This Old House

Kevin: Seven months ago, we met a family of five who dreamed of making their turn-of-the-century home lower-maintenance and more efficient, while also opening up the floor plan to allow for more shared family space.

And thanks to some strategic plans and hard work, that dream is now a reality.

[ Blues music plays ] [ Mid-tempo music plays ] Can you guys believe it has been seven months since we started this project here in Needham?

– Jenn: I know.

– Tom: Crazy.

Jenn: You know, it's been awesome working with Patrick, Liz, and the entire family.

And the house is looking so good.

Kevin: Yeah.

It looks great.

Tom: I remember when we first came here, it was so nice.

It was sunny.

Had to be about 80 degrees.

And look at it now.

Mother Nature brought us a present of about 24 inches of snow on our wrap day.

Kevin: It looks pretty and all, but it kind of begs the question.

Parking is hard in this town with all the snow.

I mean, where are we gonna put this thing we got to pick up?

[ Whimsical music plays ] Oh, my goodness.

Would you look at this?

– Jenn: [ Laughs ] -Tom: What is he doing?

Richard: Oh, finally.

Kevin: He's a perfect placeholder.

Richard: Alright.

Come on.

Kevin: And I thought plumbing was his only skill.

Richard: Where have you been?

I've been waiting for you a long time.

Come on, come on.

Oh, I thought you guys would never get here.

Kevin: Well, they're still plowing the snow and everything.

Did you do this for us?

– Richard: Yeah.

These are the mean streets of Needham.

I've been fighting for this spot.

Jenn: How many layers do you have on it?

Richard: A lot.

I can't even bend over.

[ Laughs ] Tom: What are you reading, anyway?

Richard: It's actually "The Odyssey."

That seems like how long it took you guys to get here.

Tom: He dies at the end, by the way.

Kevin: Oh, hey, hey, spoiler alert.

– Richard: I didn't know that.

– Kevin: Alright, listen.

Thank you for the parking spot, Richard, But we've got a house to check out, so we should get going.

– Richard: Alright.

Kevin: Let's go.

Hey, keep reading, Richard, too.

He doesn't die.

– Richard: He doesn't die?

– Kevin: No, no, no, no.

It gets much better.

Keep going.

Charlie: When we first arrived in Needham, the homeowners complained that their front-door lock never worked.

They loved the door, so we decided just to replace the lock.

And the new lockset that the homeowners picked out was a mortise set, which did not line up with our old lockset.

So Tommy took some southern pine to patch both sides of the door.

And he already prepped the holes for the new lockset right here and here.

And he also cut the new mortise set into the edge of the door.

And, then, once Mauro came in and stained the door, you can hardly see it.

So now it's my turn to install the lockset.

So, the first thing I'm going to do is actually install our mortise lockset into the edge of the door.

Perfect.

So, now we're gonna take a couple of screws.

[ Drill whirring ] Alright.

Now I'm gonna start with the exterior plate and line it up right here.

And inside here is the mortise set.

It has a threaded spot for our lockset to thread into, which is right here.

I'm going to insert that right through the hole and thread it into the mortise set.

Now we're putting on the back inside plate.

It's held in place with four exposed screws, one in each corner.

This is also a one-piece system that actually has the thumb-bolt that controls the deadbolt.

[ Clicking ] Looks like it works great.

So, this spindle goes through the door and is what the knobs actually hold onto.

Now it's time for the knobs.

I'm going to line it up with the groove and the spindle.

I already installed the set screws for the knobs, which are tightened up with an Allen wrench.

Alright.

Perfect.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] Kevin: Liz, big day.

Are you excited?

– Liz: Yes, we're so excited.

– Kevin: Yeah.

It's nice to get back in the house, I bet.

Liz: Right.

We've been in a tiny apartment for the last eight months, so we're excited to get home.

Kevin: I bet.

So, I know it's not the best day to look at it, but what do you think about the transformation of the front?

Liz: It looks amazing.

Kevin: And you might not use the porch on a cold day like today, but can't you see yourself out here in the summer?

