This Old House: Season 17
The Salem House; The Savannah House
Season 17 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 16.
- 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 Salem House; The Savannah House
Episode Guide
Season 17 Progress Shield
The Salem House - 1
Sep 30, 1995
The show opens the season with a tour of Salem, Massachusets - the Witch Trials Memorial, the town's formerly bustling waterfront, the residential grandeur of Chestnut Street, the
The Salem House - 2
Oct 7, 1995
Their bid of $205,000 accepted, the Guinees take possession of the house. Our host meets their banker, who explains some of the financing of the deal. Deborah walks through her wis
The Salem House - 3
Oct 14, 1995
We visit the island of Nantucket, where architect Ann Beha's firm is expanding and renovated the historic Atheneum, the town library. She agrees to help out in Salem. In Salem, the
The Salem House - 4
Oct 21, 1995
On a hot July day, the crew got the existing children's bath and future master bath. They discover a flooring system that probably cna't support the heavy load of two bathrooms' wo
The Salem House - 5
Oct 28, 1995
Tom Silva shows us the reframed bathrooms, with floors stiffened by flipping the original joists and sistering on reinforcing members. The bathtub arrives, and the crew horses it u
The Salem House - 6
Nov 4, 1995
The crew insulates the exterior wall of the kids' bath with blown cellulose. Tom Silva shows us a paint-on bathtub protector that peels off after construction is complete. We meet
The Salem House - 7
Nov 11, 1995
We arrive to find Mike McManus and his painting crew continuing their prep work, dry scraping and hand sanding, per Board of Health regulations. The new staging now has safety nets
The Salem House - 8
Nov 18, 1995
The crew assesses the condition of the clapboards on the back of the building, patching presents a large investment of labor, while total replacement will be a big materials hit. O
The Salem House - 9
Nov 25, 1995
We arrive to hear some troubling news: Some of the neighbors - not pleased with the Historical Commission's approval of the carriageway plan and worried about traffic flow, fumes,
The Salem House - 10
Dec 2, 1995
Our host recounts the latest Historical Commission meeting, in which the original approval of the carriageway was sent aside and the whole issue reconsidered. Because of discrepanc
The Salem House - 11
Dec 9, 1995
The City of Salem's tree-planting program puts in a Callery pear (pyrus calleryana 'red spire') in fornt of the Guinees' house. In the kitchen, the guys examine the new windows - c
The Salem House - 12
Dec 16, 1995
Lighting designer Josh Feinstein shows Deborah lighting treatments for the kitchen and living room, while electrician Jeff Perry works to fish wires for the spots that will highlig
The Salem House - 13
Dec 23, 1995
Our host arrives with news from the latest Historical Commission meeting: a decision on the issue of the carriageway will be made in three weeks. The Guinees asked for a continuanc
The Salem House - 14
Dec 30, 1995
Our host arrives to see a wallboard delivery truck in action, while inside the wallboard/plaster crew works in the dining room. Upstairs, the guys address the out-of-square conditi
The Salem House - 15
Jan 6, 1996
Homeowner Kevin Guinee tells us that, for now, they have withdrawn their petition to build a carriageway, citing lack of time to build, lack of remaining funds, Deborah's pregnancy
The Salem House - 16
Jan 13, 1996
We meet artist Don McKillop, who is painting a portrait of the Guinees' house, while across the street a brick sidewalk is installed in front of the house. Inside, floor man Jeff H
The Salem House - 17
Jan 20, 1996
A historically inspired Federal-style fence is installed to replace the rotting pickets in front of the house. Tom Silva installs a new mortice lock in the front door using an auto
The Salem House - 18
Jan 27, 1996
The final days. We arrive after a snowstorm to find the front hall floor finished with a faux marble treatment by decorative painter Julie Clay. In the kitchen, Tom Worthen install
The Savannah House - 1
Feb 3, 1996
This Old House heads south to the historic splendor of Savannah, Georgia, where Mills and Marianne Fleming have purchased an 1884 Italianate Victorian townhouse on Monterey Square,
The Savannah House - 2
Feb 10, 1996
The show begins with the TOH guys antiquing and then heading over to the jobsite on Monterey Square. With demolition of the rear porches complete, the Turner Construction team, led
The Savannah House - 3
Feb 17, 1996
The show opens at Wormsloe Plantation, ruins of a 1736 dwelling on the banks of the Inland Passage and the earliest remnant of those colonial times in Savannah. Back at the project
The Savannah House - 4
Feb 24, 1996
The show opens at an architectural salvage shop in downtown Savannah; the proprietress drops by the jobsite to buy some of the salvaged plumbing fixtures and woodwork. The strip oa
The Savannah House - 5
Mar 2, 1996
The show opens at Fort Pulaski, a Federal fort taken over by Confederate forces early in the Civil War, only to fall to superior weaponry, rendering its masonry construction obsole
The Savannah House - 6
Mar 9, 1996
The show opens at Congregation Mickve Israel, where Rabbi Belzer takes us on a tour around the 1876 building and shows us the congreation's Torah, the oldest in America, brought ov
The Savannah House - 7
Mar 16, 1996
The show opens with a visit to the Port of Savannah, one of the busiest container ports on the East Coast and a major employer for the region. He delivers the new cedar shutters to
The Savannah House - 8
Mar 23, 1996
The final days in Savannah. We visit a preservation expert in charge of saving Pulaski Monument in Monterey Square, which is falling victim to the ravages of acid rain, sulfur, and