Weston Project, Part 1 of 16

For the new season, host Kevin O'Connor and master carpenter Norm Abram reveal that THIS OLD HOUSE will be building a new prefab, eco-friendly home that will look and feel like an old barn. Homeowners Amy and Pete Favat love their land, but have outgrown their 1970s-era home, so they'll deconstruct the old house to make way for a new one that will meet the needs of their active family. Custom homebuilder Tedd Benson and his staff are designing and prefabricating the new state-of-the-art timber frame home, with general contractor Tom Silva pulling it all together on site. To see how Tedd's panelized system looks in the field, Norm and Tedd visit a recent project in Center Harbor, New Hampshire. Back in Weston, Tom works with deconstruction contractor John Grossman to take the old house apart by hand, in a way that saves landfill space and allows the reuse of building materials. Meanwhile, landscape contractor Roger Cook meets with conservation commissioner Brian Donahue to learn about the brook that flows through the property, while John Engwer and his crew install a new eco-friendly alternative to hay bales and silt fence to protect the brook. The alternative material used is organic mulch and compost wrapped in hemp to form a protective barrier during construction.  By the day's end, a truck's worth of salvaged building materials has been harvested and the new project is well underway. (Part 1 of 16)