Episode #107: Cheap Old Houses

Elsie: You’re listening to the A Beautiful Mess podcast. Since like episode one, I’ve been raving about my favorite Instagram account, @cheapoldhouses — today, Elizabeth from Cheap Old Houses joins me to talk about her house shopping secrets, how to renovate old houses respectfully, and her new TV show that launches this week. This is my long term fantasy to house gossip with you. I’ve been waiting my whole life for this. I just like could talk about houses all day, so I feel like this is my chance. And yesterday we put a poll up to see what our listeners wanted to hear and they left a lot of great questions as well. So I’m saving those for the end. But they had so many good questions and yeah, I’m so excited to hang out with you. So, everyone, this is Elizabeth. And she and her husband Ethan are launching your new TV show. What is it called?

Elizabeth: The TV show is called Cheap Old Houses! (laughs)

Elsie: I can’t wait to watch it. So it’s launching in August, right?

Elizabeth: August 11. It’s launching on Discovery Plus. So everyone go subscribe! (laughs)

Elsie: I’m subscribing just for that. So the number one question that I’m sure you get this one every day is your Instagram is @cheapoldhouses Also, there’s the Circa Houses Instagram, which I love as well. And it’s is it — it’s just the same as to build houses, but just not as cheap?

Elizabeth: Circa is a website I started to connect old house lovers with people who wanted old houses, and I started it before cheap old houses and it was kind of my first baby. And it shows old houses for sale all across the country at all price points. So like, like fixer-uppers all the way up to luxury houses. And Cheap Old Houses, we actually started as a spin-off of Circa just because, like I love fixer-uppers. We always joke that Instagram is just like a bunch of after photos, but I’m like, I want the before photos and I love to just use my imagination and looking at fixer-uppers. So started Cheap Old Houses that sort of took place like literally just like a dumping ground, just throw these cheap old houses, I just named it very literal. And it kind of just spun off and took on a life of its own. So yes, we manage Circa houses and Cheap Old Houses, both of which are on Instagram.

Elsie: The first time I heard of Cheap Old Houses, I just couldn’t believe it because I think that many people probably like me have only really searched for real estate in their state or their area or like surrounding locations. So I had never just for fun, searched all over the country. So it was very eye-opening. What was out there, like what is going on with Illinois? I don’t understand.

Elizabeth: (laughs) You know, there are a lot of places in America where these small towns popped up around railroads, around specific industries, and the way that we…we’re no longer doing heavy manufacturing in this country, as much as we used to do in our workplaces have changed. And where people live have changed. And these houses that were built for very wealthy people connected very tightly to the local industries are just sitting there. So I think that a lot of these small towns, especially that you see you see a lot in the Midwest, a lot in the South, a lot in like, Ohio, Pennsylvania, areas that are typically known as sort of the Rust Belt. And I think what about the cheap old houses is that there hasn’t been the economic investments in these towns to pour money into renovating the kitchen every ten years. So you have like the original 1920s kitchen and they exist as these little time capsules. And it wasn’t something I intended when I started the feed to become, but I think that part of the fun of looking at people’s houses is to just get a window into these time warps. And they aren’t the sort of, official landmarks. They’re not where the really important VIP people lived that we typically think of in American history. Right there, we’re like everybody lived. So you can look at it. And there was this sense of nostalgia like, oh, my gosh, my grandmother had those same cabinets. And I think that’s that’s what’s so sort of heartwarming about scrolling through it.

Elsie: I totally agree. So I was just looking at your website today, and there is a section called Cheap Old Houses Saved, where you have like lots of — dozens of people pictured with the houses that they bought, which I did not realize that so many people have done that. So can you tell us a little bit about how that feels? Because I feel like that has to be like one of the the big moments of what you do.

