A sloping bank descends from deck level to the yard. Landscape designer Ruth Foster explains her choice of plantings for this garden: It will be green, with junipers and yews for low maintenance, varying height, and good coverage. Also, Foster shows Bob the batch composter, used for making rich mulch.
Bob joins Ron Boyajian to talk over painting the exterior clapboards. The surface is power-washed, sanded, and primed. Then, acrylic paint is applied. The painter demonstrates the proper hand-brushing technique for covering clapboards.
Bob helps general contractor Tim Berky put a solid-core cherry-veneer door on its bronze butt hinges, and install matching door hardware.
AJ Paron-Wildes (from Bellacor.com) joins Bob to talk about selecting lighting fixtures. Depending on the room or activity, different fixtures are recommended.
Steve Forman (from Redi-Exit) joins Bob to talk about the extruded-aluminum escape ladder installed at the project house. Forman stresses that secondary exits from bedrooms would greatly reduce fire deaths in this country. Smoke detectors can alert residents, but only a means of escape can save them.
The expansive new outdoor deck brings indoor living outside. Meg Tarvin (from FrontGate) joins to describe the furnishings that create this outdoor living room, and Bob looks over the new barbecue station.
Bob and the homeowners look at the newly redesigned dining room. Kara Roberts from Smith & Noble joins to review the selections made for window coverings, and Bob checks out the retractable screen doors onto the deck.
Bob and general contractor Tim Berky look back on the numerous aspects of the finished job. Then Bob tours the remodeled mudroom and bath, plus the new open kitchen-dining space, where he meets with the homeowners and hears their reactions.
Bob talks with David Cross (formerly of Tampa Armature Works) about the future of home construction with steel shipping containers.
General contractor Buba Barrow joins Bob for a tour of the finish work and interior layout, starting on the tiled front porch, moving through the open-plan family, kitchen, and dining spaces, and then into the four bedrooms.