This Old House

NORM

Today on "This Old House"...

KATHERINE

Wow, Roger, this is absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much.

NORM

...we'll see the progress on our project house.

KEVIN

And some old bathroom fixtures become new again.

TOM

And it's cabinet time in the kitchen. Looks pretty bad right here.

KEVIN

Are you kidding me?

NORM

Is this place really worth saving?

RICHARD

We can do better than this.

ROGER

Time to get to work.

TOM

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.

NORM

perfectly square.

ROGER

All in all, a good day's work.

KEVIN

Hi, there. I'm Kevin O'Connor, and welcome back to "This Old House." Have a look at this paint job. Now that we've got the Victorian put back on to our house, we've got some really bold colors making a statement. And we're gonna have our front yard make a comeback as well. You know, for the past six months or so, this has been a jobsite, so we've had tons of people and equipment trampling everything, but today, Roger's working with Katherine and Jenn Nawada to bring it all back. Hey, guys. -Hi, Kevin. -Hi, Kev. So, Roger, what's the plan?

ROGER

Well, you have to remember that six months ago, when I got here, there was a whole bunch of nice plants in the front of your house, but I knew Tommy was gonna put on a really nice porch on the front. They all had to come out. So we dug them all up, transplanted them at our nursery, watered them, heeled them in, took good care of them for the summer.

KEVIN

That's pretty good. Save you some plants, right?

KATHERINE

Yeah, that's right. But you had mentioned that some of them might not transplant well. -Did they all survive? -I was right.

ROGER

There were two that were nice plants but didn't make it, but the rest of them are going in now and it really looks good.

KEVIN

All right, so you guys are gonna be working in this front yard today. You're not gonna let the rain slow you down at all? Katherine, you ready to do some work?

KATHERINE

I am.

KEVIN

All right, well, while you guys are doing that, I'm gonna go inside and check on the progress in there, okay? -Okay. -All right. See you guys.

ROGER

Now, you remember, when we came in, we took out all of the plants, but the biggest project of all was this flowering dogwood.

KATHERINE

Right.

ROGER

So we reloaded the tree onto a trailer with a Bobcat and we drove it up here. We dug a really big hole. It's 4-feet wide by 18-inches deep, and that was the right height for the plant, and we set it in place.

KATHERINE

So why was the root ball so big?

ROGER

We actually use a formula where we measure for every inch of trunk, there's 10-inches of ball, so this worked out to have a 3-foot ball on it, and that gives us the greatest chance of successful survival of this tree.

KATHERINE

Okay.

ROGER

Now you notice that light area on the trunk? That's where we took 4 to 6 inches of material that was piled on top of it that shouldn't have been there. So we scraped that all off. We have the tree at the proper height now. It's gonna grow and flower and be an absolutely beautiful specimen in your front yard.

KATHERINE

So why did you plant it over here?

ROGER

Well, I wanted to screen the neighbor a little bit, but more importantly, I wanted to be able to see those flowers from your new porch.

KATHERINE

Oh, that'll look wonderful.

ROGER

Now we were able to save a dozen plants, and they really fill in the front nicely.

KATHERINE

And are these my sickly hollies from the back?

ROGER

They are. They look a little better already, getting to get out in the sun. Next year, they'll be beautiful.

KATHERINE

Yeah, great.

ROGER

One plant left to go, and that's this Hydrangea. If you help me widen out this hole a little bit, we'll get that planted. Now I'm just gonna cut this open. You want to hold that for me?

KATHERINE

Sure.

ROGER

Get rid of the string. Get it off the burlap. See the old burlap from the summer and the wood chips we had on?

KATHERINE

Oh, yeah, it's just falling right off.

ROGER

Look at all the roots on it. -It's perfect. -Oh, good. All right, so now we're just gonna set it in place. Now you look. You can see that this is slightly higher than the existing ground level. That's 'cause plants love to be planted high.

KATHERINE

Why is that?

ROGER

They can grow that way. The roots can get oxygen. If you plant them too low, they can get soggy and wet and they don't like to grow.

KATHERINE

Oh, I see.

ROGER

Now, one other thing we got to do is we got to plant the face to the walkway. And that means turning the best side -- there we go. See how we got the nice tall on the back?

KATHERINE

Right.

ROGER

Okay, so this is the way we're gonna plant this. If you come over here...

KATHERINE

Sure.

ROGER

...I'm gonna put some fertilizer in with this soil.

KATHERINE

Okay.