Liz: Yeah.

We'll spend a lot of time out here.

Kevin: Awesome.

Charlie, move-in day.

Charlie: And we're ready.

Liz, here are your new keys.

And welcome home.

– Liz: Thank you.

– Kevin: Let's have a look.

Thank you, Charlie.

– Charlie: Thank you.

Kevin: Alright.

Give me the tour, please.

Liz: So, this is the parlor.

And we hadn't planned on doing much in here.

We just redecorated.

Kevin: Yeah.

And it really wasn't much work to be done, except for this project up front here.

There was that sort of weird seam where the floor pitched away.

So Charlie pulled up the floor.

We shimmed out the joist.

We put down some new subfloor.

And I don't know.

I can't see it.

Can you?

– Liz: No.

It looks great.

It's much more even and better insulated.

Kevin: Perfect.

And the new dining room.

So, this was moved to the front of the house.

Liz: Yeah.

We wanted to bring the formal areas of the house to the front and keep the back open and more casual.

Kevin: And what do you think about this?

So, that was in the original dining room back of the house.

You said, "We're keeping it."

– Liz: Yeah.

I'm so glad they were able to keep it.

This is original, from when the house was built.

And it looks amazing.

– Kevin: Yeah.

I mean, I think they did a great job -- carpentry and the finishes by Mauro's crew.

The other thing you asked for was a separation between the spaces.

And you said, "Let's case this opening."

– Liz: Right.

– Kevin: More to your point about sort of formal and informal.

– Liz: Yes.

– Kevin: Happy?

Liz: Yeah.

I'm really happy that we did that, because it allows us to have two separate looks and have two different paint colors.

Or if we ever do wallpaper in there, it will have a separation.

Kevin: And I can remember seeing Charlie and Mark taking that chimney down.

That was a project.

– Liz: Right.

Kevin: You guys wanted the open floor plan, which was made possible mostly by a 1-ton beam over 20 feet long so that we could take some walls down and -- Oh, you got open floor plan, huh?

Liz: Right, yep.

It's nice and open so we can see everything and fit more people around.

Kevin: So, there was a wall, 'cause the old dining room was back here.

Gone.

Opens it up.

On the first floor, new floors.

This is all rift and quartered white oak.

Beautiful job there.

– Liz: Right.

Kevin: And, then, a little bit of extra space -- 200 square feet on each story.

And on this floor, you used it for outdoor space and some indoor space.

Liz: Right.

Yep.

Used it for a nice, little deck.

This is gonna help us be able to use the backyard and make it much more usable than it used to be.

Kevin: And now you can enter the house into a proper mudroom.

I know you really wanted one of these.

Liz: Yeah.

We really needed it with the three boys.

We needed storage for the hockey equipment -- all their coats and mittens and sports equipment.

Now we have nice, tall storage for all that stuff -- lots of storage for shoes and a lot more hooks.

– Kevin: Yep.

And a powder room.

– Liz: Yeah.

We went a little bold with the design choice in there.

And Mauro color-matched the green trim to the green in the wallpaper, and, then, we did the sconces in black to match the wallpaper, as well.

Kevin: Cozy, little spot in the back of the house.

Alright.

Well, let's have a look at the kitchen.

Oh, my goodness.

So nice.

Liz: Yeah, we love it.

It's nice and open.

We have a big fridge and freezer.

– Kevin: Yeah.

– Liz: All one fridge and freezer.

Kevin: That's huge!

Alright.

You went with a white theme, right?

Liz: Yes, we did.

I wanted a sort of warm white.

We did the inset cabinets, like we had had in the old kitchen.

– Kevin: Yeah.

– Liz: Sort of timeless look.

Kevin: Yeah.

Beautiful, custom, great detail.

Liz: Right.

We went with the gold.

Nice, warm color.

Kevin: Okay.

And look at this.

So this is a big improvement from that old beast of a stove that you used to have.

– Liz: Right.

