Ask This Old House

Kevin

Today on "Ask This Old House"...

Ross

The challenge for the future house is how to take a small footprint and make it livable, comfortable, and sustainable. And the answer to that question may lie in robotics. Will your home someday have robotic walls and furniture? We'll visit a future house to find out.

Tom

And from an antique piece of pine to a beautiful sitting bench, we'll show you how to build it.

Kevin

Well, you said you wanted to make a bench. So I went down to the reclaim lumber yard, and I picked these up. I don't know what you've got in mind, but I'd love to save this stencil.

Tom

Well, I think it's a great idea.

Kevin

That's next on "Ask This Old House."

Ross

Hey, Dad.

Richard

Hey, Ross. How you doing?

Ross

I'm looking for the miniature toilet.

Richard

Wait a minute. That's my toilet. You doing a plumbing story?

Ross

No. We're launching a new segment called "Future House."

Richard

Cool.

Ross

We'll be looking at new technologies that may one day be used in the future home.

Richard

Sounds exciting.

Ross

Today, we're doing a robotic wall.

Richard

Can I offer you a little plunger to go with that little toilet?

Ross

No, no, no, no, no. We're good.

Kevin

Hey,

Ross. -Ross

Hey, Kev.

Kevin

How you doing? Good morning. I'm Kevin O'Connor. And welcome back to "Ask This Old House." If you got questions about your house, we'd love to -- hey, Tommy -- hear from you. Uh, can I help you?

Tom

Yeah. Where you been? You're running late. You know, I want to do a story today on building a bench.

Kevin

I'm trying to open the show.

Tom

I know, but I need you to go to the lumber yard.

Kevin

Can I finish opening the show?

Tom

All right. Make it quick.

Kevin

Keep your letters, your e-mails, your Tweets coming. I'm done. What do you need?

Tom

All right. Good. There's a list down on the table. Get to the lumber yard, and get back here right away. You want to be here till midnight? Come on. Go, Sonny. Go.

Ross

Think about the bare minimum furnishings and appliances that you need to live comfortably in the average home. You need a place to sleep, like a bed, a place to store your clothes, somewhere to prepare your food, some entertainment, and a bathroom. This plywood here represents the average home in America, about 2,500 square feet. And you can see, we have all the essentials covered. But we have space to add extra bedrooms, extra bathrooms. You can expand as you need. As long as you have the space, you could always build bigger and bigger homes. For the last 100-plus years, to find that space, people have moved further and further away from the city to suburbs like this. As we move into the 21st century, people want to move back into the city. Whether it's the young professional, whether it's the empty-nester, there is a growing trend for urban living. But how do you meet that demand when land is so scarce? One option is to cram as many people as possible into a small footprint. Enter the micro-apartment, a 300- to 400-square-foot space. But how do you cram all of this living in that small space? So, Thomas, have you ever heard of a micro-apartment?

Yes. -Ross

This is a micro-apartment scaled down on a piece of plywood. You know, the challenge I would propose is how are you gonna lay out all of this living equipment that you need in this micro-apartment?

Okay. -Ross

What's that? The TV on top of the refrigerator? Oh, I don't know about that. That's gonna be a tight, tight turn to get by that right there.

Woman

The living space should be bigger.

Ross

He's taking off. All right. All right. So you moved things around quite a bit. But I see what you did here. Looks like she's got some experience here, folks. Ooh.

Thomas

Can we do a Murphy bed? Is that cheating?

Ross

You know, let's go with it.

Man

Oh,

bathroom. -Ross

The most important part.

I like having a bathroom. -Ross

Yeah. We need that. So you're gonna sit on the toilet and have the sink right in front of you? There's not a lot of room there. You see the challenges here, right, trying to put all the furniture in the apartment and make it livable.

It's hard. -Man

It is. It is.

Ross

The challenge for the future house is how to take a small footprint and make it livable, comfortable, and sustainable. And the answer to that question may lie in robotics. Hasier?

Hasier

Hey.

Hey. -Hasier

Hi, come in.

Ross

Ross Trethewey, nice to meet you.

Hasier

Nice to meet you.

Ross

So I heard you're the guy in robotics and bringing robotics to the home.

