This Old House

Kevin

Today, on "This Old House," we start an entirely new project.

Roger

We're renovating a house for three generations.

Tom

But they have a limited budget, so we have to watch every penny.

Roger

We'll salvage what we can.

Norm

And we have a team of apprentices to help.

Kevin

What happened to all this plumbing here?

Norm

I've never seen anything like this before.

Roger

There's already rot going on in that trunk.

Kevin

Well, then what have you found up here?

Tom

Well, a bit of a surprise.

Richard

It's really the classic plumber's lament.

Kevin

All right. All right.

Tom

There is right on.

Kevin

The family that paints together stays together. Nice job, guys. -Where will a slab like this be used?

Tom

The money is in the detail.

Roger

Oh, look at that set. That is beautiful.

Kevin

Hi there. I'm Kevin O'Connor, and welcome to a brand-new season of "This Old House." We are in the Boston suburb of Newton, Massachusetts, and this season is very special. Hey, Tommy. So we are back in Newton.

Tom

Yeah. We've done several projects here in Newton. The last one was 7 years ago. Well, this year's project is a young couple with two small children, and they want their house to be able to handle three generations.

Kevin

Well, generations is the reason this season of "This Old House" is so special, and we are dedicating our project to a new initiative that we're calling Generation NEXT. We're going to try to bridge the skills gap in the building trades.

Tom

For decades, people haven't been going into the trades like carpentry, plumbing and electrical. And we're working to fix that.

Kevin

We're going to be working with some schools, manufacturers and some nonprofits, and we are going to promote the building trades, and we're going to teach people to learn them.

Tom

We've hired some apprentices to work on the job site. Silva brothers and all the subs will have apprentices working for them.

Kevin

And later on in this season, we are going to have three special interns working with us on the project. That's going to be cool.

Tom

It's going to be great, and here's our house.

Kevin

Love the neighborhood, Tommy, and look at this corner lot. Huh? That's a bonus. And we've got some celebrity firepower to help us out, Mike Rowe from "Deadliest Catch" and "Dirty Jobs." Hey,

Norm. -Tom

Hey, Norm.

Kevin

Hey, Mike. Welcome.

Mike

Hey, man. How are you?

All right. -Mike

Great to meet you, Tom.

Yeah. -Norm

Well, you know, Mike's foundation has been a great inspiration for us, and it's really helping us this year.

Absolutely. -Mike

Well, you guys are helping me as well. You know, mikeroweWORKS has been around, now, for about 9 years. And when we heard you guys were doing Generation NEXT, there was so much shared real estate, you know, in what you guys do. And we've been trying to close the skills gap in our own way. And we do that, really, just by calling attention to good jobs that actually exist. And so many of those jobs exist in this industry.

Exactly. -Mike

So the fact that you guys, now, in your, what, 39th season?

39th year. -Mike

Unbelievable. The fact that you guys are still at it, I know you must understand how critical the skills gap is and how...

Tom

We sure do.

Mike

And how difficult it is to recruit.

Tom

Very hard.

Mike

Anyway, we focus on kids like Kelly Klein, who got a scholarship not long ago. Kelly was going down one direction, like so many people do, and decided the opportunities were better in heating and air conditioning. So he gets his certification, and he's off to the races. Alexa Harter, a young woman who was a waitress, and this is really typical of what's going on in this generation right now. You know, people have jobs, but they're not skilled jobs. And so they don't see a real career. They don't see a real future.

Tom

They don't like them. -They hate them.

Mike

They don't like the jobs, right. So Alexa learns how to weld. And then she learns how to weld really well. And now she's off to the races.

Tom

Yeah. I heard she's in the union.

Mike

Yeah, right. So our goal is really simple. We want to give people a skill that's in demand. And with the help of your show, we want America to see just what those skills look like when they're properly applied, same things you guys have been doing for 39 seasons.

Tom

Yeah, exactly.

Norm

Well, this project is going to be beneficial to the building trades and to your foundation as well. We did a national casting call, got three apprentices, they're going to come up here and work on the project with all the guys and learn the skills of how you renovate a house.