Elizabeth: It’s everything. And again, I never thought that having this Instagram feed and putting these houses out there for people would mean that like over one hundred people we know have literally seen a house on Instagram and upended their lives to go live there and invest in the house and the community. I remember…you’ll relate to this Elsie. You’re a mom, too, but I was sitting in a parking lot at Wegmans waiting for my son to finish napping so I could go inside the grocery store and I’m like just looking at my DMs. And this woman wrote to me and she bought this literal mansion in Indiana with this double-decker neoclassical porch. And this house was for sale for $71,000. I had written about I’d written about it for Country Living magazine. I had written about it twice on Circa. I had, I had I really just loved this house. But it did the kind of town where, you know, you may not make the kind of return on that investment as most people necessarily would once it was going to take a special kind of person. And this woman wrote me and she said, thank you for the post that changed my life. She has moved. She is fully restoring, she lives in this house. I mean, I don’t know if it was new mom tears, but I was just crying and I’m like, this is complete and utter magic, and I think it just goes to show this wasn’t my intention at all when I started Cheap Old Houses. But if you love something dearly and deeply and you just put it out to the world, there are going to be other people who this deeply affects as much as it affects you.

Elsie: Simple question: What is your favorite like, what is your favorite era of homes and what are the details that are like your golden…like piece of gold?

Elizabeth: Oh, my gosh. This is like picking a favorite child. I don’t know. I’m very split. I’m very split. So my husband and I just bought a cheap old house that’s from the late 1700s because I grew up in upstate New York, like on the border of New England, where I just — and I grew up in a house that was partly built in the seventeen hundreds and then was Greek revival-ized in 1850. So it has sort of two different eras and it’s partly very rustic and partly very formal. And I, I don’t know though I, I think I feel like you can learn to appreciate any house. I have to say I was never really like arts and crafts or tudor person until I started Cheap Old Houses. Just think of it and grow up around those houses. I think that’s so much of what you love speaks a little bit to your nostalgia and where you came from. And I just didn’t grow up too much around those houses. But now that I started Cheap Old Houses, I’m like obsessed with like any nineteen-thirties kitchen. I love the colorful appliances. I love the tile from that era. I, I’m a huge art deco person. I love — like I always say, like the bathroom at Rockefeller Plaza — the women’s bathroom there…

Elsie: Describe it please!

Elizabeth: Art deco! Oh my gosh, it’s so cool. It’s like black and white with like ten mint green like jadeite sinks around. It’s just so cool deco. So I don’t know Elsie, it’s really hard to pick a favorite style. I love them all. And I think that quite honestly, just like listen to your house. I was listening to an episode that you guys did a little while back where you were you were talking about rules to break and one of them was restored — you should keep everything in an old house. And I just I loved how you thought about — I just loved your answer to it. Because it was.It was really about just like listening to your house and what your house needs and what you are capable of sort of giving it, and if you’re not in a sense, then maybe it’s not necessarily the best house for you. If you feel like you’re going to have to go in there and make it something that isn’t or wasn’t ever intended to be.

Elsie: That’s true. We’ve talked about that a lot. Emma and I because that is why we could personally not get like a time capsule Mad Men house, because I love it and like and I am like really inspired by that style. And I think people think that’s what I would pick. But it’s too much pressure for me. If every single thing is original, I would rather it almost be like messed up a little bit so that I can have a little bit more agency.

Elizabeth: Absolutely. And it’s such a personal decision, you know, so it’s really a case by case thing. I think I’ve probably become a little more of a purist the more I’ve been in this, just because I have seen so many original things and come to love them and appreciate them, that I think that I just really like everything old at this point. (laughs)

Elsie: I love how you have the T-shirt that says “I liked the before better” because every single before and after we’ve ever posted of all time, even my one room, which was made of plywood, someone said they liked the before better.

Elizabeth: (laughs).

Elsie: (laughs) Yeah, it never, never, never, never fails. And I think that’s a great shirt I have to go one. OK, so this question is from my husband and we were driving in the car this morning and I was telling him I was interviewing you and I was like, what should I ask? And he gave the best question. His question is: is there any era of home that you actually think should die and shouldn’t be restored?

