HGTV’s Rehab Addict: Squatters, Skylights, and Shiplap Secrets

Nicole Curtis is back, Besties—and she’s not easing into Season 9 of Rehab Addict. In this double-episode recap of “Nicole Goes West” and “Attic Antics,” we’re talking attic bedrooms, squatter drama in Detroit, a hot water heater in the kitchen (WHY), and the Wyoming flip that started as a spontaneous online buy.

We unpack Nicole’s return after a three-year hiatus, her signature flag moment, her monster truck detour, and whether we'd actually be friends with her IRL. Plus, one of us may or may not be in denial about painting brick—and you know Nicole has thoughts.

🎧 Listen in as we reveal what gave us history-nerd chills, what made us gag, and what absolutely deserves the Designing Bitches seal of approval.

Love and Kisses,

Rhonda and Shari

Find us at https://designingbesties.buzzsprout.com, Facebook, Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter).

Transcript

014 - FINAL - REHAB ADDICT S9 E1 AND E2

[00:00:00] Shari: What do you get when you mix an online real estate impulse buy with a squatter-infested Detroit bungalow?

[00:00:06] Rhonda: Apparently Rehab Addict Season 9, and yes, we are absolutely here for it.

[00:00:13] Shari: Hi there, I'm Shari, and this is my BFF Rhonda.

[00:00:16] Rhonda: And welcome to Designing Bitches!

This podcast for women

[00:00:20] Shari: and brave men

[00:00:21] Rhonda: who eat, sleep, and breathe interior design and recognize their addiction to HGTV.

[00:00:26] Shari: Whether you're rearranging your living room for the 12th time or here to justify another HomeGoods spree. You're in the right place.

[00:00:33] Rhonda: Let's talk design, disasters, and all the beautiful chaos in between. 

[00:00:37] Shari: Before we dive into Nicole's attic antics, we've got a quick shout out to one of our favorite besties who pointed out that our website doesn't mark which episodes you've already listened to.

[00:00:47] Rhonda: True. And while we can't fix that on designingbitches.com because we're handy but not hackers, you can listen on Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, or anywhere else that tracks your listens like a digital BFF.

[00:01:02] Shari: or just listen to every episode on a repeat. I mean, it's not like we're above boosting our own numbers.

[00:01:10] Rhonda: facts. Now let's get back to Nicole, Wyoming, and the water heater that is somehow in the kitchen.

[00:01:16] Shari: Aha. Okay. Well, Nicole Curtis has officially returned with a brand new season of Rehab Addict, and she's kicking things off with two fixer uppers that are 1,500 miles apart.

[00:01:28] Rhonda: That's right. One in Detroit and the other, she bought it online in Wyoming, sight unseen, because what's a little chaos between projects?

[00:01:36] Shari: Mm-hmm And this week we're diving into both of the first two episodes. The first one, "Nicole Goes West" and the second "Attic Antics", because we couldn't wait for the big reveal on the Wyoming House.

[00:01:48] Rhonda: Yes, we like to see the finish. So we've got a flipper fail, hidden staircases, and Nicole just casually building an attic bedroom like she's hosting HGTV's version of Survivor- Renovation Edition.

[00:02:02] Shari: So grab your drink of choice, maybe two. We're recapping the road- trip worthy premiere of Rehab Addict Season 9.

[00:02:10] Rhonda: I'd like to start with the fact that she mentions she graduated in 1984. I. makes her older than me, and she looks great. It's really good to see her. She's one of my favorite design hosts, not really my favorite designer, but I really like her shows.

I think she's energetic, cute as a button, and I do like the people that she brings with her. She said she was bringing back some people from previous shows and I think they've all got a personality that really compliments her spunkiness.

[00:02:41] Shari: I agree. You get a sense that they really are a family 

and they go to bat for her and she

goes to bat for other. Mm-hmm.

[00:02:48] Rhonda: I definitely get that feeling. 

[00:02:49] Shari: It's been three years since she's been on HGTV and I had forgotten how much I loved her energy. I'm with you. The design is not my taste, but this is one of those shows where even though I'm really not into the design, I love her process.

And I love her energy.

[00:03:10] Rhonda: I I really feel like she does a good job. Like when she talks about the smell 

right, we can't, we don't have "smellavision" yet, and I don't know that I ever want that, but she talks about old house smell versus cheap house smell.

Like that's, that's interesting, right?

That's interesting. I wanna hear that. I wanna know that.

[00:03:26] Shari: Now, just a little background. So Rehab Addict originally premiered in 2010, but it started on Discovery for its first season. So if you, like us, we're wondering why Max is showing 10 seasons and HGTV is only showing 9, that's why. But we're an HGTV recapper show, so we're gonna use HGTV season identification and... she's back after a three-year hiatus, and the hiatus was prompted by a setback in her life,

but I couldn't find anything, and you know how good I am at scouring the

[00:04:01] Rhonda: I know, I 

[00:04:02] Shari: I couldn't find anything that specified what the setback was, just that it rocked her to the core, and that's a quote.

