Kevin: You may know somebody with mobility issues
or somebody aging who wants to stay in their house.
Well, we have got a brand-new project
here in Lexington, Massachusetts,
where we're working with an active family of five
who needs to make their house more accessible
for their young son.
♪♪
Man: Ahh. That's it.
♪♪
Kevin: Hi there. I'm Kevin O'Connor.
And welcome back to a brand-new season
of "This Old House."
Today, I'm in historic Lexington, Massachusetts,
a town that is known for the first battle
of the American Revolution.
It's also a town that we've worked in before.
It has got a great collection of old homes,
and we've renovated a few of them,
some colonials, some colonial revivals.
Now, people come to this town all of the time
to learn more about Lexington's involvement
in the Revolutionary War and to learn how that
is celebrated and honored every day.
In fact, there are historic guides touring this town
almost every day of the week.
Tom: When the soldiers arrived at the Lexington Common,
they met up with the Lexington militia.
Among them was my great-great-grandfather,
who was one of the 12 men that were killed in that battle.
And he's actually buried right around here.
Kevin: Tommy?
Tom: Sonny, the tour for the British is over there.
Kevin: Uh, hi.
Hey, news flash, Pops. You know, you've got a job.
You don't need to do this.
Tom: He wouldn't understand. He didn't grow up here.
So, as I was saying, growing up here in Lexington,
we appreciate the significance of the shot
of the battles of Lexington and Concord, April 19, 1775.
Kevin: Must have been exciting, Pops, to be there.
What was it like to hear that first shot?
Tom: Sonny, have some respect for Lexington history.
I'm working here. Can't you see that?
Kevin: Nice knickers.
I have no idea what's going on.
Tom: [ Sighs ] Not easy.
Kevin: I thought this was going to be a regular introduction.
I guess not. Anyway, unlike our tour guide back there,
who is stuck in the past, this town is not.
It welcomes people from all over with some modern-day amenities,
and it makes sure that this town is accessible for everyone.
The town has taken measures to be ADA compliant.
That's the American Disabilities Act of 1990,
and it protects people with disabilities
in all areas of public life.
So you'll see things like wide sidewalks,
ramps, buses with wheelchair lifts
and these -- curbless crosswalks with detectable warnings.
A quarter of Americans have some form of disability,
and half of them have mobility issues that,
along with an aging population,
means there is good reason to make our communities
and our homes more accessible.
Our project house is just a few blocks from here,
and our mission is to renovate a mid-century-modern home.
We are going to make it accessible
for an active family of five
that has a young son losing his mobility.
Lexington's got some great public transportation.
Charlie, are you moonlighting, too?
Charlie: Born and raised here. Kevin: Unbelievable.
Mark, you too? Mark: I'm a townie, too.
Kevin: No kidding.
Charlie: All right. Where to? Tom: To the house.
Kevin: To the house, I guess.
Tom: A little-known fact -- I grew up in this town.
I lived in a house that was built in the 1700s
that my mother was born in
and all my brothers and sisters were raised in.
And I learned my trade working in that house as a young kid.
Kevin: Michelle, good to see you. Michelle: Hey.
Kevin: Billy, pleasure. Billy: Hi, Kevin. How's it going?
Kevin: It's going all right. How's it going with you guys?
Are you ready for this? Michelle: Yeah. Yeah, we're ready.
Kevin: Are you excited? Michelle: Excited.
A little nervous but also very excited.
Kevin: Well, it's a big project with a good mission.
So tell us the story. Give us a little background.
Billy: We just moved here recently.
A family of five, so three kids, one of whom has a rare disease.
So we're looking to make some changes
to adjust to our -- to that.
Kevin: Right. So accessibility is a big item on your list.
And the house is not as accessible as you'd like.
Michelle: That's exactly right. That's the main idea.
So of the three kids, it's our middle son
that has what's called Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
And what that is is a progressive
muscle-wasting disease
so that, over time, he's going to lose his ability to walk.
He's already having a lot of challenges
with stairs right now.
And so, everything that we're really doing
is to try to make sure that he has equal access to the house
as much as anybody else does.
And we can all be much more connected as a family.