Elizabeth: That is such a good question. It’s such a hard one to answer. I don’t — I don’t have an answer. I don’t think so. I haven’t seen it yet. I’m not a huge fan of plastic things on houses. Like I’m not a huge fan of vinyl siding just because it’s so bad for the environment and things like that, maybe in 20 years I’ll be like, please, can we I don’t know. That’s a really hard question, actually.

Elsie: Okay this is what I would say. But tell me if you agree or disagree that strong like late 70s, 80s bathrooms where they would put a tub in the middle of the bathroom, (laughs) like in the center!

Elizabeth: Like a sunken…

Elsie: Or like one time we viewed a house that had carpet up the sides of the tub and kind of surrounding it. So it was like surrounded by carpet and it felt kind of like Dumb and Dumber van a little bit or something like that. So that’s what I would pick, which but someday in, like far enough in the future. Will that be a historic gem?

Elizabeth: We will find out! I agree with you. I probably if you were to press me, I would say a lot of things from the eighties and. But who the heck knows? I think a lot of the things I appreciate about houses now from like the forties and fifties were probably considered incredibly tacky back in the day. So I, I definitely…

Elsie: Definitely like 20 years later because that’s why everyone started ripping them apart, which is so sad. Like when we did our mid-century house, I learned that it’s really hard to find mid century light fixtures because it’s not like antique shamelessly. People just don’t save them as much, which is so specific. It’s like they think that it has zero value to anyone. So it just goes like in the garbage instead of on eBay.

Elizabeth: I feel like anything that’s like 10 and 20 years old are bad, but anything that’s like forty or fifty years old, it has to go through that period of, like, not being ripped out and that it will be appreciated. It’s a funny thing and it’s so personal.

Elsie: This is like everyone wants to know this because everyone is insecure that they’ll do it wrong. Like if you’re shopping for a cheap old house, everyone wants to know, like, what is the difference between restoring it and renovating it in a way that’s going to age badly, like it’s so hard to tell!

Elizabeth: Yep. Yeah, I think that’s a I think that’s a great question. And I, I wish there wasn’t that kind of fear. I do and I don’t. I’m glad that people have that conscience because I think it means that they’re not just going to go in and do what like a lot of developers and just bad flippers do, which is just like we need to resell this. And they just gut. Like that’s just — I hate that so much. But for people who honestly want to kind of go in and do the right thing, you know, I try to preserve everything original that you can if you can, there will be cases where you just can’t. And you do your hardest and you work with your budget and it’s just not going to be feasible. Everybody goes into this with different skill sets, with different budgets. I also want to completely debunk the myth, and I’m probably the worst at spreading this, but that if you don’t do everything yourself, you are still a very good human being. You know, you don’t have to walk into a house and feel like you’re not doing it all yourself, that you’ve somehow failed. There is a line. I mean, right now we head to the house we just bought. We had to lift the whole thing up and put in a whole new foundation. You know what? I’m happy to pay someone else to do that because I am much better at picking colors for living rooms than I am at lifting up houses. So I think that you have to understand too, what is your skillset and if you have the money to pay someone who can do it well and right, by all means, that’s great. So I think that it’s such a personal thing. In terms of doing it right, I would say I tend to avoid anything that is too kind of the moment and is very trendy because if you do that, you’re going to have an 1820 shouse that you’re going to and you’re going to be like, wow, this kitchen just feels very 2003 or whatever it is. I think that you should work with your house. So although it might not be like, like we just did our kitchen and we have our house that we live in now is from 1947 and it’s not perfect. There are definitely things that we do differently now than they did back then, but it, it, it’s sort of the colors of the era and it kind of I tried as much to kind of weave that in so I think just…

Elsie: I love it.

Elizabeth: Thanks!