She also said that this new season will feature an evolved version of herself.

 Neither of her kids are gonna be on the show this season. She said this is a change from previous seasons because she wants to protect their privacy. She wants in general to protect her own personal life a little more than she has in the past.

[00:04:28] Rhonda: Hmm.

[00:04:28] Shari: And as you pointed out, she bought the Wyoming house.

She actually bought it in 2022 

[00:04:33] Rhonda: She never says

Why, why Wyoming?

[00:04:37] Shari: Well, she does give a little background. So she had been to Wyoming one or two times before. She is going through this personal setback, whatever that is. She decides that part of the cure is gonna be travel. So she heads to Europe and she forgets her wallet. So she ends up in

[00:04:55] Rhonda: Oh my God. 

[00:04:57] Shari: $72 in cash.

[00:04:59] Rhonda: Not a good travel

partner. 

Note. Note. 

[00:05:02] Shari: so a good friend sends her some additional money

and then something happens with her plane travel going from, she was going from France to, I can't remember where

[00:05:15] Rhonda: It was a Greek island. A random Greek island.

[00:05:17] Shari: And so she decides in that moment because she was able to work out and deal with the challenges of this European trip that it's time to work on bucket list items and she decides a house in Wyoming is one of them and she goes online and she buys this house.

[00:05:31] Rhonda: Yeah.

[00:05:32] Shari: So it's kind of a little, I don't know. I appreciated that she gave us how that went. I also like, I can kind of relate because some things happen in my head that may not seem obvious if you see the chain of events, but in my head, that all made perfect sense.

And we're gonna need to take a minute to talk about HGTV math. Because Nicole has been very open that the sequence of events that happen that she has to fit into a 42 minute episode that is entertaining for all of us are not always reflective of the actual sequence of events or the timing.

[00:06:06] Rhonda: Yeah, that makes sense for sure.

[00:06:07] Shari: And on this show, remember she bought this house in 2022. When this show opens episode one, we're seeing her at that house and it has a for sale sign in the yard.

And my guess is that really happened in 2022 because she also says this season took three years to film

[00:06:25] Rhonda: Yeah. And she goes away and comes back and she's wearing shorts and a T-shirt. So

it was supposed to be a week. Clearly that is not a week.

[00:06:34] Shari: And just a little more background, she said she made 200 trips between Wyoming and

Detroit. 

[00:06:40] Rhonda: be cost efficient 

[00:06:41] Shari: yeah. So it made me feel a little bit better about how long my renovation projects

[00:06:45] Rhonda: Yeah, there you go.

No, I get the HGTV calendar or the math or timeline because we literally would be watching paint dry. I don't really need to see that. And so, I get that. That's just why they fake it.

I don't know, but you're the reality TV person, so maybe people crave that for

[00:07:03] Shari: I don't know. I generally buy into it, but some things in terms of the timeline, especially on , these kind of shows, I just go huh? 

[00:07:10] Rhonda: Yeah. So the house. Thoughts?

[00:07:14] Shari: Three bedroom, one bath, just six rooms total.

I.

She actually buys it for $140k. 

[00:07:19] Rhonda: It could not be uglier. 

[00:07:20] Shari: You know what's interesting though, is that when I see the outside,

[00:07:23] Rhonda: Yeah.

[00:07:24] Shari: I actually think it's a kind of cute white brick B. It's a little 

Shari-coded 

[00:07:30] Rhonda: percent. Ugh.

[00:07:32] Shari: It's kind of a sweet but soulless 1890s home and she needs to rescue it from a cosmetic flip nightmare.

[00:07:39] Rhonda: yes.

[00:07:40] Shari: And she says she basically needs to unflip And honestly, Rhonda, like, I don't know if I'm having a design identity crisis, but I can actually see what she meant about it, lacking any character

[00:07:52] Rhonda: Yeah, I could too.

[00:07:53] Shari: when she started demoing it and found a few original details and I started thinking about my own renovation projects... And am I kind of guilty

of taking a little soul out of the house and I'm not 

dealing with an 1890s home for sure.

[00:08:08] Rhonda: telling you right now you are because you're tearing up that beautiful fireplace.

[00:08:11] Shari: Yeah, for sure, besties, I am for sure. 

[00:08:15] Rhonda: You can't be, be convinced otherwise

[00:08:17] Shari: I hope Nicole never listened to this because I'm sure somewhere I have a note that says Nicole would hate me if I ever her. Like she would probably unfriend me mid demo if she

saw some of the things I've done. Okay. Well, okay. There it is. Yes I And it's still moving.

I'm getting rid of a fireplace, but I'm adding one back in and a place that makes more sense. 

