This Old House

Kevin

Today on "This Old House"...

Richard

The journey of our marble countertops from deep underground to our kitchen ends today.

Roger

Our new stone wall anchors the front yard.

Tom

One of the final steps of our renovation is a door for Solay. Looks pretty bad right here.

Norm

Are you kidding me? Is this place really worth saving?

Richard

We can do better than this.

Tom

Time to get to work.

Kevin

Nice and easy. Nice and easy. Everybody together.

Grunting

Kevin

Oh, yeah!

Roger

The right plant in the right place.

Kevin

Good!

Richard

It's state-of-the-art, perfectly square. All in all, a good day's work.

Kevin

Hi there. I'm Kevin O'Connor. And welcome back to "This Old House" and to our 1909 house here in Arlington, Massachusetts. Now, if you remember, when we first got here, this house, well, it was sort of a dark and a dingy brown color. And we had a little parking area out here as well as a shabby, old wooden deck hanging off the back of the house. But after several months of work, well, look at what we have got now. We've got a brand-new three- story addition off of the back. We have all-new shingles that have been painted. And outside, well, you can see the landscaping is very much underway. And inside, well, we've got some surprises in there for you, too, as well. Today, our kitchen countertops get installed. And that is always a sign that the project is wrapping up. Hey there,

Richard. Richard

Hi, Kevin.

Kevin

Our homeowners have chosen a beautiful piece of marble that's already been installed around the perimeter. Looks beautiful. but we've got to keep this protected.

Richard

Yeah, I always like to see these countertops because they come in very late to the project. You don't want to ding these things up.

Kevin

Right. So, a couple pieces already in. This piece right here for the island goes in today. I actually saw this thing cut last week. But you've got a little association with it, as well.

Richard

I feel so lucky, Kevin. I got to go to Danby, Vermont, the world's largest underground marble quarry. It was really cool -- drive down with a truck down into a mountain, under it. Now you see these big slabs get cut with these saws that are computerized, all this water everywhere. And then they cut it like bread at the end to make the basic slab. It's really cool.

Kevin

Amazing, right?

Richard

It really was.

Kevin

So, from the quarry to the fabrication to our house today. And as soon as we get the slab in,

we'll install it. Richard

They are on their way.

Roberto

Just slow, okay? Down a little bit more.

Richard

Here's our baby. Hey, Roberto.

Roberto

Hey, how are you, Richard?

Richard

That's so beautiful. I love the feel of the stone.

900 pounds. Kevin

Hey, Roberto.

Roberto

Kevin, how are you?

Richard

So, take us through the process. What are you gonna do here?

Roberto

Now, what we're gonna do is we're gonna lift this piece over the cabinet. You kind of need to go in an angle. That way, everybody hands is out of the way.

Kevin

You're gonna set it up here, upright?

Roberto

Set it up there, yeah.

Kevin

Wow. All right.

Richard

Should we help or get out of the way?

Kevin

I'm getting out of the way.

Richard

Only 900 pounds.

Kevin

Here we go. Whoa.

Watch your fingers. Roberto

Watch your fingers. Go at an angle. Go it at an angle. Now... Yeah.

Richard

And watch the sink.

Lewis

Watch your fingers. Don't knock them.

Richard

All right. Don't let it touch that sink.

Roberto

Go in the front, Lewis. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Don't let it go down. Don't let it go down.

Watch your fingers. Kevin

Hey, it fits. Okay.

Richard

Are you gonna caulk this?

Roberto

Yeah, we're gonna caulk this. We're gonna put 100% silicone. We're gonna caulk underneath the sink to seal the sink and underneath the cabinets. But first, we need to check for dimensions. Can you tell me how much you have there?

Lewis

I have an inch here.

Roberto

Okay. So, we need to go one more eighth in my direction. A little bit. Okay. Okay. That's fine here, Lewis. Let's check the other end. How much you have there?

Lewis

An inch.

Roberto

I have inch, inch and an eighth here. We need to go 1/16th over your side.

Okay. Lewis

All right.