Tell me about it. -Hasier

Yeah. So my team and I are working on how to bring robotics into walls, furniture, so that we can make spaces, you know, much more functional, much more intelligent.

Ross

All right. Well, we need that. I mean, a small apartment like this. You got, you know, a bathroom and a closet walking in. We got laundry. We got a kitchen, couch. I mean, you put a bed in here, you don't have any space.

Hasier

So this is more of a studio. This is a good example of all the big problems that small apartments have because, you think about it, you know, the bed takes a big chunk of the space. Then there's no way to divide the space. So you cannot have, really, two activities at the same time because it's only one. There's no storage, hello. So what we are doing is we are bringing a robotic wall that is gonna basically solve all those problems.

Ross

So a single robotic wall is what we're installing today.

Hasier

Exactly. A robotic wall that is gonna move to create a separate space. It's gonna hide the bed. It's gonna bring double the storage that you would have in an apartment like this. And we are gonna install that right now.

I like that. -Hasier

Let's just do it.

Let's do it. -Hasier

Okay. So this is a key component of the whole system...

Okay. -Hasier

...because what it does is basically it has this electric motor that is gonna run through this track. This is gonna grab the wall. It's gonna move it left and right.

Ross

This motor right here is gonna move it?

Exactly. -Ross

Okay.

Hasier

Exactly. And this is not very different to what you see in conventional systems like garage-door openers,

for example. -Ross

Okay.

Hasier

So this could be a retrofit. This could be a new building. In this case, it's a clear retrofit. So you can see that in this particular case, because the baseboard had a weird shape, we had to cut it. But this is just gonna go there. A few screws, and it's gonna be ready to go.

Ross

Nice. And as far as power?

Hasier

Oh, power, that's incredibly simple, you know. Conventional plug. We are just gonna go to a conventional outlet. And that's gonna be it,

the whole power for the system. -Ross

That's it? The whole system's powered on one outlet?

That's it. -Ross

Sweet. All right. Let's do it.

Hasier

So let's do it. Okay. So we just put this on the gap. And now we just go with some screws.

Okay. Good. All right. -Hasier

Just one more. So now we are gonna assemble the chassis. So you see those square holes?

Yep. -Hasier

Pretty simple. You just feed the colander.

Ross

There we go.

Hasier

So we just style these guys now. And then we connect the whole chassis to the motor.

Ross

Perfect.

Hasier

You know, once we hold that, now we have the chassis connected

to the track on the side. -Ross

Got it.

Hasier

We have an electric motor that is gonna run the whole system one way or another.

Ross

That will move it back and forth.

Hasier

Exactly. Now we have our chassis, which is the structure -- the main structure.

Ross

I see some large rubber casters. Heavy duty?

Hasier

Yes. Yes. Heavy duty. So what we need is rubber casters so that all the load can be well transferred because there's going to be quite a bit of load. So we want to treat floors very well.

Ross

Got it. Got it. And then these little brushes here in front?

Hasier

That one is basically so that, you know, maybe there's a pencil or a screw in the way, you don't want the wheels to go over that. So that's gonna basically push it out of the way.

Ross

Oh,

it's just blocking... -Hasier

Yep. Exactly.

Hasier

So now it's all about starting to build the cabinetry on top of this,

so... -Ross

Let's build our wall.

Hasier

Let's do it. So once we have this in place, now it's like building a cabinet. Let's just drop this in, in the center.

Ross

Okay.

Hasier

Right there. You see those lugs? Okay. There you go.

Ross

Just guide me in there.

Hasier

Yes. A little more. More, more, more. Yep.

Good. -Ross

Good. Okay.

Ross

Yep. I'm ready.

There you go. -Ross

Got it.

Hasier

So we just need the slats, the mattress, and that's it.

Ross

All right. Let's get it. All right.

Hasier

There we go with the mattress. There we go. It just fits nicely. So this is it. The system is completed. Right now, it's in its closed position.

Ross

Okay. And look at this. It makes it feel like a wide, open living room.

Hasier

And that's the value, you know. What if you could create a big living room instead of having your bedroom here? What if you could disappear and cover such a big space?

Ross

Got a television. Look at this. You got some storage here, I see. And look at that.

