It’s Time to Break Down The Barriers and Raise The Roof – Literally! – With THE AMAZING SPACE: ANTHONY AND JAMES’ RENO ADVENTURES

By BILL HARRIS Special to The Lede Inspirational story or cautionary tale? When watching the final episode of THE AMAZING SPACE: ANTHONY AND JAMES’ RENO ADVENTURES – all five episodes of which can be found Monday, Sept. 12 on CTV.ca and the CTV app – the former is true. The house is absolutely beautiful, and THE AMAZING RACE CANADA Season 7 champions Anthony Johnson and James Makokis couldn’t be more proud as they show it off. But it’s worth noting that when the project began in October 2020, with update segments airing regularly on CTV’s THE MARILYN DENIS SHOW (where the final episode will be shown on Thursday, Sept. 15), Anthony and James expected the renovation of their Edmonton-area home to be completed in about eight months. Fast-forward almost two years. “The first thing that happened, obviously, is COVID, which affected the timelines and the ordering of things,” James said. “But I think the second thing that happened was, when we started seeing all the changes coming together, both of us – a lot of it was Anthony – would be like, ‘why don’t we do this project next, and that project next?’ So we added a few more projects, which was one of the reasons for the delay. But I’m happy we did those additional things, like our backyard. Because you don’t ever want to go through it again.” Anthony added, “when you’re asking if it’s inspirational or cautionary, I think the No. 1 thing people have to understand is the scale of the project. We went into this thinking, you know, we take down a couple of walls, they put up some new ones. And then we came home one day and we didn’t have a second floor! Like, the whole second floor of our house was gone, and just exposed to the open air, and it was snowing. That was the day we were like, ‘what did we get ourselves into?’ So yes, it can be a cautionary tale for some, but not so much to say, ‘don’t do it.’ But if you’re going into a reno in this day and age, just be prepared for delays.” Did Anthony and James ever think, “maybe we should bulldoze the old house and build a brand new one?” They admitted that every contractor they worked with made the same suggestion! “When you consider sometimes the cost of a new build versus renovating, it can be cheaper to reno the house, which is what we ultimately decided to do,” James said. “But can is in italics – it can be cheaper,” said Anthony, and both of them laughed. “Building new is so much easier in many ways, but what we learned in the end is that we actually recycled a whole house,” Anthony continued. “With the concerns about the environment today, we’re trying to do everything we can. So we had the foundation, the existing walls on the first floor, a lot of the electrical wires had already been run, a lot of the ductwork had already been run. We didn’t realize until later that it’s actually a huge benefit, because building produces so much waste.” Anthony and James were asked to identify their favourite parts of their “new” home. “For me, I think the thing I love most about walking around the house is just the little details, like the baseboards, the door trims, the way the cabinet hardware works together,” Anthony said. “I don’t know how to describe it – it’s like we get to live inside a fancy hotel, but it’s our house.” James added, “one of the things I absolutely love is having heated floors in the bathroom. When you get up in the wintertime and it’s cold, you can walk in and it’s warm, and you don’t have this cold feeling like a shock through your body. It’s immediately this step of comfort and safety, which is what you want in a home.” But is there anything they didn’t do, that they now wish they had done? James was in complete agreement when Anthony said: “100% soundproofing the walls. And we have wood floors, so everything just echoes.” Maybe next time! billharristv@gmail.com @billharris_tv