17x5 - This Old House

Tom Silva shows us the reframed bathrooms, with floors stiffened by flipping the original joists and sistering on reinforcing members. The bathtub arrives, and the crew horses it upstairs, where plumber Charles Cashin is rough-plumbing the new children's bath and master bath. Restoration painter John Dee uses dental tools to reveal the finest of the portico's details. Before he could get to that stage, however, he had to painstakingly remove about 20 layers of built-up paint, aided by a paint stripping gel. We see wood restorer John Stahl use an epoxy repair system to work on the historic windows on the first floor. The Dutch system replaces rotted wood with workable epoxy and uses a flexible silicone for glazing compound. Architect Ann Beha presents some possible color schemes to homeowner Deborah Guinee, and later, after painting some samples on the building, she choses colors (blue body, white trim, black shutters) that she will present for approval to the Salem Historical Commissio