Hasier

Everything is customizable. You know, some people will want more storage. Some people will want a bigger entertainment area. Everything you can personalize depending on the user.

Ross

I like it. I like it a lot.

Hasier

What if you could create a different space? And over here, there's a control interface, which is the brain of the system.

Ross

That little keypad there?

Hasier

Exactly. And just with a finger. Just with a finger touch in a very effortless way, the whole wall is moving. So I really feel like Superman right now because I'm pushing with one finger a huge, huge system.

Ross

I mean, you're making it look easy. You're making it look real easy. That is amazing. Look, to see a whole wall that size and scale move that easily with one little finger like that, wow.

Hasier

And now we have two spaces.

Ross

I see what you're doing here. Look at that.

Hasier

And now we made one of the spaces smaller, and we just created another space on the other side.

Ross

So what have we got in here?

Hasier

A lot of things we got here. First of all, you know, a walk-in closet. Lots of storage here.

Ross

Wait, so the lights go on to show you your clothes. Wait. This is the walk-in closet. Like, in a typical house, this should be a framed area, and it would be wasted space.

Hasier

A lot of wasted space. All this utilization area would be lost.

Ross

Look at all the storage.

Hasier

Here you have a, you know, ridiculous amount of storage...

Look at that. -Hasier

...in your studio.

Ross

Wow.

Hasier

That's not all. You have storage. Now you could also have an office area, you know, home office area.

Ross

So you got power. You got -- you know, could bring your desk chair over. You got a home office.

Hasier

And you just create a home office.

Wow. -Hasier

But that's not all. Alexa. Tell Ori to move my bed out.

Alexa

Sleep well.

Ross

You got to be kidding me. Your bed is robotic, too?

Yes. -Ross

That is insane.

Hasier

Now you are creating a bedroom here. And you still have a living room on the other side.

Ross

So this bed looks a little bit low to the ground. It looks like a fold. Could you get this thing in different sizes, heights?

Hasier

Exactly. That's all customizable. It could be a full. It could be a queen. It could be a lower bed. It could be a higher bed. The reason this one is specifically is low, 'cause we like the idea of having a bench area on the other side.

Ross

Okay.

Hasier

So you see the bed kind of fits on that volume. And now we can have coseating.

Ross

So the bed is actually underneath this

when it's closed. -Hasier

Exactly. And now we can have a cozy, you know, seating area.

Ross

And a little entertainment space.

I like it. I like it. -Hasier

Exactly.

Ross

One of the questions that I do have is we're so fixated on electronics these days. What happens in a power outage?

Hasier

That's a great question. And we are not trying to reinvent the wheel here. We are looking at systems that have been in buildings for decades. Think of garage-door openers. What happens when the power goes out? You can have a mechanical, a manual disengage. So if you come all the way here, this is a manual disengage that you can just disengage. And now you can push the system manually.

Ross

So you can push it open or closed.

Hasier

Exactly. It's not as magical and as effortless. But you can go to bed if the power goes out.

Ross

Gotcha. Now, I mean, I see it in the micro-apartment, where this wall really maximizes the space, being able to open and close it. I could see it being used in a suburban home, as well, though, you know, for, you know, a walk-in closet or a guest bed, being able to open it and expand it or shut it down.

Hasier

Yeah. I mean, the vision is to make space be more. So that could be smaller spaces, bigger spaces. It could be offices. It could be hotel rooms, restaurants, hospitals. We are actually developing using the same technologies. We are developing prototypes of drop-down beds from the ceiling, drop-down tables from the ceiling, closets, walls, all this kind of, you know, army of architecture and furniture with superpowers.

Ross

I mean, it's amazing technology. It's great to be here and see this technology unfold before our eyes. You know, thank you for the tour. I appreciate it very much. And hopefully, one day, I'll get this in my house.

Hasier

Yes. We hope is that in 5, 10 years, these technologies are gonna be as common as garage doors or elevators in our buildings.

Kevin

So cool. Huh, pretty cool. But here's the million-dollar question. And I hope the answer isn't a million dollars. What does it cost?

Ross

So price is gonna vary. The robotic systems themselves are not that expensive. Less than $1,000 for the steel chassis, the robotic motor, everything like that. What you put on top of it is where the price can really change.