Roberto

We are perfect. Now, what we're gonna do is we're gonna drill the faucet hole, silicone down the sink, and glue down the island.

All right. Richard

Great.

Roberto

Now we're gonna lift that to glue the island down.

Richard

Here you go.

Thank you. Richard

Beauty.

Roberto

Okay. Watch the fingers.

Richard

All right, one more piece to add -- our faucet, a piece of jewelry for this kitchen.

Kevin

Look at that right there. Roberto, this thing looks fantastic.

Richard

Look at that.

Kevin

Emily is going to love it. Nice job.

Roberto

Perfect. Thank you. Thank you.

Kevin

All right, so, Richard, I've got to go with Roger out in the front yard. But maybe I'll see you in the basement later?

Richard

You got it. See you.

Kevin

All right, thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

Roberto

You're welcome. Great job, guys.

Kevin

Our new asphalt driveway went down yesterday. And this is a huge improvement over what was here. Now, this asphalt is gonna continue down this little private way out to the town road. But here on the property, our landscape architect, Kim Turner, has called for a stone wall across the front here. And, Roger, nothing says New England like a stone wall, right?

Roger

Nothing says hard work like a stone wall. We came in, and we took an excavator down till we hit good gravel here, base material. Then we put stone on top of that and a filter fabric for keep the fines

from getting in behind the wall. Kevin

All right.

Roger

Then starts with the stone for the wall. We got our line up, and we're putting in our base stone in the front, real nice stone. And the base stone in the back doesn't have to be so nice 'cause no one's gonna see that.

Kevin

And these stones right here, are they at grade, below grade this first course?

Roger

They're gonna be buried a good 6 to 9 inches. So, you'll see the top half of them but not the bottom, and that'll hold the wall in place.

Kevin

Right. This is gonna make a tremendous statement

here in the front yard. Roger

It sure is.

Kevin

So, what type of stone? And where did these come from?

Roger

This is New England field stone. It came from a wall that was dismantled in Western Mass and brought down to us. So, it's got some age on it, and it really looks good.

Kevin

You love your reused stone, don't you?

Roger

We do.

Kevin

The string line here, Roger, does this represent the height of the finished wall?

Roger

Right. We're gonna end up with a wall that's about 2-feet high here, and it's gonna come around in a curve, carry it up. The grade will end up being about here, the top of the wall. So, we'll just fill this in and slope it down. And it'll all be planted.

Kevin

So, you got another pipe going in, Roger? What's this one for?

Roger

Well, this is gonna be a conduit in case in the future we want to run irrigation, lighting or anything like that under the wall so you'd never have to dig up the wall to get it in.

Kevin

Yeah, get it in now, right?

Roger

Right. They'll just tape off the end of that pipe and put a couple stakes in, and we'll know where it is.

Kevin

All right, so you guys are moving along. How long you think this is gonna take you for the whole wall?

Roger

It's deceiving. A couple, 3 days.

Kevin

Wow. Lot of work. All right.

Roger

The stone's good. We'll get it done.

Kevin

All right, well, we got more stuff going inside. So, appreciate that. We'll check back with you.

Roger

I'll be here.

Kevin

Up here on the second floor, not much has changed to this great little seating area except for this closet. This used to be off of the master bedroom. We stole the space and made it a closet out here. And, Mark, they've got a secret door here, kind of a hidden door, and they want it more hidden, which you have to help us with. What's your plan?

Mark

Yes, well, my plan is this is our material. It's a 36-inch-wide grasscloth.

Kevin

Grasscloth, huh?

Mark

And grasscloth, you will see the seams.

It gives you a paneled effect. Kevin

Right.

Mark

Okay. The name of the game is to try to balance the panels out.

Kevin

Okay.

Mark

With this particular wall, the center of the wall is right here.

Kevin

Right.

Mark

If we center the grasscloth, we're gonna have a seam here. You're gonna have a seam with the door, another seam here, and one over here.

Kevin

You guys hate seams.

Chuckling

We hate seams. Kevin

Okay.

