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This article appeared in the Fall 2021 issue of This Old House Magazine. Click here to learn how to subscribe. Walking past the tidy new fence and neat foundation plantings, climbing the refinished concrete steps, and pushing open the old oak entry door, now brightened with high-gloss burgundy paint, Carol Wideman was filled with emotion. It had been nearly two years since the fateful July Fourth night in 2019 when a stray firework that ignited her neighbor’s house caused her home in Dorchester, MA, to catch fire....

Home technology expert Ross Trethewey heads to MIT to talk to Professor Vladimir Bulović, Director of MIT.nano, about the future of solar. After a brief discussion about the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and current state of solar tech, Vladimir shows Ross what he believes to be future tech: an electricity-generating film that can be applied to windows and other materials to produce electricity. Solar Has Obstacles Solar installations continue to grow by around 20 percent each year, and about 3 percent of the world’s electricity comes from solar....

In this video, This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook shows how to create durable, beautiful stone steps. Project details Skill Cost Estimated Time Steps for Building Granite Front Steps Measure and mark the porch for the location of the new stone stairs. Dig out the dirt in front of the porch to a depth of 24 inches, or until reaching well-draining soil. Add about 4 inches of ¾-inch crushed stone to the bottom of the hole....

The folks at This Old House TV invited some kids into the workshop to build a few fun projects. First up: stilts! A pair of low stilts is a great way to teach older kids about balance without sending them out on the high wire. Because stilt walking takes some skill, we recommend this project for children 8 years old and up. Project details Skill Cost Estimated Time Building them is quite easy, as TOH general contractor Tom Silva and two kid carpenters demonstrate....

In this video, This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook shares tips for selecting, planting and growing low-maintenance ground cover. Project details Skill Cost Estimated Time How to Choose Ground Cover Use a spade fork to loosen and turn over the soil in the garden bed. Spread 2 inches of compost over the bed, and then turn it into the soil with a spade fork. Sprinkle starter fertilizer over the bed and lightly rake it into the soil....

Steps: Project details Skill Cost Estimated Time Tom shares a couple of tips for using and maintaining different air compressors. In general, he explains that proper usage and maintenance of an air compressor will allow it work efficiently for a long period of time. Before using any tool, check the recommended PSI label on the tool. Set the air compressor to that PSI using the output valve. Change the air filter regularly, about once a month....

It’s easy to understand why cutting boards are such popular woodworking projects: You don’t need to spend a lot to get creative with fancy patterns and wood species. That’s what Tom Silva set out to do in making this “op-art” cutting board, with an assist from Kevin O’Connor. “I’ve seen these in woodworking magazines, and I thought it would be fun to try it out,” Tom says. Project details Skill Cost Estimated Time Three woods of contrasting colors give the board its intriguing appearance: maple, oak, and cherry sourced from a hardwood lumber dealer....

In this video, This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook installs a sump pump dry well to collect discharge water coming from a couple’s basement. Project details Skill Cost Estimated Time How to Install a Sump Pump Dry Well Temporarily connect discharge hose from sump pump to a long PVC pipe. Extend pipe well away from dry well excavation site. Set the dry well in position and use ground-marking spray paint to mark the dry well’s rough outline onto the ground....

Homeowners across the country have to deal with the unfortunate reality of pests, from ants to mice and more. Sooner or later, homeowners will likely come across a variety of pests, and they may not have the resources, time, or energy to remediate the issue. With Alabama’s warm temperatures, this is a serious problem—one best dealt with by pest control professionals. Conveniently, some of the best pest control companies in the country service the Birmingham area....

Your washing machine is one of the hardest-working appliances in your home, doing load after load every week. Yet while it’s easy to assume that the detergent you use cleans the washer along with your laundry, the reverse may well be true: Product residue can cling to the washtub, door, gaskets, and inner workings, as can remnants of dirt and grime from clothes and linens. This can invite a brew of nasty odors, mold, mildew, and bacteria that can leave laundry less than fresh....

