This video is no longer available.
Save the Flagpole | The Westerly Project
01/16/20 | 23m 43s | Rating: TV-G
As the project winds down, the televisions are mounted, and the blinds and curtains get installed. Richard takes a look at the new water heater. Jenn watches the final plants go in and works to install outdoor lighting. The old flagpole comes down for a touch up.
Copy and Paste the Following Code to Embed this Video:
Save the Flagpole | The Westerly Project
Kevin
Today on "This Old House"...
Man
Ah,
water-heater day. Richard
It is. It is.
Kevin
How excited are you to be this far along with 1 week to go?
It's unbelievable. Kevin
Right?
Yeah. Kevin
It's a big difference.
Roger
We're getting there.
Jenn
And it's the final push to finish the landscape before move-in day.
Kevin
What happened to all this plumbing here?
Richard
I've never seen anything like this before.
Roger
There's already rot going on in that trunk.
Kevin
So what have you found up here?
Tom
Well, a bit of a surprise.
Richard
It's really the classic plumber's lament.
Kevin
Nice! How excited are you guys to see that?
Extremely. Kevin
Right? You're gonna have to choke down some dust first, though, before you get into that part...
Scott
Oh,
yeah. Kevin
...along the way.
Tom
The money's in the detail.
Kevin
That is beautiful. Hey, Katherine.
Katherine
Hey,
Kevin. Kevin
Hey, there. I'm Kevin O'Connor, and welcome back to "This Old House." It is a whirlwind of activity here on our Westerly, Rhode Island, project. The carpenters and the painters are working on the final touches. Hey, Garrett. How are you?
Garrett
Hey, Kevin. How are you?
Kevin
And it is a whirlwind because in just a couple of days, our homeowners, Scott and Shayla, are moving back into this house. Now, a year ago, well, it did not look like this at all. It was a 1940s ranch, well-built but hadn't been updated in many years, and look at what we have now. This is our new front entryway, off to the right a little bit and a lot bigger, and this leads right into a wide-open floor plan. Hey, guys. We've got the public space up front with the kitchen and the family room and more private space down at the end of the hallway, including an office and a playroom, and they're both getting TVs. We'll start with the playroom, and Chris is our TV expert. Chris,
good to see you. Chris
Nice to see you, Kevin.
Kevin
What are we putting up?
Chris
We have a 55-inch TV going on a flat bracket.
Kevin
So we want it, what, nice and flush to the wall, flat to the wall?
Chris
Nice flat and flush to the wall. We have a specific height for this. It's gonna be at 60 inches.
Kevin
So no swing, no swivel, no articulation?
Chris
No, nothing like that. The only reason we would need a tilt is if the TV was going much higher on the wall.
Kevin
Okay, so brackets are going in. You got one. You got another one going in right here. This custom to this TV or standard bracket?
Chris
No, it's pretty standard. These actually work up through a 37
all the way up to a 90-inch TV. Kevin
Beautiful. A couple little things that come in a kit, I presume?
Chris
Yep. Exactly. This is the vest and pattern. Not all TVs are gonna have the same exact size, but this particular type of mount does work with just about any TV you buy these days.
Kevin
Okay. You got two going in there. And what are these gonna hang off of?
Chris
These are gonna hang off the wall bracket.
Kevin
Yes,
right. Chris
This is it. With the two brackets being so close together, it gives us plenty of options to move it left and right. Just in case we can't hit the stud dead-on...
Kevin
Right.
Chris
...we'll have plenty of room to move it to make sure it is centered.
Kevin
Low profile, close to the TV, okay.
Chris
Very close. So I've already measured this wall, and I have my center marked from left to right. Now we just need to find 60 inches from the floor to center the TV.
Kevin
And so 60 inches why?
Chris
60 inches is the average viewing height when you're standing up.
Kevin
Okay. Alright. So 60 up on the centerline.
Chris
So there's 60 inches. We know that the TV is 28 inches high, so the center of that is gonna put us at 14 inches, and I've already premeasured the mount on the TV.
Kevin
So from the center up 14, this is now the top of the TV?
Chris
That's correct.