[00:08:39] Rhonda: Shari.

It's a beautiful fireplace.

[00:08:43] Shari: Who does gas fireplaces in the year 2025? Who are 

you? Who are you people? So Nicole hates in the interior when she comes in, 

[00:08:55] Rhonda: Yes. 

[00:08:55] Shari: She's never seen it sight unseen.

[00:08:57] Rhonda: Yes.

[00:08:58] Shari: She hates that they put in this cheap gray laminate gray paint. And she says they've essentially taken all the character out of the house. I totally get that because while I love some of the modern updates, they don't involve gray,

[00:09:11] Rhonda: No, 

and I, it just looked like a church basement or something. It was so bland

and Yeah, and when they showed how they painted over all the 

hardware, I just started laughing like, oh, 

wow. 

[00:09:27] Shari: are lazier than us, Rhonda.

[00:09:29] Rhonda: Yes. 

[00:09:30] Shari: So it's Nicole's worst nightmare. It's 

nipple lights, sloppily 

painted over brass hardware,

[00:09:36] Rhonda: Ugly ceiling fan. Yeah.

[00:09:38] Shari: bin trim, and yes, these ugly ceiling fans. And as you pointed out in the intro, the hot water heaters in the kitchen.

Like how do you flip that house and go, oh yes, let's leave the hot water heater in the kitchen.

[00:09:52] Rhonda: Let's just point out though, this flip was a success. 

Because she 

bought 

it

so whoever did this flip probably made some money.

[00:10:02] Shari: and she's feeling a little down, and then she finds the secret stairs.

 floor. And here we have church music. Um, Nicole finds this attic that hasn't been touched, and Nicole is known for her attic bedrooms.

[00:10:18] Rhonda: Yes. 

[00:10:19] Shari: So this is like a sign from God that she made the right decision.

[00:10:24] Rhonda: because she was desperate for something. I'm 

[00:10:27] Shari: She was at that point. And it also has mountain views, which is something she also wanted, and 

[00:10:34] Rhonda: I didn't really see that. Was that a mountain

[00:10:37] Shari: I, 

they are not what I would call mountains, but I live right next to Lake Tahoe where we have real mountains. So I feel like it's not what I would call a mountain, but if Nicole thinks it's a mountain, I'm gonna go with it 

[00:10:48] Rhonda: I just got back from Alaska and yeah, sorry, everybody else in the lower 48 Alaska wins best mountains,

but yeah. 

[00:10:59] Shari: after checking out the inside, she immediately puts up her signature flag. And I love that detail. And her ex-boyfriend Ryan, comes down.

 And now according to the episode, I think this was a two day thing. And mostly what they did was work on the outside. So

they 

paint the exterior, they replace, do they replace the front windows in this

[00:11:21] Rhonda: M No, they just demo. Remember they demo 'cause they go to the dump. We had to see 

that. For some reason we felt, you know, two free dump visits.

Woo 

Did you notice? She did fall through the ceiling in her dream attic bedroom,

[00:11:35] Shari: Yes.

[00:11:36] Rhonda: and she must weigh like, what's 80 pounds?

Like 

how weak is that roof that 

[00:11:42] Shari: Yes, 

[00:11:43] Rhonda: through it.

[00:11:44] Shari: but it's kind of not a Nicole Curtis episode unless there's something 

that happens. And they pull out the carpet 

[00:11:50] Rhonda: Mm-hmm. 

[00:11:51] Shari: excited when she finds like the original Pinewood flooring.

So her heart, now she's found the attic, now she's found the original Pinewood flooring, 

[00:11:59] Rhonda: she did talk a lot about the fake brick. she kept saying, this is fake brick. I would not paint this. This is fake

brick. 

[00:12:06] Shari: to wonder if 

I 

have fake brick, but I actually know from my fireplace 'cause I have a hearth. Those are actual bricks. And then I have some as cladding on the outside. And 

eventually, don't tell Nicole, but I'm gonna paint all my 

real bricks. So this house on the inside reminded me of when I bought mine. I, we've talked about this before. I bought it just based on the pictures and knowing what the floor plan was. I hadn't actually been in the house

when I bought it, but when you come in, they had just put, I'm gonna call it lipstick on a pig.

They put in cheap LVP flooring. They used the world's ugliest gray color painted on all the walls. And when I found a can of the paint, it literally is called cinder block gray.

[00:12:51] Rhonda: Oh God.

[00:12:52] Shari: Now, why don't you just put on here prison gray or government building 

gray or because 

what else would cinder block gray be called?

[00:13:04] Rhonda: terrible.

[00:13:04] Shari: They had put in brand new carpet that still had that new carpet smell, so I know exactly what Nicole's talking about, the smell of just when they've redone some stuff. And I had three different sizes of baseboards,

depending on which room you walked into and what kind of flooring they had put.

