar LeBron James to renovate a special family's house in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. They tackle the dingy dilapidated kitchen first. The team guts the kitchen by ripping out the cabinets, a first for Nicole who typically likes to keep the original structure, and install solid wood cabinets, granite countertops and brand new appliances. They also create an outdoor patio and new driveway for the family to relax in and play - what else, basketball. Nicole's family, LeBron's family and the foundation all pitch in to overhaul this home in a week - can they finish?
Nicole rushes to her Minnesota home from a family vacation to find burst pipes and a flooded house due to the extreme cold. She and her crew tear through the house and create 20 massive holes before they discover all of the leaks. They get to work replacing all of the water lines, radiators and boiler. Nicole takes a break from the stress of the house by skydiving from 13,000 feet to the start line of a 10K run in Florida before returning to replace all of the water lines and patch the holes in her home.
Nicole puts a modern twist on the 1904 Summit Mansion in St. Paul when she installs an elevator in the middle of the home. A first for Nicole, she has to get the measurements exactly right throughout all three floors, or else she's just created a massive non-functioning hole in the middle of the historic home.
Nicole tackles the upstairs bedrooms and bathroom which have had their natural beauty covered in old wallpaper and fixtures. She brings out the beauty of the original birdseye maple woodwork in the bedroom, restores the two bedroom's fireplaces and removes the tacky kitsch from the bathroom. At another house, people line up to see Nicole's work and raise money for a fallen soldier.
The Summit mansion hasn't been painted since 1972 and needs a major face lift. After years of damage, all of the outdoor wood railing and detail are rotting and need to be replaced. Nicole rips out the rotting wood and repaints them to match the original color of the brick. To complete the look of the historic home, Nicole builds new brick columns with brick on the deck. Nicole's son Ethan learns some of her renovation tricks when he pitches in and replaces some of the original beams and runs errands around town.
Nicole takes on the living room and study, restoring the rooms to their former 1904 glory by polishing up the original woodworking details in the rooms. She stains the damaged floors in the living room to cover up years of neglect and discovers a shocking surprise in the study. In the midst of renovation, Nicole finds the time to swap out her boots for high heels for a women's health charity event.
Nicole cleans up the swimming pool and converts some garage space into a much needed changing room area. Tapping into the sewer line causes more mess than she bargained for while Nicole also finds some time to take some swimming lessons.
Nicole turns her attention to taking the pink and gold kitsch out of the formal dining room. Restoring the floors, swapping out sconces and repairing the stained glass windows take the room out of the 1970s and back to 1904. Meanwhile at another of her houses a buyer pulls out at the 11th hour causing Nicole to make some quick decisions.
Nicole's next project is restoring an historic mansion in the Summit district of St. Paul. Unfortunately some key rooms have been completely ripped apart and her first task is to rebuild the gutted powder room from scratch. With the original materials no longer available Nicole gets creative with custom paneling and salvaged tile and creates a brand new room with a 1904 feel.
Restoring the first floor of the Dollar House continues as host and interior designer Nicole Curtis uncovers hardwood floors throughout the living and dining room areas. The dining room hutch is still intact, but there's a whole new fireplace mantle to build. Nicole also takes on a DIY project to prove that a pile of scrap wood can become a thing of beauty.
Working in St. Paul for the first time, Nicole finds another house in an up and coming neighborhood that needs her attention. Fighting the onset of colder weather, she must first tackle an exterior makeover, figuring out how to clean up the front yard and replace the icky yellow and brown paint job. Inside, she begins the difficult task of cleaning out all the left over junk so the plumbers and electrician can get started.
Heading up to the second floor, Nicole takes on the bathroom, one of the house's dirtiest and grimiest rooms. She brings it down to the studs, adding clean lines with white subway tile and re-purposes an old dresser into one of her signature vanities. Since the house was lifted, the front porch has been floating in space, so Nicole tears it down to begin rebuilding a new one, giving the house an inviting and classic look.