Elsie: Like you showed a little peek on Instagram. Would it be possible? Could we show that in the show notes because I think people will want to see the…

Elizabeth: Of course! It’s like your colors, right? Didn’t you have like mint green in your old kitchen? You had your Big Chill fridge…

Elsie: It did have a Big Chill. Yeah. In our first home that we kind of like renovated it ourselves with like a very small budget. We did do a couple things, but I think looking back, I wouldn’t really call it renovating. You know, I would call it more like decorating or painting or like, you know what I mean? Like added a new countertop was probably like the most extensive thing we did, but it was so magical to live in. And I have ghost stories now, so. It’s the best

Elizabeth: (laughs)

Elsie: All right. Let’s take a quick pause for a sponsor break.

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Ok, I, yeah. One of the questions I had about — this is like kind of maybe this is too in the weeds, whatever. I’m just gonna go for it. OK, so whenever I’m like really into my old movie kitchens. Right. And whenever I watch movies from the…I love like 70s movies but even like 80s and 90s movies, there are no solid surface countertops. So I feel like that’s kind of new. It’s like even in 90s movies, it will be always like a tiled countertop. Which seems really surprising now or like a butcher block. So what do historic homes like? I feel like the countertop is kind of like confusing, like what did they used to have?

Elizabeth: It is really confusing. It depends on the era. So mid-century houses oftentimes use laminate…Yeah, it really honestly depends on the area of the house. I know all my favorite kitchens are from like the 20s and 30s and they all have those square tile countertops and. I don’t know if I would do that just because I think that’s one of those things that — If you’re OK, I, I just don’t like grout on the countertop. I mean, it bothers m…

Elsie: Yeah. I feel like that’s completely gone away now, like my grandma still has one in her bathroom. But other than that, no one’s putting them in.

Elizabeth: I think you can get the look of the historic…because there were other countertops they also used back then like like wood countertops were kind of big back then. And you could go with that and it would still give you the look and you can still put the square tile on the wall. That’s what we did. I it really, honestly depends on the era of the house, because styles and things changed every couple…I mean, not as quickly as they change now, but at least every decade. There was sort of a new kind of look with things

Elsie: That makes sense. So you think it’s OK to put in like a couple new things that wouldn’t have existed then that are just like functional or like beautiful to you now and then kind of like mix it with…

Elizabeth: Oh my god, if you’re to decorate the house, decorate it however you want, I don’t care at all, honestly, my whole thing is just do no harm to the house. I wouldn’t rip out. I mean, if you live in a Victorian house with that classic Victorian staircase, I wouldn’t to take that out. It wouldn’t take out the Victorian fireplaces and replace them with something modern. But if you — our kitchen in our house was from the 90s and it had a tile countertop and the grout lines were like an inch thick, it was disgusting. There were like 30 years of meat juice in the…it was disgusting. And there wasn’t anything to salvage in that case. So absolutely interpret your house however you want, but I…just don’t rip out something that survived one hundred and fifty years if it doesn’t need to be taken out. You know, one of the things that I think has been really fun about and you’ll see on the show is on each episode we visit someone who has restored, saved an old house. And I think what’s was such a learning experience for me and I think people will really take away from this, is that so there are 10 episodes and all 10 people did it totally differently, that there is no way…there is no one way to do this. And it — I think the common denominator is that they’re all just like head over heels in love with their house and they’re making it work within their budget and their means and their and their style. But they’re all so different and they’re all doing it right. Don’t get intimidated!

Elsie: I love that. That is really inspiring. One more thing before I get to the listener questions, I tried so hard to not put this question on there, but I can’t help myself. I just want to know, what are your thoughts on old houses and ghosts. Do you hear a lot of ghost stories? Or do you think it’s more of a myth?