 [00:13:21] Shari: Then they start to demo a drop ceiling, and I'm just thinking, who drops the ceiling to make your ceilings lower?

[00:13:27] Rhonda: Well, if you grew up in Pittsburgh, everybody did.

[00:13:30] Shari: Which she does later explain 

to save on heating 

costs, 

[00:13:34] Rhonda: yes. 

[00:13:35] Shari: then that made perfect sense.

[00:13:36] Rhonda: It costs a fortune to heat a house in Pittsburgh, especially these old drafty, you know, 18 hundreds. four stories, you know, cellar and attic and two stories. And I just remember my grandmother, every room in her house ceiling was dropped,

[00:13:49] Shari: Yeah, 

[00:13:50] Rhonda: Yeah, maybe that's why I like her show is I do.

Often think of the old houses in the city of Pittsburgh, and again, they're, some of them are just beautiful and they're, you know, old, right? They haven't been kept up. My, my grandmother certainly couldn't afford to maintain , the house in the manner it should have been or even upgraded.

And so when I see Nicole doing it, I do flash to that. I will say, this house Nicole bought in Wyoming. I would not have guessed that that was built in 1883. Would you? It 

[00:14:18] Shari: No. 

[00:14:19] Rhonda: a little shitty box. Excuse me.

[00:14:21] Shari: No. And again, I didn't, I wasn't unhappy with the way it looked from the outside for 

[00:14:26] Rhonda: Mm. 

[00:14:27] Shari: I was kind of like, Hmm,

[00:14:28] Rhonda: Well, they made a big deal about painting it, blue 

[00:14:32] Shari: yes. Which 

she later says she 

[00:14:34] Rhonda: says she 

[00:14:35] Shari: I. 

[00:14:35] Rhonda: the color blue. Why then, why did you paint your house blue?

[00:14:38] Shari: I am not a big fan of color blue either. No blue for me.

[00:14:41] Rhonda: I love Blue. It's my favorite,

[00:14:43] Shari: And then Nicole goes shopping and she brings home Boxwoods when she goes to get the paint. And I love Boxwoods.

 They work really well here. And I just thought, oh,

[00:14:52] Rhonda: Do 

you feel validated? 

[00:14:54] Shari: The idea that she goes to the store to get paint and she brings home plants.

[00:14:59] Rhonda: It reminds you of yourself,

doesn't it? 

[00:15:00] Shari: exactly, but also if you check Instagram and Facebook, it reminds me of myself and a ton of other people who

[00:15:07] Rhonda: Oh, 

[00:15:07] Shari: plant addicted 

[00:15:09] Rhonda: yes. 

[00:15:10] Shari: and looking at you.

Rhonda,

[00:15:11] Rhonda: Well, all my plants are sitting out in my courtyard right now because I have a insect problem. 

I 

can't get the insects. 

Yeah, 

[00:15:18] Shari: that kind of under control.

Did it zap 

[00:15:22] Rhonda: from vacation.

It's still there. Yeah.

[00:15:24] Shari: Oh my goodness.

[00:15:25] Rhonda: I don't wanna talk about,

it 

[00:15:26] Shari: That's a sad. Okay, let's move on. Let's move on. Anyone who wants to send condolences to

[00:15:31] Rhonda: makes me want to cry. 

[00:15:33] Shari: No, I totally get it. I have almost 50 plants and when

one of them gets sick, I'm terrified 

that the others are gonna be infested.

[00:15:40] Rhonda: You get attached to 'em and you put all this time and effort into making them live, 

and then this happens. So anyway, 

[00:15:47] Shari: And so, 

[00:15:47] Rhonda: updated. I'll keep you updated, besties, let you know.

[00:15:50] Shari: yeah, so she hires some guys to install windows and a fence, but they cancel. So she spends the day day two, and Ryan's already left, so she spends day two learning to ride a horse, and she 

does pretty good. So I feel like this episode is like the Yellowstone edition of Rehab Addict.

[00:16:09] Rhonda: We, you know, Yellowstone is really popular. How can we tie that in with this episode of

[00:16:13] Shari: Exactly.

[00:16:14] Rhonda: HGTV 

[00:16:15] Shari: she makes the, the windows in the front taller. She also finds these, I mean, I don't know where she finds this stuff.

I dunno if she uses like Craigslist or she uses, Facebook marketplace, but she finds these pillars to update the front porch.

And I am 

like, 

I had 3 of those columns in my entryway area, which are now all gone.

[00:16:37] Rhonda: You ripped them out

[00:16:38] Shari: And now I know there might have been a market for 'em 'cause someone like Nicole might have bought 'em. 

 But anyway, then she gets a call from Josh who's a builder in Detroit, working on her other house, drama alert, and he tells her they have some squatters in her quote unquote new house she bought in Detroit.