That's awesome. -Norm

Not only that, but we have all the contractors and subcontractors bringing in apprentices of their own. Of course, they're from the local area. But we're going to use the magazine, the TV show, the web. We're going to tell people all about skilled trades and how interesting these jobs can be.

Mike

So the short version is together, we're going to close the skills gap.

I hope so. -Tom

It's worth a try. That's for sure.

Mike

Why, it's as good as done.

There you go. -Kevin

And we're going to get to work right now. So we're going to take a tour with the homeowners and check out this house.

Mike

And I'm meeting Richard in the basement.

Norm

That's going to be a tough one.

Oh. -Tom

Nice knowing you, Mike.

Mike

Oh, yes. It's a big day for all of us.

Kevin

Hey,

guys. -Liz

Hey. How are you?

Kevin

Wow. We got the whole family here, huh?

Yeah. -Kevin

Who's this?

Joe

This is Aria. She's 2 1/2 weeks old.

Kevin

Ooh. Congrats. That's awesome.

Joe

Thank you.

Kevin

And who's this beautiful little girl?

This is Mira. -Kevin

Mira.

Joe

She turned 2 a few months ago.

Kevin

Can you do something for me? Pssh! -Whoa, she did.

All right. -Kevin

That's awesome. So this is the new house, but it's a special house for you. Right?

Liz

Yes, it is. This is the house that I grew up in. I moved here when I was 2, right about when I was Mira's age, which is kind of funny. But yeah, I grew up here. I've been here till I was 18 and went off to college. And then, in 2015, we unexpectedly lost my mom, who lived here, and we inherited the house. So we're back. And this was her dream for us to live in this house.

Tom

So I understand this is third generation?

Liz

Yeah, mm-hmm.

Joe

Yeah, so there's my parents. I grew up in New Jersey, and they still live down there. And they'll be retiring in a few years, and they're planning on summering or wintering down south, somewhere,

and then summering up here... -Kevin

Right.

Joe

Hopefully, with us. So, we'd like to have a nice, comfortable space for them to stay in when they're up here.

Yeah. -Tom

Nice idea, yeah.

Kevin

Kind of like an in-law suite or something close?

Joe

Yeah, something like that, you know, something, you know, that's separate but still part of the house, so we can be together, but everybody has their own space.

Tom

They have their own space. That's a great idea.

Liz

We're not on top of each other.

Kevin

All right. So it sounds like you guys are making a list. You've got some ideas of what you want to do, right? And do you guys have a budget?

Liz

Oh, yes.

Kevin

You reconcile the two?

Liz

They don't quite match.

Kevin

What are you doing about that?

Liz

We are going to focus on some of the condition things and making a little more space for ourselves and then maybe doing some things in phases.

Tom

That's a smart way to do it, you know? Not everybody has a big budget, and to do it in phases is a smart way.

Yeah. -Kevin

And how about sweat equity? You guys thought about maybe throwing in? -Oh, yeah. -Definitely. -Oh, great, good, we love it when the homeowners throw in. -We can find stuff for you to do. -Oh, yes.

