Kevin: Today on "This Old House"... We're hopping on the turnpike and heading back to the Garden State to meet a family who wants to update their 1930s colonial, keeping its charm but expanding its footprint.

And general contractor Zack Dettmore and his crew are reuniting with us for this Ridgewood renovation.

♪♪ Man: Ahh.

That's it.

♪♪ ♪♪ Kevin: You know that all the guys I work with are from Massachusetts.

Zack: I know.

I'm sorry about that.

Kevin: Yeah, well, I'm not.

I grew up in Jersey like you, right?

I mean, you grew up a few miles from here?

Zack: Yeah, 10 miles away in Rutherford.

Kevin: Right.

Well, so this is Maplewood, where I grew up, was born here, spent my entire childhood here with my brothers and sisters, and it's got everything, right?

It's got the post office, the grocery store, movie theater, and then place where I spent a lot of time, the pizza parlor.

Zack: Jersey's got the best pizza.

Kevin: They do.

Let me buy you a slice.

Zack: Alright, let's do this.

Kevin: Oh, look at this.

Vinnie.

Vinnie: How you doing?

Kevin: Say hello to Zack.

Vinnie: Nice to meet you, Zack.

How are you?

Kevin: So, Vinnie's dad was spinning pies when I was a kid.

Vinnie: That's right.

I remember.

Used to go back there and play the video games.

Kevin: Alright, well, we're -- we're hungry.

Uh, what are you thinking, cheese?

Pepperoni?

Zack: I could do anything.

Vinnie: You know what?

Make my friend here Kevin something special.

Richard: So do you want a whole pie or a couple slices?

Kevin: You gotta be kidding me.

So, you did the Jersey shore, right?

Zack: I did.

Kevin: This is why we come.

Zack: Feels nice to have the sand between your toes, doesn't it?

Kevin: Let's go check it out.

[ Jenn whistles ] You gotta be kidding me.

Zack: Man, already breaking rules.

Kevin: Little aggressive for this time of year.

What's up?

Jenn: You guys got your beach badges?

Kevin: Stop haunting my journey today.

Zack, one more stop, where no one can get past the front door.

Zack: Alright, let's do it.

Jenn: Nice to see you.

Kevin: You take care of that ocean, make sure nobody gets hurt.

Zack: Keep the people safe.

Kevin: Final stop on the tour, Zack, my high school here in downtown Newark.

And when I was here, this amazing man was the headmaster, Father Edwin.

And he's still here.

How are you, Father Edwin?

Edwin: Good to see you.

Kevin: Good to see you.

Say hello to my buddy Zack.

Edwin: Zack, good to meet you.

My pleasure.

Zack: Nice to meet you.

Edwin: Meet two of our seniors, Robert and Baden.

Kevin: Baden, nice to meet you.

Baden: Nice to meet you.

Kevin: Robert, pleasure.

Robert: Nice to meet you.

Zack: Nice to meet you.

Kevin: Class of 2025?

Robert: Yeah.

Kevin: I love it.

Good.

St. Benedict's men.

Zack: So, I hear Kevin's a bit of a legend here.

Edwin: That's true.

But legends are built with positive reputations, negative reputations, so you decide which one.

Kevin: Ugh.

Edwin: Want to go on a tour?

Kevin: I'd love to.

Edwin: Let's go.

Kevin: I have a feeling I'm gonna regret this.

Maybe this was a mistake.

I had Father Boniface for math in here.

Tom: ...business for almost 50 years.

And I find that being a successful business is, first of all, having a good, solid contract.

Kevin: Holy habit.

Tom: Oh, my gosh.

Kevin: Pops, what are you doing?

Tom: What are you doing?

Kevin: What am I doing here?

What are you doing?

What?

You're -- [ Laughter ] I do have to confess, uh, Pops, you look pretty good in the habit.

Tom: Yeah.

[ Laughs ] Kevin: I didn't know black was your color.

Tom: Yeah, well, you know, I was teaching those kids a lesson.

It was a good lesson, too.

They learned a lot.

Kevin: From you.

Tom: From me.

Kevin: In a classroom.

Tom: In a -- Well, you know, you got to play the role.

[ Car chimes ] Kevin: Okay.

Alright.

We are off to our new job site.

Tom: Wait, wait, stop, stop.

Kevin: What?

Tom: What about those guys?

Kevin: Well, I mean, Zack, you see, he's from here.

He knows where he's going.