Kevin: And in terms of the house as it exists now,
how does it work for his mobility,
and how far do you want to take it?
Michelle: Yeah. One of the main reasons why we got this house is
because we have quite a bit of living space all on one level,
including some bedrooms, which is great.
And so, that has been working so far
for our son and for our family.
But it's definitely not ideal. I mean, so for example,
the primary bedroom is actually right up here above the garage.
Caffrey's room is way on the other side of the house,
and especially if he needs something in the middle
of the night, it's impossible for him to come upstairs.
And so, we really want to be able to try to solve
for that problem in particular. Kevin: Sure.
Well, that's completely understandable.
I can imagine that is not an ideal situation.
And as you say, Caffrey's condition is rare.
It's certainly unfortunate, but that need for mobility
is actually not that rare. I mean, it's something
that we're all going to be struggling with,
whether it's caring for our parents or a loved one
or our own situation, you know?
It's going to be something that we have to address.
So the challenge that you face, while very specific
and, as I said, unfortunate, is a challenge
that, I think, appeals and applies to many people.
So tackling your personal situation,
we're looking forward to helping you with that,
but also just sharing those solutions
with a big audience, as well, so it's going to be good.
Michelle: Sounds good. Kevin: All right.
Well, Billy, I know Tommy's got his eyes on you,
but maybe, Michelle, you can show me inside
and give me a better lay of the land? Michelle: Yeah.
Let me show you around. Kevin: All right. Thanks.
Tom: Hey, Billy. Billy: Hi, Tommy. How are you?
Tom: I'm good. You ready to get started?
Billy: Yeah, as ready as I'll ever be. Tom: Oh, good for you.
Well, this is going to be a great project.
You know, I grew up in this town.
I did a lot of work in this town.
I actually worked on that house right up there
many, many years ago.
And I know about these mid-century-modern houses
because I worked on a lot of them.
The mid-century modern has a low pitch,
a lot of glass on the South side,
and they're usually on a slab,
but your lot really pitches down,
so you have two stories on the back side.
Billy Yeah, we -- the first edition
we think was a two-level piece done on the back.
Tom: Yeah. To the original mid-century modern right here.
Billy: Exactly. And then the garage at some point
was a detached garage,
and then they did this piece in the middle.
But it's very disjointed and kind of draws your attention
incorrectly from the street.
Tom: Yeah, you definitely don't want the garage
to be the focal point.
You want the main house to draw people in.
And it just, you know -- The garage is too overpowering.
I don't know what's going on with that --
Is that the chimney or a fireplace in there?
Billy: It's a faux fireplace.
There's no flue or anything there.
So we use it as more display. It's a bit of an alcove.
But, as you can see from the brickwork on the outside,
it's got a few water issues.
So we're going to look to take that out.
Tom: Right. Billy: The priority here is the accessibility.
So we're going to use that space -- the new space
to run a ramp from the driveway over to the right,
a nice gentle slope to a new front door.
Tom: Right. Billy: And then that'll give us a new focal point
for the front of the house, as well.
Tom: Oh, absolutely. It will change it all around nicely.
And you get your accessibility in there, too.
Billy: Yeah. Tom: Yeah, because you do.
If you look at the height of the front door
in relationship to the grade right now,
I mean, there's two good steps right there.
Billy: Yeah, we've already done some work
to try to make it accessible, even in the short-term.
I've put my woodworking skills to the test
and put a ramp together myself. Tom: Wow.
I'd like to see how talented you are.
Billy: It's here in the garage. Tom: All right.
I got to say, a three-car garage is exactly what I'm looking for.
Unfortunately, I have a one-car garage,
and I have a hard time getting my car in it.
Billy: Yeah. This is what I was talking about.
I did a little short- to medium-term solution
for us in a ramp. Tom: Yeah. Great.
Yeah, Yeah. Oh, yeah. Some 2x3's.
Looks of birch plywood. Nice job there. I like it.
It's all screwed together. That's pretty cool.
Now, if you were building one of these
and you want to comply to the code,
it has to be 1 and 12.
So every 12 inches you go in,
it's one inches up.
Two feet in, two inches up.
But for this right here, this is perfect.