Kevin
And your mount comes down, you said you measured?
Six and a quarter inches. Kevin
Down from there.
Chris
Yep, so I'll just make a mark.
Kevin
Okay, so that's where our bracket hole is gonna go?
That's correct. Kevin
What now?
Chris
So now I need to find two studs for this particular mount.
Kevin
Okay.
Chris
So I know I have one here, so typically, studs are 16 inches on center.
Kevin
And the two electrical boxes are telling you that they hung those off of a stud.
Chris
That's correct, so the electrical box has to be attached to the stud, so what I'll do is just make a tiny, little mark here. I'm gonna grab my stud finder just to confirm that I do have a stud there.
Beep
Kevin
Bang.
Chris
And it tells me there's one there.
Kevin
Dead nuts. Okay. Okay. You gonna sink one of those?
Chris
Absolutely.
Kevin
Where do you want it, right there?
Chris
That is perfect.
Kevin
Okay. Level that.
Perfect. Chris
Level.
Kevin
Okay. Now drill the rest of the holes?
Chris
Now drill the rest of the holes. I already have my marks made.
Kevin
Okay. Okay.
Chris
Alright. So now, Kevin, if you want to install the local area network connection, I'll plug in the power.
Kevin
LAN, there, LAN?
Chris
Yes, LAN.
Okay. Chris
Perfect. So now we're ready to take this TV and put it on the wall.
Mm-hmm. Chris
So what I like to do is, we don't want to put any pressure on the screen, so what we're gonna do is hold it by the bracket itself, and about a third of the way down, we just want to gently hold it to stand it up.
Got it. Chris
Alright. From here, let's just grab it from the bottom. Now, you see the two hooks on the back bracket?
Kevin
Oh, clicks right in.
Chris
That click lets you know that it's secured.
Okay. Chris
Alright. So the next step is to level the TV. We're gonna make sure it's level. Sometimes, the mount from the manufacturer isn't always perfect. So as you can see, we are off a tiny bit.
Kevin
Mm-hmm.
Chris
And there's two adjustments on the back bracket that allow us to make sure it's level.
Kevin
Give you this, so you can get up there.
Chris
Perfect. Not every TV bracket has this fine adjustment, so it makes it really handy in this instance.
And that looks good. Kevin
Alright. Get this out of your way. Can we plug this thing in?
Chris
We sure can. Underneath, we have two little tabs we need to pull. This is gonna allow us to free the TV from the wall.
Nice. Chris
Alright? Now, if you feel underneath, there's two little tabs.
They act as kickstands. Kevin
Oh, yeah!
Chris
It gives us the ability to work with it.
Kevin
Okay. Come up. Come up, up, up, up, up, up, up. Yep,
there you are. Chris
There we go.
Kevin
That's the lower one.
Here comes Ethernet. Chris
Fantastic.
Kevin
Beautiful. Kickstands go away. Look at that. Nice. Perfect. So I have another TV that has to go on an articulating arm upstairs. You want to give me a hand? Love to.
Chris
Fantastic.
Richard
Let me just pop this panel. Why don't you grab that? Thank you,
sir. Man
Ah, water-heater day.
Richard
It is. It is.
We're getting close. Richard
We are. Electric hybrid water heater.
My favorite. Richard
Great. I know. You specify them all the time.
Man
Yeah, I mean, couple of reasons for me is, I don't have to vent it.
We don't need a gas line. Richard
Yep.
Man
And it dehumidifies the basement.
Richard
For sure. So the way it works is pretty straightforward. On the bottom, it's a conventional electronic water heater, and that means it has electrical elements like this. Standard electric elements are, like, 4,500 watts, and there's two of them, one here, one here, but we really don't want these on if we can help it because it makes the electric meter spin like crazy.
Man
Sure.