Elizabeth: Ok, it’s so funny. I thought I’ve thought about this so many times because a lot of people in our community love the ghost thing. Every house is haunted everything…I don’t see it that way. I walk into every house and I’m just like, oh my God, this is so beautiful. I feel an energy, but I’m not really a ghost person. And I think it’s because I was very afraid of the dark when I was little. I grew up in an extremely old house with creeks and all the things, and I never moved. So I lived there until I went to college. And there was supposed to be — the rumor was there was supposed to be a ghost of a baby crying in the attic and I would wake up in the middle of the night. Every night, and I was like, I’m going to hear the baby, I know I’m going to hear the baby (laughs) I was so scared. And, you know, Elsie, I never heard the baby. And I’m like, you know what? I don’t know. I never heard it. And I was waiting to hear that baby. And I don’t know, I I’ve come around to understanding that people see the ghost thing as a fun as a fun thing. I thought it was like that would scare me away from something. So I think you’re going to embrace the ghost thing. I will say I do feel like houses have soul. And it’s incredibly important for me that wherever I live, I feel like there was a story there before me and that I’m a steward of something. I think that’s just part of how I define home for myself and a lot of people define that as ghosts and more power to you.

Elsie: I love it. I’m a horror movie fan. So and I also like am a movie house fan, you know, and there’s like a lot of intersection there because a lot of the best horror movies are ’70s and the interiors are incredible. And yeah, I do love ghosts. So anyway, that was definitely my first thought when I first came across Cheap Old Houses. Like ghosts ghosts ghosts ghosts you know, so some people are just wired that way and we can’t help ourselves.

Elizabeth: I think it’s just different language to describe the same thing. I think some people see ghosts, some people see soul, some people see stories. It’s just it’s all the house’s mystery wrapped up. And it’s it’s expressing itself in whatever way you want to see.

Elsie: Mm hmm. Yeah. No, I mean, I definitely believe in, like, the magical history as well, not just something scary. If you’ve ever lived in an old house, you always will find something and some — or there will be a mystery. Ours had a stairway that kind of like went to nowhere. And there were like a lot of different theories about why it was there or, you know, but we never knew for sure. And I loved that because one of my favorite parts about the house.

Elizabeth: And it’s almost like you don’t even want to know because the theories behind it are so much better.

Elsie: It’s true. All right. So I’m going to move on to the listener questions now, if that’s OK. We had so many cool ones. OK, so this is a big one. So a lot of people have the impression, I think I blame it on movies because movies don’t only teach good things, they teach bad things too. But a lot of people have the impression that old houses are money pits and that it is a trap that you’re going to regret it. What is your advice for someone who is a first-time homebuyer or a younger home buyer and they’re looking at old house, but they’re not sure,

Elizabeth: Ok, oh my gosh, I’m so glad you asked this question because I have so much to say about this. Yes. Tom Hanks, I love you. But I wish they could make another movie that was opening up in the Money Pit. Listen, our followers are not naive. They know what they’re getting into. They’ve been dreaming about this for a long time. Look, I’ve said this many times, but to me, it’s like someone telling you don’t have kids because they’re going to cost you money. There are so many other reasons to have children, is it the hardest thing you’ll ever do? Yeah. Is it the most rewarding thing you’ll ever do? Yeah, I think an old house is the same way adopting an animal. You know, these things come with responsibilities. And, yes, old houses will probably cost you more money, you know, depending on how long you live there and depending on how many fixes there are, then something that you kind of walk into day one and it’s turnkey. That said, you have to think of it like a goal, like anything else. We just bought a cheap old house because we put our minds to it. And for years and years and years, we saved money to be able to do something like that. We started businesses around the cause. We surrounded ourselves with people who are doing it so we could be inspired and know how to do it right. And if you put your mind to it, you can do it. I think a lot of people look at what we’re doing and are thinking, oh, people are just on a whim. I’m doing this and they don’t know what they’re getting into. I don’t know. I don’t know that that’s the case. And I have confidence that the people doing this are smart enough and have been long-term dreaming about this and working toward it as a goal like anything else in your life.

Elsie: That’s such a good answer. And I totally agree that planning is an essential part of it. Maybe it’s not good to buy an old house on a whim, but maybe it’s not good to buy any house on a whim.