[00:16:54] Rhonda: Go home and deal with the

[00:16:55] Shari: Yeah, so she leaves her locally hired crew in Wyoming who still need to do those windows and the fence and heads back to Detroit for a few days.

But I'll tell you what, the amount of transformation in just two days is borderline HGTV sorcery.

And now I know that this isn't the actual timeline, so we know it's actually just

HGTV math, 

[00:17:18] Rhonda: Not even close. So the Detroit House 

I thought was so cute. As much as I hated the Wyoming house, I loved the Detroit

[00:17:26] Shari: it does look so

quaint. 

[00:17:28] Rhonda: until she walked through it

[00:17:30] Shari: Yeah, 

and you have to think. She's been through so many old houses and when she says it's the nastiest home ever. And it was also so funny because in the Detroit house, she had just been talking about there are two smells to an old house. One is good, one is bad, but then she found a third type of smell.

[00:17:49] Rhonda: Third smell called squatter.

[00:17:51] Shari: And Josh had actually gotten rid of the squatters by then, but it's like, it smells like mold regret and eau do Squatter,

[00:18:00] Rhonda: Oh my gosh.

[00:18:02] Shari: and they start getting rid of

the trash 

thigh. 

[00:18:04] Rhonda: they open the refrigerator every time

they know what's in there? Don't open 

[00:18:09] Shari: it.

didn't even look that horrible though. 

[00:18:11] Rhonda: Oh God. 

[00:18:12] Shari: it never occurred to me. That's how squatters would use the toilets.

Yeah. Just in case you ever find yourself homeless

now I know, but they filled five dumpsters worth of trash in that house, and I don't even know how big it is, but it's not even that big.

[00:18:26] Rhonda: Mm.

[00:18:27] Shari: She says, and I think this is online, I'm not sure if it was in the episode, but she says that that garbage was at the height of the fireplace,

[00:18:34] Rhonda: God, so disgusting.

[00:18:36] Shari: and so now she says she has some decisions to make.

She demos it to the ground, donates it to the fire department as a practice burn, which I thought

was 

[00:18:44] Rhonda: you imagine, God,

[00:18:46] Shari: And she probably knows she's done a bunch of these houses in Detroit, so there probably are some where she buys them for five grand and like it just isn't gonna work out.

[00:18:55] Rhonda: Yeah.

[00:18:55] Shari: But of course, she decides to save it because she finds inspiration.

In a telephone nook, a laundry shoot, the original bathroom tile with a green pencil line

and an attic space. Ding, ding, ding, that the squatters didn't touch.

[00:19:09] Rhonda: Yes.

[00:19:10] Shari: And we also know that she's gonna cover this episode. I think she finishes it in episode four of this season. So a couple more episodes.

And this house, eventually she names it the Doris House.

[00:19:21] Rhonda: Yeah, they did a good juxtaposition with the Wyoming

[00:19:26] Shari: I 

[00:19:26] Rhonda: House. Whoever produced this episode, I thought did a good job showing. Okay, here's the Wyoming house that I would not have guessed, was an old 

house because it, it had been flipped to look, you know, cheap and brand new. And then there's this Detroit house that clearly has charm on the outside, but talk about, you know, yeah.

Like how do you get through that? How do you get through

[00:19:46] Shari: You are right. They did a great job on that. 

[00:19:48] Rhonda: But yes, so I really liked that part of the show. I liked the juxtaposition of those two houses and how different they were.

[00:19:54] Shari: she's there for a couple of days,

HGTV math, just in time to see the roof start to go on before she has to take a plane back to Wyoming

[00:20:03] Rhonda: Yes. And Motel life,

[00:20:05] Shari: and besties. That's the last we see of the Detroit House

for this episode. And actually Episode 2.

[00:20:13] Rhonda: Yeah, I thought they would finish it in Episode 2. They didn't.

[00:20:15] Shari: No, and we're back in Wyoming.

[00:20:18] Rhonda: Mm-hmm. She's staying in a motel now. Why wouldn't she get a Airbnb or some sort of, you know, accommodation 

[00:20:24] Shari: Well, she's really just waiting until she can finish the house. But it isn't clear to me initially that this is gonna be one of her houses

[00:20:32] Rhonda: what they never actually, she calls it her house

[00:20:35] Shari: she talks about her bed and then when you read everything online, like I think that really is her house in

[00:20:40] Rhonda: Me too. Me too. Because she talks about the bunks for the boys,

[00:20:43] Shari: Yes,

[00:20:45] Rhonda: so I, I think that's her house.

[00:20:47] Shari: well, the fence and the porch are all done looks great. She finds two red Adirondack chairs somewhere and some other things when she finishes the front porch

[00:20:58] Rhonda: Yes, Nicole, we need to talk about wildfires. The fact that your front yard has this long dry grass and you're building this giant fire. I, I really would like to talk to you about the wildfires.