Richard
But then here inside the tank is a backup. What makes it different is, at the top it has a heat pump, and a heat pump is really just a glorified air conditioner in reverse, so in normal mode, the fan is on, and it brings room air from the basement across this cooling coil right here, this refrigerant coil. Now, the refrigerant coil will pick up any heat that is in the localized air. That heat gets retained into a vapor that's inside the refrigerant. It passes with a compressor, and now that compressor will compress that vapor, making it hotter. It moves down into a heat exchanger at the very bottom, and that heat exchanger wraps around the tank and gives up its heat to the tank water, so now that cold water becomes hotter. By the time it gets to the bottom, that refrigerant is cooled again. Now it comes back, and the cycle repeats and just does it all day.
Man
Just keeps going,
yep. Richard
So it's pretty cool. So as you know, anytime you have a cold refrigerant coil like this, water will form on the cold surfaces. That's called condensate. It's really the humidity that's in the air. It's gets extracted, falls down off the coil and comes out through a drain right here.
Right. Richard
Now, there is a lot to love about these things, you know? It's a conventional water heater with a heat pump on top. The premium is what, like, 500 bucks more, but the utilities are really helping out a lot now.
Man
Yeah, in our region, we'll get a $750 rebate on that.
Richard
Yeah, that's not bad because that actually is a... This thing is gonna be two to three times more efficient than a conventional water heater.
Yep. Yep. Richard
Alright. Interface for the homeowners is pretty cool, right here, simple. Up and down for temperature right here, you can choose between hybrid, electric or even vacation mode,
so it's easy touch pad. Man
Sure. So what would be a reason for electric mode only?
Richard
You know, you had a full house of people. All the in-laws are over.
You got to make sure you... Man
A lot of hot water.
Richard
...deliver for Pops. So this thing, I'd love to leave it right out here
because you'd get all this air. Man
Yeah.
Richard
But where Josh has got it roughed in is in this back corner here. You can see our hot and cold distribution piping.
Man
Yep.
Richard
There's a condensate drain here.
Man
Well, we'll add louvers on this door.
Richard
Nice. Nice.
Man
So that way we're pulling the air from that space.
Richard
I want to get as much as I can. We will have hot water in a week.
Alright. Richard
Alright, brother.
Man
Alright. I'll check in with you later.
Kevin
With just a few days left, Jenn is rushing to get our landscaping in place, and things are coming together.
Jenn
They are really coming together. We have most of the plants in the ground. Sod is here. We have a few more plants to go and Hydroseed in a couple days.
Kevin
Love all the activity.
Jenn
There's a lot going on here.
Kevin
So what was the plan down here, Jenn?
Jenn
So we had this very large slope to deal with, and I wanted to cover it with perennials and plantings
but also stabilize it. Kevin
Right.
Jenn
So what we did, we found some boulders on-site, and we integrated them into the hillside to help stabilize certain areas.
Love the boulders. Jenn
The boulders are amazing. They're from here. They belong here. So another thing are the perennials so picked perennials. Like, this is a geranium, and it's gonna spread and cover the hillside.
Mm-hmm. Jenn
This is called catmint, and again, it's gonna just puff out and start to spread
and cover the mulch areas. Kevin
Okay.
Jenn
Another thing I did is put in different kinds of hydrangeas, so up top we have the blue mophead hydrangeas that have more of the rounded flower.
Kevin
Yeah.
Jenn
This one is a panicle hydrangea, and it's called the Little Quick Fire, gets about 3 feet high, but it blooms just a little bit later.
Kevin
So we got color going throughout the year.
Jenn
Yep, and then we also have texture. This is a dwarf fountain grass, gets about 2 feet high. These plumes come out in the falltime. How beautiful is that?
Kevin
That's great.
Jenn
And then behind it we have a maiden grass that gets a little bit taller to about 5 feet, so in the wind, you're going to get the sway and texture. It's really beautiful. These are anemones. They're another fall bloomer, and continuing down the slope, we also have knockout hydrangeas. Excuse me, knockout roses up here. You're gonna have constant color
throughout the entire summer. Kevin
Right.
Jenn
But then you think about the spring. You don't want to forget about the spring. This is a understory tree called a redbud, an eastern redbud. It's gonna flower in May-ish.
Kevin
So understory meaning?
Jenn
Meaning it's not gonna get as big as a maple or an oak. It's gonna stay more contained, about 20 feet.
Kevin
Cool.
