Bob checks progress in the basement and attic of the governor's mansion before going on to the guest cottage where he meets Luis Knuckles and Mike Wescott to review the work on restoring the guest cottage. They end the tour with a discussion of handling lead paint.

Bob visits the Sumner Mansion with UVM professor Tom Visser to learn more about the proper restoration and preservation procedures for an antique brick home. The original early 1800s brick has been sandblasted - removing the outside fire skin of the brick to reveal the soft inner core - leaving the brick permanently damaged. The only option now it to re-point it up and re-paint it. Care should be taken with masonry sealers as they can often trap moisture in the wall and lead to accelerate spalling of the bricks. If you have paint on old brick walls, your best option is to use a commercial paint remover such as a caustic soda, a Peel-Away type product, or even a solvent-based stripper. As for repairing the mortar, very often people patch and re-point using a Portland Cement mortar. This is not a good choice as it stands out like a sore thumb and is too hard for the bricks - putting stress on them and causing them to fail. To select the right mortar to use, loosen a sampling of the original mortar with a mason's chisel, crush it with a geologist's mortar and pestle, and then dissolve the lime binder with household distilled white vinegar. What will settle in the bottom of your jar is the sand from which the mortar was originally made. You can then take the sand to a mason and match its color and texture and make up new lime and sand mortar to match the original.

In a restoration project, reusing original brick is a great idea. Water damage and neglect can destroy the mortar in a brick wall. For repairs, reuse your original bricks with new mortar to strengthen and rebuild the wall. Use tinted mortar to match the original foundation. Recycled bricks create a new wall without sacrificing an historic look.

It takes only a few tools and some mortar to make an old brick wall look like new.

Bob talks with Gary Annino of Boro Plastering about the traditional three-coat plaster job they are doing on the brick walls of the Manhattan Brownstone. Annino explains that a drywall installtion would be too thick and would make the walls proud of the original ceiling cornice discovered in the apartment. Plaster allows them to build up the wall to the cornice and blend the wall into it. The crew first applied a blue bonding agent to the dry brick walls. Where edges and corners were rebuilt, Boro used wire mesh for keying in the plaster and a metal bead to form the smooth edge. The three-coat plaster job builds to a 7/8-inch thick wall. They begin with a scratch coat of three parts sand and one part gypsum plaster. It goes on thick and is scratched to provide a good keying surface for the next coat. The brown coat is troweled on but left smooth, since there is enough sand in it to keep the finish somewhat rough for the finish coat. The white or finish coat goes last and gives a durable shiny finish to the wall. Annino estimates that it will be dry by the next day.

Bob meets with Jonathan Adler and Darren Brown to discuss the penthouse apartment's main living spaces. The two-bedroom apartment is almost a loft with its wide-open floor plan. Unlike most older New York apartments this one has great natural light. The designers are choosing deep earthy tones in the fabrics that will complement the natural brick wall and rustic structural beam. In the second bedroom/office, a skylight helps lighten the room so that crisp colors as well as dark browns can be used to make the space inviting and casually livable. Adler is using David Hicks for inspiration on the office layout colors and lines. The late David Hicks (1929-98) came to prominence in the 1960s with his eclectic style, bold use of color and his mantra, 'Interior Decoration is the art of achieving the maximum with the minimum'

There are several types of foundations used in residential construction but all have one important requirement, the foundation and connections to the walls and floors must be strong enough not only to support the weight of the house and its contents but to prevent the home from being blown away by high winds. Common Foundation Types The two most common types of foundations are monolithic slab-on-grade and stemwall foundations. A slab on grade foundation is a single, continuous layer of concrete that sits directly on the ground. The concrete slab is the floor system. A slab-on-grade foundation should be reinforced with welded wire fabric and have longitudinal reinforcement in the footing or turndown. Construction Techniques There are many construction techniques for anchoring the exterior walls to the foundation. For wood-framed construction, the bottom plate of the wall should be anchored into the slab with anchor bolts and washers. The bottom plate should be securely connected to the wall studs above by using approved metal clips or straps. For concrete masonry construction, vertical reinforcement in a continuously grouted cell should extend from the wall above and be embedded in the concrete footing below with a standard hook. Stemwalls A stemwall is a concrete block or brick wall used on top of the footer for off grade houses where the ground slopes from one side to the other. Stemwalls can support both concrete slabs and wood-framed floors. Stemwalls should have vertical reinforcement in a continuously grouted cell extending from the concrete masonry wall and embedded in the concrete footing with a standard hook. The concrete footing should also have longitudinal reinforcement. Anchorage for an exterior wall to a stemwall foundation is similar to anchoring to a slab-on-grade. Metal connectors and anchor bolts must be used to securely connect the walls to the foundation and give your home the required resistance to the forces created by extreme winds.

Bob visits the Glen Magna Farm in Danvers, Massachusetts, with Kathy Gianoulos from the Danvers Historical Society. Owned by the Endicott family since the late 1800's, it was named after the Endicott family's ancestral birthplace in England. First stop on the tour is the summerhouse, built in 1793 by Samuel Macintyre. The exterior of the house is designed to look like masonry work, although it is actually wood construction. The back of the house features a beautiful rose garden, which is a faithful reproduction of the original. Next Bob and Gianoulos tour the Italian 8 garden, a Mediterranean style garden restored in the 1980's. The garden features a magnificent pergola, supported by marble columns that were purchased in the 1930's for $5 a piece. The estate's main house has also been faithfully restored, including the West Wing, which remains the oldest surviving area of the home.

Bob takes a look at the exterior of the coach house, as well as the exterior garden area. He reviews the first time he saw the dilapidated cottage and some of the highlights of fixing it up.

We meet the developers, Neal and Ron Gold, and take a look at how they've started converting this old fur storage building in to a residential loft space.