Elizabeth: You know, a lot of the people I’ve talked to that have done it, who have bought houses that are just kind of otherworldly, like like you’re talking about a huge mansion in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere. You know, they credit their naiveté as sort of their best asset because, yes, if someone says to you, it’s going to be if someone told you all the hardships that would come with parenting, you know, you might get pregnant and you’re like, this is coming out and I’m doing this and like and you love it. And there’s all it comes with all the things, right? And the same with the house. And sometimes walking in and not knowing what you’re getting into is sometimes a little bit of an asset provided that you can afford it when it’s you know…and I wouldn’t suggest buying a huge crumbling mansion if you don’t have the money to support the things that do go wrong when they go wrong.

Elsie: Here’s another renovation question. OK, it’s a twofer. What is the number one thing that you shouldn’t touch or mess with in a renovation? And what’s the number one thing that like don’t worry about it. Go ahead and replace that tile countertop.

Elizabeth: This is general. But I would say anything original in the house that is — that doesn’t need to be torn out because it’s been completely torn apart by termites or the grout is old and dirty. And like you don’t I mean, like, it’s either like a unhygienic. I wouldn’t just make a stylistic choice to gut your Victorian living room because you don’t feel like that’s what you want in the moment, so I would I would say to steer away from ripping out original features unnecessarily. I would say that there are some cases and people will argue with me on this, because, honestly, if you are a full on purist and you want to save anything, everything absolutely can be saved. But I also recognize that…So if something is — I guess highly, highly damaged or I don’t know that it is really hard. This is such a case by case basis. I would just say like rule of thumb, just don’t go unnecessarily ripping out original features before living with them at all, but especially, you know, on a whim because you’ll never get them back.

Elsie: Yeah, that’s that’s really good advice, I think. Yeah. There has to be a balance somewhere in there if you’re going to renovate, but also save certain parts.

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Elsie: And the last question is what? OK, so a lot of people this is a first-time homebuyer question. What’s the house repair that you would say, hire a professional for sure. Don’t try to do that yourself. And what things are more OK to do yourself?

Elizabeth: Roofs terrify me, I would never get on a roof. So many accidents that take place falling off of ladders and getting on roofs and so anything your roof, you know, you — if you’re going to buy a house, the first thing you have to do is shore up the house. So you have to make sure that no water is getting inside because water will wreck old houses. So when you buy it, you need to make sure that the roof is tight, that there aren’t — there’s nothing coming in from any direction. So if you’re capable of doing that kind of work, heavy exterior work, it needs to get done. And I would definitely hire someone to do that. There would be a lot of people that would probably say lead paint remediation in certain states you’re allowed to do it yourself and others you’re not. Obviously, everything you do in an old house, you need to take proper care. I feel like go into everything assuming it’s a terrible hazard and just armor up. So put on your mask with the filters and whatever you need to do. You can do that kind of stuff yourself. You could hire a professional to do it. I think it’s a personal decision. I’m like kind of a health hypochondriac. So I like to get involved like chemicals or like I’m like, OK, I’ll let someone else who knows sort of armored for this handle it.

Elsie: Yes same, I would not be trying to mess with lead paint.

Elizabeth: Right. But lead paint honestly in old houses should not be the deal-breaker that it is for a lot of people. I think it’s really scary to hear. You can encapsulate it, you can remediate it, you can paint over it. There are a lot of ways to handle it, but you totally want to approach it with caution. You don’t just don’t…

Elsie: Don’t sand it off.

Elizabeth: Don’t sand it off. Don’t eat it. Lick your sandy walls. (laughs)

Elsie: That’s really good advice. Yeah, I wouldn’t try to roof my own house either. (laughs) No way.

Elsie: There’s a lot of things I wouldn’t do, but OK, let’s talk about the things that you can totally do that maybe people are scared, like I would say paint.

Elizabeth: I agree with you on paint. I love painting because it’s like such it’s a huge change. It’s instant gratification. It’s cheap. It’s easy. Yeah. You know, depending on your skillset. Another thing that we learned how to do is like on YouTube is just switching out light fixtures.

Elsie: Yeah, that’s a really good one.