ROGER

Mix it together and put it right around the plant.

KATHERINE

And how often do we need to water it?

ROGER

You're gonna water everything once a week right up until the time the ground freezes.

KATHERINE

All right.

ROGER

Well, it looks pretty good for reusing shrubs, huh?

KATHERINE

Yeah, I really can't believe this is my same yard.

ROGER

Yeah, it came out great. Now, I'm gonna work on the front walk, but I want you to go out back and give Jenn a hand.

KATHERINE

Sure. All right, see you later. Hey, Jenn. I thought I'd give you a little help.

JENN

Oh, great. How's it going?

KATHERINE

It's good. It's looking really beautiful back here.

JENN

I'm really happy about how everything looks. I mean, we got the natural stepping stones in going around the tree so you have full access.

KATHERINE

Mm-hmm.

JENN

We have our Vinca -- our ground cover -- going, so hopefully that'll travel over well if you keep it watered.

KATHERINE

Okay.

JENN

And then we have our seeded boulder garden over there, so your kids, I hope, will love to go read a book and sit out there.

KATHERINE

They will.

JENN

And behind it, we have Astilbes and Hostas and ferns, and these are all shade-tolerant plants. You're gonna have foliage color and you're gonna have flower color, so...

KATHERINE

Wonderful.

JENN

Yeah, and then coming over here, we're gonna put at the end of the garage -- this is Clethra, which is also called summersweet, and that will be great in sun or shade.

KATHERINE

Okay, great.

JENN

Yeah. So do you want to help me plant this Vinca?

KATHERINE

Sure, yeah.

JENN

We're gonna plant all of these one-gallon pots about a foot apart from each other. So this is, again, Vinca. And it's an evergreen ground cover. It's super hearty to New England. It'll flower purple for you in May, and it sometimes re-blooms in the fall. -Okay. -So pick a pot.

KATHERINE

All right.

JENN

Figure out where your shovel's gonna go, and dig a hole to the depth about of this pot.

KATHERINE

I see. All right.

JENN

And then you want to score the roots. This will release the roots so it can spread out into the soil.

KATHERINE

I see. Jenn, will these spread out?

JENN

These are all gonna create one green carpet, and they're very durable, so if you happen to walk on it, it's totally fine.

KATHERINE

Okay. And about how many seasons will that take?

JENN

It'll take a couple years.

KATHERINE

Oh. So what do I do to take care of these?

JENN

We just need to get some mulch on them, and for the next three or four weeks, water them about three times a week.

KATHERINE

Okay, great. Well, I'll come back and help you with the mulch later, but I'm gonna go see what Roger's up to.

JENN

All right. I'll see what I can get done.

KATHERINE

Wow, Roger, this absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much. It looks like you've made a lot of progress.

ROGER

We have. We put it in this bluestone walk, and you can see it's all random color, and I love to have a mix of the different flavors.

KATHERINE

Yeah, I see some orange and some purple. It looks antique.

ROGER

But the most important when doing a walk is to dig down, get a good base material underneath it. We dug down a foot here. We put in gravel almost up to finish grade, and then we set the bluestone in Portland cement and stone dust mixed together.

KATHERINE

Okay. And I noticed it has a pretty big pitch.

ROGER

It does, but it had an even bigger pitch before we started. We put in a piece of granite as a riser.

KATHERINE

Oh, that's beautiful.

ROGER

So, we took 6 1/2 inches off the pitch, so you don't have a sleigh ride when you come out the front door.

KATHERINE

It's really looking beautiful. It makes such a difference to the front of the house. -Can I try it out? -Sure, go ahead. Great, see you later.

NORM

One of the major projects at our house is to open up the entry hall. Now, Tommy removed a wall, which revealed the main staircase. Now he has to make it safe. And that means a railing system with two new newel posts that have to be carved to match the originals. So, that brings us to Georgetown, Massachusetts, and the workshop of housewright of Matt Diana. -Hi, Matt. -Hey, Norm. How you doing? Great. So, tell me about this project.

MATT

Well, we've been asked to reproduce the carvings for the newel posts at Belmont house. We received the newel posts already turned to match the existing newel posts, so what we're doing is matching the existing carvings. Right now, we're in the process of doing that if you want to come have a look. -I want to see that. -All right.

NORM

Look at this shop. This is a classic.

MATT

Thank you. So, here's our newel posts. -Look at these. -The small one's all done, and we're just finishing up the big one.

NORM

Ah, this longleaf southern pine, it's reclaimed material. It's beautiful, it matches what's originally at the house.