Kevin: It was so powerful you couldn't even simmer anything on it.

– Liz: We could not.

– Kevin: What is this?

Liz: This is an induction stove with an electric oven.

Kevin: Wow.

Really cool profile on the front.

Oh, that is so sleek-looking.

– Liz: Yes.

We love it.

Kevin: Big hood with the custom millwork on top of it, and, then, your massive island.

Liz: Yes.

A big island with quartz countertops.

With the three boys, I didn't have to worry about damage.

– Kevin: Yeah.

And so -- -Liz: Durable.

– Kevin: It keeps going, right?

– Liz: Right.

Kevin: So, it looks like you put in a coffee bar.

And, then, we know that the pantry is behind it.

Liz: The pantry is behind it.

We were able to save a lot of the upper cabinets from the previous kitchen.

Kevin: So is it exactly what you had hoped for?

Liz: It's exactly what we wanted so that we could all be together and I could see the baby playing in the other room and we could all be together.

Kevin: That's exactly what we want to hear.

Beautiful.

Alright.

How about upstairs?

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] Jenn: I know this is blanketed under snow, but your landscape is really looking good underneath here.

I'm glad we got what you wanted on your checklist.

Patrick: As am I. I'm really glad we were able to get rid of all the overgrowth out here, which was a lot of maintenance, as well.

Jenn: Yeah, 'cause that overgrown, huge rhododendron we transplanted to the back, so we got to reuse that.

And so these low-maintenance, evergreen boxwood are really gonna work well for you.

And in the spring you're gonna see a little pop of color with the daffodils.

– Patrick: Yeah.

Looking forward to seeing those, as well.

Tom: Yeah.

And the nice thing about your front porch, it didn't need a lot of work, but you got some new railings, and, also, that new paint color up on the ceiling.

I know there was a little debate on which color you were gonna use.

Patrick: There was.

I had picked a color.

Liz had picked a color.

And like many decisions in our household, Liz won out on that one.

– Tom: She won.

Oh.

– Jenn: I mean, she's right.

Tom: It's beautiful.

Yeah.

And, then, I remember all the aluminum siding that was on the house.

Took that all off.

And you chose the composite siding.

That's pre-painted.

And if you ever want to change it in years to come, you can change the color.

But you also have new windows everywhere.

And the window glass is a low-"E," so you're gonna get the reflection of the radiant heat that you create in the winter, and the radiant heat that's created in the summer will be blocked.

So it won't leave you or gain on you.

Jenn: And you guys can't really see it now, but underneath the snow is a new lawn.

A lot of hard work went into this whole setup back here, right?

So, I think one of my favorite parts is this patio Mark and I put together, running bond, nice, clean, simple.

Opened up the footprint.

– Patrick: Yeah.

It will be a huge improvement over the layout that we had before and much more functional for the family that we have.

– Jenn: Yeah.

– Tom: You did a nice addition off the back of the house.

You brought out some of the basement, first floor and the second floor.

I think you had a total of around 600 square feet.

Nice addition.

Made a big difference.

And this new deck that leads up to the stairway into the house, I bet you're gonna use this entrance a lot.

– Patrick: All the time.

– Tom: Yeah.

Alright.

Well, lead the way.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] Liz: You can remember we had a runner going up the stairs, but we wanted to expose the hardwoods.

Kevin: I do.

And expose some of this beautiful Doug fir in here.

– Liz: Yes.

– Kevin: You had asked us to patch with some of the stuff that was saved.

And I don't want to lead the witness, but what do you think of the patch job?

– Liz: It looks great.

– Kevin: I think it does, too.

Liz: Yes.

We gained this closet when we took the chimney down.

Kevin: Yeah.

That's a lot of space right there.

That's good.

And you also gained a full bathroom on this floor.

Now there are two where there was only one.

Liz: Right.

The boys have their own full bathroom now, and we actually have a tub.

We didn't have a tub on this floor before.

We had Ronan in a baby tub in the bottom of the shower.

Kevin: Yeah, that only works for so long.