Elizabeth: Having someone install a sconce for you and paying five hundred dollars. It’s just annoying and it’s actually not that complicated. It’s just a series of steps. And once we figured out we could do it, we were like, oh my gosh, this opens up a world of opportunity.

Elsie: Yeah.

Elizabeth: We are so fortunate right now to have the access to advice that we have online. You can really find so many things.

Elsie: I completely agree. Over the years we’ve learned so many things that are kind of like this year Collin learn to lay brick because they wanted to extend this little part of our outdoor kitchen. It wasn’t a big deal, but it’s like not the kind of thing that people think they can do. But it’s usually just a few YouTube videos away!

Elizabeth: It really is. And anybody can do this with like the people we visit on the show, some of them this is their first house they’ve ever done. Some of them, like grew up with fathers who are contractors. It really across the board varies. And it just it’s a matter of your…the time you have the money, you have the will you have to want to do it yourself. But again, like I said in the beginning if you can’t do everything yourself, you are still an awesome human being.

Elsie: I have a guilty pleasure question for you. House themed. So do you have a favorite movie house of all time?

Elizabeth: OK. Oh gosh.

Elsie: Take your time. This is important.

Elizabeth: I have so many favorite movie houses.

Elsie: You can have like two or three if you want.

Elizabeth: I’m. a huge Wes Anderson fan. I love all the houses in his movies. The house from the holiday, that little English cottage – like just so freaking cute. Oh, I’ve been watching the like the marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Those apartments, her kitchen has like little red phone. It’s so fifties. It’s so cute. Oh, I’ve been watching this show called Seaside Hotel, which is a Danish drama. It’s a little like Downton Abbey esque — it takes place in Denmark in a seaside hotel in like the nineteen twenties and thirties, up to the forties and oh my gosh, it’s the interiors are so good. I mean, I basically only watch movies just for the house, like for interiors, if I just take all the notes. So if it’s a movie I like, it’s probably because I like the house.

Elsie: Yeah, I feel the same way. Movie houses. Eventually we’ll probably do another episode like that because it’s like our favorite subject and I love it. OK, so my last question when do we get to see a tour of your house?

Elizabeth: Oh, my gosh!

Elsie: Like I’m dying…after I saw the kitchen, you know, I think everyone’s going to be dying for a full tour.

Elizabeth: Well, the problem with the kitchen is it makes the rest of our house not look that good because the kitchen is sort of like the first room that we like cohesively did, because it’s the only room in the house that just it was…it was a gross kitchen. It just and all the appliances that we waited until everything went and they were junk appliances that you you couldn’t there was no point in fixing them, it would be more expensive to fix them then to just get a new one. I don’t know. I’m so funny and private. And we do have an Instagram account for our other house that we bought our cheap old house. The Instagram account is @fearnofixer that’s for the cheap old house that we just bought…

Elsie: So are you going to live in it in the future?

Elizabeth: I don’t know yet. We bought it because we fell in love with it. And we have to see. It’s a farmhouse, it has acreage. It’s so lovely there, but it’s the house needs so much like it doesn’t even have walls or anything. It’s like basically a tent. So we couldn’t live there anyway. So we’re fixing it and we’re going to see.

Elsie: Well, I can’t wait to hear what you decide.

Elizabeth: Like it had to be really cheap because we have another half. So we we our budget, we didn’t want to pay over one hundred thousand dollars. We got it for seventy thousand dollars.

Elsie: Wow.

Elizabeth: Yeah, it’s awesome. And we found it. It’s the oldest house in the town. It’s from like the late seventeen hundreds. So it’s I like…we love this house so much. I’m just like so in love with it.

Elsie: Oh my gosh.

Elizabeth: It’s very different. But the house we live in now is from the nineteen forties and it’s kind of fun because I can get my like early American on with that house. But like I can go a little more like Kichi in the house I’m in now with 40s stuff.

Elsie: Well this was so wonderful catching up and I can’t wait to see the show and just let me know how we can support you. We are your biggest fans. We love you. Thank you so much for listening. We appreciate every single one of you. And we’ll be back next week!