-For 18 seasons, our next guests
put their expertise to work on the PBS
home-improvement show "Ask This Old House."
Please welcome the show's host Kevin O'Connor...
landscape contractor Jenn Nawada...
general contractor Tom Silva...
and plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey!
[ Cheers and applause ]
Thank you guys for being here. Good to see you again.
Nice to see you again. Welcome to the show.
You have a big announcement to make tonight. Right?
-We do. So, you know when we come down here,
we usually come with Roger Cook, our landscaper.
-I love Roger Cook. -And so we're announcing
Roger's career of 35 years... -Wow.
-...distinguished by, I would say, his humility
and his deep respect for the trade.
He is stepping away from the show.
But the good news is that Jenn Nawada is stepping forward.
-Hey! Come on. [ Cheers and applause ]
Congratulations. -Thank you.
-Our official landscaper on the show.
-Thanks. -Big, big, big boots to fill.
-Well, they're huge boots to fill.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah. -And he is just an epic guy.
-We love Roger Cook, yeah. Congratulations.
Kevin, what are we gonna do first?
-So, some things you can do at home in the dead of winter.
-That's perfect. -Come on over here.
-Yep. -The first one is
fresh vegetables, herbs, and stuff.
So we brought you this. And you're gonna help me out.
This is a little planting tray. That's water.
I'm gonna ask you to pour it in there while I open up these.
So it's the middle of the winter.
You don't get any fresh vegetables,
you don't get any fresh tomatoes.
You can buy these pods right here.
We've got tomatoes, we've got green lettuce.
This is, I believe, basil. Yep, basil.
-Okay, so I'm just watering plastic, yep, okay.
-So the key is... [ Laughter ]
The key is this pod right here. Take one of those.
-Yep. -Pop one of these lids off
and put it in there, Jimmy. -Oh, okay.
-The pod comes with the soil and the fertilizer
and the seeds all in one. You put it in.
It's got a little wick here in the bottom.
-Uh-huh. -You put it in there.
It'll suck up the water. You put that down.
Get it all set. And then when you plug it in...
-Yes. -...the light will come on,
little delay. Light will come on.
And it's a grow light. It'll do it's thing.
16 hours on, 8 hours off, all automatic.
And in two to four months in the dead of winter...
-Wow! [ Cheers and applause ]
-Salad, herbs, little, you know, cocktail, look at this.
-Little tomatoes? -Those were -- never mind.
-Those are fake. [ Laughter ]
-Richard's got something else for you.
-That's delicious. What's up, buddy?
Nice to see you. -So, in the winter,
many people worry about the fear of frozen pipes
and all the trauma that brings water coming down in the house.
It's not good any time of the year.
-Course, yeah. -So I want to show you a product
most people don't know exists.
It is a wireless automatic water shutoff device.
Has a sensor like this. They're battery-operated.
You can have up to 29 of these on a system.
And they could send a signal around
if they sense water leaking. It'll come back to a device,
it'll go up to the cloud,
come all the way back to this and shut off.
-This is in the cloud?
-Goes all the way to the cloud, yeah.
So, I want you to be a leak. So I have these for you.
I want you -- this is under full water pressure.
-Okay. -Okay?
-Yeah. -I want you to cut this hose.
-Yeah. I mean, we've all been there.
Go down to do the laundry,
someone's cut our pipes with a bolt cutter...
[ Laughter ]
-Here you go. -Here we go. Ready?
-Yeah. -All right, thank you very much.
-Okay. -You always get me wet.
Thank you so much. Appreciate it.
Look at you laughing. You're really laughing too hard.
-I know. Last time was the toilet.
So, now, with this, what you hear is a beep.
And now it's going up to the cloud. Right?
And it goes up by the Instagram postings.
It goes by TikTok videos. -Is that right?
-TikTok -- You hear the beep?
-I heard a beep. -A lot of cat videos.
Comes by SnapFace and down to Instagram.
[ Laughter ] -SnapFace.
-Right. And then it shuts it off.
-And it turned off. -Yeah, you laugh -- it works.
-I did laugh. It did work.
-Got something for you. -That's awesome. I like that.
That's good. [ Cheers and applause ]
All right. -You got to put this on first.
-All right, bud. What are we doing?
-So, on a cold winter night... -Yes.
-...everyone wants to set a fire, right?
-Of course. -But you can't just put
a log on the fire.
So I like to use this electric wood splitter.
-Yes! -That's right.
-That's what I'm talking about! -Put this log right up here.
There's a wedge on this side, right?
-Okay, yeah. -All you do is push this button.
-Okay. -Turns it on, right?
-Yes! -You push the safety lever.
And then you go one, two. Push it this way.
-Let's do it. -All right?
-Split it. -Safety lever.
-I do this all the time in my living room.
Oh, yeah! [ Cheers and applause ]
That's how you do it! -That's right.
-That is how you do it right there.
-So... -Can I give it a shot?
-I want you to try. -Yes!
I do this all the time.
I say, "Kids, stay out of the living room.
Daddy's chopping wood."
[ Laughter ] -You could.
All right. Do you remember how to do it?
-Pull the safety. -Pull the safety.
-One, two. -Here we go. Ready, guys?
Hyah!
Oh, yeah! [ Cheers and applause ]
Come on! -That was awesome.
-That's what I'm talking about. -So --
-That was the most -- hat was the manliest thing
I've ever done in my entire lifetime.
Thank you so much for that. [ Laughter ]
-Well, that's new-school. Here's old-school.
-All right, we're gonna do old-school.
-You always do something dangerous with me.
-Well, you know, you got to put some safety equipment on.
All right, we're gonna chop wood the old-fashioned way.
-I'll dress you. -All right?
[ Laughter ] -It's not a jock strap, is it?
[ Cheers ] All right. Wow.
This is great.
-Now the thing with that splitter, see,
you can take that in your house
and split the wood right beside the fireplace.
-Of course. That's what everyone does.
[ Laughter ]
-But with this, it's the old-fashioned way.
We're gonna go outside, we're gonna take a maul.
But we want to use a lighter weight,
more ergonomic splitting maul. -This is a new --
A new -- This is a new type of axe.
-This is a new type. -Yeah, I have the --
I have the body spray. Now get the weapon.
[ Laughter ]
-So I want you to do this. So I'm gonna --
You're gonna stand like this. You want to have an arm out,
because your arm's gonna be stretched when you do it.
-Yes. -All right?
So now I'm just gonna let the axe fall.
Now when I let it fall, it's gonna swing.
I'm gonna keep the swing going and drop it.
-Nice.
-Oh! [ Cheers and applause ]
All right. -Everything okay at home?
-Everything's good. [ Laughter ]
Now you're gonna stretch your arm out.
-Here's Jimmy!
[ Laughter, cheers, applause ]
-Don't trip on that.
Now stretch your arm out. -Stretch my arm out.
-Left arm. -Yes.
-You got to stand a little bit that way.
All right, now make sure... [ Cheers ]
So now, when you let that swing, you got to get the momentum.
You're gonna keep it going. -Yep.
-And as it goes over your head, you're gonna twist your body.
-Whoo! -Hey.
-♪ We're gonna win that race ♪
[ Laughter ]
-All right? -Yeah.
-Come on, Jimmy! -Here we go.
-Ready? Go.
[ Cheers and applause ]
Yes!
♪♪
Tom Silva, Jenn Nawada,
Richard Trethewey, Kevin O'Connor, everybody!
Check your local listings for "Ask This Old House."
We'll be right back, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]
-♪ First time I fell in love was a doozy♪