This Old House | Acton House [S16, E1] | Full Episode

We're just 25 days away from our big 40th-anniversary TV special on PBS! Celebrate with us! For a limited time, watch select episodes for free. This is the Season 16 premiere, which originally aired in 1993. This series premiere episode is available FREE for a limited time in celebration of TOH's 40th anniversary! To view the rest of Season 16, get a FREE trial membership to TOH Insider. Learn more  https://bit.ly/2XEaAPf #ThisOldHouse #AskTOH SUBSCRIBE to This Old House: http://bit.ly/SubscribeThisOldHouse In this episode: Steve begins the season at the country's oldest wood-frame house: the Fairbanks House in Dedham, Massachusetts, built in 1636. He then goes to the season's project house (and the oldest house the show has worked on): a 1710 colonial in Acton, Massachusetts, owned by Terry and Sima Maitland. Though suffering from bad sills and much settling, its real problem for this family of five is lack of space. The Maitlands' $150,000 budget will barely cover an addition, and Norm and general contractor Tom Silva advise them to "let sleeping dogs lie," and not attempt to correct many of the original house's problems, which would soak up that amount and more. In the spring of 1994, we took on our oldest house yet, a c. 1710 Colonial in Acton, Massachusetts. Known as the Knight-Forbush Homestead, it was Acton's oldest home as well, built by one of the town's first settlers and later inhabited by a sergeant who fought in the nearby Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775. Though the house looked big from the outside, inside it was anything but. Factor in a gargantuan center chimney stack, ceilings well under seven feet, Terry and Sima Maitland and their three young children and the space disappeared quickly. From our first walk-through—when the Maitlands sheepishly revealed the dishwasher they had to store in the dining room for lack of space in the kitchen—it was clear the house needed a sizable addition, and one that was very sympathetic to the homespun charm of the existing building. About This Old House TV: This Old House is the No. 1 multimedia home enthusiast brand, offering trusted information and expert advice through award-winning television, a highly regarded magazine, and an information-driven website. This Old House and Ask This Old House are produced by This Old House Ventures, LLC and are presented on PBS by WETA Washington, DC. Follow This Old House and Ask This Old House: Facebook: http://bit.ly/ThisOldHouseFB Twitter: http://bit.ly/ThisOldHouseTwitter http://bit.ly/AskTOHTwitter Pinterest: http://bit.ly/ThisOldHousePinterest Instagram: https://ift.tt/2ROpRve Tumblr: http://bit.ly/ThisOldHouseTumblr