[00:21:09] Shari: I don't know, but this is when I first noticed that the yard definitely looks like she was gone for more than two days. Things have grown and that doesn't happen in a few days.

[00:21:21] Rhonda: No, and again, the weather is now nice, so.

[00:21:25] Shari: True. And so she's relaxing out front. She starts working on her favorite part of the house.

[00:21:29] Rhonda: Mm-hmm. she's gonna bring a team in, but they're gonna be there in a couple of days. But one of her first crew members and friends to get there is Reva.

Mm-hmm.

[00:21:39] Shari: And she comes a day early and they get the kitchen and bathroom demoed and I am super impressed.

[00:21:45] Rhonda: Yes. already she's talking about a skirt around the sink.

[00:21:49] Shari: Then Craig, Zach, Ryan, Steven come in and Steven is actually Bobby's brother. I thought it was Bobby. I mean, they almost looked like twins. 

[00:21:58] Rhonda: How do you 

[00:21:59] Shari: shares that Craig was her eighth grade boyfriend and that he cheated on her twice.

[00:22:05] Rhonda: Yes. At a

[00:22:06] Shari: did. Again, she keeps these men around. I think it's

[00:22:08] Rhonda: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:09] Shari: They have a big discussion on whether they should center the sink on the arch or the window.

[00:22:15] Rhonda: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:16] Shari: And even after seeing the final reveal, definitely I would've centered it on the window. It would like my OCD would kick in. But I wondered what you thought.

[00:22:27] Rhonda: No window. Always window.

[00:22:30] Shari: I would've done it that way too. And as she takes down the cabinets, which they'll reuse, she finds original shiplap is in the kitchen. So she, again, is just aghast at how did, why did anyone cover this all up? And then Drama alert, it's a raining and the roof is leaking on Nicole's newly finished attic floors.

[00:22:50] Rhonda: Oh

[00:22:51] Shari: And she's happy. At least it didn't rain when the floors were wet with poly. Now the other thing is that when they were there the first time, I forgot to mention, they find a leak in the basement

[00:23:01] Rhonda: Yes.

in the in the crawl space. Yeah. It's not really a basement, it's, it's just dirt.

[00:23:06] Shari: and then we never hear about it again.

[00:23:10] Rhonda: No. Mm-hmm. And it was sewage, wasn't it?

[00:23:12] Shari: I, she says like it's sewage. But it never comes up again, I'm assuming in editing. Like we take things out, we just run out of 

[00:23:20] Rhonda: Yeah, maybe it's a simple fix.

[00:23:23] Shari: The other thing when the first time they're there that I forgot to mention is that she says, after they put up the flag, she wants to take the satellite dish down,

[00:23:30] Rhonda: Yes.

[00:23:31] Shari: which actually means in Nicole language, that she wants Ryan to take it down.

And I don't know about you, but I have a friend who's like that when she says, I did blank, blank, blank, it usually means, actually someone else did it for her, but I'm not gonna name names. I'm not gonna

[00:23:49] Rhonda: It was her idea. But you know who you are.

[00:23:51] Shari: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:23:54] Rhonda: That's funny. Little quirks. Little quirks. We all have them. 

[00:23:57] Shari: And then there's the whole question of the attic bathroom layout. And if you watch the show enough besties, this is a bane for Nicole, where she has to mentally figure out the best layout for a bathroom she's creating often in a space that didn't have them before.

So we're used to seeing this with Nicole. And she's really stressed because the plumber and the drywallers are coming in tomorrow, and I immediately think, ah, HGTV drama. But she says, this is not made for TV drama.

[00:24:27] Rhonda: Yeah, I need to decide where

[00:24:29] Shari: That they really did have the drywallers and the plumber coming in the next day.

[00:24:34] Rhonda: Yeah.

[00:24:34] Shari: And then her team, I can't remember who it is. He is Zach and Dean doing an all nighter, getting all the electrical done before the drywallers arrive.

[00:24:44] Rhonda: Yeah. I think Nicole is showing some Gen X behavior. Because pulling an all-nighter is not considered a good thing anymore.

[00:24:52] Shari: No, but she has talked about before that she's still most comfortable, like she's not necessarily one to start in the morning

and she'd rather go later in the night. And it seems like that hasn't changed over time.

[00:25:06] Rhonda: Well, I'm sure her neighbors don't appreciate it.

[00:25:08] Shari: I have often wondered that I feel like

you, like she comes over to talk to you, you know that she's the kind of person who's met the neighbors.

[00:25:18] Rhonda: Oh, sure.

[00:25:19] Shari: Yeah, but also I can relate a little, we're both Gen Xers,

[00:25:24] Rhonda: yes.

[00:25:24] Shari: so it's not like we're unfamiliar with the all-nighter.

