The entrance to the back of the house has been modified by removing the small back door and installing a triple-panel sliding glass door that looks onto the newly landscaped backyard. The mudroom was converted into a pantry and outfitted by California Closets. Chloe Durant of California Closets reviews some of the work done in the pantry. The family needed space where they could prepare lunch for the two boys. In this space, a butler's pantry was designed and installed, featuring a deep countertop, drawers for storage, and space down below for recycling. Dave Weston of California Closets explains how the unit was put into the space. The California Closets system operates on rails. The rail is attached to the wall and hangers are attached to the secured rail. These hangers allow partitions to go up and down and holds any amount of weight put upon it. The finished product has four drawers, a couple of compartments for recycling bins, countertop space, and space up above for storage of kitchen appliances.

Bob and developer John Druley walk through a home under construction by Qualker Homes in Falmouth, Massachusetts. This standard design is used for both the market-priced and affordable homes. The overall dimensions of the house are 26 feet by 36 feet. A center-door entry leads to 13-by-18-foot living room on one side and a 16-by-13-foot master bedroom on the other. The back of the house has a 13-by-18-foot kitchen with a back door and a window onto the backyard, a half-bath and laundry, and an entry to the master bedroom with full bath, tub-shower combination, double-bowl sink, and linen closet. The upstairs has two bedrooms with operable skylights and a full bath. This three-bedroom, two-and-one-half bath Cape will be lotteried as an affordable home to eligible families who make between $29,000 and $65,000 per year, and who qualify for a traditional mortgage. The home is stick-built with traditional 2X4 framing, oriented strand board (OSB) exterior sheathing, low-e glass, tilt-in vinyl windows, and gas heat. Bob and Druley point out that an affordable home must be affordable to operate and heat as well as being affordable to purchase.

Bob comes out the back door of the new addition to the back yard that is currently four feet down from the entry. The new deck will be quite extensive, with various sections that read into one another and onto the sloping back and side yards. Bob reviews the plans that show an extensive deck section at one level, with long stairs cut into the grade in one direction and deck sections that step down to the side yard in the other direction. Tim Berky, the general contractor, is on site to dig the holes for The Footing Tube PVC forms that create the deck footing and pier in one concrete pour. Each costs about $40 and provides a flared design that combats frost heaving when set below the frost line. Berky will pour the concrete to grade so that no concrete will show above it. He will use structural lumber above the grade and face it to hide the lumber. The Footing Tube forms are capped to prevent accidents until the footings are ready to pour. Once they areset in place and backfilled, the concrete is transported to the deck area and shoveled into the forms to set the deck footings and piers.

Bob visits with Mark Lundquist of Burnham Hydronics to check out the boiler for the hot-water heating system being installed in the Mashpee, Massachusetts, affordable homes. This Burnham Spirit model is a medium efficiency, easy-to-maintain, sealed-combustion unit. Since it is sealed combustion, it pulls the air it needs directly from the outdoors and vents to the exterior without the use of a chimney or flue. This enables a homeowner to close off the space surrounding the boiler without worrying about available combustion air for the furnace. This model uses standard parts, so any repairs will be fast and easy. The boiler is made of cast iron and has a 25 to 40 year life expectancy. It operates at 84 percent efficiency, so the homeowner will use energy dollars wisely. Charlie Delvecchio of Cape Plumbing breaks out the cost of the boiler to about $1,500 and the baseboard tubing for another $6,000, for a total cost of $7,500 for installation of the home heating system. The domestic hot-water tank is linked to the heating system as hot water from the boiler passes through a coil in the insulated hot-water tank, warming the household water through energy exchange. If the water is maintained at the proper temperature just from this passive exchange, the boiler will never be called upon to heat water for faucets and showers.

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