This Old House: Trade School Season 2, Episode 16: A Cottage in the Woods

Scandinavian Modern?

In Cambridge, Mass., the crew turns the inside of a dark, divided 1887 two-family home into an open, Scandinavian-style one-family.

Deconstruction and Design

Modernizing a Balloon Frame

Swedish Style

Landscape Plans, Roof Deck

Exterior Improvements

Old and New in Harmony

Plaster, Shingles, Radiant Heat

Installing Gutters and a Fireplace

Swedish Design Details

Window Seat, Stairs and a Painted Ceiling

Dry Wells, Kitchen Design, Deck Tiles

Hearthstone and Butcher Block Island

Secondary Spaces

The Big Finish

Human Centered Design, Demolition

One-Level Living

Water infiltration damages the house and must be prevented from happening again; a landscape architect shows the plan for the side patio and details how it allows for ease of entry into the house and provides proper drainage.

Water Feature, Geothermal Heat

Cottage Style

Standing-Seam Roof, Lightning Rods

Rustic Plaster, Advanced Septic

Insulation goes up in the Essex cottage; boarding ceilings; a plastering contractor shows how to achieve a rustic look using rounded corners.

Shiplap Walls, Finished Yard

Putting up 8-inch pine shiplap barn boards on the walls at the project's entry; the finished patio and plantings.

Tiling and Veneers

A tile installer lays black slate tile on the floor; a mason uses structural stucco to achieve the rustic plaster look of the original chimney; how a preservation carpenter helped music icon Daryl Hall assemble and restore an 18th-century estate.

Design for Everyone

A recap of the geothermal heating and cooling system installation process and how the whole system comes together with the heat pumps in the basement.

A Home for Mom and Dad

Interior screens for the signature casement windows; installing the Dutch door for the passage between the kitchen and sun porch; sconces at the entry; LED fixtures in the trees for general lighting; wall washers at the masonry walls.