January 2021 arrives with the promise of a reset. The “Hard Five Week Plan” is officially underway, Borg is in the rearview, and Joe’s side-hustle crew is supposed to bring order to the Castle at last.

That optimism doesn’t last long.

Instead of steady progress, the Rudolphs get payment shakedowns, backordered materials, vanishing crews, and a foreman who treats accountability like a loose suggestion. Enter Madman Moreno: treasure hunter, driveway screamer, and master of the disappearing act (himself, brooms, whatever).

Deadlines stretch. Floors are installed wrong. Windows arrive the wrong size. Appliances are delayed and reordered. And just when it feels like things can’t get more surreal…Moreno raids the garage to detail his truck while the house sits unfinished.

What was pitched as a focused five-week sprint quietly mutates into something else entirely: a case study in what happens when thin margins, side hustles, and ego collide inside a live renovation.

And yet - still - the Rudolphs rise!

Kenny and Shari decide: no more shouting matches or impulsive threats; just firm boundaries, written plans, and a “contractor summit” to drag this project toward the finish line.

Kenny and Shari discuss:

• Why the “Hard Five Week Plan” unraveled almost immediately
• What happens when your foreman is working two jobs — and lying about both
• The compounding pressure of small mistakes
• How thin profit margins fuel chaos in renovation projects
• The difficult choice of documentation over confrontation
• Finding resilience when the house (and the world) feel unstable

Next time: The Great Escape. Can a team built on side hustles and shaky truths deliver a whole house? Will “Hard Week Five Six” finally deliver forward motion - or will the Castle demand another sacrifice before letting anyone leave?

This podcast is the official companion to the book series of the same name Abandon House: How to Survive a Home Repair Fiasco. Book 1 is available wherever you buy books, and at this link: https://www.amazon.com/Abandon-House-Survive-Repair-Fiasco/dp/B0FJYRFYKT

Abandon House! is produced by Jess Schmidt: https://www.jessdoespodcasting.com/

Our editor is Morgane Chambrin: https://www.morganechambrin.com/

The Abandon House! theme song and Go Sell Crazy Somewhere Else were produced by Jeff Gerke with music and lyrics, vocals and guitar by Kenny Rudolph: https://abandonhousepod.com/

Additional music graciously provided by Eden's Journal: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC28z4W9e04lGdr0GWL-DK2A

With Borg gone and the Castle still very much unlivable, Kenny and Shari do what any exhausted homeowner would do: they roll the dice again. Enter Joe, a new general contractor who seems like he might be the hero the Rudolph’s have been searching for - just a Regular Joe with a plan, a crew, and the promise of forward motion.

That optimism doesn’t last long.

Deadlines slip. Costs creep. Subcontractors appear and disappear like fog. And then there’s Mareno - the madman foreman whose creative interpretations of his duties sparks one of the Castle’s most infamous moments yet: Cabinet Gate. What should have been a straightforward step forward becomes another lesson in how chaos thrives when accountability is optional.

To widen the lens, the Rudolphs welcome kindred spirits Mike and Michelle, who share their own home repair horror story from the 2021 Texas freeze. Their experience - sudden disaster, compounding failures, and the emotional toll of fighting for basic repairs - mirrors the Castle’s journey in unsettling ways, offering hard-won lessons about preparedness, persistence, and knowing when to push back.

Kenny also debuts his original song, “Go Sell Crazy Somewhere Else,” turning a tagline of defense during the Rudolph’s fiasco into an anthem for anyone trying to stay on the high road.

Kenny, Shari, Michelle, and Mike discuss:

• What happens when a “fresh start” contractor isn’t actually a reset
• How missed deadlines and vague scopes quietly derail projects
• The danger of side hustles inside major renovations
• Why Cabinet Gate became a breaking point in the Rudolph’s fiasco
• Lessons from surviving multiple Texas freezes
• Finding humor - and resilience - when everything feels out of control

Next time: Episode 10, Madmen Moreno - Treasure Hunter. A new expert appears. Old mistakes resurface. Timelines are “locked in” (again). And the Castle inches closer to an answer to the question that’s been haunting it from the start: will this house ever be whole - or is abandonment the only real option?

This podcast is the official companion to the book series of the same name Abandon House: How to Survive a Home Repair Fiasco. Book 1 is available wherever you buy books, and at this link: https://www.amazon.com/Abandon-House-Survive-Repair-Fiasco/dp/B0FJYRFYKT

Abandon House! is produced by Jess Schmidt: https://www.jessdoespodcasting.com/

Our editor is Morgane Chambrin: https://www.morganechambrin.com/

The Abandon House! theme song and Go Sell Crazy Somewhere Else were produced by Jeff Gerke with music and lyrics, vocals and guitar by Kenny Rudolph: https://abandonhousepod.com/

Additional music graciously provided by Eden's Journal: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC28z4W9e04lGdr0GWL-DK2A

We return to the Rudolphs to find them still standing in the wreckage of a job that was supposed to be “six weeks, tops.” Instead, it’s October 2020, the kitchen is still a construction crime scene, and Borg’s excuse factory is running three shifts a day.

The mysterious Brothers Tran have vanished. Again. The windows still leak. The contract still doesn’t exist.

Just when it seems like momentum is building, Borg’s latest “solution” shows up carrying red flags, backdated invoices, imaginary property ownership. The Rudolphs are forced to say the quiet part out loud: they are worse off now than when this all started. But wait - the insurance cheques actually clear. Real money hits the bank. Hope flickers. Borg scrambles. Isaac returns demanding payment like a landlord in flip-flops. Tempers flare. Lines are drawn.

In the midst of the chaos, we also pivot to that rare quality that the Abandon House! guests all seem to have in spades, in spite of it being absent for the majority of the fiasco: competence.

Kenny and Shari welcome Michael Fournier and Doug Reid from SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology), creators of Trades Take 10 and educators who actually explain how things are supposed to work. Together, they unpack:

• Why the skilled trades shortage is very real (and very fixable)
• How apprenticeships are equivalent to university degrees — without the soul-crushing debt
• Why soft skills matter just as much as technical ones
• How trades can be a launchpad for any dream (including rock stardom)
• And why the future of housing depends on training people who actually know what they’re doing

It’s a rare bright spot in a saga defined by demolition dust and broken promises - proof that good people still exist in the system, and that not everyone asking for money is running a long con.

Next time: Sidehustle Joe and Mad Man Moreno descend upon the castle - and if you thought the last batch of pirates were bad…honey, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Go sell crazy somewhere else!

This podcast is the official companion to the book series of the same name Abandon House: How to Survive a Home Repair Fiasco. Book 1 is available wherever you buy books, and at this link: https://www.amazon.com/Abandon-House-Survive-Repair-Fiasco/dp/B0FJYRFYKT

Abandon House! is produced by Jess Schmidt: https://www.jessdoespodcasting.com/

Our editor is Morgane Chambrin: https://www.morganechambrin.com/

The Abandon House! theme song was produced by Jeff Gerke with music and lyrics, vocals and guitar by Kenny Rudolph: https://abandonhousepod.com/

Additional music graciously provided by Eden's Journal: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC28z4W9e04lGdr0GWL-DK2A