MATT

Yep.

NORM

And the carvings -- you got the flower up here at the top, and then these leaf designs down here at the bottom. I see you have a photograph. It looks like you made a perfect match. But you can't do that from just the photograph. -There's a whole process, right? -Well, that's right. We have to make a template first. What we have here, this is the template for the lower carving. And the first thing you do is you take a piece of paper -- trace paper -- and tape it on to the newel post. And take a charcoal pencil and rub the whole thing down. And what that's gonna do is bring out the design of the carving. Right, so I see part of the carving, but there's a lot of other things going on here.

MATT

That's right. A lot of the wood grain comes through, any scratches. So what we want to do is get a cleaner copy. How we're gonna do that is we're gonna make our own carbon copy. Again, take the charcoal, rub the back of the paper. Grab your new piece of paper. Lay it on top. And then trace out the carving.

NORM

All right, so you're making your own carbon paper.

MATT

That's right. And what that does is... -Much clearer. -...transfers the design.

NORM

Right. And I see you've transferred the whole thing onto this piece now.

MATT

Yep. And essentially to get this on the wood, we're gonna do the same exact thing. Flip it over. Hit it with a little charcoal. Lay it on the post. And then, again, draw the design.

NORM

All right.

MATT

And that gives you a perfect match.

NORM

That works well. You can see it quite clearly.

MATT

Yep.

NORM

So then you're ready to start carving, right?

MATT

Not just yet. Carving, it can be a one-shot deal, so it's good to do a few practice runs. So, we take a board of similar material and try out different chisels, different techniques just to make sure we have what's gonna work.

NORM

Right. So, here you've laid out part of the flower and practiced on that. And I see you have whole series of carving tools, which is really necessary for all the different details. And here's the large newel post that's gonna go at the bottom of the stair. You've carved the flowers at the top here. What do you got left?

MATT

We just got a little bit left on this lower carving.

NORM

Oh, yeah, okay.

MATT

So, for this carving, we used a narrow gouge. And what this does, it just matches the profile, what's already there. And what we're gonna do is take our mallet and get right into it. The key is just line it up. And really just following the line.

NORM

So, you know, this southern yellow pine is really hard to carve, it's difficult.

MATT

It is difficult. The biggest challenge is the differences in density of the wood. The darker wood is really dense. The lighter wood is really soft. So as you're going through it, you see these inconsistencies, and it's key to be really steady. It's okay if we go a little light. I can always come back and go a little deeper.

NORM

And some of the carving is with the grain, and some of it's against the grain, which can be difficult. -You really need sharp tools. -That's right. For this carving, I sharpened it probably three times through the whole thing, which is kind of a lot. There it is. That's it. Ah, you make it look easy.

MATT

Thank you. It's something we love doing. I love the challenge of it and trying to reproduce something that the original craftsman did.

NORM

Right, well, you have a great skill set.

MATT

Thank you. I look forward to seeing it.

KEVIN

Whoa, Tommy, look at you in a sea of cabinets. Obviously, you have taken delivery.

TOM

Yeah. I got a lot of cabinets, and I've got no place to put them but up.

KEVIN

All right, well, let's get them in. So, what's the general layout of our kitchen here?

TOM

Well, here's a plan showing you the cabinets. If you look right there on that wall, that's where the oven or the range is gonna go with the hood.

KEVIN

Mm-hmm.

TOM

Over here is the bay window. That's where the kitchen sink's gonna go.

KEVIN

Sink right here in front of the window -- very nice.

TOM

And if you look at the one in the corner right here, this is this corner right here with the in-wall oven that will go right here.

KEVIN

Oh, wow! So the oven's actually raised up off the floor. All right. So, are you gonna start with the bottoms, the tops?

TOM

I'm actually gonna start with the bottoms. And if you look, I actually drew a line right here, and that's a level line that runs around the room to set the top of my cabinets. Now, if you look at that cabinet right there by the corner there, you can see the top of the cabinet is even with the line, but when I come around the corner, you can see that the cabinet is down right here.

KEVIN

Hmm, which means we've got to shim that cabinet up.

TOM

Exactly. So now, when you step over here and you look, now the cabinets are 34 1/2 inches off the floor. But if I measure up right here, I'm 36 1/2 inches.

KEVIN

So this floor dips just about two inches this way? -Exactly. -So you shimmed it up.

TOM

Right. So what I did is I actually put a shim right here, making the top of this shim level, and I made the distance of the top of the shim to the line 34 1/2 inches.

