This Old House

Kevin

Today on "This Old House"...

Tom

We'll show you how we turn the corner for the siding on our modern home.

Mark

It's time to fix a pudding-stone wall.

Kevin

So, been about 13 years since we finished the house. Still happy? Everything holding up okay?

George

It's wonderful. I love living here.

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!

Don

See this main roof form? We're just gonna pull that forward till it's even where this existing deck is.

Kevin

Definitely says mid-century modern.

Tom

The money's in the detail.

Richard

That is beautiful.

Kevin

Hi, there. I'm Kevin O'Connor, and welcome back to "This Old House" here in Brookline, Massachusetts, where work continues on our mid-century modern home. Now, the original house, which is this box right here in the middle, the one that is clad with this yellow mesh, that was built in 1957, and we are adding two additions to it, one on the far side behind me, and you can see that we're keeping it in the mid-century-modern style with the low sloping roofs and the big overhangs. You can also see that a lot of the windows have started to go in. And then right here is the second addition. This is mostly four bedrooms, and between the two additions, we're effectively doubling the size of this house. And the project for today is to start putting up the new siding. The siding on our house is a combination of vertical and horizontal, as well as painted and unpainted. And, Tommy, at some point, those different sidings are gonna meet, and you've got to figure out how to handle those transitions.

Tom

Right. On the original part of the house right here, this is all vertical siding, and it wrapped all the way around the house. And the transition from this corner to that corner was probably a butt joint like this, where you'd take the tongue and put it in there and you'd wrap it around.

Kevin

And you can see that butt joint very clearly.

Tom

Right, so what I will probably do is miter the corner, again, have the tongue and groove go together here, wrap around the corner.

Kevin

Just a cleaner look? You like that better?

Tom

Yeah, cleaner look. It'll be all back-caulked and sealed.

Kevin

Right.

Tom

And then we'll continue on down the wall using the panels vertically all the way around until you get to the inside corner like that. Now you have to worry about the transition from this wall to this wall because this is gonna be horizontal.

Kevin

So this is where the addition starts, and that's where we make the transition from vertical to horizontal. So what are you thinking about that transition?

Tom

All right, so the transition here is we're gonna take and bevel the siding right there to match the bevel degree of the inside corner. We'll put a bead of caulk in here to back-caulk that and then place the horizontal siding into it and make it a nice, tight, watertight joint.

Kevin

And this is also where we're transitioning from painted to unpainted?

Tom

Right. This part of the wall and another section of the house is gonna have clear. The rest of it is gonna be painted.

Kevin

So that dieing into that flat surface makes a lot of sense on an inside corner. You can't really do it as easily on an outside corner.

Tom

No, on an outside corner, like on the rest of the part of the house, it calls for outside corner boards. But on this part of the house, this is really on the street, and it's more historical. So with the corner trim like that and the siding butted to the window and butted to the corner, you'd have that look right there.

Kevin

And you're saying that's what the homeowners have decided for the rest of the house. They've decided something different here?

Tom

Yes, they want to keep in more keeping with the house. With the mid-century modern, there wouldn't be corner trim. There'd be a board like this where the corner would be mitered or woven tight to the windows. Everything would be back-caulked and watertight.

Kevin

Boy, I think that's a good decision. I like that look. So that's what we're doing right here on this corner?

Tom

That's what we're doing on this part of the house, yep. So these are my pieces that are gonna go on one side, and that's -- the short length is 7 1/2 inches. Okay, so, I bisected this angle, and it's 38 degrees, so I'm gonna tip my saw to 38 degrees. So now I can make my cut.

Saw whirring

Tom

Now I have to get the length of the other side. 8 1/2. So now we can put these together, the long and the short, with a miter that will match the wall. And we use some stainless-steel nails.

Nail gun firing

Tom

Now we have to figure out where we're gonna set this first bottom piece, because I want all the horizontal lines here to line up with all the horizontal lines around the rest of the house. And to do that, we have a reference line right around the house. If you look up there, you can just about see it.

Kevin

So you guys added that line, and it goes around the entire home?

Tom

Right. And we used that line to set the elevations for all of the windows, to make sure they're all the same. And also, in this case, now it's gonna be to set the elevation of all of this horizontal siding so it will line up as it turns the corners.

