About Last Night: Flipping Out

About Last Night: Flipping Out

This is our fifth episode of the new season, and it best encapsulates the main challenge Jeff is facing this year. He wants to build off his earlier successes, and expand his business, but he’s finding out that requires a different skill set than the one he’s relied on so far. This week has Jeff heading to New York City for two jobs. One is to take a look at a trendy Brooklyn condo that might be worth flipping. But the other job is a wee bit more important: House Beautiful magazine has selected Jeff to design their 2010 kitchen of the year. Which they will then build. Life-size. AT ROCKEFELLER CENTER.

So, you know, pressure.

Jeff thought this was only going to be an informal meeting for him to outline his ideas, but he discovers the editors of House Beautiful have decided to throw a few wrenches into the mix. First, Jeff’s kitchen will be on display for much longer than he previously thought. And second, right after the current meeting, they’d like Jeff to go upstairs and give a demonstration for the people who are going to help him design and build the kitchen–people with crazy titles like National Flooring Czar, so in other words, swaying them is going to be a bit harder than swaying, say, one overworked UTA agent who’s never home. It’s basically a pop quiz, only way bigger so…pop Bar Exam? They go upstairs to the packed penthouse conference room, Jeff takes his seat, he flounders a bit, but eventually he pulls himself together and gives a kick ass demonstration.

And along with finding new business opportunities in high-pressure environments, Jeff’s success means he can’t be everywhere at once. While Jeff is in New York, Sarah stays behind to run the ship. Her main duty is overseeing interior demolition at the Royal Woods property, (the one with the young couple and the infant). Jeff was very anxious about having no control over this, which made the homeowner Tracey anxious, and they set it up to look like Sarah would be fucking things up and maybe get fired…but once she actually gets down to work, she’s fine. She even feels empowered without Jeff’s hovering, micromanaging presence.

The trip to New York is also an opportunity to give Zoila an awesome birthday gift, as he’s decided to bring her along for a mini vacation. As Jeff and Jenni take care of their tasks, Zoila gets a pretty awesome New York experience, including shopping at Bloomingdale’s, sightseeing, hanging out in cafes, and just soaking up the ambience and change of pace. The trip concludes with Jeff taking Jenni and Zoila out to dinner at a very nice Italian restaurant. Jeff has one more plan to present this trip…when he has his baby, (in a couple years), he wants Zoila to help take care of it. It’s a nice counterpoint to the typical day-to-day grind at Jeff Lewis Designs, because here we see how much they really do care about each other, and how they’re really quite happy with their lives.