Tom: Yeah, but what about Richard and Jenn, then?

Kevin: [ Laughs ] Those two?

I'm sorry.

Those two have been haunting me every minute I've been in new Jersey.

I got a feeling that if I end up at the project house, they'll end up at the project house.

Tom: Yeah, they'll find it.

Kevin: I think so.

So, we are working with Zack and his crew again.

How do you feel about that?

Tom: Oh, I like Zack.

He's a good guy.

He does good work, and he's very organized.

Kevin: Yeah.

He was telling me a little bit about the neighborhood and the project house.

Neighborhood is called Ridgewood.

It's a little bedroom community about 20 minutes outside of Manhattan.

Tom: Yeah.

That's nice.

Kevin: That's not bad.

And it's a modest sized Colonial Revival built in the 1920s.

Tom: Yeah, but what do you mean by modest?

Kevin: Well, I'm told it's 1,500 square feet.

Tom: Ooh, nice size.

Kevin: Like that?

Yeah.

We'll make changes to that space, and I'm told there's going to be a little addition off the back, but it's only going to be an additional 200 square feet or so.

Tom: A little reno with an addition, 1,700 square feet.

I like it.

Kevin: Pretty good for Mom and Dad and their one teenage daughter.

Tom: Perfect.

Kevin: So we'll make some changes to outside a little bit to the inside, and I guess we'll see what we're going to get when we get there.

Tom: Can't wait to see it.

Kevin: Hey, guys.

Nice to see you.

Kay: Hi.

I'm Kay.

Kevin: How are you?

Hey, nice to meet you.

Peter: Good to see you.

Nice to meet you.

Kevin: Kevin.

Tom: How are you?

Nice to see you.

Peter: Thanks for being here.

Kay: Nice to meet you.

Kay.

Kevin: Yeah.

Thanks for having us.

So, what's the story?

How long you guys been here?

Peter: We've been here since the very end of 2019.

Kevin: Okay.

Peter: And we moved in knowing we'd do a renovation, but not knowing when.

Kevin: Right.

Peter: So now's the time.

Kevin: Okay.

And where did you come from?

Kay: We came from across town.

We were actually already in Ridgewood.

Kevin: Alright.

Kay: So, you know, shopping for a house, and this was -- That was the timing.

Kevin: Yeah.

So you like the town.

Kay: Yeah, we do like the town.

Kevin: You're here to stay.

Kay: We do like the town.

And the house is well located.

We like the neighborhood feel on this street in particular.

And also at the time, Peter's daughter Genevieve was in middle school, and this is walking distance to her middle school.

It's walking distance now to her high school.

Tom: That's handy.

Kay: Yeah.

So it's great.

She stops by here sometimes during free periods, and it's nice to see her in the middle of the day.

Kevin: Yeah.

Tom: That is close.

Kay: Yeah.

Kevin: That's great.

Tom: How old is the house?

Peter: Around the 1920s is what we know, like mid to late '20s.

And there's a couple of little additions that have been done in bumping out the kitchen a tiny bit and then enclosing the porch somewhere between then and now.

Kevin: Okay.

So, you like the town.

You're here to stay, and it's time for renovation.

What's the plan generally?

Like, what are you hoping to do?

Peter: Yeah, so the plan generally is to open up more light so we can see the backyard from more places and then also let more light in.

And then we're also making the kitchen larger with a breakfast nook and putting a bedroom above the kitchen, and then kind of redoing the patio in the backyard, as well.

Kevin: Okay.

Kay: Yeah, we're used to entertaining more than we actually have in this space.

So we want to open up existing spaces, but also add a little bit of additional space so that we can have family come and stay and, you know, just a much easier flow to the house.

Yeah.

But we don't need a ton of space.

It's just the three of us.

So we're trying to rightsize that, too.

Kevin: And if it's from the '20s, is there infrastructure that needs to be upgraded or...?

Peter: Oh, yes, actually.

Lead pipe going to the street, sewer needs to be done, and the boiler died right in the beginning of the winter.

Kevin: Oh, lucky you.

Tom: Oh.

Not a good time for that to happen.

Kay: Yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

Tom: I saw a space heater out of the corner of my eye.

I'm saying, what's that all about?

Kay: Yeah, you'll see those kind of strewn throughout the house, actually.

Kevin: We're here just in time.

Peter: Just in time.

Tom: Yeah.

Kevin: Well, how about a deeper dive in what you've actually got right now, a tour, if you will?