So let's see that.

Oh, my goodness.

A pop of color.

Look at that tile.

How do you feel about that?

– Liz: I love it.

I love how it came out.

– Kevin: Yeah.

Yeah, the boys are going to appreciate that.

And, so, this bathroom serves the bedrooms on this floor.

One of the bedrooms is new space.

This is part of the 200 square feet that we added to each floor.

And this is for your oldest.

– Liz: Right.

This is Declan's room.

– Kevin: Yeah.

Liz: Declan has autism, so his room is smaller, which is actually perfect for him.

It's a nice and cozy place to sleep.

Kevin: Yeah.

And has he seen the room?

Liz: Yes.

He saw it earlier today for the first time.

– Kevin: What did he think?

– Liz: He loved it.

Kevin: That's what we like to hear.

Alright.

And I bet you're gonna love your new laundry room, too, because that's some newfound space in there.

Liz: Yes.

We had a laundry room before, but it's bigger now, and now we can have a utility sink.

And we were able to save some more of the cabinets and use them up here, as well.

– Kevin: Yeah.

That's great, isn't it?

It's good to have a laundry room on the floor where all the laundry is made, which is gonna be from the kids.

– Liz: Yes.

Kevin: And Ronan's room back here -- not much change in here, although it looks really nice.

He did pick up a closet, though.

Liz: Right.

He gained our closet that was in our bedroom.

Kevin: Alright.

And your bedroom.

This whole primary suite is really the main event up here on the second floor.

So what a change.

You moved the bed, right?

– Liz: Yes.

It used to be in front of the window here.

Kevin: Yes.

But now you got all that light and a beautiful seating area.

I think that's a good choice.

Liz: A nice seating area.

That's where our closet used to be, and now we flipped it.

And he has access in his room now.

Kevin: Alright.

Which is good.

You had built-ins here, right?

Liz: Right.

We had open shelving here, but we wanted a cleaner look.

– Kevin: Yes.

Yeah.

But all the big changes really sort of happened back here.

– Liz: Right, in the closet here.

– Kevin: Oh.

Well, that's clearly Patrick's.

– Liz: Right.

Kevin: So, you guys used to sort of mix and match and share and stuff.

– Liz: Yes.

– Kevin: So everything behind the doors belongs to Patrick?

Liz: All the doors are for Patrick.

– Kevin: Okay.

– Liz: And we have a dedicated toilet room, and I have my own walk-in closet now.

Kevin: So officially his and hers closets.

– Liz: Yes.

– Kevin: Alright.

Now, back here, I know a little bit of this is new space.

But this was a weird space originally, right?

– Liz: Yes.

Kevin: So, you had the full bath, but it was shared.

Liz: Right.

It was Jack-and-Jill with the kids.

Kevin: Yeah.

[ Chuckles ] And, then, you had the vanity out in a separate room.

It was all carpet.

It was just awkward.

Liz: Yes.

It was odd.

We kind of called it a dressing room.

We didn't really know what to make of it.

Kevin: Yeah.

Well, I know what to make of this.

This is a luxurious bathroom.

Beautiful.

Liz: We have large-format tiles and a rain head, a nice bench in the shower.

– Kevin: Yeah.

Liz: We each have our own medicine cabinet for more storage and a double vanity.

Kevin: Which is awesome.

And on a floor, a different tile, a smaller, circle pattern.

And I know that you chose to put radiant heat underneath here, which is nice.

– Liz: Yes.

Kevin: And all the rage these days, a standalone tub right here.

So, I have to assume that you're very pleased with this.

Liz: Yes.

We love it.

And we don't have to share it with the kids.

Kevin: Yeah.

Well, well-done.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] Richard: I'm down here in the basement, as always, it seems.

And this is an area that has, also, additional square footage in the building.

It's gonna be an exercise area at some point.

You can see the equipment here.

Now, it took a fair amount of industry to get this space.

It needed to be dug out, new foundation, new poured floor.

But, then, you needed access, because it was outside the existing building.

