This Old House

East Boston | Urban Garden, Asbestos, City Sewer

Landscape architect Stephanie Hubbard shares her strategies for creating a "bold and simple" urban landscape in East Boston. Abatement contractor Brian Fitzsimons and crew remove asbestos-laden flooring and mastic from the first floor kitchen. Upstairs on the second floor, general contractor Tom Silva and master carpenter Norm Abram carefully remove the original mouldings that will be saved and reused if possible. Then, host Kevin O'Connor lends them a hand knocking down the partition wall that currently separates two bedrooms, to make space for the new kitchen. City contractors arrive outside to excavate the sewer main and lateral to the house — they discover both are chronically choked with tree roots, and in need of repair.