When Alison Hardy started her window-restoration business back in 2003, it was a one-woman show based out of her garage. Kevin O’Connor was one of her first clients. Hardy’s task: to rehab dozens of ornate yet inoperable windows, including 20-over-2 double-hungs and some arched sashes, from the 1893 Queen Anne that Kevin—who had not yet been tapped to host This Old House—was renovating with his wife. “Alison really is an artisan,” he says today of the masterful work she did....

Once upon a time, the only way to remove paint from an old piece of furniture was to use a fast-working chemical stripper containing methylene chloride (sometimes called dichloromethane or DCM), which can only be used outside or in areas with proper ventilation because of their harsh fumes and high VOC content. Not anymore. Though chemical strippers using safer ingredients have been on the market for more than 15 years, they’re more popular than ever thanks to growing interest in green building....

Nine out of 10 dentists recommend it. But surprising tensile strength and the fact that it comes in Teflon means that floss also has lots of non-tooth applications. Literally, millions of miles of it are sold annually, and not every inch is destined to save those pearly whites. Here’s what else you can do with it. 7 Uses for Dental Floss Hang a Picture Instead of using braided wire which can mar your wall, tie dental floss across the back of a lightweight frame and then hang it on the wall....

Built to Last There’s no shortage of old houses to fix up in Charleston, South Carolina, but it can feel like a Goldilocks search trying to find one that’s “just right.” Scott and Kathleen Edwards hunted for almost two years before they came across exactly what they were looking for: a house in the Ansonborough neighborhood, with its lively restaurants and shopping, that hadn’t been recently modernized. They first moved to the city from Michigan almost 25 years ago, then raised their children in the suburbs....

Steps: Standard electric dryers use electricity to power an element that heats the dryer to dry the clothes inside. The water, lint, and excess heat is then vented outside. A heat pump dryer, on the other hand, uses refrigerant to catch the hot air from the dryer and that element is then pushed through a compressor to make it even hotter. That new hot air is then pushed back into the dryer and the cycle repeats itself....

Woodworking Hand Planes Bench planes are used to flatten and smooth broad wood surfaces and narrow edges. Long bench planes are best suited for smoothing very long surfaces and edges. Specialty planes, such as a shoulder plane or rabbet plane, have plane irons (blades) that come flush with the edges of the tool. Block planes are compact, versatile, and ideally suited for smoothing edges, small surfaces, and end grain. How to Use a Hand Plane Rotate the adjusting nut to control the depth of cut....

No matter how careful you are, live in a home long enough, and you’ll find yourself with some holes in the walls to patch. And if a small section of wall is really badly stained or damaged, you’ll have to cut out the affected area and cover the hole with a drywall patch. Fortunately, fixing holes in drywall doesn’t require a lot of time or experience. Wall-repair kits, available at home centers and hardware stores, make it even easier....

The essence of a French drain is to create a free-draining conduit that captures groundwater and leads it to a suitable discharge point. What is a French Drain? Although they sound quite European, French drains are in fact named for a New Englander, Henry French. French drains are a simple way of removing unwanted groundwater and consist mainly of a gravel-filled trench and some perforated drainage pipe. Water, either from the surface or in wet soils, is collected by the gravel and seeps into the pipe which carries it away....

Few summer pleasures are as much fun as a cookout. The smell of grilling food is mouth-watering, everything tastes great and it’s hard not to have a good time - that is, unless you’re the harried host running back and forth between the grill and the kitchen for the chicken and steak, forks and knives, beer and wine, and ketchup and mustard. And when everybody’s done, all the leftovers must be lugged back inside....

Previous episode: S19 E24 | Next episode: S19 E26 In this episode: Host Kevin O’Connor travels to Billings, Montana to meet Bo Reichenbach, a Navy SEAL veteran who was injured during the war in Afghanistan. Bo shares the story of his service with Kevin and discusses the home he built with help from Building for America’s Bravest. Bo is also an American ice sled hockey player, but training to be an olympic athlete in rural Montana can be tough....