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00:05On Ask This Old House, our experts travel across the country to answer questions about your house.
00:17Today, Nathan helps a homeowner measure for new shades and assists in the install.
00:23That's really nice.
00:25Then, Richard gives a quick anatomy lesson on toilet tanks.
00:29And, how do you add curb appeal to a steep front yard?
00:34Jen jumps in with a design plan.
00:36This is called Panicum Virgatum. They're going to help stabilize this slope.
00:40I love it.
00:41All that on Ask This Old House.
00:55Hi.
00:56Hi, Leanne. Nice to meet you.
00:57Nice to meet you.
00:58How are you doing?
00:58I'm doing well.
01:00Who is this?
01:00Oh, this is Cece.
01:02She's already introducing herself.
01:04Oh, she is.
01:04She introduces herself to you and everybody else outside.
01:08She's a cutie.
01:08So, you wrote me about shades, right?
01:10I did.
01:11We have these shades.
01:12They're temporary.
01:14They don't suit our needs because we have this little one who really likes to bark all the time at
01:20people walking by.
01:21I bet.
01:21Do you want to block Cece's view out?
01:23We do.
01:24And, we also want to let some light in.
01:25So, she's barking, but these only come from the top down.
01:28So, a nice alternative.
01:29We can go with some cellular shades that are top down, bottom up.
01:33That way, we can bring them down to about the midpoint and then drop them the rest of the way.
01:37Kind of blocks her view from the street, but also lets that natural daylight come in.
01:42That would be great.
01:43Thanks.
01:43I'm going to grab a tape measure so we can make a list of the shades that we need.
01:46Sounds great.
01:48All right.
01:49Do you want to take some notes for me?
01:50Absolutely.
01:51All right.
01:51Here's a pencil.
01:52So, we're going to get started by taking this old one down.
01:56That's going to be nice to have a little.
01:58Yeah.
02:06All right.
02:07When it comes to shades, there's a lot of options, but we're kind of narrowing it down to cellular shades.
02:11So, when you go to that, there's really two options.
02:14Okay.
02:14Inside mount and outside mount.
02:16So, inside would be between the casing here and here.
02:18Mm-hmm.
02:18And outside would cover across.
02:21To do the inside mount, we need to have a minimum of three quarters of an inch of depth.
02:26So, you've got inch and an eighth and inch and an eighth.
02:30So, we're good.
02:30We can do the inside mount.
02:32Next, we want to measure the width.
02:34So, to do that, I'm going to measure in three spots.
02:37I'll measure at the bottom, in the middle, and at the top.
02:39And then, I'm going to go with the smallest measurement.
02:41Okay.
02:42So, I got 33 and an eighth, 33 and a quarter, and 33 and a quarter.
02:48So, we'll go 33 and an eighth at the bottom.
02:52Okay.
02:52All right.
02:52That'll be our measurement we're going to drive off of.
02:54And then, for the height, again, measure in three spots.
02:5851 and a half, 51 and a half, and 51 and a half.
03:04So, it's all the same.
03:06So, we'll send that measurement out.
03:07And we're going to send these to the factory, and they'll do their reducing that they need
03:11to on the width to ensure it fits.
03:12They'll probably reduce it about an eighth inch, so you'll have a little room on either
03:16side to snap it in.
03:17So, you have a lot of windows.
03:19So, we're going to go around.
03:19Okay.
03:20We're going to measure them all.
03:20We're going to place the order.
03:21We're going to go pick them up, and then we'll put them in.
03:23So, that's window one.
03:24Let's go to window two.
03:25Sounds good.
03:25All right.
03:32All right.
03:33So, we have everything we need.
03:34Yeah.
03:34We've got our shade, our mounting brackets, screws to put them up, and our handle.
03:39So, we're going to get started with the layout up top.
03:42Mm-hmm.
03:42And they say that you should come in anywhere from two to four inches.
03:45So, I'm going to come in three inches.
03:49And then, from the left side, come in three inches.
03:54And then, we're simply going to put our mounting bracket up into place.
03:58And you can see we have a good spot right here for one screw in the center.
04:01If this was deeper and we had more room, we could put two screws in, but all they require is
04:06just one.
