This Old House

Homeowners plan to restore and expand their early English-style Arts and Crafts Home; plans for mechanical and plumbing systems.

Sorting through colors and wallpaper ideas for the living room; demolishing old plaster walls; landscape plan; removing an old silver maple tree.

Installing a new steal beam; removing an oil tank; digging a new foundation; visits to other English-style Arts and Crafts houses.

Building a new foundation; specimen trees.

Following steel beams from fabrication to installation; working on the HVAC plan for the second and third floors; sizing a firebox.

Working on the fireplace; designing a new kitchen with custom cabinets; changing the pitch of two dormers.

Custom range hood; rebuilding the original chimney; options for the first floor; including the living room panels.

The new foundation is parked to match the old stucco; the new master bath-shower is drained; the electrician starts work in the powder room; and the living room windows are replaced.

Kevin finds Tommy framing a new front porch using custom cut and assembled rafters. Richard travels to the largest underground quarry. Color selection

Building a new shed. Installing copper on the front porch. Trimming windows.

Burying electrical cables. Building porch base columns. New brick patio. Installing kitchen cabinets. Trimming the front gable.

The exterior trim detail is complete and now it’s time to shingle the rest of the house. Tommy is using pre-primed red cedar shingles with a 5-inch reveal. Inside, homeowner Emily and interior designer Jill Goldberg meet Donna Boerner, an in-home stylist, who will help them figure out what kind of window treatment works best for each window. Looking at various types of shades, they work their way through the rooms. Down in the basement, it’s time to start installing the radiant floor tubing in the tracks under the existing old floor. In the living room, Mark McCullough repairs the grand fireplace. He repoints the loose bricks and carefully mends the decorative clay mantel using new pieces that were precast from a mold taken from an unbroken part of the mantel. Outside, it’s time to build the back deck coming out the side door. Tommy and Norm frame it up.

There are many new decorative elements on the outside of the house - including a small roof detail supported by two brackets on the side of the house. Tommy assembles the roof on the ground first, doubling up the fascia for extra support. After he installs the second bracket, a lift helps to raise the roof into place. Upstairs on the second floor, Emily and painter Rosemary Dewees introduce Kevin to the technique of Lazure painting – a watercolor style of painting interior walls. Using multiple brushes and buckets, Kevin finds that it’s not as easy as it looks. The beautiful front door has seen better days. The homeowners ask master restorer Wayne Towle for help refinishing the oak veneer. Kevin visits his shop to see how it’s done. Downstairs, Tommy installs wood paneling in a corner of the living room that once housed a bookshelf. Even though it’s being painted white, he uses solid oak to match the existing wood grain paneling.

Ship lap is chosen for the third-floor walls while reclaimed granite is used for steps, a marble slab is cut for the kitchen island and a cast stone mantel is built around the fireplace in the family room.

The kitchen island countertop is installed; work commences on a fieldstone wall in the front yard; wallpaper covers a new secret door in the upstairs foyer; and the finished heating, cooling and ventilation system is examined.

A tour of the competed project house, including the new addition in the back; updated front hall, dining room and pantry; expanded master suite; new bathroom; and new front porch.

A couple plan to renovate an abandoned home themselves, beginning with the leaky roof.

Installing a security system; blowing in insulation from the outside.

Richard snakes a camera down a drain to look for damaged pipes. Tommy repairs a leaky parapet.

Peeling paint is removed. The original leaded stained glass windows in the living room is restored.

At the Russell Woods project, Tommy repairs crumbling decorative molding with a plastic replica created by a 3D printer; Frank and Tamiko head to Kohler, Wisconsin to look at plumbing fixtures, while Richard gets a tour of the nearby factory. Back at the house, Richard and Frank repair some compromised joists in the upstairs bathroom; Tommy teaches Frank and his friends how to install kitchen ceiling strapping; and Kevin heads to the project in Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood to see the efforts to repair the foundation.

Installing rough wiring in the kitchen; adding a new HVAC system; installing new fascia.

Repairing damaged oak flooring with a clever fix; repairing front steps; tile studio in Detroit.

Installing leaded glass bay windows; laying down modern wood-grain tile; urban farming in Detroit; installing a drywell; installing kitchen cabinets.

Interior painting; repairing decorative molding with a putty knife; installing interior doors; revitalizing a fireplace.

A tour of the completed house, citing both interior and exterior improvements.