Nicole begins work on the interior of the Case Ave house and is faced with a living and dining room full of gorgeous woodwork and original pocket doors that have been painted over the years. It'll take hours and hours of sanding and stripping, but Nicole just can't leave them the way she found them. Once she sets her mind to something, there's no stopping her.
Moving to the interior of the Dollar House, Nicole demo's her heart out and focuses on the disgusting kitchen space and adding a half bathroom to the first floor (evicting a few pigeons along the way). Once the new space is framed out, everything seems to be falling into place¿ until the water is turned on and Nicole finds out she has some leaky pipes.
With the Dollar House project an official 'Go', Nicole's first project is a major one: lifting the house to fix the crumbling foundation. Even though this means the brick chimney has to go, Nicole finds a way to reuse the old brick and begins to add a little character back into the living room.
Nicole takes the dark and dim front entryway and opens it up, removing soffits, repairing original stained glass windows, and hunting for salvaged parts to rebuild the fabulous staircase. She must also find a way to repair the front porch floorboards to keep them from falling off the foundation.
Ever closer to finishing up the interior of the Dollar House, Nicole works in the bedrooms to put up all new walls and ceilings as well as remove the black and white linoleum flooring and patch up a burn mark in the hardwood. The staircase needs attention as well, so Nicole repairs some broken treads and comes up with a cool idea for how to turn an odd space into a storage closet.
The Case Ave house is almost complete, and Nicole has saved the most difficult task for last - figuring out a functional layout for the cramped kitchen. To save the original cabinets, she must get creative in order to find a way to make them fit with modern appliances. With a few left over pieces from around the house, Nicole finds new ways to repurpose them in the basement.
Moving back outside, Nicole begins to clean up all the debris from the yard and comes up with a plan to use salvaged materials from the house to create a cute little back yard area. For the front entryway, Nicole exposes hardwood floors and dumpster dives in her own dumpster to find a light she can use.
The bedrooms and bathroom on the second floor desperately need Nicole's attention. She must deal with water-damaged walls, old carpet and vinyl covering the hardwood, and a tiny, dirty bathroom that needs an updated shower. Nicole saves as many original fixtures as she can and proves that there's plenty you can do to turn a space around without buying new.
Having sold her Minnehaha house, Nicole is ready for her next big property. After discovering a house she can purchase for $1 in an historic neighborhood in desperate need of help, she sets out on her most ambitious project yet. While waiting to cut through the red tape on the Dollar House Project, Nicole tackles her friend's horribly small bathroom.
All that's left to finish on the Dollar House is the exterior. The whole house needs the cedar shakes repaired and the fascia covered in aluminum for protection. As Nicole looks to the neighboring houses for inspiration as she finishes the front porch, she must also make a decision on what color to paint the house.
Nicole starts from the ground up for a sea-themed bathroom renovation.
With the exterior of the Harriet project completed, the crew begins inside demolition to prepare for plumbing and electrical work.
Nicole scrambles to fully restore a 1920s house in a month.
Nicole gives her garage a last-minute makeover in preparation for selling her house.
Nicole struggles to redesign a cluttered and compact kitchen on a very tight deadline.
Nicole begins work on the upper unit kitchen and researches information about the property from the historical society.
Nicole needs to finish Adam and Rachael's kitchen before they return from their honeymoon.
Nicole is ready to tackle Adam and Rachael's living room; an unusual way to expand a small bedroom.
The hardwood floors in both living rooms are repaired; the search is on for replica tile for a fireplace restoration.
Nicole works on the exterior and landscaping of a hundred-year-old Victorian home.
With just a few weeks left to complete the Harriet Project, Nicole and the homeowners rush to complete the living room and kitchen.
Nicole hits a snag while working on a tile project in small bathroom.
A women, preparing to sell her home, needs to un-clutter her basement while keeping it unfinished.