[00:25:27] Rhonda: Mm-hmm. No, and and back in the nineties that used to get you a pat on the back, you

know? All right. Good job staying up all night. But I'm still in the business world, and that is not a popular thing anymore. It's a safety hazard. And why are you abusing people this way? 

[00:25:40] Shari: Oh God. I'm falling asleep now too.

[00:25:43] Rhonda: sorry. I would probably hear this

[00:25:48] Shari: Let me think of a building code I can talk about.

[00:25:52] Rhonda: I would 

[00:25:52] Shari: be just as interesting as this discussion on, oh, all-nighters. In

[00:25:56] Rhonda: from the HR professional. I would probably get this from you.

[00:26:02] Shari: New drama alert, they hire a roofer to cut out the skylight, which she says they could do themselves, but they're busy doing other things. The team's like really engaged. He cuts the skylight too high because she's short and she needs to be able to see out of it, so they need to lower it.

And I just thought, you know what? That's someone who really pays attention to the details, and it also made me think this house is really for her.

[00:26:24] Rhonda: For her, I thought the same thing. I thought, oh, well what does she care other than it just, lets light in. Right? And then she's, I wanna be able to see out. So she's clearly gonna be looking out that window at her 

[00:26:35] Shari: Then she goes out shopping for the sink and clawfoot tub, and I'm unclear about where she shopped those items. I'm pretty sure the clawfoot tub is used. So again, maybe that's a Craigslist or a Facebook marketplace find. I didn't go back and watch it to see if maybe she had said, and I, I missed it. But besties, if you're out there and you know how she got these, I don't know, she comes back, she can't find the crew, they're not answering the phone, and they're all at the hotel's pool.

I guess it's hot there, so I'm assuming we're in summer now,

[00:27:06] Rhonda: Yes. Christmas to summer went very quickly.

[00:27:08] Shari: and then it's about putting everything in that she needs.

And we talked about before her actual design style with all the dead animals is probably not my vibe.

[00:27:19] Rhonda: What was she thinking with that? I mean, it looked, I don't know, appropriate maybe as, I'm not sure the right word, but I have to tell you, when I first moved in with my husband, he had dead animal heads

[00:27:32] Shari: had he killed the animal?

[00:27:33] Rhonda: He did,

[00:27:34] Shari: Oh, no. She at least didn't kill the animal. She found hers like she finds hers at flea markets and

[00:27:39] Rhonda: There was a deer head and a black bear mounted.

And I will tell you, this is what a good wife I am. I played along, I never once said, you know, get that outta here, or that's not going up in my house. But when we moved into the next house, the one we bought together, basically yeah, where are we gonna put these?

I mean, there's really no place for them.

[00:27:59] Shari: Thank God.

[00:28:01] Rhonda: We sold them at a, yard sale.

[00:28:03] Shari: Oh, well she says her younger son loves them. I can really appreciate that you would do it for your kid,

[00:28:11] Rhonda: Mm-hmm.

[00:28:12] Shari: Now she is a lover of white walls, so that's very Shari-Coded, and I'm like, 

[00:28:17] Rhonda: And the vanilla hack. Have you ever tried it?

[00:28:19] Shari: You know, I've seen her say that before I have read online that that's not a real thing. You can actually buy those scent things for your paint.

At Lowe's and Home Depot, but I've never 

[00:28:31] Rhonda: Okay. 

[00:28:31] Shari: tried it 

[00:28:32] Rhonda: No, me either. 

[00:28:33] Shari: I don't know. I don't know if I want my house to smell like a bakery.

[00:28:36] Rhonda: Mm. Make me hungry.

[00:28:38] Shari: I don't know why not. But, and then Nicole gets to go for a ride in a monster truck. That would so not be my jam. I can't imagine how noisy it is. And then she's almost too 

small to really be 

[00:28:49] Rhonda: yeah. Yeah, the fuel smell. It does not appeal to me at all. And that's what I wrote down here. Would we be friends? 

Would I be friends with Nicole? Because up till then I thought yes. Um, and then I thought, no, no, we wouldn't.

[00:29:07] Shari: Maybe this was another bucket list item for her.

[00:29:09] Rhonda: Monster Truck rally.

So noisy. So smelling like fuel, Ugh. I just, I don't get it.

[00:29:16] Shari: I don't either, and then everyone has to leave but Steven, so

[00:29:19] Rhonda: Mm-hmm. 

[00:29:20] Shari: finished the house.

[00:29:21] Rhonda: Just Steve and me. I wrote that down.

[00:29:24] Shari: I had forgotten Nicole's love for monograms 

because with everything else like that she does and says, and how she goes about it, those two things do not fit for me. Monograms always seem so bougie, and she never strikes me as being bougie.

But there are monograms all over that house. So everything that could possibly be monogrammed towels, pillowcases, shower curtains has a monogram on it. She even has like, one of her son's pillows is him,

[00:29:53] Rhonda: It's a thing. Everybody needs a fingerprint. So that's her thing.