Kevin

So from that line down to this first joint, we've got 4 1/4. Next one's at 9 1/4, so every fives inches down from there.

Tom

Every five inches down. So that means that if I take from this control line over here, I hold my tape measure on that, and I measure down any five-inch increment.

Kevin

Plus the 4 1/4.

Tom

Right. Will give me the joint that I need to start this bottom course.

Kevin

74 1/4, 84 1/4, all the way down.

Tom

Exactly. Now, before we put the siding on, we're gonna run a bead of caulking in just a little bit so it'll be caulked and sealed behind the siding where it meets the edge of the window.

Nail gun firing

Tom

Tap it down to make the tongue-and-groove joint nice and tight.

Tapping

Nail gun firing

Tom

Okay, all we have to do now is continue up with all the horizontals on this side, and they'll line up with all the horizontals on the other side.

Kevin

It's a good look for an outside corner, Tommy. Thank you. The retaining wall along the front of our house is in rough shape. I mean, look at how this is pushed forward. Look at how bad the mortar is. And there have been a couple problems with it that we have known about. There was a line of trees. You can see the remnants of one of them right here. The roots grew into this wall and pushed it forward. We didn't help the situation, 'cause we actually -- Jimmy McLaughlin with his excavator had to blow through the middle of this wall. 'Cause if you recall, we had a big project out here. We had to run a new sewer, waste, and water line from the street to the house. Mark, that left us with a giant hole that you've got to rebuild, but you've also got to repair this wall all along the way. Tough shape, right?

Mark

It is in tough shape, but when in Rome, we want to be Romans, so we want to try to match exactly what we have. And what we have is what we call a puddingstone, which is completely indigenous to the area, so it's very, very hard to get.

Kevin

We see it in a lot of the buildings in this area in Boston, a lot of walls. And it's kind of -- I mean, it's a very distinctive-looking stone.

Mark

That's a molten lava. Just rolled around the ground, collected everything, and as it broke up, it became what we know as puddingstone.

Kevin

So when this wall was originally built, was it dry-laid, or was it with mortar?

Mark

This is a dry-laid wall.

Kevin

So what's all the mortar that I'm seeing on the face of this wall? To my eye, it looks as if it's been put together with mortar. Are you saying that's not original?

Mark

Right, so, the mortar, I think, was part of a repair. Unfortunately, that probably causes more problems because what they're actually doing is blocking up drainage.

Kevin

So the natural drainage that occurs, they end up plugging it up.

Mark

It kind of goes away when you plug it up, sure. So now the water gets trapped, turns to ice, and wreaks havoc on the wall.

Kevin

So in terms of fixing it, are you gonna go dry? Or are you gonna put some mortar in there?

Mark

So we don't want to make the same mistake twice, so down low we're gonna go dry. We're going to allow for the weeping this time. And then, as we get higher, we're gonna use the mortar to match what we have.

Kevin

All right, so a small project has become a big project.

Mark

Right.

Kevin

Mark, we used to have a set of stairs going right up the middle. That explains this return right here.

Mark

That's right, and at this end of the wall, we're just gonna widen it out a little. That's going to accept another step. But we're gonna replace what we had, for sure.

Kevin

All right, and I notice dry up until now, but you've got some mortar starting to go in, and that's your point.

Mark

That's what we were talking about. We want to make it a little stiff as we get higher, so, it's just starting at that height, right?

Kevin

All right, well, I appreciate it. A lot of work to go, but thank you.

Mark

All right, Kevin.

Kevin

Over the past 40 years, we have worked on scores of homes, but until this season, only one of those houses was in the modern style. And it was this one right here in Cambridge, Massachusetts, built back in the 1950s. And, Tommy, as part of our 40th anniversary, we thought we'd come back and have a look at it. Fond memories of the Cambridge project?

Tom

Fond memories. This was a great project. And what I really liked about this project, it was an old contemporary built in the '50s that needed a lot of help.

Kevin

It needed to be torn down. It was really bad.

Tom

I don't like to tear houses down, but really, what made me happy was George, the homeowner, didn't want to tear it down. He wanted to fix it up, add on. So we added on a little bit this way. We added a little bit this way. And we added a little bit that way.

