This Old House: Season 16
The Acton House; The Napa Valley House
Season 16 Lore Primer
Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.
- Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of This Old House Season 15.
- Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
- Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
- Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
Season overview
The Acton House; The Napa Valley House
Episode Guide
Season 16 Progress Shield
The Acton House - 1
Jan 1, 1994
The season begins with a tour of the country's oldest wood-frame house: the Fairbanks House in Dedham, Massachusetts, built in 1636. We then go to the season's project house (and t
The Acton House - 2
Jan 15, 1994
The day begins with the crew moving the old milk shed to another spot on the property. Inside, Richard Trethewey has done an energy audit and determined that, with the addition of
The Acton House - 3
Jan 28, 1994
Homeowner Terry Maitland cuts down a tree to make way for the new foundation, while the crew lays out the excavation lines using a small laser level. Excavation contractor Herb Bro
The Acton House - 4
Feb 1, 1994
We tour the newly demolished back areas of the house, and see how woefully underframed they are. In preparation for the new foundation, the crew suspends the gable end of the old h
The Acton House - 5
Feb 15, 1994
At the site, lumber - conventional and engineered - has arrived, and the crew begins to attach the sill to the foundation. Terry Maitland lays down fiberboard to protect his old fl
The Acton House - 6
Feb 28, 1994
The framing crew continues working on the addition; a large steel beam to carry out the upper floor is lowered into place. A framer demonstrates a pneumatic tool for attaching meta
The Acton House - 7
Mar 1, 1994
With the addtion weatherweight, its massing is apparement and seems to make a successful match with the old building. Inside, Tom Silva shows us the lightweight steel partition wal
The Acton House - 8
Mar 15, 1994
Redwood clapboards - finger-jointed and preprimed - start to go on the addition; our general contractor shows us a trick with a ""story pole,"" which helps him space the clapboards
The Acton House - 9
Mar 28, 1994
As he contemplates installing replacement windows in the original building, our master carpenter explains that it might make sense to replace the old, heavily weathered clapboards
The Acton House - 10
Apr 1, 1994
Tom Silva shows us his reroofing progress - stripping of old shingles, plywooding sheathing, new shingles, redge vent. Down at ground level, the old clapboards have been stripped o
The Acton House - 11
Apr 15, 1994
Homeowners Terry and Sima Maitland puzzle over exterior paint colors, settling on a pumpkin for the field and cream for the trim. They discuss a few details of the farmer's porch t
The Acton House - 12
Apr 28, 1994
Tom Silva tests out the old-fashioned v-shaped gutter he made for the front porch, then takes us on a tour of the house, explaining his preparations for the spray-in insulation. Mo
The Acton House - 13
May 1, 1994
We see Terry busily caulking the battered clapboards of the west gable in preparation for the top coat of paint. Painter George Hourihan applies the gloss latex top coat to body an
The Acton House - 14
May 15, 1994
At in-ground propane tank is installed for cooking and drying. Inside, the wallbaord is up, plaster is going on the ceiling, and Tom Silva demonstrates a new vacuum sander for fini
The Acton House - 15
May 28, 1994
We arrive to find Jeff Hosking installing the salvaged floorboards he found in a New Hampshire yard. Jeff discusses the challenges of working with such material, and shows a statio
The Acton House - 16
Jun 1, 1994
The crew installs the new front entryway. Kitchen designer Glenn Berger leads a tour of the new kitchen, and our host takes viewers to the Bath, Maine, showroom and workshop where
The Acton House - 17
Jun 15, 1994
Our host arrives to find installer Michael Griffiths laying out a carpet for the master suite. It's made of recycled soda bottles. Inside, he meets up with Tom Silva, who shows him
The Acton House - 18
Jun 28, 1994
The final days. We arrive to find the telephone company burying a new multipair line into the house, leaving the west gable free of overhead wires. Landscape architect Tom Wirth us
The Napa Valley House - 1
Feb 1, 1995
The crew heads west to California's Napa Valley and Dennis Duffy's circa 1906 farmhouse. Essentially untouched in the last few decades, the house needs a new, larger and brighter k
The Napa Valley House - 2
Feb 8, 1995
Work begins on the Duffy residence, with Jim Nolan's crew tearing off the back porch with a backhoe. We visit architect Jon Lail's office to see the proposed kitchen addition and a
The Napa Valley House - 3
Feb 15, 1995
After a period of heavy rains and flooding, Napa Valley - and the jobsite - are a soggy mess. The show opens in sandbagged downtown Napa, then head to the job, where foreman Jeff C
The Napa Valley House - 4
Feb 22, 1995
The show start with a visit to Napa Valley's oldest wooden, gravity-fed winery, home of Trefethen Vineyards. At the site, our master carpenter meets plumber George Biter, who shows
The Napa Valley House - 5
Mar 1, 1995
We check out the mustard plants in a vineyard near the farmhouse before heading over to a very busy jobsite. There, contractor Jim Nolan shows us the extra work that has had to be
The Napa Valley House - 6
Mar 8, 1995
With remarkable progress at the site, we tour the exterior with Jim Nolan, seeing fir decking, trim details, traditional redwood siding and a synthetic stone facing for the foundat
The Napa Valley House - 7
Mar 15, 1995
The show opens at Clos Pegase, a winery designed by noted architect Michael Graves. At the site, the rains continue, and so does progress. Our master carpenter follows the installa
The Napa Valley House - 8
Mar 22, 1995
The final day opens at a scenic overlook on the first clear day in a week. On site, the painters are applying the exterior topcoat, carpenters are cutting the last pieces of trim a