This Old House: Scandinavian Modern

Barrington Project, Part 2 Of 10

Host Kevin O'Connor arrives to find builder Andy Tiplady with the house wide open, his foundation in place and framing underway. The new open floor plan requires structural steel that gets bolted and then welded in place. With the steel installed and high winds already kicking up, Andy and his crew button up the house for the impending bad weather, which turns out to be Hurricane Irene. At 82 mph, Barrington clocks the highest winds in New England, and Kevin returns to finds roads closed, power lines down and trees crushing houses in the neighborhood. After some clean up, the crew gets back to work framing the second floor using the proper structural hardware like hold downs and hurricane clips. To learn more about the challenges of living on the coast, Kevin meets the executive director of the Rhode Island Coastal Resources Management Council, Grover Fugate, to see the long term prognosis for the house, and also the lengths to which people will go to live by the water in Rhode Island.