04:07And then, I'm going to go over here.
04:10I'm going to bring that over to my three-inch mark and go right in the center.
04:14And now, we know where we need to pre-drill.
04:16So, eighth-inch drill bit, it's about the size of the shank of the screw.
04:20Okay.
04:20So, that way, just the threads are grabbing.
04:23Okay.
04:26You want to do that, Cole?
04:27Sure.
04:27All right.
04:30So, you can pre-drill that mark right there, right in the center.
04:33Yep.
04:44Perfect.
04:46And you can spin it, spin it out.
04:48Nice.
04:49So, now, all we need to do, we'll take our drill bit out.
04:52Yep.
04:52And what's nice is quarter-inch, the head of the screw is quarter-inch.
04:56So, we can just put that right there.
04:58All right.
04:58We'll put our mounting bracket back into place here.
05:01Yep.
05:02We'll bring the screw up in.
05:06All right.
05:08Okay.
05:08And you want to do the left side?
05:10Yeah.
05:10All right.
05:11So, I'll give you a hand.
05:11So, this is a little bit sloppy, so just put one hand on the screw so it doesn't fall out.
05:15Okay.
05:16And then, this is how the bracket gets mounted right there.
05:21And then, there's going to be a little resistance, so you do want to push hard.
05:25Yeah.
05:25Yeah.
05:26Okay.
05:26Yep.
05:27All right.
05:27Go right.
05:29Put a lot of weight behind it.
05:31Yeah.
05:31And then, hard right.
05:32Spin the gun.
05:33There you go.
05:34Perfect.
05:34Okay.
05:35All right.
05:35That's all we need to do for those.
05:36That's great.
05:37All right.
05:37Now, we're ready for our shade.
05:39So, there is a front and a back to this.
05:40Okay.
05:40So, you see that groove right there?
05:42Yeah.
05:42So, that's our front.
05:43And that is going to hook right onto these mounting brackets right there.
05:46So, I'm going to bring it up into place.
05:48I'm going to hook it on.
05:50Hook it on.
05:51And then, I'm going to use my fingers and I'm going to go equal, equal.
05:54And then, all I'm going to do is roll down.
05:57Yes.
05:57All right.
05:57So, one more thing we need to add that handle.
05:59Yep.
06:00Snap that on.
06:02All right.
06:03Let's give it a try.
06:04Okay.
06:04All right.
06:05Nice.
06:05Pull that down.
06:06Oh, that's nice.
06:07That's really nice.
06:08But then, if you want to let that light in, bring this down.
06:11I always like to do it with two hands and then line it up with the top of that window
06:15sash.
06:16That's what we've been missing.
06:17Yeah.
06:18All right.
06:18Let's go do the rest of the windows.
06:19Sounds good.
06:19Let's go.
06:40Let's go.
06:46All right.
06:47You're all set.
06:48I am so happy.
06:49You like them?
06:49What a different thing.
06:50Yes.
06:51Good, good.
06:51Yeah.
06:51Big change.
06:52But tell CeCe I said sorry about that.
06:54I don't know how she's going to feel about that.
06:55Oh, no.
06:56Maybe an hour a day.
06:58That sounds good.
06:59Leave them open.
06:59Yeah.
07:00Well, take care.
07:00Okay.
07:01Thank you so much, Anita.
07:02You're welcome.
07:02Take care.
07:11Oh, I'm sorry, sir.
07:12I didn't realize you were in the bathroom.
07:13Welcome to my laboratory.
07:14Oh, it's a laboratory.
07:15Kevin, this is a high tank toilet from about 1880, maybe 1890.
07:19Like a real one?
07:20Absolutely, a real one, okay?
07:22It was a high tank.
07:23It sat up on the wall.
07:23It had a tank that was wood with copper inside.
07:27And it had a bowl down here.
07:28And it relied on the weight of water.
07:30The water came smoking down inside here.
07:32It had four things inside the tank.
07:34One was a tank lever to flush it.
07:36One was a flush valve to allow that water to leave the tank and come down.
07:40The other is a fill valve to put water back in.
07:42And look at this.
07:43This is the original tank ball.
07:45So this is made out of copper.
07:46Well, this is a float, right?
07:47That's right.