Laughs

Yeah. -Kevin

-So, we should probably hear more about the list, although we should probably do it while we're taking a tour. You guys are giving us one? -Definitely. -Tommy, let me show you out back. -Let's see, let's go. -He gets the kids. You get stuck with me. -You wanna come with us? -So, let's start right here in the front room, what have you got for me? -You want to see the weirdest fireplace that ever was? -I like weird. Yeah, this is a weird place to have a fireplace. -Yeah, you come in the front door, and then, bam, there's a fireplace right here. -Brick, big mantel, oh, is this you guys? You guys stick insulation up through here? -Yeah, it's kind of a wind tunnel. We have some condition issues, insulation issues. -Water damage. What do you want to do with the fireplace? -Ideally, we would like to take it out, but may not be in the budget, so we just need to address these things first. -Well, you've got a chimney on the outside, so that is a big job, but we can, you know, tell you how much that would cost. You've got some cool details. The dining room windows are beautiful, you could imagine a coat rack or closet back in that corner. -Yep, and then we have this stairwell! Which, I used to do this as a kid. -Just, years of coming down this staircase. -I love this stairwell. -I'm glad to hear that. This is a beautiful detail. So, keep this. -Keep that, and we'd love to replicated some of the balusters here, but, again, this is a functional wall, and we may not be able to do it, we'll see if it's in the budget or not. -Staircase down to the basement, I presume? -Yep, yep. -All right. Good windows. Lots of light, the floors are in good condition, so not too much in here. -Yeah, not too much. And this is the dining room right here. -Nice, all right. China cabinet. -This is our China cabinet. -With China. -Three generations of China in there, yep. -Will this stay? -It will. -So, keep the cabinets and the memories, nice. -And then, over here, we're going to take out this wall, and open it up to the kitchen. -But keep this as a dining room? -Yes. -All right, well, let's see what you've got going on in the kitchen. -All right, let's see the kitchen. -Oh, yeah. This is a little dated. -It's a little dated. -Not original to the house. -Right, right, my parents put this in about 25 years ago. -Okay. -Yep, we have some condition issues here. You can see the cabinets are pulling out of the wall. -Yes, they are. -So, this really needs to be addressed. -Okay. And what do you want to do? You want to just sort of pull the stuff here and replace it? Or do you want to expand? -We'd like to expand. I think we're going to try to push this wall out about six feet, and then put in three windows and then a window facing the street with one of those diamond pane windows like in the front. -And one story bump-out? -Yes. -Nice, and that will leave you a lot more space in here. And what are you going to do with that? -We're going to put in an island with enough seating for everybody to eat breakfast. -Right, so, informal meals here, formal meals in the dining room. -Yep, and then we're going to put a pantry in over there between the kitchen and the family room. -Everybody loves their pantries. All right, it's a good plan, I like it, cool. -Thanks! -So, how long has the addition been on the house, Joe? -This was built about 20 years ago. -20 years ago? So, this was here. -Yep, they have pictures of her sitting on the new foundation. -Oh, that's cool. So, I know that this room right here, this wall is going to go out about four feet. -Yeah, it's going out about four feet, a little less than the kitchen. And right around here we're going to put in a powder room and then a mudroom all along here for an entryway, and the bathroom that's behind this wall is going to come out. -So, this is all going to go, it's really going to open up this space nice. -Yeah, yeah. And then over here we're going to take this wall out to open up between the kitchen and the living area. -Right, and this will be a half-wall, you have a couple of columns on it. I know that one of those columns is going to have -- actually being a bearing post for the new beam that has to go into that wall that we're going to take down between the kitchen and the dining room -- we need that to support it. -Yeah, exactly. And then, over here in the corner, we're going to put in a wood burning stove. I grew up with a wood burning stove in my house, I love 'em. -Me too -- I love 'em, too. But I don't like a wood burning stove when it's on a raised hearth, a step there. So, I like to try to make it as flush to the floor as we can. And when we deal with that issue, I want to solve this little thing right here that drives me crazy every time we see it. This step from the floor into the new space, from the dining room -- look, over here, they made it flush, and over there they didn't. So, we definitely have to fix that. -Yeah, definitely. -The other thing is this ceiling that goes up on a hip like this.

We're going to flatten it out. -Joe

Yeah. So we're actually putting a second story above this addition back here. We're just going to have the master bathroom

and the master bedroom. -Tom

Right. And you're going to enter that from the front stairway, so it's key that when we enter that room, we enter at the same elevation and don't have a step.

Joe

Yep,

exactly. -Tom

Okay. So now what's going on out back?

Joe

We're going to have the garage and the in-law suite out back.

Tom

All right. Let's take a look.

Joe

So the first thing that we're going to do out here is take out this old one-car garage.

