This Old House · Season 25 · Episode 3
Nothing is as Easy as it Looks - The Concord Cottage
Saturday, October 25
Kevin arrives to find the newly issued building permit affixed to the building and work finally getting underway. Holly is officially on board, and Kevin pays a visit to her office to see the first pass at floor plans, elevations, and a scale model of the cottage. Zoning laws only allow for a modest increase in overall volume, so the new one-bedroom cottage will be less than 1,000 square feet when it's done. Norm and Tom prepare to brace a bowed wall, but find a badly rotted sill that needs replacing before they can proceed. Putting Kevin to work, they build two temporary walls; once they're in place, they takt the weight off the compromised outside wall. The rotted sill comes out and a new, pressure-treated sill goes in. Then Kevin visits a converted carriage house in Winchester, Massachusetts, that's full of great ideas for the project. Unexpected rain postpones the excavation for the foundation of the new addition.