[00:29:57] Shari: Then Nicole invites the family of the original owner

and she finds them by researching the grave marker she had found in the garage.

[00:30:03] Rhonda: Holding up the garage door.

[00:30:05] Shari: Yeah, isn't that crazy?

[00:30:06] Rhonda: What's that? Weird

[00:30:07] Shari: It was weird. Also, you wonder, is that body actually buried in the backyard? 'cause why would the graveyard marker be in the 

[00:30:15] Rhonda: Why isn't the grave marker with the grave?

[00:30:18] Shari: I, so I'm thinking the grave is close somewhere.

[00:30:23] Rhonda: Maybe it's somewhere around here. Yeah,

[00:30:25] Shari: if we see on one of those podcasts where they find Buried bones in a Home owned by Nicole I.

[00:30:31] Rhonda: It happens 

[00:30:32] Shari: Curtis. 

[00:30:33] Rhonda: other 

[00:30:34] Shari: Yeah. So it looks like the next few episodes are gonna focus on rescuing the Detroit House, which she has named the Doris House. And I am so excited to have Rehab Addict back.

[00:30:47] Rhonda: Yes, me too.

[00:30:48] Shari: And I am happy for her. I like, she seems to be over whatever it was, this setback that she's really like popped back better than ever.

[00:30:55] Rhonda: I'm going to presume, because you know, your mind starts to wander. What could possibly be the setback, right? It's just so dramatic. Three years it rocked her to her core. What,

 I'm gonna presume it's something along the Alison/Donovan lines of some sort of business betrayal of some sort.

That's what I'm gonna 

[00:31:14] Shari: Maybe. Maybe. 

[00:31:16] Rhonda: know. I can't imagine what else it would be.

[00:31:18] Shari: I don't know. 

[00:31:19] Rhonda: Yeah. Anyway, I like her. Other than her monster truck, I wouldn't go there with her. But otherwise

[00:31:24] Shari: It looks like you're gonna have to stay as my BFF.

[00:31:26] Rhonda: yes, that's 

[00:31:27] Shari: Mm-hmm. So 

[00:31:28] Rhonda: interested in a monster truck. I do like your kitchen design better than hers. I know she likes to stick with the original intention of the, you know, the old house intention.

But let's face it, the kitchens in 1880, uh, you know, or even 1950, you know, they're just, give me a modern kitchen, give me a big modern kitchen. And the culture of how we live as a family has changed. mom in the kitchen making dinner while everybody else is out in the living room visit.

It just is not the same. We don't live like that anymore. So that's where I disagree with her a little bit. I know she clings to, these original cabinets and this original sink. And, uh, just think now. Get it out. Rip it out.

[00:32:08] Shari: Yeah.

[00:32:09] Rhonda: I'm really impressed with Nicole and her energy. Let's just say she's definitely a get it done mighty Mouse.

Well besties. That was two episodes in two states.

Nicole Curtis is officially back and she's not easing in.

[00:32:24] Shari: Nope. I felt like I needed a nap after just watching all that energy.

She flipped a sad white box in Wyoming, and she's saving a Detroit house that came with five dumpsters of trash, a foamy mold situation, and a bathroom we're just going to pretend doesn't exist.

[00:32:44] Rhonda: Oh gosh. So let's just say the room from hell in Detroit up to

its name and the hot water heater in the Wyoming kitchen, that's a design trauma that I'm not sure I'll recover from.

[00:32:58] Shari: but when Nicole peeled back those layers of carpet, laminate, and vinyl to find pine wood floors in the Wyoming house, that gets a Designing Bitches seal of approval.

[00:33:08] Rhonda: And that 1928 letter she found in the attic history nerds get the chills.

We're posting a photo of that moment for a special post this week. So head to Facebook or Instagram and tell us what your attic time capsule would say.

[00:33:22] Shari: Mine would just be a receipt for wallpaper samples and an empty soda can. But Nicole, she turned that attic into a cozy, original shiplap and insulation lined retreat. I.

[00:33:35] Rhonda: Loved it. Loved it. It actually had a functioning bathroom.

[00:33:40] Shari: Big plus. So she actually upgraded that home in Wyoming from a 3-1 to a 3-2

[00:33:46] Rhonda: Yeah.

[00:33:46] Shari: as always, besties, we have a few apologies to make. I'm sorry to satellite dishes everywhere, drywallers with tight schedules, and kitchen sinks that aren't centered on the window.

If you are vibing with us and your brain is basically made of HGTV at this point, you need to catch up on all of our episodes at designingbitches.com. We're literally everywhere you listen to podcasts, so hit that follow, like, star or whatever button your app throws at you. We're not picky. We're just needy.

Well, until next time, besties. Bye.

[00:34:17] Rhonda: Bye. See you soon.