Tom

Right. And the other thing is, this deck is going to come down because the deck is actually going to start from here. And it's going to go out about 12 feet by 16 feet, a much better, user-friendly deck.

Joe

Yeah,

much better shape. -Tom

Yeah. Now also, once we get the second floor built, we're going to put a first-story addition on, which starts about here, all the way out to about the railing.

Joe

Yep. And the new garage is going to attach to that, and it's going to come out to about the edge of the existing garage.

Tom

Right, perfect.

Joe

And then on top of that is going to be where the new living space is. So we're going to have a bedroom up there, a sitting area and a full bathroom.

So all its own space. -Joe

Yeah.

Tom

The one thing that we have to think about is how we're going to heat and cool that second floor, so we have to think about the HVAC and keep it separate from the house.

Yep. -Tom

I think it's a great plan. All we got to do is start some demo.

All right. Great. -Tom

All right. I want to see that garage come down. I think it's...

Mike

Richard?

Richard

Yes, sir.

Mike

I was told you'd be in the basement.

Always. -Mike

Always in the basement.

Richard

That's right. Nice to see you.

Nice to see you. -Richard

Welcome to my world.

Mike

Thank you. Your world is old, man. This is -- -Late 1800s, when central heating was first coming inside the building. Back in that era, it would have been a coal-fired furnace, would have shoveled coal in through this window, probably, right here; there was a big old round thing here, somebody came in every morning. That's how these registers got established. And then it would have just heated the first little, small part of the building. -Right. -But now we've got all kinds of opportunities. You know, this is not original, obviously, so you start looking at, "What do you do, what do you do?" You start saying, well, I could tie right onto this, but I no longer have to think about leaving it right here, because I no longer need the chimney, right? Because now modern equipment can be direct vented. So, this can actually go away. So, you say, all right, if this goes away, we go with something smaller, so, wait a minute, now we can start thinking about this. All right, get rid of that. -Why does any of this have to be here? -Well, we do need plumbing, but we get this over here. And then once you do, you say, hey, wait a minute, look what I've found -- now you've found a basement playroom here, what, in this town, that's 300 to 400 square feet, that's big money. You know, those kids are going to be teenagers some day, and they'll want to get away from their parents. -Well, it's a total game changer, though, in this neighborhood, another 400 square feet, that's a totally different house. So, when you -- when you come into the basement for the first time, as you always do, is it still exciting after however many seasons you've been doing, because you're -- I would think, at a glance, you're getting the first sense of what your next six months are going to be like. -Right, it's our chance to sort of think about the next 100 years -- when I come into these old houses, I think of the ghosts of my father and grandfather, who would have done this. I think about all the people who work so hard on these things. Now we're looking forward to actually getting a new generation in here, these kids that are going to come in. I got an apprentice coming with me this year --

Yeah. -Richard

Thanks to your whole idea about getting kids into the trades.

It's great. -Mike

Look, it wasn't my idea. But the people who make all this happen, obviously, are in short supply. And when I'm looking at this, I mean, you really get a sense at... I mean, this is the circulatory system...

Richard

Nice,

yeah. -Mike

For the home.

Richard

Yeah, that's right.

Mike

And the amount of qualified people who are standing by to install these, it just... Every single person I've talked to over the last decade is wondering where the people went.

Richard

It drives us crazy because, as the equipment is getting more and more complex, getting smarter, we have fewer and fewer people coming in. And we got homeowners that are demanding more comfort. They're saying, "I'm a half a degree off." People are used to... They want to be so comfortable, and we got no people to do it, so...

Mike

I've been half a degree off my whole life.

Richard

You've been more than half a degree off.

Mike

Half a bubble off plumb. All right. So if it all goes as planned, when the dust settles, these guys get another 300, 400 square feet.

Richard

This is all gone away, and now you've got a... Here's the stairs, right here, and there is a 20-by-20 room that is heaven.

And they're comfortable. -Mike

Heaven, really? Are we overstating it just a little? I mean, it's a very nice basement, but I'm not sure it's celestial.

But it's very nice. -Richard

This is him.