Kevin

It was originally in the Bauhaus style, and now I guess you would call it sort of a Frank Lloyd Wright- influenced home. It's got the stucco and the stone. It's got the overhangs. And this is a huge transformation from what it was.

Tom

Yeah,

you might say that. Kevin

Hey, George.

Tom

Hey,

George. George

Kevin.

Good to see you. George

How are you? Tommy.

Tom

Hey, buddy. How are you? Good to see you.

Kevin

So, been about 13 years since we finished the house.

Hard to believe. Kevin

Right? Still happy? Everything holding up okay?

George

It's wonderful. I love living here.

Kevin

Oh, that's awesome.

Tom

It's still lookin' beautiful. I mean, these step walls, one out here, one a little lower here. And all that stone veneer matches the chimney.

Right. Tom

And these stairs, these beautiful big, blue, thick stone of blue stone.

Kevin

One of my favorite features, Tommy, the way these things just sort of float over the water feature.

Tom

We wanted them to float. They don't touch one another. They're not suspended on one another. We built these stainless-steel stringers. And we drill holes in the steps and slide them onto a tube to make them float.

George

Engineering marvel.

Kevin

Now, you had some very strong thoughts on what this house should be, sort of in that Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired style.

George

Right.

Kevin

Was that the right decision?

George

It was. I love the way the wood, stucco,

and stone play off each other. Kevin

Yeah.

George

It creates kind of a warm, modern feel,

which is what I wanted. Kevin

Right. Well, you know, with all of the vegetation having matured, I would say that this house today looks as good as it has ever looked.

Tom

Absolutely. And the waterfall? Still lookin' good and sounding good.

George

Still workin'.

Kevin

Can we have a look inside?

George

Absolutely.

Tom

Boy, as I come in here, I remember that old stairway that you had in the house with the little winder that went up and into the second level.

George

It was claustrophobic.

Tom

I mean, look at this now, I mean, this steel, this heavy steel frame. We did it from the basement all the way up to the third level. And we had to manhandle this stuff in. I think it took five or six of us to try to get this in in position. I mean, look at this detail -- this little thin steel piece right here and this big steel plate that is mortised into the solid teak treads. And none of the treads touch the walls -- a tremendous amount of work and tremendous amount of detail, but it really does look sweet.

Kevin

I mean, this is the first statement that the house makes, and it's a big statement.

George

First thing you see when you walk in the house. It's impressive. It looks great.

Yeah. Tom

Yeah.

Kevin

You know, I can remember one of your decisions. You came to us and you said, "I want almost no trim at all." You know, sort of no casings around the doors, no casings around the windows. And that's not easy to pull off.

Tom

No, it's not easy to pull off. You know, a detail like this, a simple little detail where this dado -- it's actually a gap between the trim and the plasterboard. And that's everywhere. It's around all the doors, all the windows, all the bookcases and everything else. Well, that simple little detail is actually harder than if you put casing around all the windows and doors, because the exact of the plastering and the trim is very critical.

Kevin

And we're thinking about doing something similar at Brookline?

Tom

In the Brookline project, we're thinking about that same detail.

Kevin

Right. The other part of that decision, though, that was most surprising was you said, "Oh, and, by the way, I'd like it black, as well." And I was scratching my head, like, "Black around every window and door?"

I was petrified. Kevin

Right? I mean,

that's a big decision. George

It was a big decision.

Kevin

And it was -- It's quartersawn oak?

Quartersawn oak. Tom

White oak.

Kevin

So you made it black. So, a decade or more afterwards, was it the right decision?

George

It was the right decision. I mean, black turns out to be a neutral color. It's actually kind of warm in this context, so I think it works well with the colors of the house.

Kevin

You converted me on that one, as well.

Tom

You know, there's one thing I remember that you wanted. You said, "Well, I have a master bathroom, and I want my vanity to look like it's floating." I said, "Well, that shouldn't be a problem." "And, by the way, I want to put a granite top on it also."

George

Of course.

Tom

Let's take a look and see how that came out.

George

So, I wanted to make sure that light penetrated deep into the bathroom, both into the shower area and to the tub area.

Kevin

Mm-hmm. Hard to do. It was a small, confined space.

George

It was. So, windows. And this is how you get light into the areas.