Now, there used to be a window right here.

You can see the header.

This header could carry the weight of the building above it, so it's a perfect place to cut the doorway in.

Stonecutter came in and just cut through both the new and the old foundation.

They have a new doorway.

Now, on the mechanical side of this building, we actually did something we haven't done in a long time.

We actually kept the existing -- We didn't blow it all up.

So, here's the existing equipment.

It wasn't that old.

It's reasonably efficient, and it was working perfectly.

And the reason we could think about reusing it, also, is that we did a couple of things.

We insulated the building much tighter and added new windows everywhere.

We're gonna reuse most of the ductwork, but in a couple of places, we saw asbestos, so we had to get rid of the asbestos on the ductwork.

And the other is a couple places in the building where we need to modify it to make it work better for comfort in the building.

Let me show you.

So, up here in the primary, we have our original and what was once the only supply for this room.

And this might have been fine back in the late 1800s, but a modern system wants to get its air delivery where it belongs -- near the outside walls and near the windows.

So we have a new supply here, a new supply here for the primary.

We're gonna abandon this and just leave it in place.

And we had the exact same condition next door in the baby's room.

We've got an old supply and a new supply to it.

So we had to get creative in how we could resupply these two rooms.

So, on the first floor, we are underneath that primary bedroom.

And this is where that original supply ran inside the wall.

The old chimney was right here, and that's all abandoned.

Now, this is a new wall, but it actually houses the old china cabinet.

And it gave us a spot to run that new supply to one-half of the primary bedroom.

So you can see here's the one supply boxed in perfectly, disappears.

And the same thing over here.

Here's the bookcase, and here's that other supply boxed in.

So we solved the primary bedroom.

Now, the baby's room had the same idea.

Here's the bookcase, and here's our supply.

So with this small real estate given up, it was a small price to pay to get comfort in both of these spaces.

So, we're up here on the third floor.

It's actually a very pleasant space up here.

It's got a little office right here, bathroom, extra room, and Brendan's bedroom right here.

So, it doesn't look like we did a lot up here, but we did some really important things.

One was we opened up this ceiling and we were able to pull out that old fiberglass insulation, and we insulated with closed cell foam to really create a hat on top of the building.

It's so critical, both in heating and cooling, to make sure that the heat and cooling stays inside the building.

Now, what we did find originally was, also, this standalone cooling system that was sitting up in this attic.

It was working so hard just to try and make this space usable in the summer.

So what we did is took it out, put an inverter-style heat pump, super efficient, so it gives us heating and cooling properly controlled here on the top floor.

But the other thing is this insulation makes such a difference.

We came here in the summer, and I remember the day.

It was about 80 degrees outside.

And that thermometer I put up there, I pulled it down.

That attic was 120 degrees.

Well, I got here earlier.

I put my little probe up there.

And on this 18-degree day, it's 65 degrees up in the attic.

And that means the system has to work less hard.

If I can reach one thing, it's actually bring the heating and cooling system inside the building.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] Kevin: Hey, Jaclyn.

Good to see you.

Jaclyn: Hey.

It's great to see you again.

Kevin: You're back.

So we must be down to the finishing touches.

– Jaclyn: Yep.

– Kevin: Alright.

And bookcases I presume you're helping us with?

Jaclyn: Yeah.

This is one of the questions I get asked most about.

Kevin: I would imagine.

My wife and I are still arguing about ours.

– Jaclyn: [ Laughs ] -Kevin: Okay.

Do you have a guideline, rules?

What have you got?

Jaclyn: Yeah.

I usually like to give people my top three rules, which is decorate up.

So we're not decorating across.

We're really trying to fill this space so that the visual eye goes up with the bookcase.

Which takes me to my next rule, which is I also like to give the shelves breathing room.

So, while I'm decorating up, I'm also leaving some space on each side.

I'm not filling each shelf fully.

Kevin: So don't overstuff them like I did?

Jaclyn: Right.

That's exactly right.

And, then, the third rule is balance.