Mike

I would an apprentice, actually.

Richard

You need a little, Mike.

Mike

Several. I want a team, micro Mike Rowes.

Richard

"Micro Mike Rowes."

Norm

Hey,

Liz. -Liz

Hey, Norm.

Norm

So what's going on up here on the second floor?

Liz

Oh, a lot of things. As you see here, we have a sleeping porch. We're going to keep it the way it is and use it for storage during construction. It has a shed roof, but ideally, we'd like to make that match our hip roof, but not in the budget... so phase two,

probably. -Norm

Save that for later.

Liz

Yeah. Here we have my childhood bedroom...

Norm

Oh,

this is great. -Liz

Complete with glow-in-the-dark stickers on the ceiling fan that I put up.

Norm

Huh. Maybe those should stay.

Liz

Yeah. One thing that's going is these closets that my dad built many years ago. Unfortunately, that creates a problem because if you look in this closet, you can't even fit a hanger perpendicular to the wall in there.

Norm

Yeah, look at this, it's only 12 or 14 inches. For a proper closet, you need about 24.

Exactly. -Norm

So if those go away, you've got to do something about this.

Liz

So we are thinking that we're going to pull this wall out this way, or, in the adjacent bedroom, we'll push it the other direction

to make a bigger closet. -Norm

All right. Well, let me see what's going on in the adjacent bedroom, and maybe I can help you with that decision.

Liz

That'd be great.

Norm

This wall is a common wall between the two bedrooms. And when I come in here, I see that the closet is down this end, closer to the outside wall, and it's shallow, just like the other one. And you could build out this wall, but when I look back in that direction, the door is right up against the wall. So that means you're going to have to take this door unit out, build a little stud wall over here, remove part of the wall here, reset the door and patch the floor. That's a lot of labor, and it's expensive. So the better choice is to move the wall on the other side because there's no issue with a door.

Liz

That makes sense. We could save a little money that way.

Norm

That's right. So what else is going on in this room?

Liz

Again, we're going to take out the built-ins. And then this window is coming out because the master bedroom is going to be built over the first-floor family room.

Norm

Right. That's going to be a good-size addition.

Liz

Yeah. So let me show you how we get there. Over here, we have our existing bathroom. It was done about 5 years ago, and that's going to stay

exactly the same. -Norm

All right. Good choice, save some money. There's nothing wrong with that place. And another shallow closet.

Liz

Well, luckily, it's going to be a hallway into the master. And over here, we're going to have the laundry room, which I'm very excited about on the second floor. And then through there, we're going to have the master bathroom.

Norm

Mm-hmm, more of the addition.

Right. -Norm

All right. Well, it seems like a very practical plan. You're not doing too much in those rooms, cleaning them up, making them a little bit better. And you'll save money by doing that, but out here, you're going to spend a little bit more.

Yep. -Norm

It's going to

be exciting. -Liz

Yeah.

Kevin

Roger, you look like a man trying to come up with a plan.

Roger

Well, I'm trying to work it out what's going to happen back here, Kevin -- we're going to have a new garage.

Kevin

This is going away?

Roger

We're going to have a parking area that comes out into here. So we need to create a flat pallet for that parking area.

Kevin

So this material, here, is going away?

Roger

In order to get enough room, we're going to have to dig in this banking; they're showing a wall coming, maybe, 2 feet off the fence line straight down to give us a big parking area.

Kevin

So when you're building a wall like this, what are you thinking about, because you got a lot of material you're going to have to hold back?

Roger

Right. You got to hold back this whole hill, so you need something that's going to stay put and be solid. So you're probably going to dig a deep footing in here, fill it with stone, and that's what you're

going to build the wall on. -Kevin

And then what? You go to the homeowners and ask them what material they want? What are your options for materials for that wall?

Roger

Well, you know, you can do pressure-treated wood 6-by-6s. You could do individual stones, concrete block, or you could even do a stone wall.

Kevin

All right. Sounds good. So we've got sort of an older lot here, a lot of plants that have been around for a while. Anything get saved?