Kevin

Right, and the idea was that you also wanted this floating. I can remember Tommy, Norm, and I actually inspecting your work halfway through.

Tom

That doesn't surprise me.

Kevin

There was a wood-framed wall right here, which you can see, but you had embedded steel into the wall, and if I remember correctly, you actually reinforced the floor, as well, with steel.

Tom

I did. You have this dividing wall between the shower and the tub that doesn't connect to this wall. And this wall doesn't go all the way to the ceiling. So, you have a heavy vanity. You don't want this thing to pull the wall over.

Kevin

I mean, this is eight feet long or so, two sinks with all of the plumbing. And to make it hang and float, although in typical Tommy fashion, did you add some suspenders to your belt system?

Tom

You know what? I gave in a little bit. I did put a couple of legs in the center section, but I hid them back so you can't see them.

Just in case. Tom

Just in case.

Wimp. Kevin

You don't even know they're there, though, do you, George? Doesn't look like that at all.

George

No, you can't see them at all.

Kevin

Well, you had very specific designs for the house, and you pushed us. You asked for things that were difficult to do, but I think it made it a better house.

George

It did. I knew you were up for it, and it's a house that I loved since the day it was built, I love now. It's something that even the neighbors love. So I wouldn't change anything in the house, with maybe one exception.

Uh-oh. Tom

What's that?

George

I wish I put an elevator shaft in so I could age to 120 in the house.

Tom

All right, so, let's look around, see what we can find. You can live here till at least 100, George. At least 100.

Kevin

Rough electrical has been going on for a couple of weeks. The wires have been pulled. The fixtures are starting to go in. And Heath, our electrician, is starting to install our recessed lights. Um, we've got a lot of them, right?

We have a lot of them. Kevin

How many in total?

Heath

80 in total in this house.

Kevin

Wow, that's a lot of recessed lights. The homeowners want to go with sort of an open floor plan, a sleek look, so we get that with the recessed lights. We wouldn't get it with a traditional one, though, right?

Heath

No. So, this is the traditional housing we'd normally put in with the traditional trim.

Yeah. Heath

Nice, simple, does the job. But when you install the housing, the drywall goes around this lip, and then you install the trim. The trim sticks over the drywall.

Kevin

Right. So the square look gives us the modern look, but we don't get completely flush. You actually have something sitting, even if it's only 1/16 of an inch.

Heath

But it does stick down a little bit.

Kevin

Right, and so our goal is to get it completely flush with the drywall. And you're gonna use this one?

Heath

So that's where this housing comes in. So in order to get it completely flush, we take this housing, install it in the ceiling. The drywall will get cut around the square flange flush with this top edge.

Kevin

So it will come up to the dimension right there.

Correct. Kevin

Yep.

Heath

When that's done, after the blueboard's applied, this will be inserted so it can be plastered over.

Kevin

And this looks like sort of the corner bead material. It'll skim right up to it. You can barely see it now, the 1/16 or 1/32 of an inch right there, thickness of the plaster, perfectly flush.

Heath

And then when all is said and done, the trim will slide inside of that so it has a very clean, flat look on the ceiling.

Kevin

Okay. And so this is going up now, right?

Heath

It is. So the first thing we have to do is wire this housing before it can go up in the ceiling. So now that we have the wire and the connector, we're gonna use wire nets just to attach the wires.

Kevin

So just regular line voltage coming in and in. Does it have some sort of a driver inside here?

Heath

Correct. The actual LED driver is part of the trim assembly that goes in.

Kevin

Gotcha.

Heath

Once this is all set, then we can install it in the ceiling.

Kevin

So, obviously the critical dimension is to get the depth of this right here accurate.

Heath

Correct. So, the flange comes in at inch and 3/4 from the factory. And we want that to sit flush with the blueboard before it gets plastered. So, we have 3/4-inch strapping. We're gonna have 1/2-inch blueboard. That leaves a half an inch. In this case, that'll be about where this joist is right now. So we want to put this housing flush with this joist. And that should get us close to our depth.

Kevin

And you're able to do that 'cause of these wing nuts on the side.

Heath

We have adjustments on the side where we can raise or lower the housing.

Kevin

Yeah. All right. So, is that at its final location?

