Mountain Mamas

Trecie: In montana, we have a lot

of amazing historical homes...

...From turn of the century

to log cabins that are unbelievable.

Jackie: Once people see what it's like here,

they want to move here,

and that's creating a lot of competition.

I'm trecie.

We're gonna bust through here and add a master closet.

And I'm jackie.

Official stud finder, right here.

I focus on the construction

while trecie comes up with the design.

trecie: We not only design and redo houses,

we're both full-time real-estate agents.

Together we help buyers moving to montana

find the perfect property within their budget

and turn it into their dream home.

Woman: This is amazing.

We just want to give these families

an incredible house

and a place where they can call montana home.

trecie: I think a lot of people have that montana dream.

"I want 2 acres and a log cabin."

well, so does everybody else. Yeah.

Jackie: We have it all here.

You could live in the middle of nowhere

with spectacular views

or smack dab in the heart of quaint towns.

There's something for everyone.

I'm excited to finally meet dani and tj in person.

We've talked on the phone enough.

They both seem just really down to earth and good people

and just super excited about their first home.

Dani and tj decided to move back to montana

a few months ago.

They're newlyweds and wanted to begin

the next phase of their life by moving closer to family

and living the incredible lifestyle

montana has to offer.

Their wish list is a little unusual.

He's a racecar driver,

so he needs somewhere to put his racecar,

so I almost laughed when he called. I know.

I'm like, "is that a real job, really?" what? "who is this?"

I don't think I've ever had to find a house

that had amenities for a guy with a racecar,

so that's a new one for me. - Yeah, me too.

I think they're gonna be a lot of fun to house hunt with.

- I'm dani fry. - And I'm tj fry.

I'm excited to move back home.

I'm born and raised montana.

Grew up hunting and fishing, camping here.

I came up here for college and just fell in love with it.

We can't wait to get back to montana.

I love the mountains.

I am a life coach and personal trainer.

And I am a professional driver and driving instructor.

- He drives me crazy. - Yes, I do.

professionally.

we are currently in a rental

and our lease is up in three months,

and we really do not want to sign another lease.

As much as I would like to have a turnkey property,

it's much more realistic financially for us

to put some money into a property

and make it an investment.

Our budget is $300,000.

We want at least two bedrooms, minimum one bath.

Keeping the house open, I'm a huge fan of.

On top of that, I really need some sort of garage

or shop for my racecars.

A place to work on art projects would be great.

Being in montana, you want to have the view of montana.

We're definitely torn on whether or not

we want to live in town with all the conveniences

or live in the country with the amazing views.

And I feel like we won the lottery

in finding trecie and jackie

because they have experience

in both real estate and construction,

so I feel like we got the a-team

to help us with this.

Trecie: Jackie and I sent dani and tj

a handful of listings around their target buying area,

some in the country and some right in town.

They've narrowed it down to a few houses

that could really fit their wish list

after a little facelift.

The first property we're taking them to

is in livingston, the old railroad town.

Livingston is a funky, small western town

that is just north of yellowstone national park

and home to many artists and writers

who come here to be inspired by the majestic surroundings.

Jackie: This house sits in the center of town,

so being within walking distance to quaint shops,

restaurants, art galleries,

we think this is a charming option to start with.

- Hi, guys. - Hey.

Jackie: Don't let the wind blow you over.

Yes. Good old montana weather.

- Right? - Yeah.

Jackie: This little house here is 947 square feet.

It's a 2-bedroom, 1-bath, built in 1890,

and they're asking $139,000 for it.

It kind of has a view.

Dani: More the neighbors than the mountains.

It looks a little vanilla from the outside,

but there's some really cute charm inside

that I think you'll like.

Not to mention it's really close to downtown,

which I know is something you were wanting,

and it makes a pretty sweet location

for when the weather does eventually warm up.

- Okay. - Okay.

And I'm getting concerned about tj's hair in this wind,

so let's go inside and check it out.

- Whew. - All right.

Nice.

This looks bigger than 900 square feet.

I really like the floors.

Trecie: Yeah, these are fir floors.

They're in pretty good shape.

I think they're probably underneath

that linoleum in the kitchen.

So we could carry them all the way through

to make it even look bigger.

Jackie: Let's head into the kitchen from here,

and I think you're gonna be surprised how much room

there's actually in this kitchen

for the size of the house.

- It feels huge. - I love the light, too.

Tj: It's very bright and inviting.

So I think just the bones here,

there's so much to work with.

I know trecie has a favorite feature in here.

so I go crazy when I see these cabinets

'cause these are original

and you just can't find 'em anywhere.

So here's my plan.

We would knock this wall out between the kitchen

and the living room, extend the fir floors throughout,

add an island for additional seating,

and then replicate those gorgeous 1800s cabinets

on the other side.

The original charm of this house is just awesome.

We'd probably raise the countertop height

a little bit, too. - Mm-hmm, super easy.

- Aw. - Good for you.

- Thank you. -

trecie: Opposite of the kitchen and living room,

there's a sunroom near the front door and two connected bedrooms.

This room features some great original built-ins for storage,

but there's definitely something off about this space.

You might feel a little dizzy in this room.

Dani: Yeah. It's a funhouse.

This is a super handy cheap tool to have on hand,

and let me show you why.

Rather than guessing if the floors are level, you just...

I wonder if they're level.

Yeah, look at that.

- Yeah. - All right.

- So, the answer is no. -

jackie: We can take a look under the house

and see what the foundation situation is,

but it could cost upwards of $15,000 or $20,000

to fix any issues going on down there.

But since this house is way under budget,

we can still do all the renovations

we're talking about and fix the foundation.

Over here is the next bedroom.

This might need to be addressed.

so obviously, this room's pretty small.

Also our closet space.

- Lack of closet space? - right.

Trecie: We're definitely gonna have to change that.

And then this is the access to the bathroom.

You don't want people walking through your room

to get into the bathroom.

No.

Jackie: It's actually a really good size bathroom

for the age of the house.

It's just really, really rough.

- I'm liking this tub. -

- it's actually a claw foot tub. - Really?

Jackie: They just built a tub deck around it, yeah.

- Yeah. - Oh, I could have wine in here.

Trecie: Sold. We'll take it.

trecie: While we have a decent-size bathroom,

obviously the two bedrooms are pretty small.

But that sunroom near the front door

gives us some options to increase

the usability and size of the space we have to work with.

There's actually two really great options.

One option is to turn this front room into a second bathroom,

which would give you the two-bedroom,

two-bath configuration you wanted.

The second option is to take that wall out

and split the space with the two bedrooms,