Peter: Sounds good.

Kevin: Yeah?

Who wants to take me, I guess on the first floor?

Peter: I can take you on the first floor.

Kay: And I can do the second.

Yeah.

Tom: Alright.

Lead the way.

Kay: Thanks.

Peter: So, this is the living room.

And we're not going to change a whole lot here.

We're going to make the window wider so that we get more light in and we have a better view of the backyard.

Kevin: Yeah.

Looks pretty big back there.

Peter: It is.

It's nice.

And we're going to actually take out the track lighting because track lighting is an abomination.

Kevin: Okay.

No argument from me.

But nice fireplace, though.

Beautiful surround and mantel.

That's great.

Peter: Yeah, we love that.

It makes it a really nice, cozy feel here in the room when we keep fires going.

Kevin: Pretty much stays the same.

And what have we got on the far side?

Peter: So this is actually a mixed use room that is our den and my office.

But we're going to turn it into just my office.

Kevin: Okay.

Cozy room.

Peter: It is a nice room.

We have the back of the fireplace here, a nice wood ceiling that we'll try to keep if we can.

But the big goal here is energy efficiency, actually, as it is for the whole house, really.

That's a big part of this project.

And so we leak a lot of heat and a lot of cool air in the summer from this room, because it's an old enclosed porch.

Kevin: Oh, right.

Happens a lot, right?

Peter: Yeah, it does.

Kevin: And when you leak heat with no boiler -- Peter: That's right.

So we have two space heaters in this room at the moment, but we'll configure it as my office.

I work from home all the time.

Kevin: Okay.

Well, let's keep going.

Let's see what else we've got.

Peter: So, this is our dining and entrance area here.

We're going to change this a bit.

First, we're going to remove this wall so that this space opens up more when you walk into it.

And then where you're standing is actually going to become a closet.

Kevin: Oh, so the stairs -- This is not where the stairs to the second floor are going to go.

Peter: No, that'll be around the corner, actually.

So as you walk in, it'll be a coat closet that's here.

Kevin: So how are you going to end up using this room?

Peter: So this room is going to be a mixed dining room den with some low seating around here.

And then we're actually moving the hallway to be right here, moving this wall a little bit, and putting a full bathroom with a shower on this side.

Kevin: Oh, nice.

Stained glass?

Peter: Yeah.

So then, this is a part of the original house that we wanted to keep.

Our architect really loves the idea of keeping the story of the original house and evolving that into the new space.

So keeping this window is a part of that.

Kevin: Those stairs go away.

Hallway goes here, so do the new stairs come off of it this way?

Peter: That's right.

We'll go up this way.

And then right now, there's a little tiny bathroom here, kind of like an airplane bathroom.

We're going to move that over here and make it a full.

Kevin: Can we see?

Peter: Yeah.

Kevin: Airplane bathroom.

I'm intrigued.

Oh, yeah.

Look at that.

Like a 707, 747.

Peter: Something like that.

Alright.

This is our time machine kitchen.

Kevin: Dated.

Peter: It is dated.

Kevin: Wow.

And small.

Peter: And small.

We always knew we were going to redo it from the moment we bought the house.

Kevin: Makes sense.

That happens a lot, actually.

I don't know if these are original cabinets.

I doubt it, but they're definitely old.

Peter: They are definitely old.

Kevin: And you got the old, what is that, Formica countertops and the metal bands right there.

Stove working for you?

Peter: The stove is working for us, but we're going to get a new one.

Update all the appliances.

You know, and we'll miss some of the charming features.

Kevin: It has charming features?

Peter: It has charming features.

Kevin: Prove it.

Peter: Well, we've got a bread drawer right here from back in the day.

Kevin: Oh, yeah.

That is actually kind of charming.

That's kind of cool.

Peter: And then where the ironing board used to be is now a spice rack.

Kevin: No way.

Ironing board in the kitchen.

That's a great spice rack.

Peter: Thank you.

Kevin: Is the, um, hole in the ceiling on your chopping list?

Yeah.

That hole in the ceiling was a leak that, knowing we were going to blow up the kitchen, we decided just to leave alone.

Kevin: Right.

Happens a lot, actually.

This is where you pick up more space.

Peter: This is where we pick up more space.

So, the hallway that we talked about is going to come down here.

We're going to bump out the kitchen about 16 feet.

There will be about three steps that come down so that there's higher ceilings.

Kevin: Very nice.