Billy: Yeah, it works for now. And I think that the ramping
that we'll do for the other parts
here in the garage, as well out front, will be
a much, much more easy slope. Tom: Yeah.
We'll follow the code on that one, that's for sure.
And it's better if it's even a little less.
But we'll see what we have for room.
Billy: Yeah. Tom: Oh, this is great.
You got a ping-pong table here. Hmm.
Where's the paddles?
Michelle: So here we are in the foyer.
Kevin: Oh, yeah, big foyer. Michelle: Yeah.
It is a big foyer, but it's a bit of a weird
and awkward space.
And we've put a sofa here because we had one,
but it does -- Kevin: In case you want to nap in the foyer.
Michelle: Well, why not? Why wouldn't you, right? Kevin: Sure.
Michelle: But it is a bit of a weird place
because you can see all the windows,
which is nice to have the light,
but it is a bit of a fishbowl. Kevin: Yeah.
So a lot of space. Maybe some wasted space.
Michelle: Absolutely. Right? Kevin: Yeah.
Michelle: And then these stairs, they head up to the primary bedroom.
Right? So again, one side of the house,
that's where we are. Kevin: Above the garage.
Michelle: Everybody else is over there.
Kevin: In transit, getting ready to move.
Or is this the workout space?
Michelle: Yeah. You know, I always love to work out in the foyer,
but, no, it's actually the only place in the house
where we can put this because Billy is 6'5",
and we'd love to have it in the basement,
but the ceilings are way too low.
Kevin: Okay, so plenty of space
but maybe not used most efficiently.
Michelle: Exactly. Kevin: As we come around the corner...
Michelle: Right, so this is the main living space in the house,
the kitchen and the living areas.
Kevin: Oh, yeah. Opens right up, huh?
Michelle: Yeah. Kevin: So what room is this? How do you use it?
Michelle: So we call it a living room,
but it's really an in-between room,
and we don't really spend a lot of time here.
Kevin: You know, we see a lot of living rooms
that people do not use.
A bit of formality that we don't enjoy anymore.
Michelle: Yeah. Kevin: Although they do enjoy fireplaces,
and you've got one very prominently displayed.
Does it work? Michelle: We do.
But it's -- No, it's totally decorative.
And not only does it not work,
it actually is a bit of a problem.
So all of this brick actually leaks.
And so, the very first rainstorm that we had,
we had a bit of a lake happening here in the fireplace.
And then, actually, even when we had a cold snap
a couple of days ago,
this turned into an entire frosty fireplace.
Kevin: Not a fireplace. A water feature.
Michelle: Yes, exactly. That's right.
Kevin: All right. Well, I like the ceiling height.
It sort of connects all the rooms
as you come between here. Really nice.
Michelle: That's right. So this is what we would call our family room.
And this is actually
where we spend most of the time in the house.
Kevin: Not surprising to me at all. It's a gorgeous room.
Michelle: Yeah, it's actually my favorite room in the house.
And, you know, here is where I think that you can actually pick up
a lot of these mid-century-modern characteristics.
You see these brick walls over here.
Very quintessential of this mid-century modern design.
We have it on three different sides of this room.
And you can actually see this unique Chevron-shaped wall here
and its mirror image on the other side of the room.
And I think it gives it just a lot of character
from that era, which is really special.
Kevin: And this is the original structure.
Michelle: This is. Kevin: So this is original surface material, as well,
probably. Michelle: That's right.
Kevin: Yeah, that's really nice. And then just walls of glass,
which means lots of light flowing in.
Michelle: Yeah, I think this is another thing
that makes this room just so lovely to be in.
And this is actually my favorite seat in the house.
A lot of it is because you have this great character around
but also a ton of light.
So this is where I love to be able to spend my time,
especially when the family's here.
Kevin: You picked a good one. Michelle: Yeah.
Kevin: As I walk through here, though, Michelle,
this is not what I'm used to walking through
when we're going to renovate a house.
This looks immaculate, and it is beautiful.
I'm not expecting a renovation to go on.
Michelle: And we want to keep it that way, right?
So our plan is really to keep this room
almost exactly as it is,
really just some windows, new floors.
But we really want to keep the character as it is,
and just, it's the rest of the house
that we really want to try to resolve.