Mark

So, I'm gonna make an exception in this room, and we're gonna cut three different panels -- one for this wall, panel for the door,

and a panel for the right side. Kevin

Okay.

Mark

So, then you only have two seams.

Kevin

Right, and it'll look like the panels

were there by design. Mark

Correct.

Kevin

All right, well, let's see it go up.

Mark

Okay.

Kevin

Oh, look at that, Mark. That looks terrific. So, it doesn't completely disappear. But it definitely fades into the background there.

Mark

Oh, yeah, and two seams are better than four.

Kevin

Well, they sure are. So, the rest of this little area gets the grasscloth?

Mark

Yes,

it does. Kevin

All right, thank you.

Mark

Hey, thanks.

Tom

Now we're ready to install the hardware on our old front door. Now that it's fixed, it looks new. The hardware that we're using is what is called a lock mortising hardware. This is where the knob goes. This is where the lock goes. So, we need to make a hole in the side of the door for this box to fit in. Matt's installing a machine that's called a lock mortising machine. What it's gonna do is he's set it up so that it cuts the height, the depth, and the thickness all with the same machine. He's gonna set it up, he's gonna start it up, and when he cranks it, that router's gonna go up and down and gradually work its way into the door. And when it gets to where it needs to stop, it will stop. He'll back it out, and mortise is done. All right, now let's see how it fits. Slide it in that mortise -- perfect fit. Now all he's got to do is mortise out for the plate. Nice job,

Matt. Matt

Thanks, Tom.

Kevin

Our original basement was a real blast from the past. It was this dank space. It had a heating system that was state-of-the-art, what, maybe 50 years ago or so?

Richard

Maybe 80. It wasn't that good back then.

Kevin

80 -- You're right.

Richard

So, we are standing in all the new space down in the basement underneath our kitchen. Remember what this was like? It used to have the old fieldstone foundation right here, a bad bulkhead here.

Kevin

Yeah, it was dark, kind of nasty.

Richard

Right. This is this ICF stuff, which is so cool -- insulation on this side and on the other side, concrete in the middle. It's unbelievable.

Kevin

And it goes up fast. Just sort of snaps together like building blocks. You work your way up. And when you're done, you get not only the insulation factor, but you can screw drywall right to these. And finish off this basement.

Richard

It makes this space tighter, and we finish if off with some insulation here on the rim joints,

really make it tight. Kevin

Okay.

Richard

So, underneath here, there's plenty of space. So, this house never had air conditioning. So, we added it on the first floor. We've got the ducted system here. Plenty of space for it. Comes back to an air handler right here.

Kevin

Sealed and insulated -- I love to see that.

Richard

Right, right. Now we move into the old part of the house. Remember what was in here before? It was this really gnarly, I think you'd call it, toilet in here. That's all gone. We had an oil tank here. That's all gone away.

Kevin

And we had an old basement floor, which was in bad shape. I thought maybe we would tear it up.

Richard

All this discussion about jacking up. And just covering it with epoxy. Look what it does. It makes a perfect space down here.

Looks good. Richard

Nice and clean. Now underneath here, we're on that first floor. We've got radiant. We're just below the dining room here. We also have it in the kitchen. We attach it to the underside of the subfloor. And then we insulate it really well to make the heat go up.

Kevin

Warm underfoot and efficient with this one.

Richard

That's right. All brand-new drain, waste, and vent, perfectly installed, perfectly pitch. Clean-up's where it should be -- excellent. Now, this is where our big beast of a boiler used to be. Do you remember we used to have to yell over it?

Kevin

Oh, man, and super inefficient. It was a staggering number that the homeowners were paying to heat the house.

Richard

Reported $10,000.

Kevin

Oh, unbelievable.

Richard

That's all gone. Here's our cooling system for the first floor. You know, historically, cooling systems have had an outdoor condenser for each indoor air handler. So, it was one to one. So, you'd end up with multiple boxes outside. In this case, we've got a single box outside, and we run one larger-size line set to this -- a distribution box right here. Now, we can have these placed all through the building. And then you can actually pick what you want to connect to once you've done that. In our case, we've got two air handlers down here in the basement.