Kevin

The piece of furniture.

Ross

The furniture on top, right. So the big block furniture is gonna be probably a few thousand dollars on top. But your custom design system is where it can really escalate. So you got custom wood, you know, high-quality design. That could be $10,000 or even $20,000.

Kevin

Wow. All right. So a lot of money,

potentially. Ross

Potentially, yeah.

Kevin

Now, in terms of timing, I mean, he's saying this is coming in 5 or 10 years. And I don't know. I mean, that seems pretty aggressive. Do you think that's true?

Ross

I believe him. I mean, robotics is part of our everyday life. You think about the modern car today. Right? You've got a driver seat that can move with the preferences of the driver.

Right. -Ross

You've got a sliding, you know, minivan door that's all automated.

Kevin

Or the back opens automatically.

Ross

The trunk, yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, I think it's just natural that the transition from robotics from the car into the home is the next, you know, natural progression.

Kevin

Well, whenever it's coming to the house, it's still pretty cool. Nice story.

Ross

Thanks, Kevin.

Tom

Hey. What do you got here, Sonny?

Kevin

Well, you said you wanted to make a bench. So I went down to the reclaim lumber yard, and I picked these up. I figure the width was about the right size for a bench. And I really like the thickness. It's nice and beefy. And she tells me it's heart pine.

Tom

Well, you're right. It is heart pine. And heart pine comes from the center of a long-leaf yellow pine tree. And do you know that it takes 30 years for a yellow pine tree to grow 1 inch in diameter?

That's crazy. -Tom

Unfortunately, this was really overharvested in the '30s and the '40s. So now you can't even buy a new piece of it.

Kevin

Well, you can get it if you go to the reclaimed lumber yard.

Yeah. -Kevin

So I picked this up. And like all reclaimed lumber, it has a story. But in this case, its story is stenciled right on the front. Check this out. From P.S. Huckins & Company, Boston.

Tom

Hmm, wow.

Kevin

And I did a little bit of research. And it turns out that these guys used to be a lumber yard and they supplied material to the ship-building industry in the 1800s and the early 1900s. And this was taken out of a warehouse in downtown Boston.

Tom

Hmm. I love it. You know, I might have shopped there when I was a kid.

Kevin

You're not that old. Well, maybe you are. I don't know what you've got in mind, but I'd love to save this stencil.

Tom

Well, I think it's a great idea. And this piece is probably about 8 feet. Why don't we make a bench? We can use this end for a leg, that end for a leg. Take the center, use it for the bench.

And we'll flip it over. -Kevin

Nice.

And we'll always have it. -Kevin

I like it. All right. So how do you want to get started?

Tom

All right. Let's clean 'em up and see what they look like. I'm gonna use a grinder with some 50-grit paper to take off the dirt and the high grain. And why don't you follow me with some 220? Once the boards are cleaned up, we can cut some rough lengths.

Kevin

Okay, Tommy. I've got the legs. We just cut the length off here. So these are the end cuts. Although, they've been ripped to make 'em a little narrower so that we've got this little half-inch offset.

Tom

Yeah. Simple, little touch. Now, we're actually going to assemble this bench using a simple mortise and tenon joint. Let me show you. I've already cut a tenon on the end of this leg right here. And it will fit into the mortise that I've cut on this end. And it'll fit right in. It'll be nice and snug. And it's a good, strong joint.

Kevin

Well, it sure is. And it's all over the place. I mean, we've seen 'em around forever. Even our barn has got one right here with the cross bracing and the post. So that's a nice, tight joint.

Tom

It is a nice, tight joint. Now, they're pretty simple to do once we've made the template to cut 'em with. All right. What I did is I made a jig to cut our tenon. Okay? And I just took a piece of plywood. And I took my leg, and I put it on the piece of plywood. And I kept it flush with the top.

Mm-hmm. -Tom

All right. Now, I put two stops on each side, running down the side, tight to the leg, which will hold it into position. And it will hold it straight with the top. Now I have to figure the height that I want to cut the tenon. So I want the tenon to be about inch and a half deep. 'Cause I'm gonna use a router and a following bit, I've kept it up an inch and seven-eighths, a little bit higher. I put a stop in here, so now if I take and position the other leg, it'll be held in the exact position.

