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Season guide

This Old House: Season 18

26 episodes Premiered Sep 28, 1996 Updated Sep 26, 2026

The Nantucket House; The Tuscon House

Previously on This Old House

Season 18 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 17.
  • ⚡ 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 Nantucket House; The Tuscon House

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Season 18 Episodes

Episode Guide

🛡️ SPOILER SHIELD

Season 18 Progress Shield

Future titles & synopses blurred. Tap "Reveal" on any card to peek.
Binge Efficiency Engine

Season 18: Filler vs. Essential Canon

Filter episodes by narrative weight. Focus on essential mytharc and skip standalone side quests.

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85%
Mytharc (4): Crucial lore & season climaxes
Core (22): Character development & subplots
Side Quest (0): Standalone / filler
S18·E1 Mytharc

The Nantucket House - 1

Sep 28, 1996

This Old House sets out for Nantucket the classic way, aboard a Streamship Authority vessel. On island, they tour one of our master carpenter's first jobs, a clothing store. Linkin

S18·E2 Core

The Nantucket House - 2

Oct 5, 1996

The crew starts the work day surf casting with local expert David Goodman (and full-time tile contractor) - and even catch a striped bass and a bluefish. At the house, Jock Gifford

S18·E3 Core

The Nantucket House - 3

Oct 12, 1996

The show starts with a visit to Nantucket's Unitarian Universalist church, a beautiful showcase of restrained New England architecture and trompe l'oeil painting built in 1809. At

S18·E4 Core

The Nantucket House - 4

Oct 19, 1996

Our master carpenter goes lobstering with contractor/lobsterman Pierre Garneau, who has a family license to put out 10 traps. At the house, mason Dan Kissell takes down the unneede

S18·E5 Core

The Nantucket House - 5

Oct 26, 1996

The show starts with a visit to Sankaty Head Light, a Coast Guard property of the exposed Eastern edge of the island. Built in 1850, it like the rest of the houses along the the bl

S18·E6 Core

The Nantucket House - 6

Nov 2, 1996

The show opens with a little clamming, looking for quahogs at a secret location. At the site, we meet designer Jock Gifford, who uses the model of the house to explain the work goi

S18·E7 Mytharc

The Nantucket House - 7

Nov 9, 1996

The show begins at Nantucket's Old North Wharf, much of which dates from the early 18th century and site of several small cottages available for rent. At the site, homeowner Kathy

S18·E8 Core

The Nantucket House - 8

Nov 16, 1996

The show opens at Nantucket's Whaling Museum with curator Mike Jehle. At the site, we see the first of two wells being drilled for the Bentley's ground-source heat pump; they meet

S18·E9 Core

The Nantucket House - 9

Nov 23, 1996

Before heading over to the job site, we visit the 1827 African Meeting House, a former school, church, and meeting house used by Nantucket's black population until the 1920's and n

S18·E10 Core

The Nantucket House - 10

Nov 30, 1996

A visit to Nantucket's Life-Saving Museum teaches viewers about a key part of the island's maritime past. Meanwhile, the site is a flurry of subcontractor activity. Mason Dan Kisse

S18·E11 Core

The Nantucket House - 11

Dec 7, 1996

The show begins with a visit to the Wharf Rat Club, a collection of old-timers who gather to chat each morning in a former quahog-sorting shack on Old North Wharf. Then we check ou

S18·E12 Core

The Nantucket House - 12

Dec 14, 1996

Dr. Tim Lepore, the island's leading specialist in tick-borne diseases like Lyme disease and babeosis, tells us more about their prevalence here and what can be done to avoid them.

S18·E13 Core

The Nantucket House - 13

Dec 21, 1996

Realtor Hammie Heard shows us around the Dreamland Theatre, a downtown Nantucket landmark. First a Quaker meeting house, then a straw hat factory, then a roller rink, then part of

S18·E14 Core

The Nantucket House - 14

Dec 28, 1996

After a ride out to the beach reservation known as Coatue with with Nantucket Conservation Foundation director Jim Lentowski to see both the natural beauty of the preserve and a 19

S18·E15 Core

The Nantucket House - 15

Jan 4, 1997

We visit the Nantucket Marine Lab and its director, Rob Garrison, to see efforts of augment the islande's scallop population. At the house, Bruce Killen tells us that the Historic

S18·E16 Core

The Nantucket House - 16

Jan 11, 1997

Our master carpenter boards the fishing boat of Capt. Tom Mleczko in search of the mighty striped bass and hooks one on his first cast. Fresh from his triumph, he arrives on the jo

S18·E17 Core

The Nantucket House - 17

Jan 18, 1997

After a visit to the Milestone Cranberry Bog in time for the October harvest, viewers meet up with Bruce Killen who discusses the punch list - it looks like the project will not qu

S18·E18 Core

The Nantucket House - 18

Jan 25, 1997

The crew starts off the last Nantucket show up to their chest in water, harvesting the succulent bay scallop. At the house, the final rush is on. Our master carpenter sees a wallbe

S18·E19 Core

The Tucson House - 1

Feb 1, 1997

This Old House hits Tucson, Arizona, for an eight-part winter project: the renovation and and expansion of Jim and Colleen Meigs' 1930 Pueblo Revival home. After an overview of Tuc

S18·E20 Core

The Tucson House - 2

Feb 8, 1997

The show opens at Casa Cordova, one of the last remaining pieces of early Tucson. Built in 1848 within the original presido (""walled fort"") walls, the Casa is now preserved as pa

S18·E21 Core

The Tucson House - 3

Feb 15, 1997

The show opens with a hike in the natural splendor of Sabino Canyon, in the northern foothills of Tucson. At the house, a crew prepares and pours a colored and scored concrete floo

S18·E22 Core

The Tucson House - 4

Feb 22, 1997

An early moring breakfast at a tradtional Mexican restaurant prepares the crew for a job site abuzz with traditional handwork and products, as well as state-of-the-art technology.

S18·E23 Core

The Tucson House - 5

Mar 1, 1997

The show opens with a visit to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, where the natural-looking environments are the result of painstaking human artistry, including the casting and cons

S18·E24 Core

The Tucson House - 6

Mar 8, 1997

Before heading to the job site, we pay a visit to the Air Force's AMARC, a vast collection of mothballed aircraft preserved in the Tucson desert for use as parts, for storage, or f

S18·E25 Mytharc

The Tucson House - 7

Mar 15, 1997

After a trip downtown to Tucson's Hotel Congress, built in 1919 and the site of John Dillinger's hideout back in 1934, we return to the Meigs' house, concrete pavers are laying the

S18·E26 Mytharc

The Tucson House - 8

Mar 22, 1997

As the Tucson project enters its final days, our host takes viewers to Biosphere 2 in nearby Oracle. Site of two experiments in self-sustained living, Biosphere 2 is now part of Co

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