07:47So as it goes up, it...
07:48That's right.
07:49It shut the water off.
07:50And then it had an overflow, but it wasn't an overflow you really wanted.
07:53The overflow was, if it didn't stop the flow, the water came out through the floor.
07:56So these were often in the basement.
07:58Very apparent.
07:59So these four pieces are in any modern toilet nowadays.
08:02So here's what a modern toilet tank looks like.
08:04You got a tank lever.
08:05That actuates, in this case, a flapper.
08:07It also has a fill valve, a little different than the old ones.
08:11Then it just comes up and shuts the water off.
08:13It has an overflow right here and tangles through the tank.
08:15Right.
08:16But we didn't get there easily.
08:17Let me take you through some...
08:19In my past in this industry, this is what we always saw inside of a toilet.
08:23Early flush valve would have been all bronze and brass.
08:26It would have had these stem wires and lift wires.
08:29It would have had an overflow tube.
08:30And the tank lever, they were all sort of proprietary.
08:34So now that tank lever would then try to lift the tank ball.
08:40It wasn't a flapper back then.
08:41And now you try to adjust these wires and make it just be right.
08:46So then you hope that the ball would drop correctly.
08:49But it never really did.
08:50And so it was really a never-ending challenge to try and make this thing drop perfectly.
08:55So just as I'm clear, when you have this up, right, the flushing process, that's all the water rushing out
09:00of the tank through this into the bowl?
09:02Absolutely.
09:02Now with nothing to hold it, that ball would drop and you hope it would make a nice tight seat.
09:07And then the evolution was this.
09:09This is the modern flush valve.
09:11So you can see that there were two shanks on the side of the overflow.
09:14And this is called a flapper.
09:16And the flapper with a chain would attach to the tank lever.
09:19And the tank lever would lift the flapper.
09:21And you really wanted that flapper to stay open long enough to completely evacuate the tank.
09:26You don't want it to do too quickly.
09:27So these were adjustable.
09:28And then these two shanks made it so that the flapper really dropped precisely onto that flush valve.
09:34And that worked way better.
09:36So you had a really good seal.
09:37That's right.
09:37So the flushing part got better.
09:39It got better, absolutely.
09:40Okay.
09:41But also the filling got better.
09:42So this is what a version of this would have been what that had.
09:46And it would have had now a plastic ball.
09:48And it had this rod that you'd have to adjust.
09:53And you'd have to adjust this to the right level in relation to the overflow.
09:57And bending it was the adjustment, right?
09:58Absolutely.
09:59Which in my house, only dad was allowed to touch this.
10:01He was the only one qualified.
10:02Well, then the big breakthrough was this.
10:04This is the modern fill valve.
10:06And so instead of having the ball, the ball was an integral part of the shank.
10:10And so now as the water came in, it would come up and then it would shut that off.
10:16And it had an adjustability feature right here as well.
10:18And this is the refill tube right there.
10:20So this is what we look like all put together?
10:23Absolutely.
10:23So here it is all here.
10:24The tank lever, you never know if it's going to be on this side, on the front, or on the
10:28opposing side.
10:29Nowadays, they've got universal tank levers that do it.
10:32You've got your flush valve and that goes up.
10:35You can always adjust those as necessary.
10:38You've got your fill valve right here.
10:40And you've got a refill tube right here.
10:42That comes into the top of the overflow.
10:45Now, I want to take you over here to where this flush valve comes into here.
10:50So right here is where the flush valve enters.
10:52And when you flush that, that water comes down into this flush rim all the way here.
10:57And there's little tiny holes underneath here that'll scour the sides of the bowl.
11:01But that same water comes out through a siphon jet at the bottom to create that siphon action to flush
11:06the bowl.
11:07But then that refill tube, that other tube, will actually send a little bit of water after the fact.
11:12So it replaces that water to the right level in the bowl, hence the name refill tube.
11:16So when we're filling, we're not just filling the tank on the back, but we're putting a little bit of
11:21water to fill the bowl.
11:22Absolutely.
11:22Roger that.
11:23So 150 years ago, we had four or five gallons here.
11:27Then we had a mandate to get to three and a half gallons.
11:29Now we're down to 1.6 gallons.