Kevin

Got it.

Flipping it over. -Kevin

Flipping it over?

Tom

Yeah, because I'm gonna cut it from the top.

Kevin

Mm.

Tom

This is what I'm gonna remove. As I said, I'm gonna use a straight cutting bit in my router. I've set the depth already. And I'm gonna use a templating guide.

Kevin

So it's gonna ride along the edge of this and actually set it off just a little bit, which is why this is a longer length than your tenon.

Tom

Exactly. So now that I've set my depth, which is gonna be cutting about a quarter of an inch down, when I flip it over, I'm gonna take the same amount off the other side. And what that will do is center the tenon in the leg.

Kevin

Perfect.

Tom

To finish up the tenon, I'm gonna take about a half an inch of off each side. And I'm gonna do that with a hand saw. I'm gonna just take my chisel and knock that piece out. All right. We're ready to cut our mortise for our tenon. All right, so when you're trying to figure out the dimension to cut your templating guide, it starts with this dimension right here, the size of the tenon. So now, I have to add for the outside dimension of my templating guide minus the outside dimension of my router bit.

Kevin

Right.

Tom

And you'll end up with a hole that is actually too big. So if you look at it like that... But once you add all of those offsets in, it'll fit perfect.

Kevin

Okay. So you took a piece of scrap and you added those dimensions to it?

Tom

Yep. And now we'll screw it and center it over where we want it and follow it with a router. And it's gonna slip right in here nice and snug. Oh, yeah. Now, that's gonna be pretty strong the way it is. But I want to make it even stronger laterally.

Mm-hmm. -Tom

Okay. To do that, we're gonna take a spreader right here and put it on the bottom. All right. We're gonna let it stick out about 4 inches on each side. The way we're gonna do that is we're gonna make a tenon on this end and that end and a through mortise on each leg.

Very cool. -Tom

All right. So now what I have to do is take the legs out, make the tenon and the mortise. Because the tenon is so long, I'm concerned about the router tilting. So I want to get the right depth all the way down the tenon. We'll slide the templating guide down as we go. We're gonna cut a notch in each leg, and that will increase the stability. Okay. We've sanded everything really good. We wiped it down with a tack rag. Now, before we put it together, I want to put a coat of oil on everything because we can get it in all those spots that never get oiled.

Kevin

What do you like about the oil?

Tom

Well, I like it because it soaks right in really good. So you can put another coat on, say, in another hour or two. But you can put multiple coats on over the years without a lot of prep work.

Kevin

Look at it just soak it right up.

Tom

Yeah.

Kevin

It's good.

Tom

Yes, it is. All right. Now we can start assembling. So we'll put the spreader into our legs. Okay. Now, to hold it together, to keep the legs from separating, I have a peg. It's actually tapered. So when I drive the peg in, it'll tighten up against the inside.

Kevin

Now, that's not going anywhere, is it?

Tom

It's not going anywhere. And now put the other one in.

Kevin

Huh.

Tom

To hold the top to the legs, we're gonna use some wood glue. All right. Let's get it on there. Line it up. There it is. There it is. Hit it one more time in the back. We want to check our measurement to make sure our overhang is equal. All right. So now that it's on, we can get a coat of oil on the top. Oh, yeah. Look at that. Nice. Beautiful.

No finish on the bottom. -Kevin

It's nice. That way, we get the Huckins stencil.

We get to save that. -Tom

Yep.

Kevin

And I think if Mr. Huckins saw what be came of his old long-leaf lumber, he'd be mighty pleased.

Tom

Take a piece of frame and lumber, and you turn it into a nice piece of furniture.

Kevin

Nice job, Tommy. Next time on "Ask This Old House"...

Roger

If you haven't bought a washing machine in a while, you might be surprised at the level of choices. We're gonna help a homeowner in Seattle break it down.

And... -Tom

A table saw is one of the best tools in your shop. And it can be one of the most dangerous. We'll show you some new technology to make it safe.

Chuckling

Kevin

Oh. No matter how many times I see it, it is amazing.

Tom

Not a scratch on it.

Kevin

That's awesome.