Peter: A doorway that comes in right around here from the driveway so we can bring groceries in easily, a doorway that is here so that we can go out to the new patio easily.

Kevin: Very nice.

Peter: And then we'll put a breakfast nook in the right corner with wide windows so that, like a lot of other spaces, you can see the yard more and then a lot more counter space and updated appliances.

Kevin: That's going to be nice.

More headroom, lots of light.

You're going to pick up a whole bunch of space.

It's time.

And you'll save the bread drawer, right?

Peter: And we'll save, maybe, the bread drawer.

Kevin: [ Chuckles ] Okay.

Kay: So, this is where the stairs will come up from the first floor.

Tom: Yeah, going to change direction at the bottom there.

Kay: Yep.

And then when you get to this landing, you're going to take a right to get to the new addition on the second floor.

That's what's on top of the kitchen.

Tom: So basically this stairway is going to get redesigned.

But the -- the idea right here is going to stay the same.

This elevation of the existing floor will match the elevation of the new floor.

So this landing will stay because of the configuration of the stairs.

So when you come up, you'll hit a landing, and you decide to go up one to the bedroom and up to the old part.

Kay: Right.

And mostly that's going to be the primary bedroom.

And it'll be about the size of the kitchen that's down below it.

There'll be windows around the corner facing the yard.

So that'll be nice, bringing in all that light.

We'll have a walk-in closet, as well, which will give us more space, you know, obviously for storage.

Tom: Right.

Kay: And it will be connected to the new bathroom.

Tom: Now, what about the bathroom?

Kay: So this is -- This bathroom will be gutted.

It'll be shared by all the bedrooms and we'll reorient it about 90 degrees.

Tom: So you're going to have -- Tub's going to change.

Kay: Yep.

Tom: And you're going to have two doors?

Kay: We'll have two doors.

We'll have this door here, and then we'll have a new door that's attached to the new bedroom.

Tom: Okay.

Good, good.

Kay: Yeah.

Tom: And what else is going on in the hallway here, nothing?

Kay: Nothing really.

All of this mostly stays the same.

This is a door to our attic.

These are the three bedrooms in front of us.

And the big thing is that we'll get new windows in all of the bedrooms.

And then in the third bedroom, the smallest one over here, it's sitting on top of the living room, so we'll widen those windows.

Tom: Oh, so you get a nice view to the backyard, bring the outdoors in.

Kay: Right, right, right.

And it'll match the widening of the windows down in the living room.

Tom: Okay.

And is the railing and everything staying here?

Kay: That's pretty much staying, yeah.

You know, this is the old part of the house.

It'll stay kind of as is.

And then we'll add the new part, and then we'll -- Our architect has ideas of how to make it cohesive, because it is a little bit of a mixing of the old and new.

Tom: Right.

Right.

Yeah, and the old, I look at this first, and I say it's an historical house.

I like the idea of the historical houses.

I don't like to change things, but the building inspector may make you change the height of that.

And, which isn't a big deal, but it's just taking the original one and moving it away.

But there's ways to play with that, to give you a little more height if you need to.

Kay: Okay.

Yeah.

Tom: Alright.

This is going to be great.

Kay: Yeah.

We're excited.

Kevin: Richard, if there was ever a house that needed your help, I think this is one of them.

I just heard a long list of problems from Peter about the systems.

Richard: This is an old house.

It's got a lot of original systems.

One is the water supply.

Water supply goes out to the street right here.

And we're told that there's lead out at the main connection outside.

Kevin: Lovely.

Richard: So I can test it using these magnets.

If I put it onto a steel pipe, it will stick.

So this is galvanized steel piping.

It was used in between the wars, first and second world war.

But what happens is it'll actually have layers and layers of rust off that steel.

And actually the water's coming right through the rust supply.

So we got to think about changing that.

They're very conscious about water quality.

They're also very conscious of air quality.

Now, they discovered that they had radon under the ground.

And radon is a naturally occurring radioactive gas that can seep into the building.

It comes up out of the ground.

So this system is already in place.

They've got a connection to under the slab.

And then there's a fan right here, and it'll pull any radon it can and get it to outside.

So, got that under control.

But on their state of mind is always about air quality.

So I saw these all through the building.

They got three of these in the building.

And this is a sort of a do-it- yourself air quality system.

You got four off-the-shelf filters and then a box fan right here that just will filter through there.

Kevin: Right.

This is a system separate from the radon.

But you know who taught me how to make one of these a little while back?

Your son Ross.