Heath

This is where we're leaving it for now. We have the rough measurements set, and before the blueboard goes on, we'll come in and make the final adjustments to make sure everything sits just right.

Kevin

Just tweak every one in the house.

That's it. Kevin

All right. So, what number is this?

Heath

This is number 40.

Kevin

So what do you got, like 40 more to go?

40 more to go. Kevin

All right. Thank you. Our house originally had two waste pipes coming out of it. One was for the sewer. That came from the bathrooms and the kitchen sink, for example. And the other was for storm water from the gutters. And when those pipes came out of the house, they actually came together and they both went into the city sewer system. Well, you can no longer sort of co-mingle that water, so we've got to deal with that. Hey, Jenn. How you are?

Jenn

Hey, Kevin.

Kevin

As cold as I am?

Jenn

Yeah, I'm freezing.

Kevin

So, the city no longer lets us mix those two water streams.

Jenn

Correct.

Kevin

And we had to do a couple things. First, we had to separate those pipes. So, sewer went to the city sewer line. Storm went to the city storm line. But now they're making us treat it in between that step, as well. So we've got ourselves a big pit. What's going in here?

Jenn

So, first, all the water travels to the first tank, which is a sediment tank, filter it, go over to a dry well. And any overflow of water disperses into the ground.

Kevin

Right, and if the system can't handle a certain volume of water...

Jenn

It's going to perk out and then go into the city storm water.

Kevin

Hey,

Roger. Roger

Mornin', everyone.

Look at you. Roger

Nice and warm, huh?

Kevin

So what systems do we have tied into this here, Roger?

Roger

Well, we're gonna start up at the front door. We're gonna dig out that area. There's gonna be a huge patio there.

Kevin

Yep.

Roger

So we're gonna fill it with stone and we're gonna catch all the water. We're gonna make permeable membrane -- permeable pavers so the water will go right down into the pipe.

Kevin

Doesn't run off the patio. Goes into a pipe that's tied into this?

Roger

Right. Comes around the corner. Comes down and ties into this whole system here.

Kevin

And obviously we've got the gutters tied in.

Roger

Yes, and a trench drain that's gonna be in front of the garage door.

Kevin

Nice. And so we all get it into the pit. And the pit itself, how deep did you go?

Roger

This is seven feet deep. There's about seven or eight inches of stone. If you notice, that's a wash stone. It's very clean, so that helps us keep the silt out.

Kevin

And the capacity of these two tanks in a system, you know about that?

Jenn

It's about 1,000 gallons.

Kevin

Process that much water.

Right. Kevin

Okay. You ready to fly in the next piece of tank?

Roger

Ready to go.

Jenn

So, first piece is in. There is a membrane around, and then the top part settles on top so it's watertight.

Roger

That's it. We got it.

Jenn

The bottomless tank is gonna sit on the seven inches of crushed stone. And it's gonna be able to permeate into the ground. And then surrounding the tank will be three feet of crushed stone on all sides, so it's gonna be constantly being able to perk out.

Kevin

Yep. Got it.

Roger

Perfect.

Jenn

Okay, so, now we have the top on tank number one. All we have to do is connect tank number two to the storm water drain via pipe and then backfill the hole with crushed stone.

Kevin

And then you'll be able to tie in the gutters, the patio, the perimeter drain to this system?

Roger

Right. And we'll put a steel cover on top of each of these tanks, and they'll get buried, and you won't even know they're here.

Kevin

Awesome. Good progress, guys. And so next time, Richard's actually heading to a factory where we're gonna see the glass made for all of our new windows, and we're going to install the biggest window on the house. So, until then, I'm Kevin O'Connor.

I'm Roger Cook. Jenn

I'm Jenn Nawada.

Kevin

For "This Old House" here at our mid-century-modern home. Next time on "This Old House"...

Richard

The Bilo team is in the middle of putting in a solution that anybody who lives in the snow belt would love -- a heated driveway. Boy, it couldn't be easier with this grid.

Jenn

We're prepping for pavers on a permeable patio. The patio stops here. And there's gonna be another -- there's gonna be a sitting wall. It's gonna be concrete. And then it's also gonna have a cap on so it adds for additional seating.

Richard

Our windows are shipped from Minnesota to the project in Brookline. Today, the largest window is about to be installed.