Jenn
So over here, we have some more shrubs. This one is so beautiful. It's called an Itea. It flowers in the spring, a nice white flower, and then it turns this gorgeous merlot color.
Kevin
Love it.
Jenn
And I know. It's so beautiful.
Kevin
Fall color is great already.
Jenn
And this one is the dappled willow, love the texture. When the wind is blowing, it's just spectacular, so it's gonna play off the grasses.
Kevin
Somebody went on a shopping trip.
Jenn
Well,
I love it. Kevin
So you said you still have more stuff to put in the ground?
Jenn
We have a couple more trees, and then that's about it, and then we're just going to get the sod in.
Kevin
It's nice when you get to this stage, and the final touches start to go in.
Jenn
I mean, the plants really come and bring it all together. It softens the house. It brings it all down. So we're getting finished up here. We have a few more shrubs to plant, but we're also going to do landscape lighting.
Kevin
Thank you, John. Thanks,
guys. Jenn
Thanks.
Kevin
So what are we doing for lighting?
Jenn
We are doing low-voltage landscape lighting, so these fixtures are made of brass.
They have LED lights. Kevin
Alright. So let me see if I can find that in here. Oh, yeah. Boy, that's a nice bit of improvement, isn't it?
Jenn
Right. I mean, the power, the less power that it takes, it's amazing compared to what old bulbs are.
Kevin
How many watts you think these things are consuming?
Jenn
This one is two watts. This one is four.
Kevin
Whoa, nothing to it. Alright. So these are four.
Jenn
This is an up light, and we're gonna up-light all the trees in front, okay?
Nice. Jenn
So I'm gonna show you. They're really easy to put in. You pick a location. This type of tree, I want two lights because if you just put one light, it makes it really flat.
Kevin
Yep.
Jenn
By placing one across from each other, you have the cross stream, and it illuminates the whole tree.
Kevin
Okay, so one of either side of each other?
Jenn
One on either side, and all you do is pull back the mulch, and then you take the stake, and you put it in the ground.
Kevin
Beautiful.
Jenn
And then the other one will go on the opposite side, and another great thing is, you can adjust the fixture, so there's this little dial right here, so according to the shape of your tree and the branch, you have much flexibility.
Kevin
Right. And so what about in 10 years when this tree is twice as high and twice as wide, and now that's buried underneath the tree?
Jenn
It's very easy to pull these right out of the ground. When we install them, we always have quite a bit of slack, so you can relocate a fixture.
Kevin
Low voltage, so we don't have to worry too much
about the wiring there. Jenn
Exactly.
Kevin
This is obviously for pathways.
Jenn
Yep. This is a path light, and what we want to do is create safety and a safe-access way into the house.
Kevin
Got a run of stairs. We don't want to be tripping on these.
Jenn
Yeah, so about 12 to 18 inches out, find your location.
Kevin
Mm-hmm.
Jenn
And you want to illuminate the whole run.
Kevin
How many do you think we'll need on a run that's this long? It's about six or eight stairs.
Jenn
Every two to three steps, I probably would illuminate.
Kevin
Beautiful.
Jenn
And so what the path lights do with this little hat on top, it casts the light down and onto the steps, so you're not gonna have a beam shining in your face.
Kevin
And I presume today we can control these a dozen different ways, right?
Jenn
Right. They're all hooked up to a transformer. You could have it on a timer with a photocell. You could have it on a app, and you could even have it on a switch in your house.
Kevin
Old-fashioned on-off switch.
Jenn
It's whatever you fancy.
Kevin
Jenn, it's coming together. I mean, we're getting really close.
I know. I cannot wait. Kevin
What's left?
Jenn
Next is the sod, then followed by the Hydroseed next week, and we should be all set.
You got 1 week. Jenn
It's go time.
Get to it. Jenn
Let's do it.
Kevin
Alright. Thank you. There are windows all along the back of the house. They face southeast which means, Scott, in the morning, it's gonna be flooded with sunlight in here, so you'd like to black that out.
Absolutely. Kevin
So shades?
Scott
Some blackout shades.
Kevin
But first, how excited are you to be this far along with 1 week to go?