Richard: He's so smart.

Kevin: Well, you know what?

He said they're super effective.

Richard: They are.

Now, the drainage system.

Here's the set tub down here.

Here's the main stack right here, and that actually goes under the floor and then exit the building right here.

Here's the cleanout.

And they're sending a snake down here every 2 to 3 weeks.

Kevin: Oh, really?

Richard: But the distance that that snake discovers the problem is just out almost at the sidewalk.

So it's not that it's got tree roots or anything else.

So it might be there's some issue, right, where this horizontal drain connects to the main sewer.

So we probably have to open up out there.

Kevin: But they're getting sewage backup right here in the basement?

Richard: Absolutely.

Kevin: That's nasty.

Richard: So we got to figure that out.

So it looks like two places we got to exit the building and replace it.

So, it's an old house, you know?

The plumber that was here said, "These plumbing systems are giving you all you got, man."

So... Kevin: Thank you, Mr. Scott.

Richard: Right?

So, we got the water heater here.

It looks new, but it's eight years old already.

We don't have to do anything with that.

Kevin: So this is not an indirect unit.

We've got a flame right down there?

Richard: Gas fired, yep.

Vents into the chimney.

And this is a steam boiler.

It's not the original, you know, but you can see the old steam piping right here.

They modified it when they added gas, I'm sure.

And this is a steam boiler.

Now, steam boiler's pretty straightforward.

It's cast iron sections.

And you can see right here.

If you see this on the side of a boiler, it tells you it's steam because it should show the water level is halfway up, because it heats up the water and turns the top portion to steam.

So you can see the gas burners down here underneath the cast iron sections, and that'll heat up the water and change it to steam.

What happens is, if you've got bad water quality, that rust and sediment can settle at the bottom.

And now those burners have to burn through a big layer, and it can make the boiler fail.

So this is gone.

Kevin: So we have gas, which we like.

This is dead.

Do we just abandon steam as an idea altogether or can we extend it and -- Richard: You don't really -- I think you're going to abandon steam, because you don't really want to extend on a steam.

We've got an addition going on.

You're not going to add more steam on.

And then even if you did, it doesn't give you air conditioning.

It gives you one zone heating only.

Okay, so now you say, alright, so what do we do?

Well, nowadays people would probably start thinking first about putting in a furnace or a heat pump, you know.

And that would require all the ductwork to go here, maybe a second unit upstairs with all the ductwork, supplies, and returns.

But this house to me, you know, really suggests that it might be perfect for sort of a mini duct system, because you could run -- You could have the unit, the blower.

You could use a combi boiler.

Just imagine on the wall there's a combi boiler.

Now you're going to use the gas to make heated water.

And that heated water can be used to go over to an air handler to heat the air.

But the same combi can have the supply for the hot water for faucets.

So this goes away.

This goes away.

Kevin: But in that situation, if you're making, I guess that's hot air with water, do we get air conditioning, potentially?

Richard: You would, because this air handler would also have a second coil in it that would then connect to a condenser outside.

So you get the heating from gas.

You could have the backup.

And what's nice about this is that if we do it this way, when those radiators come away, when they're gone, there's going to be holes in the floor.

It could be where the registers are for the heating and cooling.

Kevin: Alright, so I can feel your mind is working, which is what we want.

But they do have a budget.

Richard: That's right.

That's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna look at all the choices and just come up with what makes the most sense for them.

Kevin: Good.

Okay.

Nice.

Alright.

Richard: And we want them to be cool.

Kevin: Well, bye-bye, steam.

Richard: Bye.

Tom: So what's it coming out this way, 16, 18 feet?

Zack: It's about 20 by 16 feet wide right here in line with this side of the house.

Tom: Nice.

Nice.

Two stories.

Zack: Yeah, two story slab on grade.

Tom: I hear the radon fan blowing.

Zack: Yeah, hopefully we can bring that inside the building so it doesn't look like this appendage tacked on.

Tom: Yeah, I hate them on the side of the house.

They look ugly.

What's the plan on the siding, Zack?

This stuff is pretty -- pretty tired.

Zack: It is.

We're going to actually remove all the siding, put a new membrane on the outside of the house to make it nice and airtight.

Tom: Yeah.

And what about the siding, the new?

Same stuff?

Zack: We're not sure yet.

You know, they might do cementitious siding.

They've thought about vinyl or even wood.

You know, we're going to see how it prices out for the budget.

Tom: There's a lot of options out there.

