This Old House

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.