KEVIN

Mm-hmm. Okay.

TOM

I also put another shim out here, making that level from front to back.

KEVIN

All right. Which one are we gonna start with?

TOM

Let's start with the oven cabinet. All right, now, let's pick it up and put it on the front one.

KEVIN

Okay.

TOM

Now, what we want to do is push the bottom back in, also, but lean the front of the cabinet out a little bit so we don't jam our hands.

KEVIN

Hang on. Let me get my edge.

TOM

Okay, you in there? Okay, good.

KEVIN

Against the wall. I think it's got to come to me some.

TOM

Yeah. I got a line on the inside to reference from.

KEVIN

Can you see that?

TOM

Back to me about 1/4 inch. Right there. Hold it right there. All right, now I want to get a level and check it. All right, let's check it this way. All right, the top's got to come out just a little bit. Now let's see how it is this way. It's pretty good that way. All right. Let me get a shim at the top. Push it out. Okay, that's gonna be it. Yep. Put a screw in it.

KEVIN

Pre-drill it right where the studs are.

TOM

Yeah, it's my first day, you know? Another screw on this side.

KEVIN

How's that?

TOM

That's it right there. Next cabinet to the right. Just like that. Perfect. All right, now, what I like to do is take the next cabinet and put it beside it and screw them together before we fasten it to the big one. -Is that this one here? -Yep. -Ready? -1, 2, 3.

Tom grunts

TOM

Okay. All right, now push it right in. Okay, now let me show you why I like to screw them together before I install them to the wall. When I push the cabinets tight to the wall, see the gap right here? All right, and the cabinets are straight along the back, tight to the wall, but they're not straight on the front edge right here.

KEVIN

'Cause we've got a bowed wall.

TOM

Exactly. So if we pull the cabinet back out, make the cabinets tight, now we have a straight front.

KEVIN

All right.

TOM

So let's pull this drawer out of the way. I'll open up this door. And now we want to make the front of the cabinet right here, this face, flush with each other. Looks good there. Let me get a screw in there. All right, I want to make sure it's even all the way. Right there. Good. Okay, good. Now a couple in the back, 'cause we want to keep that nice and tight. All right. So, now we can see the cabinets are nice and tight. All right, now what I want to do is I want to look at this gap right here from the cabinet to the oven cabinet. I want to close that gap. All right, so, you keep that end of the cabinet tight to the wall. I'm gonna pull mine out just a little bit. -Mm-hmm. -There. Now I'm nice and tight and parallel, and the cabinets are nice and square.

KEVIN

So, I'm tight over here.

TOM

Yeah?

KEVIN

Here you go.

TOM

Okay. Thank you. All right. That's it for that cabinet.

KEVIN

All right.

TOM

Now we're gonna turn the corner a little bit.

KEVIN

How close do you want me to come?

TOM

A little more down that way just a little. Okay, I got a line on this side we got to bring it to. That's good. Now we'll just check it with a level and screw it in place.

KEVIN

All right. So, ooh, that's right on. -Nice. -Good. How much longer do you need to set all of the cabinets in the kitchen?

TOM

Well, there's quite a bit of cabinets here. I got about two or three more days.

KEVIN

It's exciting to see the first ones go in. -Thanks, Tommy. -Thanks for your help. We've got more finishing touches going into the mud room, as well. Now, you may recall weeks ago, Norm took out an original marble sink from the house, and it was pretty dirty, but otherwise, it was in great shape. So Roberto actually took that sink. He put a cleaning agent on it, buffed it all up. He even recut it so that it would fit properly in its new home. And, Roberto, now that it is here, back on site, I got to say, it looks beautiful. -That's a nice job. -It does, doesn't it? Is it hard to do? Is this something a lot of people should be thinking about?

ROBERTO

It's actually, Kevin, it's a good question. It's so easy, and it's a lot of people is doing that now in Boston and Cambridge area. Top decks, vanity, kitchens. It's so easy.

KEVIN

Right, so the lesson is, if you have a beautiful marble piece like this, do not throw it out, no matter what it looks like.

ROBERTO

No way. Just reuse it.

KEVIN

Okay. That is good. So, the sink may be old, but everything else in this little powder room is new. You can see that we've got the plaster up, and behind these walls, we actually installed a soundproofing. It's right next to the kitchen, so we want to deaden the noise in here, and all the other plumbing fixtures are brand-new. And that means that we are ready to get this thing in.

