This Old House

Turning a Garden Shed into a Home - The Concord Cottage

Norm welcomes new host Kevin O'Connor abord with a visit to one of the most ambitious TOH jobs to date, the Manchester-by-the-Sea project. Wanting to tackle a big job like this one his first time out, Kevin instead ends up in historic Concord, Massachusetts, with a small (but sweet) 20- by 26-foot garden shed that homeowners Jeff and Janet Bernard want to convert into an in-law cottage for Janet's retired parents. Protected by local zoning laws, the shed can't be torn down and rebuilt, so Tom will reframe the c. 1894 building from the inside out, and Richard will face the challenges of bringing water, sewer, and gas lines into the building for the first time ever. The cottage is the smallest project in This Old House history, but everyone agrees that, although there's not a lot to work with, there's still a lot to do. Janet takes Kevin to see the inspiration for her project, a small garage apartment that's part of an estate currently on the market in Concord for $7.2 million.