Here's our ducted system. Kevin

Yep.

Richard

But we also could use a high side walker set, like you see everywhere. Here's one that would mount into a ceiling so all you'd see is this.

It'd be for heating and cooling. Kevin

Right. And also, this is a floor-mounted unit right here that would look like a convector.

Kevin

And ours is for heating and cooling, too, right?

Richard

Right, but this is the real breakthrough. These things are called an inverter heat pump. So, it can give you cooling, but it can also find enough heat, even when it's really cold outside, to provide heating. In our case, we're using it for backup.

Kevin

Because we have the radiator, right?

Richard

That's right. So, here's out hot-water tank, a stainless-steel tank. Doesn't have a direct flame in it. It connects hydraulically to the water-based system right here. Here's our beautiful mechanical room.

Kevin

You are in heaven. Look at this.

Richard

So, it might look confusing. But I love this. They've actually done an as-built drawing for future generations. That's really great performance.

Nice. Very nice. Richard

All right. We've got different mixing valve temperatures here. We got water going out to the wood floors for radiant. Another mixing valve's for tile. We go out to the radiators and base board. And this is goes to the hot-water tank.

Kevin

Okay. And look at the layout, just perfect, right?

Richard

Clean, neat, always with the right shut-off valves where they should be. This material's pretty interesting. This is actually a new plastic, a polypropylene. But we don't glue it. It's actually fused. So, you heat up this pipe, you heat up the fitting, bring them together, and the materials actually fuse together.

Kevin

And this all the water-based system

that we got going here. Richard

That's right. Comes back to a heating boiler, super-efficient. We showed this before. This is actually on.

Kevin

Big improvement from the beast that used to be down here.

Richard

It's on right now, okay? So, we got exhaust going to outside. But we're also gonna think about air for burning. So, this house is so tight with all that insulation. So, you got air coming in right here to go to combustion right here.

Kevin

Don't want to consume too much of this indoor air.

Richard

Right, and speaking of making sure there's fresh air, the last piece, always, is this. How do we get fresh air into a super-tight building? This is an energy-recovery ventilator.

Kevin

Beautiful.

Richard

We'll take exhaust from bathrooms. It'll come this way. It'll go across a heat exchanger. Fan will push it across this heat exchanger to outside. Well, that air in the winter is filled with heat. You don't want to lose it to outside. So, at the very same time, air from outside, fresh air, passes through this heat exchanger. Now take a look at this. See there's layers that go in each different direction.

This is what's inside here. Kevin

Yep.

Richard

So, now the air passes, goes back and forth, but they don't touch directly. The heat that would've gone outside gets picked up by the cold air and stays inside the building.

Kevin

So, if they spent $10,000 a year to heat the old house, how much do you expect they're gonna spend to heat this old house plus the new space?

Richard

I mean, we do these houses all the time, and I think the combination of insulation this good and this kind of equipment, we often cut it in half. I think this is gonna be more like 75%.

Kevin

Wow. $7,500 off their heating bill every year. That is amazing.

Richard

And it'll be comfortable, and it'll be every year.

Kevin

Unbelievable. Nice job. This is who Emily refers to as the Deldons' first child. Her name is Solay. And she is a 10-year-old Newfy who loves to play outside. Now in her last house, she had her own door, but not in this house, at least not yet. Today, Tommy is gonna fix that. Come on, darling. This back mud room is a perfect spot for a dog door. Tom, and I'll be honest with you, this is my first dog door.

Tom

Oh, really?

Kevin

Yeah. I've never built one before.

Tom

Wow. Well, this is a first time. And it couldn't be in the worst spot.

Kevin

How do you mean?

Tom

Well, it would have been perfect if I could have put the dog door right under this window.

Kevin

Okay.

Tom

But because it's where it is, I had to cut all the structure that's down here, which is one, two, three, four 2x6s that are carrying that header up there.

Kevin

So, why not under the window?

Tom

Well, if you go outside and take a look under the window...

Kevin

Oh.

