On Season 9 of Vanderpump Rules, Tom Sandoval and Tom Schwartz were in the process of trying to figure out how to finance their new venture, Schwartz & Sandy’s. After some bumps in the road, when the cocktail lounge was finally almost ready for guests, Sandoval revealed in the video above exactly how much it cost them to bring their vision to life. 

“It’s looking a lot less like the cantina that was there. We’ve added a lot of wallpaper, we have the starry night up. We have our James Turrell installation on the way to the bathroom. At this point, we invested a million dollars into this project,” he shared in the clip, which is a first look at the Season 10 premiere of Vanderpump Rules. “It’s like the national debt: It’s just numbers flying.”

For Schwartz, spending money on the business while also going through a divorce and moving out of the home he and Katie Maloney shared was a bit overwhelming, to say the least. “I’m like f--king drowning, man,” he told Sandoval. “Do you know how bad it sucks right now having a mortgage? Six grand for that. That’s my portion. Then I have $3,500 in rent. That’s not even counting bills, our lease here.”

“Once you get that money for your house, you can put that into this,” Sandoval said, which made Schwartz chuckle. 

Last season, both Schwartz and Sandoval planned to take out home equity loans to pay for the bar. However, Schwartz’s loan ended up being denied. Although Sandoval offered to “cover his end too,” Schwartz was hesitant about the offer, joking, “He’s gonna hold that over me… He’s gonna be on a power trip.”

At NBCUniversal’s upfront presentation in May 2022, Sandoval explained that as he and Schwartz worked hard on their new business (which opened in November of the same year), they “learned a lot” along the way, and “some of those lessons have been the hard way.”

Press play on the video above to start watching the Season 10 premiere of Vanderpump Rules. 

Watch Vanderpump Rules on Peacock and the Bravo app.