Kevin: All right. Well, let's have a look at that.
Michelle: Yeah.
All right, so let me show you the dining room.
All right? Kevin: Mm-hmm.
Michelle: So not a bad space. Kevin: No.
Michelle: But, again, it's a little bit tight over here,
and thinking ahead to when our son is in a powered wheelchair,
this is going to be really -- a real difficult problem
for him to navigate. Kevin: Well, yeah.
I mean, I guess the prospects of a motorized wheelchair
changes your perspective on everything.
Michelle: It does, right? So when we get to a place of, like, really thinking
about how to make this a much more accessible home,
that's certainly one of the things that we're thinking about.
We'd really love to open this up a lot more.
Kevin: Okay, lovely is great,
but functional needs to be top of the list. Michelle: Right.
So here we are in the kitchen,
and this, actually, is the main thoroughfare for Caffrey
right now because this is the living space,
his bedroom is actually right over here.
And so, this is actually a narrow space.
Kevin: It's a galley kitchen. Michelle: It's a galley kitchen.
Kevin: Looks beautiful, but by design,
galley kitchens are narrow.
Michelle: That's right. And, you know, you can imagine,
this dishwasher is frequently open,
drawers are frequently open.
We have these warming drawers which don't actually work.
But it makes it really, really tight, especially, again,
thinking about that wheelchair in the future.
Kevin: And all else being equal, would the family cook together
and hang out in the kitchen together if they could?
Michelle: Yeah, ideally we would.
But we don't really think that this is a conducive space
for us all to be in here together.
So we really want to be able to open up this big room
so we can get all five of us in here
and have as much accessibility as we possibly can. Kevin: Sure.
Okay.
Michelle: Let's go this way next.
So this is actually one of the primary junctures of the house.
Kevin: Right. Michelle: So just to orient you,
we have the lower level down here.
We have a living space there.
And back over there is the entrance
and the primary bedroom way above the garage.
Kevin: Way back there.
Michelle: Yeah. Now we've got kids' rooms, right?
Marlowe's room is here, Caffrey's room is down there.
Right? So you could see, actually, the quite distance
that we have between Caffrey's room and our room.
And that's something that we want to address.
Kevin: So that's two kids. There's a third.
Is lower level another bedroom? Michelle: Yep.
The lower level is where our oldest son is.
And we also have a rec room down there.
But you see the stairs, right?
This is one of the major impediments for Caffrey
being kind of as connected and, you know, integrated
with the rest of the house and the family as he could be.
Kevin: If he can't beat up his brother in his bedroom
or get to the rec room, it's just not fair.
Michelle: That's right. Kevin: I totally get it. Okay, that makes sense.
Oh, here comes one. Ah, Marlowe, how are you?
Marlowe: Hi. I'm good. Kevin: Nice to see you.
Marlowe: Nice to meet you. Kevin: Is this where I get handed off?
Michelle: Yeah. You want to show Kevin your room?
Maybe Caffrey's room? Marlowe: Sure.
Michelle: Go for it. Kevin: Lead on, please.
Oh, yes. Look at this.
Cozy. Marlowe: So...
this is my room.
I like it cozy, and I like enclosed spaces.
And my bed, it's up high, and I like my desk area.
Kevin: Yep. Lots to like.
And I know someone -- my daughter --
who's going to be jealous about the hanging chair.
That's on my to-do list. So that's a nice feature, too.
Ah, this is terrific. All right. And where's your brother's room?
Marlowe: It's just down here.
Kevin: So will you lead on? Show me where he is.
So you guys aren't too far away.
Just down the hallway from each other?
Marlowe: Yeah. And one of the problem is how narrow this hallway is.
It's hard for -- It's going to be inaccessible
for him to get through when he's in a wheelchair.
Kevin: Okay, well, then this one's on the list.
Marlowe: Yeah.
Kevin: Let's see what we got back here.
Oh, bright and sunny. Very nice.
Marlowe: This is Cathy's room. Kevin: Caffrey,
very nice to meet you. Caffrey: Yeah.
Kevin: Gaming central back here, huh?
Caffrey: Mm-hmm.
Kevin: You got windows to the -- Doors to the outside.