We have a stairway. Kevin

Yep.

Tom

So, the dog would fall down the stairs. So, I have to move it all the way over here. All right, so, I'm gonna build my header in place. So, I put my first 2x6 in there. And I'm gonna build it up with three separate pieces and screw it together.

Kevin

So, it's like this is not your first dog door. I mean, how did you size this thing? Have you met Solay?

Tom

Big dog. Well, I got the height of the dog's shoulder from the dog.

Both laugh

Tom

And I want to go 2 1/2 to 3 inches above that.

Kevin

That's this.

Tom

So, that's where our rough opening will be.

All right. Tom

Okay. So, just get this in.

Kevin

And we'll screw those in place.

Tom

Screw it in place. Just keep that even on the bottom.

Kevin

Yep. Good.

Tom

All right, so, what I've done is I've cut the stud off right here. And I've put the header on top of that stud. Now, we have to support this side over here. So, we're gonna slip a jack into the wall, and we're gonna slide it again against the king stud that's in the wall. And this will push our header up tight to the structure above. Okay. Now just screw that to the king stud. So, now this new header will carry the load above.

Kevin

All right, here's your piece. Look at you. You're putting the old insulation back in?

Tom

Yeah. I can salvage the old insulation. I cut it. So, I can just compress this jack against it. And I'll just fill the void with the expanding foam. No sense in throwing it out. All right, that's it. Now just screw this in. All right, so, now I'm ready to cut the rough opening to the outside. And we're gonna follow along the bottom of the header and down each side. I don't want to cut the bottom because I have to cut it about an inch and a half lower because it's gonna be pitched. So, I'll cut the two sides and the header. All right, Kevin, you want to draw that line across the bottom and make that cut? All right. So, now all we have to do is cut these on an angle from this point up to here.

Kevin

This fits well on the outside.

Tom

Try the inside one, see how it fits.

Kevin

Wait a second, Tommy. What is this? It's got two doors. That's like saloon doors.

Tom

Yeah, they swing in and out so the dog can get out easy. Because this is such a big opening, they didn't want a flap hanging down. By the way, do you have any idea who invented the dog door?

Kevin

Invented the dog door?

Tom

Yeah.

Kevin

I have no idea. Ben Franklin? It seems like he invented everything.

Tom

No, it wasn't Ben Franklin. Good guess, though. It was Sir Isaac Newton.

Kevin

What?

Tom

Yeah. He invented it for his cat. He was tired of getting up and opening the door. So, he gave the cat its own way out.

Kevin

Must have been his early work.

Laughing

Tom

Yeah. All right, once that sets up, we'll let it dry and give it another coat. But in the mean time, we can put our inside door in. All right, Kevin. You want to pull all that paper back in around the opening and staple it? And we'll get it inside that frame there.

Kevin

Yeah, it looks pretty good, Tommy, huh?

Swings open and closed. Tom

Yeah. And it's got a lock for security. And when you go away, it's got a vacation door with four screws attached to screw them on, and no one's gonna get in.

Kevin

Wow. Now, all we got to do is test it.

Tom

Want to go out? Want to go out? Go ahead. Hey! All right! Beautiful. Beautiful.

Kevin

How about that, huh?

Tom

Yeah, right through. She's a fast learner.

Kevin

Sure is. Nice job. All right, well, it may not look like it now, but next week, this project is gonna be wrapped up.

Tom

We got a lot of work to do, but it'll be done.

Kevin

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

Tom

And I'm Tom Silva.

Kevin

And that was Solay for "This Old House." All right, five bucks.

Tom

Five bucks? No way. I'm not going through.

Kevin

Come on! Be a good boy! Come on! Come on! Next time on "This Old House"... It is a very special day here in Arlington, Massachusetts, 'cause we are turning our project house back to our homeowners. And when we got here, oh, man, it was a mess.

Tom

Looking good, huh?

Richard

It sure is. You know, this was a big project,

but it turned out great. Tom

Yeah, it did.

Emily

It has been such an incredible experience, and we feel like it's a dream come true.

Kevin

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