So I like to balance books and decorative objects.

Kevin: Okay.

So not one row, one side of books, one side of all the candlesticks.

Jaclyn: Yeah.

I like to mix and match through the whole thing.

– Kevin: I could have done that.

– Jaclyn: [ Laughs ] -Kevin: So, Liz, you've told us that this is a formal room, part of the formal part of the house, versus informal.

Do you have different rules for those types of rooms?

Jaclyn: Yeah.

So, the living room is gonna have a more casual feel with the bookshelf styling.

If you want to put in family photos or your kid's artwork, that is a perfect spot for this.

The dining room I like to keep more edited, more formal, kind of ready to lend to the atmosphere to host a dinner party at any moment.

Kevin: And maybe sentimental things?

You have sentimental things in this mix, or is it just sort of the stuff that's come from previous houses and gifts?

Liz: We do.

We have some decorative items.

But we have some sentimental things like the claddagh table that we got at our wedding.

– Kevin: Oh, yeah.

– Liz: And the gurgling cod, which is common around this area.

Kevin: Right.

So, Jaclyn, are you familiar with this?

Jaclyn: I'm from New York, so I've never seen this before.

Kevin: It's the craziest thing.

It's like a water pitcher.

And, then, when you tip it, it -- [ Gurgling ] The cod gurgles.

I don't know.

It's like a New England thing, a Massachusetts thing.

– Liz: A Boston thing.

– Kevin: Alright.

Make sure you get a spot for the cod.

– Jaclyn: Yeah.

We definitely will.

– Kevin: Alright.

Well, no surprise, I'm not gonna help you guys.

I will be no help at all.

So I'll just leave you to it.

And thank you for coming back.

– Jaclyn: Alright.

Liz: Thank you.

Jaclyn: That really helps the cod kind of pop out, and you can really see it now.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] And, then, we'll put them right here.

Another thing I really love to do is to take the covers off of books and group them together by color.

[ Bell ringing ] Liz: It looks so great.

Thank you.

Jaclyn: You're welcome.

Kevin: Oh.

There's Mom and Ronan.

Alright.

So, I know you guys are thrilled to be at home finally.

I've got to ask you, though, and I'll start with you, Liz, any favorite parts of the house, favorite change?

Liz: I think this is our favorite part.

It's so nice and light and open.

Kevin: Big, wide-open.

That's what you asked for, right?

Open floor plan.

– Liz: Right.

Kevin: Patrick, how about you?

Patrick: I think just overall, the addition, which added so much flow and functionality to the rear of the house and allowed us to reconfigure a lot of things, both on this floor and above, are the biggest plus for me.

Kevin: Alright.

Well, I mean, that must be music to your ears, right?

Charlie: Oh, and I totally agree.

So, my favorites are really is removing the chimney and the fireplace, adding this massive steel beam, and adding a couple hundred square feet per floor.

Really changed the flow of this house.

Kevin: Alright.

Well, listen.

I know that there are some folks who really want to have a party.

But first, I have to say that we've got more coming up, and that starts next week.

We are headed to Walpole, Mass, where we're working on a 1970s ranch.

And we are putting a 900-square-foot addition off the back, and it's not what you think.

Until then, I'm signing off for everybody.

Kevin O'Connor for "This Old House" here in Needham, Mass.

And what do you say we have a party?

[ Applause ] Congratulations, everybody.

Let's get to it.

Alright.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] Kevin: Next time on "This Old House"... Welcome to Walpole, Massachusetts, home to 26,000 residents -- residents like our homeowners.

Hey.

Bill, Evelyn, how's it going?

– Evelyn: Hey.

How are you?

Bill: Nice to meet you.

It's going well.

Kevin: I'm excited to be here.

We want to renovate their ranch house, but, also, want to find a solution to accommodate some family members who are getting older.

Evelyn: My parents are moving in, so we are going to add on an ADU for them.

Jenn: An accessory dwelling unit?

Evelyn: An accessory dwelling unit.

Jenn: Oh, that's exciting.