11:31So we needed to really work every single time.
11:34So now you see all the components right here.
11:37Flush valve, water leaves, swirls right around to keep that bowl nice and clean.
11:43Fill valve, it replenishes.
11:45Here's that overflow.
11:47Here's the refill.
11:48And there's really only two adjustments we count on people to do.
11:51One is to adjust the tank lever and the linkage so that there's the right amount of travel on the
11:56flapper.
11:57And the other is to adjust this float.
11:59And that's pretty straightforward.
12:00You can see there's a Phillips screwdriver slot right here.
12:03And we can go counterclockwise to make the water level be lower.
12:07And you want that water level to be just about three-quarters of an inch down from the top of
12:11the overflow.
12:11Just about, like, right there.
12:13Okay?
12:14And that's the way it should be.
12:14And you should be able to flush this every time, one flush, and save water, and be nice and clean.
12:19I think I could work in your museum.
12:20You could.
12:21Yeah.
12:21You could be a provost.
12:23A toilet docent.
12:30Hey, Shannon.
12:31Hi, Jen.
12:32It's great to meet you.
12:33Great to meet you in person.
12:34So this is the area, right, that we've discussed.
12:37Yes.
12:37So my husband and I recently moved in and we're having trouble with the sloped front yard.
12:43We're not sure what to do with it.
12:44It's hard to maintain.
12:46We can't really take a lawn mower to it.
12:48So we've just been using a weed whacker to get out the little bit of grass that's there.
12:52So, yeah, we're not sure what to do.
12:54Well, do you know what was here before?
12:56So we saw an old photo where it looked like the previous owners had built a garden bed with some
13:02mulch and a few bushes, but it wasn't here when we moved in.
13:06I'm not sure why they got rid of it.
13:08Right.
13:08Well, it is very difficult to maintain a slope that's this steep.
13:13There's a lot of erosion happening.
13:15I mean, you could see where they tried to throw grass seed down, but with it at such a steep
13:20angle, it just looks like it washed out.
13:22And it looks like it's a nightmare to try to maintain.
13:25Yeah.
13:25So what I would like to do is soften the slope.
13:28So this whole area I'd like to regrade and just cut some of the harshness of how steep it is.
13:34And then we come through after that's all set and then plant with plants that are going to help stabilize
13:40the slope.
13:41And then add a little curb appeal, too.
13:43I mean, there's a lot of traffic going by.
13:45It'd be nice to have some kind of barrier between you and the road.
13:48Definitely. That sounds perfect.
13:49Awesome.
13:49So I'm going to go grab my tape measure.
13:51I'll be back and then we can figure out how many plants we need.
13:53All right. Great.
13:53All right.
13:56Okay.
13:57So I've already called out 8-1-1 and that's going to notify about all utilities in the area.
14:02And it's a good thing because there is a gas line right here.
14:05And my guy, Frank, is going to come in with a mini excavator, but we're going to hand dig around
14:10the gas area.
14:11Perfect.
14:11Okay.
14:12So let's measure up the slope.
14:14Between 10 and 12 feet.
14:15We can make a mark there.
14:16And then let's go this way.
14:23All right.
14:24Maybe one more.
14:25This will just be a reference line.
14:30All right.
14:32So when he comes in, I'm going to have him start working from the top down and then softening this.
14:39Sounds good.
14:40All right.
14:42Shannon, I want to introduce you to Frank.
14:45Hi, Frank.
14:45He is my excavator and will be working the front slope for us today.
14:50So let's talk about what you and I discussed.
14:53Sure.
14:53So we brought our mini excavator in today with a clean up bucket, a smooth edge bucket, which will enable
14:59us to reshape a bit and soften it so we can do additional planting.
15:03Okay.
15:04And then we're going to work from the driveway over to this way and work our way out.
15:08So why don't you get started up here and then we'll take these flat edge shovels along the sidewalk and
15:13clear it and refine the sidewalk edge.
15:16Perfect.
15:16Okay.
15:24Nice.
15:27Nice.
15:42Okay, Frank, I really like how this is looking.
15:45Perfect.
15:45Maybe just shave a little bit more off of this area.
15:48Yeah.
15:49And then we'll follow this line.
