This Old House - Season 11

This Old House returns for its eleventh season with our master carpenter, who introduces the series' new host. The guys survey the project: an 1835 barn in Concord, Massachusetts, and talk to the homeowners, Lynn and Barbara, who want to dismantle and rebuild the barn and live in it.

The guys send homeowners Lynn and Barbara to Nantucket, while they visit a bar that has been remodeled into a home, and take a look at a timber-frame house designed by Jock Gifford. In Concord, the farm's old gas tank is removed.

Timber-frame expert Tedd Benson and the crew dismantle the barn. Homeowners Barbara and Lynn meet with designer Jock Gifford to plan their new home, and visit a nearby carriage house that had been converted to a residence.

Down the hill from the building site in Concord, well-driller Dave Haynes prepares to fill a well. The guys work on the foundation, and a septic tank is installed.

We travel to Brattleboro, Vermont to take a look at a factory where stress-skin panels are made. After openings for doors and windows are cut, these panels will be applied to the barn's post-and-beam frame. In his Alstead, New Hampsire, workshop, timber-framer Tedd Benson shows us how traditional post-and-beam buildings are designed using computer-aided-design technology.

At the Concord site, Tedd Benson and other members of the Timber Framers Guild of North America lead a workshop where students learn how to measure, cut and join timbers for the barn's post-and-beam frame. We then go to Wiscassett, Maine, to visit a sawmill and watch as a tree is transformed into timbers ready for use in the barn's frame.

The barn's massive frame is put up by hand at an old-fashioned barn-raising, and topped off with a tree for good fortune.

Stress-skin panels are installed over the barn's finished frame, and work on the well is completed.

Custom-made windows are installed in the Concord barn, and deluxe sklights are that feature one-step installation bring light into the great space and bedrooms. The crew hangs clapboards that the homeowners have stained on both sides, and landscape architect Tom Wirth discusses landscaping possibilities.

A concrete slab is poured in the basement. The crew reviews the progress on the barn renovation.

The well is connected to the house, and our host discusses the barn's new plumbing system with Richard Trethewey. Mason Roger Hopkins builds a stone wall on the barn's fromt exposure.

Tom Wirh reviews the progress of the landscaping work. Barbara visits a kitchen design center.

Richard Trethewey explains the barn's new heating system. Drywalling begins, and an air-exchanger is installed, and landscaping work continues.

Richard Trethewey takes viewers on a tour of a boiler factory in Battenberg, West Germany, where parts of the barn's high-tech heating system were manufactured.

A custom stairway is installed in the Concord barn, an we visit Neenah, Wisconsin, to see how the structure was manufactured.

Our host takes a side trip to a futuristic show house in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, where plastic is used in novel ways. After Richard Trethewey shows how plastic piping has been laid for the barn's radiant heating system, lightweight concrete is poured on the first floor.

Terra-cotta tiling begins. The crew cases and frames the doors the doors and windows. We then visit a plant in Western Massachusetts where shingles and other asphalt products are recycled to make paving material that will be used on the driveway of the Concord barn.

Tiling continues in the in the guest bathroom, while lighting fixtures are installed along the beams in the great space. At the workshop, the guys build library doors.

The barn nears completion as wide pine flooring is laid and the kitchen appliances are installed. Richard Trethewey shows us a West German Plumbing fixture factory.

The project draws to a close as Jean Lemmon, editor-in-chief of Country Home magazine, tours the finished barn.

The show travels to Santa Fe, New Mexico, for its newest project: the renovation of a traditional Southwestern adobe home. The homeowners - both artists - shows us around their four-room home. Our host confers with local architect John Midyette and tours a new house in Santa Fe.

Sharon Woods, co-author of Santa Fe Style, takes viewers on a tour of some notable local houses. At the site, adobe walls are laid and vigas (roof rafters) are set.

Traditional kiva (beehive) fireplaces are constructed. Windows and doors are installed.

Richard Trethewey supervises installation of an in-floor radiant heating system, small wall-mounted air conditioners and plumbing fixtures. Our master carpenter begins work on his custom-built kitchen cabinets.

We visit the Ashfork, Arizona, yard that is suppling the flagstone flooring for the kitchen and library. Back in Santa Fe, the flagstone is laid; saltillo tiling commences; and the kitchen cabinets are installed.

Marble countertops are installed in the kitchen, and we visit the marble finishing yard in Juarez, Mexico, where they were made. We get a tour of the finished adobe home and bid hasta lugeo to Santa Fe.