Marlowe, are you jealous? Marlowe: A little bit, yeah.
Kevin: I bet. This is a nice room.
Richard: We got a little party going on back here?
Kevin: Richard, say hello to Caffrey. Richard: Hi, Caffrey.
I'm Richard. Caffrey: Nice to meet you.
Richard: Nice to meet you. Now, I hear we got to
think about getting you a new bathroom.
Caffrey: Yeah. Richard: Why don't you show me what you got now?
All right, so here's your bathroom. Let's see.
What can we do to this bathroom to make it better?
What do you think? Caffrey: First of all,
the step to go into the shower is very annoying, too.
Richard: Stepping up and over it. Right. Yeah.
And then the width, too, right?
Caffrey: Yeah. [ Door squeaks ]
Richard: Oh, we'll get rid of that squeak, too.
Caffrey: Okay. Definitely.
Richard: Shower -- We could probably make this a little bit bigger.
You got grab bars here, but we got to think about
making sure the grab bars not only work
but look good, too, right? Caffrey: Yeah.
Richard: How about the faucets? Anything you want to do there?
Caffrey: Make it bigger. Richard: Okay.
We're on your team. Okay, good.
Kevin: So, Wix, you're the oldest?
Wix: Yep, I'm 15 years old.
Kevin: Is that how you got the bedroom downstairs?
Wix: Yep, definitely.
It's definitely a challenge for my brother, Caffrey,
to get down all these steps.
So we're thinking about putting maybe an elevator
or something to help him, like, get access to this rec room.
Kevin: Oh, is that what you got back here?
Wix: Yep. Kevin: The basement rec room.
Very nice. Got to have one of these.
Wix: We get friends down here, watch TV.
Kevin: Yep. Wix: Play my guitar.
Kevin: Yeah. So I would imagine
you would not want to be cut out of the activities down here.
So it's nice that you get your brother down here, as well, right?
Wix: My dad would also like a treadmill,
but it's a little short, I guess.
Kevin: Right. So he's like 6'5" on a treadmill.
That'd be a couple headaches for him.
Not even possible there.
Access to the outside, which is nice. Yeah, this is great.
And then your bedroom? Wix: Nice little patio out there.
Oh, yeah. Very nice place. I would really like
my own, like, space away from everyone else.
Get my own, like, privacy kind of.
Kevin: I know the request. Wix: Yeah.
Kevin: Tuck your away as far as possible.
Okay. Well, It's pretty nice, though. Love it.
Richard: Down here at the lowest level of the building
is the existing mechanical room, and, you know, when you get on
a project like this, you start looking, and you say,
"All right, what can we tie onto? What can we reuse?"
And there's a 75-gallon water heater here,
gas fired, and there's a furnace.
Here's a furnace that's been changed once.
You got the old duct work.
That duct work's been around, original.
So 60 years probably. It's gas fired.
And you tend to say, "Let's sort of build off of it."
But this is the moment in this building's history
where it really invites us to say, "You know what?
We're gutting out the entire building.
We're changing almost every place in it.
This is the time to think about a next heating system."
And that means, as dramatic as it sounds,
maybe getting rid of all this duct work.
Now, actually, some of this duct work
is still in the concrete-poured slab
in that living room/kitchen area.
And that's been in there for 60 years down in the concrete.
So for us, we're going to look at this building,
take the set of plans, analyze it to figure out
just how much we need for heating and cooling
in every single space,
because there's a lot of different boxes.
And then we might attack it with different kind of heat pumps,
where we can move heat from side to side
and really make this thing efficient
for the next hundred years.
Billy: Hey, Jenn. Jenn: Hey, Billy. How are you?
Billy: I'm well, thanks. Jenn: I'm just checking out your garden space.
You have a lot of nice plants here. Billy: Yeah, a lot
of the work being done here in the front
is going to displace a number of these plants,
but they're very nice, and we'd like to keep them.
Jenn: So these look like knockout roses to me,
and they're definitely worth saving
because they bloom all season long,
right from the beginning, all the way to the fall.
Gives you constant color. Billy: It's been beautiful.
Jenn: I think we need to protect them,
and we'll dig them up, heal them in somewhere.
