This Old House S47 E6: High Schoolers Building Homes, Updated Electrical Codes, and Tom's Antique Vanity Gambit

Finish Carpentry Arrives in Swannanoa

Six episodes in, and we've graduated from demo and rough work to finish carpentry. Kevin joins project manager Noah Swaty in Swannanoa to install window trim — building a jamb box and a casing frame, fastening them together, and setting the assembled unit into the window opening. This is the kind of work that makes a house start to look like a home instead of a construction site.

Noah's approach — pre-assembling the jamb and casing as a unit before setting it — is a pro technique that saves time and produces cleaner results. When you assemble on the bench, you can clamp, adjust, and check everything on a flat surface. Try doing that while standing on a ladder with a nail gun in one hand and a level in the other. Kevin Helper Scorecard: 5 for 6. The man has not missed an episode of hands-on work since the premiere.

Mountain Heritage High School: The Segment That'll Get You

Kevin visits Mountain Heritage High School to meet teacher Jeremy Dotts, who runs the carpentry program. And this is where the episode goes from good to genuinely moving. Jeremy's students aren't just learning to frame and finish — they're using their skills to build homes for people who lost everything in the storm.

Let that land for a second. High school students, building actual houses, and donating them to storm victims. In a season full of community resilience stories — the kayak rescuer in Episode 1, the neighbors choosing to rebuild together — this might be the most inspiring. These kids are learning trades skills that will serve them for life, while simultaneously helping their community recover. It's the kind of story This Old House was made to tell.

It's also a reminder that the skilled trades pipeline matters. We're in a well-documented shortage of skilled construction workers nationwide, and programs like Jeremy's are exactly the pipeline the industry needs. If you know a young person who's good with their hands and undecided about their path, point them toward a program like this.

Electrical Codes: The Meter Box Gets an Upgrade

Kevin meets electrician Mario Salamone from Concept Lighting and Electric in North Asheville, who is installing a new Schneider Electric meter box. This segment is a masterclass in how electrical codes evolve — and why that matters when you're rebuilding.

Mario explains that updated NEC (National Electrical Code) requirements now call for:

A larger meter with an integrated emergency disconnect
Exterior-mounted circuit breakers

The emergency disconnect requirement (NEC 230.85, adopted in the 2020 code cycle) is specifically designed so that first responders — firefighters, EMTs — can kill power to a house from the outside without entering. Before this, the main disconnect was typically inside, at the main panel. When a house is on fire or flooded, you don't want firefighters hunting for a breaker box in the basement.

It's one of those code changes that seems obvious in retrospect: in a community that just experienced catastrophic flooding, having exterior emergency disconnects could have made rescue operations safer. Building codes don't just evolve for fun — they evolve because something terrible happened and someone said "never again."

Tom's Antique Vanity Conversion

Over in East Asheville, Tom Silva helps homeowner Paula turn an antique chest into a bathroom vanity, and the verdict on the "brilliant or Pinterest fever dream?" question from last episode's preview is: brilliant, because it's Tom doing it.

Tom's method is precise and repeatable: he uses a template against the wall to transfer the exact locations of the plumbing lines and pipes to where they'll meet the back of the chest. This template technique is how professionals handle any situation where you need to cut holes in an expensive piece to fit around immovable objects. You make all your mistakes on cardboard first.

Paula helps cut the holes, which is a nice touch — it's her antique, her vanity, and her bathroom. The finished product gives the bathroom unique character while honoring the "reuse and restore" spirit of this whole season. In a rebuild born from necessity, choosing to incorporate an antique piece is a statement: this isn't just a replacement house, it's still my house.

For anyone thinking about a similar conversion: the main challenges are waterproofing (the inside of the chest needs to be sealed against splash and humidity), plumbing clearance (undermount sinks eat into your storage), and structural integrity (antique furniture wasn't designed to hold a stone countertop and a running faucet). But with Tom's level of care, it works beautifully.

DIY Confidence Scale: Episode 6

Window trim installation: Intermediate. Noah's pre-assembly technique is very learnable. A miter saw, a nail gun, and good measurements get you most of the way there.
Meter box installation: Absolutely Hire a Professional. This involves the utility connection. Touching the wrong wire here is a "one mistake" situation.
Antique-to-vanity conversion: Advanced DIY. Doable, but you need plumbing knowledge, comfort with cutting holes in things you can't replace, and a tolerance for the fact that "level" and "antique furniture" rarely coexist.

Additional Resources

Next time: Kevin tours the recovering Biltmore Village, Paula learns to stain a fiberglass door, and boulders — actual boulders — become a retaining wall in North Asheville. The stonework at the Grove Park Inn was just the appetizer.