ROBERTO

Can you push it over this side a little bit more, please?

KEVIN

Wow, that really gives you a good sense of how beautiful that's gonna be when everything is hooked up. Nice! Now we've got one other major restoration project in the plumbing department. Norm also took an old, antique claw-foot tub out of that bathroom. So, once we got the old claw-foot tub offsite, you can see what a great job our restoration crew did to it. They cleaned it all up, and then the inside now has this beautiful coat of white paint, a different color on the outside, and Abe's got in the new nickel fixtures already. And to match that nickel detail, look at this. They took the old claw feet. They actually gave them a nickel plate, and it really jazzed them up. We'll put these on as soon as we get it into the master bathroom, which is what you and I have got to do right now, Abe. -All right. Let's go. -Ready? Oh, yeah. Are you carrying any weight?

Chuckles

KEVIN

Okay, we'll set it right on this box here. Okay. Good. Hold on. Let me get this one. Okay. You want to pull that out? Ready, Ivan? -Yep. -Go. -How's this? -Set it down nice and slow.

ABE

Down, down, down. Good. Easy. -Good? -We're down.

KEVIN

Look at that, huh? Wow! That is a beauty, Abe. I cannot wait to see this thing connected an operational.

ABE

I'll get to it.

KEVIN

Nice job. -Hey, Katherine. -Hey, Kevin. Looks like you've been busy in your backyard, huh?

KATHERINE

Yeah, just putting a little mulch down.

KEVIN

What do you think of Jenn Nawada's design?

KATHERINE

It's amazing. It's transformed the space.

KEVIN

Yeah, it's a big difference, isn't it?

KATHERINE

Yeah. Well, it looks like you've been busy, too.

KEVIN

Yeah, we have. Over the last week, we've made some good progress on my favorite project, the tree house. You can see that we got some stain on it. We added some decorative skirting all the way around the perimeter, and up top, we've got a couple surprises. We've got a telescope in one corner and a hammock chair in another corner. And then check this out. If you drag a hose out here and screw it into this fixture, on a hot summer day, turn this lever... and you've got yourself your own little water park, huh?

KATHERINE

That is fantastic. What a great idea.

KEVIN

Yeah, we'll see if you still love it when your kids are all covered in mud. All right, so the last thing we need to do is actually put up this rope ladder. -You want to give me a hand? -Sure. If you'll grab that, I will bring in a ladder. And so we've got it secured down into the ground.

KATHERINE

Mm-hmm.

KEVIN

Tommy actually helped us get it in there nice and deep.

KATHERINE

Okay.

KEVIN

And then we've got some hooks up here to make sure that we hold the weight of the kids. Let's see. One there, one there. Do one there, we'll do one there. One final one right there.

KATHERINE

Fantastic.

KEVIN

So, that is the rope ladder that they can use to climb up and down, and everything is done except for one thing.

KATHERINE

What's that?

KEVIN

We need to know what the kids think.

KATHERINE

Yeah, let's call them in.

KEVIN

Let's get 'em.

KATHERINE

Getting up there okay, guys? -Mommy, get up. -I'm coming.

KEVIN

Check it out. Uh-oh, telescope's a hit.

KATHERINE

Wow! Look at this chair.

Laughs

KEVIN

Whoo! Check it out. Look in there. See it? I see a ship. You see the pirate ship?

Laughs

KEVIN

And there's a rope ladder right over there. This is a little gate. You can open it and close it. When you're all done with it, you close the gate up.

MURAT

Right there.

KEVIN

Excellent.

MURAT

Good job. Bottom.

KEVIN

All right, guys. I hope you like it. We had a lot of people throw in. We had the carpentry help from Norm and Tom, the plumbers helped with the telescope, the painters, and the electricians even threw in with some lights. The work on the tree house is done, but we still have a lot of finish work to do inside. And we're gonna get to that next time, so until then, I'm Kevin O'Connor...

MURAT

And we are the Bicers.

KEVIN

...for "This Old House," in a tree house. Yeah. Next time on "This Old House"... When the curtains and the blinds start going up, that means that the project is winding down. Murat, Katherine, you guys getting excited?

MURAT

Yes, we are.

NORM

Wood is warm, stone is cool. The countertops are going in today.

TOM

We're going to install a couple of columns to separate the kitchen from the mud room.

KEVIN

What is the story with this color?

MAN

Well, this is a magnetic primer kit. Then you can stick magnets to it, just like the refrigerator.

NORM

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