So that means to set them aside for transplanting later.
What I'm going to do is tag them with this tagging ribbon,
and that's going to indicate to Charlie,
"Do not hurt my plants."
Billy: Great. Thank you. Jenn: Yeah.
Let's check out the backyard. Billy: Excellent.
We would really like to improve and extend
this living space out back, as well.
Jenn: I mean, this is a huge space, so it's a lot to play with.
Billy: Yeah. We do have a couple issues,
starting with this door right here. Jenn: Okay.
[ Door squeaks ]
All right, so I understand that, you know,
it needs to be accessible for everybody in the family.
And then one of your goals is to have a zero threshold.
So, basically, you want the floor from inside
to be the same level as the floor outside, correct?
Billy: Correct. Flush. Jenn: Flush.
So what we want to do, since you have
one, two, three different entry points,
the biggest concern here is drainage.
We want to figure out how to pitch all these points
out somewhere away from the house.
Billy: Excellent. Jenn: Okay?
Billy: We also have a big idea for this side over here.
Jenn: Mm-hmm? Billy: With Caffrey's muscular dystrophy,
getting exercise is very important
without encouraging the progression of the disease.
So a therapy pool, a swim spa where we can produce a current
and get him that exercise out here,
as well as added enjoyment for all of us as a family
and exercise.
If we can get that out here and adding to this space
would be spectacular.
Jenn: Yeah, and that's something the whole family,
you're right, can enjoy together.
You could do your exercise. And I think the accessibility
also to get into the pool will have to be addressed.
And that's a no-brainer.
Billy: Yeah. We'd also like to think about an outdoor kitchen.
Jenn: Well, I've already been scoping that out,
and I was thinking this space would be perfect.
If we push back the wall, we gain a couple extra feet.
And then have it plumbed in,
meaning bring the gas line over to it.
And I also heard you want a gas fire pit.
So that could be addressed at the same time.
We could add gas to that.
And I really think it's going to be one unified
outdoor living space for your entire family.
Billy: It's gonna really be incredible.
♪♪
Kevin: Well, Charlie, I think there is an urgency
to all of the projects that you do for us.
But in this case,
that urgency is more real, more acute than it's ever been.
Getting this family back in here as quickly as possible
is going to make everybody comfortable.
Charlie: It is. It's about a 14-month job, I figure.
We're doing it in about ten.
But believe it or not,
I think I've already saved us about a month.
I don't even have plans to pull a building permit
but already pulled the demo permit and starting right away.
Kevin: Use all the tricks in your bag.
Jenn: Yeah, and I have to get all my plantings out the way
so somebody doesn't mess them up. Charlie: Oh, yeah, somebody.
Jenn: And I'll get on those landscape plans.
Richard: And this is our chance to rethink the entire mechanical
and to put in an accessible bathroom
that's both functional and beautiful.
Kevin: You're going to have your hands full. Richard: Absolutely.
Tom: Accessibility is key right there, Richard.
We have to think about that in the beginning stages,
about making surfaces as flat,
transitioning from room to room without thresholds,
plenty of room for chairs and bathrooms to move around,
and ramps wherever needed in place of stairs.
Kevin: And rethinking the house, because it is a long,
meandering home, as we just noticed.
Tom: Absolutely. Kevin: So a lot of work ahead of us,
but that work actually starts tomorrow.
And so, next time we're back, we'll be well into demo.
So until then, I'm Kevin O'Connor.
Tom: I'm Tom Silva. Charlie: I'm Charlie Silva.
Jenn: I'm Jenn Nawada. Richard: I'm Richard Trethewey.
Kevin: For "This Old House" and a brand-new season
here in Lexington, Massachusetts.
We'll get to work.
♪♪
Kevin: Next time on "This Old House", I'm touring
an accessibility showroom
to find out how to make each room more functional
for anybody facing mobility challenges.
Tom: When you're digging for a foundation,
the frost line in New England
has to be 48 inches from finished grade down.
You look right here, there's not enough.
Kevin: Multiple additions and an odd flow.
We'll show you the architect's smart solutions.
So you've got a clean slate to work with in here.
Woman: We do.
Kevin: So what's the plan as we put it back together?
That's next time.