It's unbelievable. Kevin
Right?
Yeah. Kevin
It's a big difference.
Scott
We're getting there.
Kevin
So what did you choose for shades?
Scott
So it's a cellular product...
Kevin
Mm-hmm.
Scott
...and has a blackout material inside of it.
Kevin
Oh, yeah. So almost like a foil, right, so that'll cut out the light and then kind of honeycomb on the outside.
Scott
Absolutely.
Kevin
Okay, so that's what's going up. We got a bigger window right here. How'd you get started?
Scott
So just took some measurements to get started, and on every window I just did three vertical measurements just to find the longest one and then three horizontal measurements to find the shortest one so I know that I can do an inside mount...
Kevin
Yes.
Scott
...and tuck it in through all the trim work.
Kevin
So these are custom.
You sent the measurements. Scott
Correct.
Kevin
And they send you back a custom shade.
Scott
Exactly.
Kevin
So this is the big boy right here, and you said inside mount, so you want to it to tuck in there.
Scott
Correct. Yep.
Kevin
Looks like your measurements are good.
Scott
Not too bad, right?
Kevin
Not too bad. Alright. And what are we doing about mounting them?
Scott
So it comes with these little tabs, and on a long one like this, they recommend four.
Kevin
Alright. I got one here that's not in yet.
Scott
Sure.
Kevin
You can see the hardware on the screw, and based on what you've got in there already...
Scott
We're gonna go to this mullion.
Kevin
...that's gonna go right to there. So two to the mullions, you do not have mullions
on the far left or right. Scott
Correct.
Kevin
Have you accounted for that?
Scott
Yes, I have. Yeah, so we've taken a measurement from this jamb detail to the mullion.
Kevin
Yeah. A little combi square there.
Scott
Yeah, we've set our depth. Now we can carry that depth over out onto the jamb where we really don't have anything to gauge that off of.
Kevin
You've been watching.
Mr. Silva would be proud. Scott
Correct.
Kevin
No measurements, no math, just use a little template, right?
Scott
Right.
Kevin
Okay,
let's install. Scott
Okay.
Kevin
I'll hold this here if you want to get after it. I'll get this started for you. Okay. You're good to go. Not too bad. Take that from you. I'm gonna mark this one over here while you install that one.
Scott
Perfect.
Kevin
Okay. Alright. Nice. Alright. What do you think of that?
Scott
I mean, it looks pretty good.
Kevin
Yeah, I agree. I like that look. So I heard drapes are going in somewhere, too?
Scott
Yeah, down in the dining room and living room.
Go check it out. Scott
Alright. Sue,
this is Kevin. Kevin
Hi, Sue.
Nice to meet you. Sue
You too.
Kevin
So these are the drapes. Scott, did you have a hand in these as well?
Zero. Kevin
Same way at my house. Alright. So, Sue, what are we working with?
Sue
We're working with a printed cotton fabric.
Kevin
Mm-hmm.
Sue
It has got a backing of an interlining
to give it some body. Kevin
Okay.
Sue
It's called lotus spice, and we're going to be putting up two panels on either side of the door to flank the door. They're not gonna be operating. They're just gonna be for color.
Kevin
Okay, and you guys are ready to go?
Sue
They're ready to go.
Kevin
Alright.
Sue
Beautiful.
We got this fabric at 10
00 this morning. I had four people working on it, sewing all day to get them done, ready to go up.
Kevin
Good for you. You happy, Scott?
Scott
I think they look great.
Yeah. Scott
Awesome job.
Kevin
Nice job,
Sue. Sue
Thank you.
Kevin
Alright. I've got one more project with Jeff out back but thank you. Nice job. When Jenn and Roger walked this property a year ago, they found a flagpole hidden back here in the trees. Well, now those trees are all down, and the flagpole is exposed, and the homeowners have told us they'd like to reuse it. So, Jeff, what do you think? Can we save it? Can we reuse it?
Jeff
Well, it's cedar.
That's good. Jeff
Yeah. It's this old cedar log, basically.
Kevin
Is it punky anywhere? I mean, the paint is obviously old, but...