Roger

Yeah. We'd like to save what we can out of this lilac. They're hard to move sometimes. But we've also got a real pretty -- the white flowers are just starting to come out on this one, and this is an old purple. We're going to salvage as much as we can.

Kevin

All right. And so when you take it out of there, what do you do with it, where does it go?

Roger

It's going to end up going to my house so I can babysit it.

Kevin

Oh, you're a good papa there.

Yeah. -Kevin

All right. What else have we got back here? It looks kind of scraggly.

Roger

Yeah, but we have some sentimental plants back here. These roses have been in the family for a long, long time, so we're going to come in. They're a scraggly root system, too. We're going to pull them out, put them in a pot with composted soil, water them in. And they're going to my house, also.

Kevin

But that doesn't look like much, though, so you're saying the family is saving that because they just have an emotional attachment to them?

Roger

Yeah, but they'll be a pretty little rose.

Kevin

Oh, I love this, right? You're going to protect this thing, aren't you?

Roger

Oh, yeah, paper birch. One of the first things I'm going to do is put a fence around this to keep everyone from treading on it, and I mean a big area.

Kevin

I love to hear that. All right. So that tree is saved. Problems with any of the other trees, or are they all staying?

Roger

Well, we got one problem tree up here in front. It's one of my old friends. It's a Norway maple. You know how much I like those.

You and the Norway maples. -Roger

Yeah.

Take a look at this. -Kevin

Oh, yeah.

Roger

This tree has had an injury. See, it's all rotted right in this area, right in here. I think there was a branch here, and it peeled off at one time, and then that caused that never to heal. It's, you know, pretty rotted all the way through.

Kevin

Rotted so much that this one is coming down?

Roger

This one is coming down. It's either going to hit the house, hit the wires or any one of the three poles here. Get it out now before it causes damage. -Take it down. It sounds like you've got a plan. We do.

Mike

He's actually here today.

Kevin

The whole gang is here.

Roger

Hey, guys. How you doing?

Kevin

So?

Norm

Doing good.

Kevin

What'd you guys think of the house?

It's great. I like it. -Mike

I think it's awesome. Actually, you know what it is? It's a classroom, which I guess is the case season after season. But this year, in particular, the apprentices will learn under your instruction. The skills gap will close a little bit more, and...

Tom

And we have a lot of lessons to learn in here.

Mike

You got a lot of lessons to teach.

We'll try. -Mike

Speaking of which, where are my manners? I need to officially thank you guys because so far, the partners of "This Old House" have kicked in over

half a million dollars... -Norm

That's great.

Mike

For the mikeroweWORKS Work Ethic Scholarship Program, and I just wanted to say, officially, that's all going to be used for Work Ethic Scholarships, more apprentices,

so... -Norm

Great.

Mike

Thanks so much for that.

You're welcome. Tom

Fantastic.

Kevin

And our apprentices are going to show up next week, when work gets underway. We're going to start demolition. Rog, you're going to be moving some plants. Right?

Roger

I'm going to start digging.

Kevin

All right. Well, until then, I'm Kevin O'Connor.

I'm Tom Silva. -Mike

I'm Mike Rowe.

I'm Norm Abram. -Richard

I'm Richard Trethewey.

And I'm Roger Cook. -Kevin

For "This Old House."

Richard

Ah, you're Mike Rowe.

Mike

You guys have done this before, for sure.

Kevin

Next time on "This Old House"...

Tom

Say "hi" to Michael. He's our intern. He's going to be working with us now.

Kevin

Oh, terrific. Welcome aboard.

Thank you. -Kevin

Hey, you and I should talk so that I can say what it's like

working for these Silvas. -Tom

Here we go. Don't pay any attention to him.

Richard

We're ready to start demo, but there's a few things we have to do first.

Roger

Our homeowners want to save these roses, and I'll show you how to do it.

Kevin

And we found this.

Man

Now the sleepers are just coated with this mold.

Kevin

Oh, man.

Norm

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