The This Old House Hour

Return to Paradise; Women’s Repair Class, Garden (18x6)

Air date: Nov 07, 2019

Kevin O'Connor arrives to find the house is just about weather tight on the exterior. Inside, the main living space has been opened up, and upstairs are three newly framed bedrooms. Now it’s time to replace the temporary stairs with a new staircase that has been prefabricated in Jeff Sweenor’s millshop. There, Kevin finds Tom Silva and Jeff adding the final oak treads on the stringerless stairway. They take it to the project house to be installed. Always on the lookout for new technology, Kevin travels to the Greek Revival This Old House Idea House in Connecticut where the builder is using a new clapboard siding made with an engineered wood strand technology. There he meets project foreman Gordon Jacobsen, who is installing the siding on the front porch. Back at the project house, the plan is to replace the old furnace with two new efficient furnaces—one in the basement and one in the attic. Richard Trethewey travels to the factory in Indianapolis to see the latest manufacturing techniques. The new furnaces arrive back at the project house in Westerly where Richard meets HVAC installer Michael Gamache who unboxes the units and starts to set one up in the attic. One year ago, the California town of Paradise experienced the worst wildfire in the US in a century. Almost 25,000 people were left homeless and 85 did not survive. Despite the devastation, the people of Paradise are determined to rebuild. On the one-year anniversary of the disaster, This Old House pays tribute to the courageous people who survived and those who have chosen to rebuild. Tom checks out a women’s only DIY class on building a footstool and discusses some of the unique challenges faced by women learning DIY skills; Jenn helps a homeowner select, place, and install plants for her terraced garden; the team discusses the ways homeowners and contractors should communicate to set appropriate expectations for home improvement projects.