Zack: Yeah, it's really hard to find the perfect thing.

Tom: The front looks pretty good, but it definitely needs some sprucing up.

Zack: It does.

Obviously, new windows.

We'll probably get rid of the shutters.

They have more contemporary taste, but they wanted to keep the house sort of in keeping with the neighborhood.

So it'll be pretty much unchanged in the front, maybe modify those columns a bit.

Tom: Yeah.

And you don't have any historical issues to deal with in this house, in this neighborhood, do you?

Zack: Not on this one.

We can do pretty much whatever we want, but we want it to fit in with the neighboring houses.

Tom: Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah, I really like the scope of this project.

It's really nice.

Nice size.

Zack: Yeah, it's a good manageable size for us.

I think we'll get it done fairly quickly.

Tom: Alright.

I'm looking forward to the start.

Zack: Me, too.

♪♪ Peter: So, this is where the extension of the house is going to come out to, about here.

And then this is the patio.

Jenn: Okay.

So essentially you're bumping this out like 20 feet this way?

Peter: About 16, but yeah.

Jenn: 16?

Okay.

Peter: And then that opens up this whole area here to be some sort of fluid space that will either be for the two of us to have coffee or for having a party.

Jenn: Well, you can have a couple different spaces within the patio, so I like that it'll be located right there.

It's a nice little nook.

You'll have a little privacy and access from your new kitchen.

Kay: Yeah, yeah.

And it'll, you know -- That big, open space will also allow us to enjoy the yard.

The yard was actually sort of what cinched the deal for us when we saw the house the first time.

Jenn: Oh, absolutely.

Kay: We saw it in April.

And the cherry tree that you see right here was in full bloom.

Jenn: Wow, it's amazing.

Kay: So, from the front of the house, it was sort of like, hmm, okay.

Jenn: Right.

Kay: We'll take a look.

But then when you turn the corner, it was like this hidden gem back here.

Jenn: You have a lot of space to play with, right?

Peter: Yeah, we do, and we're still trying to learn what we might do with, like, that back area at the fence.

So we're open to thoughts on that.

Jenn: Alright.

Peter: And then Kay often plants along the side here, too.

Kay: I've done my own experimenting on the sides.

Jenn: I mean, you have plenty of space to do that.

Awesome.

Alright, I have one more question.

About the front of the house -- You guys ever get any trick or treaters?

Kay: Brave ones.

Jenn: The brave ones.

Kay: The brave ones, yeah.

The front of the house is a little scary.

The bushes are big.

Jenn: Yeah.

Kay: And they actually kind of block the front -- the way to the front door a bit.

Jenn: Right.

I got stabbed on the way in.

So I'm thinking, like, maybe you can either remove them, and you have some great plants in the foundation.

Kay: It's a liability for sure.

Jenn: Alright.

We can work on that.

I really can't wait to see this place in full bloom.

Peter: Yeah.

Kay: We're excited for spring.

Richard: So did you come up with a plan, Jenn?

Jenn: I did, I did.

It's going to be a good one.

Richard: Good.

And turns out we're going to end up replacing, what, the plumbing, the heating, the drainage, and we're going to add air conditioning.

But we'll try to be as fair as we can.

We promise.

Kay: Okay, thanks.

Tom: But you guys do have a great house with great bones, and we're looking forward to starting, and I hope you are, too.

Peter: We are.

Thank you.

Tom: It should be fun.

Kevin: And we're excited to be working with you again, Zack.

So how are you going to get us started on this project?

Zack: As soon as we get the building permit, we'll be ready to start demolition.

Kevin: Good.

Alright.

Well, we're looking forward to it.

And, Peter, Kay, we're looking forward to working with you guys.

So on behalf of all of us, I'm Kevin O'Connor signing off for "This Old House" here in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

Welcome to the team, gang.

Jenn: Welcome.

Kevin: Here we go.

Buckle up.

Tom: This one's gonna fly.

Kevin: Next time on "This Old House"... Jenn: Now that we're adding an addition and patio surface, it's the perfect opportunity to add this stormwater management system.

Man: So this is actually going to tie into that perimeter drain.

-Jenn: Mm-hmm.

Man: And it's going to tie into this tank.

Jenn: It could be referred to as a tank or seepage pit.

Man: Seepage pit.

That's a better term.

Man #2: The house wrap we're using has some high-performance characteristics.

I'm here in Switzerland at the factory to get an inside look on how it's made.