This Old House

The Nantucket House - 10

A visit to Nantucket's Life-Saving Museum teaches viewers about a key part of the island's maritime past. Meanwhile, the site is a flurry of subcontractor activity. Mason Dan Kissell shows us the rounded firebox - a traditional Nantucket design - he's building into the Bentley's new chimney. Upstairs, electrician Sally Bates is roughing in workboxes, using airtight plastic surrounds for those in the outside walls to aid in keeping the building well insuated. Installer Eric Branzetti runs the tubing for the central vacuum system and shows us the motor unit in the basement. Plumber Butch Ramos gives a tour of the rough plumbing, while out at Bruce Killen's workshop, work begins on the elegant Victorian brackets that will support the roof over the restored front entrance. Finally, the crew starts to wrap the house with a spun-bounded fabric to keep the winter drafts from blowing through the old sheathing.