Episode 7: The Finale

Teresa Robinson
Jul 20, 2024
3 min read

We finally made it! 6 rooms down and one exterior to go. Then, there will be a final judging and assessment of the houses. If you don't know already, the winners are decided by real estate agents from the area assessing each home's values before and after renovations. The house that appreciates the most after all improvements have been made on the home is the winning home!

Our home was the largest (just by a bit) and the most expensive of the 3 homes. Oddly enough, our deck was really small based on the scale of the house, but it faced the beach so that was a plus. Fresh off of the bonus room debacle, we had to turn this outside area into an inviting and multi-functional space. Ideally, a grill, and seating area for dining and lounging. Plus, we had to paint the house! This was one of the most exciting decisions to make. At this point, we were weeks into living in Oak Island and one of the most beautiful things about this area is the colorful homes throughout the area. Brandon and I knew we wanted our house to stand out and turn heads.

Thankfully, we had the left-over budget from the movie room to purchase some items for outside. I knew that built-ins would be an added value, so my first thought was to build a daybed in the far corner of the space on the side of the living room. With that, I would add a bar-height table with highchair seating wrapped around the front and side of the porch closest to the kitchen. The table would emulate the kitchen bench and dining room table and seat 6 people while viewing the ocean. This decision came from deciding that adding a table to this tight space might be uncomfortable when people need to be seated and walk around without squeezing uncomfortably through the walkway. A grill seemed nearly impossible to add without stealing a bunch of space, although I knew it would be missed for one not to be there. Brandon and I even played around with the idea of putting the daybed downstairs, but it would be too low to see the ocean view.

After a visit from Alison, she had the idea to reconfigure the space to accommodate an actual dining table with more formal seating and even a grill. Brandon and I agreed that this reconfiguration would provide more value to the space. What that meant for us was taking apart a build that was about 75% done and finding a tiny grill and super narrow table. Thankfully, I was able to source both of these things from Lowe's and Wayfair. In a bit of extra space on the deck behind the high table, I sourced some lounge seating to complete the space. After adding some plants and decor, the space was complete.

We created the best deck for the space we had without making it too crowded for entertaining.

As an extra surprise, the Baumler's gave us extra time to tie up loose ends around the house. I think our team had the most we needed to revisit/complete. Although we didn't make it to every space, we made valuable changes to spaces in really rough shape, including the secret door to the movie room, the primary suite bathroom and bedroom, and some added touches to the bunk room.

Coming to the pier, our anxiety was high. To add, all of Oak Island knew something big was happening and there was an audience all around the peer to get a look at our mentors, the Baumler's, and the 3 competing teams. The added plus of the wind blowing was just the cherry on top of my nerve sundae. At this point I knew there were some drawbacks to our house and some components missing that could've positively impacted the value. But did we do enough to keep our home in the lead with appraisals?

Secrets Revealed!

The Window. A thorn in my side! The original plan and early order were made for a huge 5ft window that would be a passthrough to the kitchen with an amazing outlook to the beach from our gorgeous kitchen. The window arrived the day of judging and we couldn't have possibly waited till then to close up the house, so we had to find a window on super short notice and the look wasn't what we planned for, but it worked.