This Old House

The Salem House - 18

The final days. We arrive after a snowstorm to find the front hall floor finished with a faux marble treatment by decorative painter Julie Clay. In the kitchen, Tom Worthen installs a ""man-made slate"" countertop. It's a dense composite of Portland cement and a mica-like mineral, often used in laboratories, but suitable for domestic applications. Upstairs, Michael Griffiths installs a dense carpet made from recycled soda bottles. In the McIntire room, historical goods merchant John Burrows supervises the installation of a historically accurate carpet, and we visit the factory in England where it was made on a narrow loom whose design has remained much the same since 1790. Then we check out the new alarm system, complete with low-temperature sensor. Josh Feinstein gives our host the tour of the new lighting. The guys examine a pop-up ventilator for the new modular cooktop and we see period-reproduction furnishings in the living room and guest bedroom, where we meets the latest addition t