Jeff
No, it's pretty sold. It needs a little paint.
Kevin
Yep.
Jeff
I mean, the easiest thing would be to replace it, but this thing has been here for 70 years, and, you know, it would be a shame to...
Kevin
It's also huge. I mean, look at the...I mean, what do you think this is?
Jeff
It's 40 feet.
Kevin
40 feet, 40 feet with a little bit of a bend at the top.
Jeff
Yeah. Yeah. So Tommy has got a theory on that bend.
Kevin
Oh, I'm sure he does. Oh, my gosh. Let me hear this.
Jeff
He's thinking that the sun is what's caused that to bend, and if we flip it around the other way, it'll self-correct itself.
Kevin
That sounds exactly like Tommy. You buying that?
Jeff
Well, it if works, it's my idea.
Kevin
Good for you.
Jeff
If it doesn't, I'm blaming it on Tommy.
Kevin
So clearly, we've got to clean this up, repaint it, scrape it or whatever, which means we got to get this down.
Yeah. Kevin
And process for that?
Jeff
So while this thing is in this tabernacle structure here, and it's got three bolts, so what we're gonna do is, we're gonna take out the bottom two bolts.
Kevin
Yep.
Jeff
And that's gonna allow us to pivot it down, and we're gonna use the lift to lower it down, and then we'll set it on the sawhorses there, so we can clean it up and paint it.
Kevin
I like to hear the lift. That's a good device to have for something this tall.
Jeff
Yeah. The problem is, once we go to put it back up, we're not going to have the lift. This will all be landscaped, so we've got to come along attached to that tree-kind-of-thing going on where we'll be able to lift this back into place.
Kevin
Is that a Tommy theory, or is that yours?
Jeff
No,
that's mine. Kevin
Cool. Alright. Well, if it works, then you can own it.
Alright. Let's get it down. Jeff
Alright. We're gonna bring the lift up to about 4 feet from the top, and that's going to sit right here, and then Garrett and Wayne are gonna lower this thing slowly. Now, we estimated that this is about 450 pounds, so there's no problem with the weight load as long as we just go slow.
Kevin
Okay. You guys ready to go up?
Ready to go. Jeff
Alright. Let's go. Okay. Straight!
Kevin
Okay, looks like the top is doing okay, too, right?
Jeff
Yeah. Yeah. I think we get the scrapers and sanders, and we'll get a fresh coat of paint on it.
Kevin
So that's cleaning up nicely, right?
Jeff
Yeah. Yeah. That's gonna be good.
Kevin
Alright. Well, next week is the wrap, so we're hoping to get this flagpole back up and our homeowners in that house. You think you're gonna make it?
Jeff
It'll be a busy week, but we'll get it done.
Kevin
Alright. Good to hear. So until the finale and next time, I'm Kevin O'Connor.
Jeff
And I'm Jeff Sweenor.
Kevin
For "This Old House" here in Westerly. Next time on "This Old House," we finish the house that we started 7 months ago, and look what Jeff Sweenor and his crew have built for them.
Jenn
Do you remember what it used to look like? Man #2: Oh, yeah. We switched that up a little bit. Man #2: I think you're right. You did.
Kevin
You guys happy, excited?
Scott
Absolutely. It's been an incredible experience.
Jeff
Okay. Ready to go? Let's go up.
Tom
Oh,
yeah. Jeff
Alright.
Scott
Oh, nice. Awesome.
Search Episodes
Donate to sign up. Activate and sign in to Passport. It's that easy to help PBS Wisconsin serve your community through media that educates, inspires, and entertains.
Make your membership gift today
Only for new users: Activate Passport using your code or email address
Already a member?
Look up my account
Need some help? Go to FAQ or visit PBS Passport Help
Need help accessing PBS Wisconsin anywhere?
Online Access | Platform & Device Access | Cable or Satellite Access | Over-The-Air Access
Visit Access Guide
Need help accessing PBS Wisconsin anywhere?
Visit Our
Live TV Access Guide
Online AccessPlatform & Device Access
Cable or Satellite Access
Over-The-Air Access
Visit Access Guide
Passport

Follow Us