15:51Okay.
15:51And then I'm thinking start right there and then we'll just end the work here.
16:01Okay.
16:01And then this could all just fade into how it is.
16:04Sure.
16:17Frank, I really like how you carved into the slope.
16:20You really took off that hump, that lump at the end and created this shelf essentially.
16:25We did.
16:26Glad we could help out.
16:27But with a little bit of diversion there with the swale, it should spread some of the water from just
16:31heading for the sidewalk and it'll benefit the plants.
16:34Sounds good.
16:35And that's what we were looking for, slowing down the water flow.
16:37So next up we're going to look at plants that are going to help with that as well.
16:41And your duties are done here, sir.
16:44All right.
16:44Thanks for coming to help.
16:45Good luck.
16:46Enjoy it.
16:49So Jen, tell me about my new plants.
16:51Okay.
16:52This whole middle section, this is called Panicum vergatum.
16:55It's a switchgrass.
16:57They're going to help stabilize this slope.
16:59So what the root system is going to do underneath, it's very extensive.
17:03They're all going to knit together and on top they're all going to come together eventually as one mass.
17:08So erosion control at its finest.
17:10Perfect.
17:11They're going to get about four feet tall and then they're going to sway in the wind and they're going
17:15to have texture and height.
17:16Yeah, it's going to be beautiful.
17:17Here we have this little limelight hydrangea.
17:20I have three on this side and three at the other end.
17:22And they are going to get about four feet wide by four feet tall.
17:26So they're going to be comparable to the grasses to kind of do their thing together.
17:30They bloom about July time all the way to the end of the season.
17:35So constant, constant blooms.
17:37And so this is the start of the shelf area that Frank sculpted out for us.
17:41And the purpose, again, to slow the water down.
17:44And we have three endless summer hydrangeas.
17:47They're the blue ones.
17:48You can see the remnants of that.
17:50I think your husband likes that one.
17:52He does.
17:52So we have those three and they're going to also get like four by four or five by five.
17:57Up at the top we have a Japanese threadleaf maple.
18:00That's going to get about eight to twelve feet around.
18:02And at the end we have three limelight hydrangeas.
18:06Not the little limelights, but the limelights.
18:08And they're going to get eight to ten feet tall.
18:10It's going to block that busy road for you.
18:12Just give you a little bit of privacy and screen.
18:14Perfect.
18:15What do you think about the layout?
18:16I love it.
18:17It's perfect.
18:18What do you think about digging holes?
18:19Let's do it.
18:20All right.
18:20Come on.
18:21All right.
18:22I'm going to show you how I want them planted.
18:24So basically go to the plant, take it out.
18:28And the reason I've dug these small holes first is because they're rolling down the hill.
18:32So let's make sure it's nice and wide, right?
18:37Then I'm going to go over here to the compost, grab a nice shovel pool, chuck it in the hole.
18:46Grab a handful of starter fertilizer, throw it in, and then incorporate it with the existing soil.
18:57And then you could just bang the sides like this, pull the plant out, and then loosen up the roots
19:05so they're not growing in a circular fashion.
19:08You see how they get all clumped up right there?
19:09And then just tease it a little bit and then go back to the hole.
19:18They could be a little bit high because we're going to mulch it a little bit and then just backfill.
19:29What do you think?
19:30Perfect. Sounds great.
19:31Yeah. And you can just tuck in around the edges so it's a little stable and in place.
19:35Sounds good.
19:36Okay.
19:41I'm going to give you a couple because it's really dry looking.
19:52Look how long these roots are.
19:53So they're going to help you from washing out into the street.
20:01So the bigger plants, the same thing, Shannon.
20:04You just see how they're just so root bound?
20:07Yeah.
20:07Just break them up and it'll encourage the growth to go out.
20:11Otherwise they'll keep growing in a circle.
20:18That one actually looks a little low.
20:20Pull it up like that and then tuck it in.
20:23Yeah.
20:23Okay.
20:25Plants would rather be higher than lower.
20:27Okay.
20:29I also wanted to have the plants a little bit further back from the driveway for your sight line of
20:33pulling in and out.
20:37So we're going to plant the Japanese maple next.
20:40First, I want you to pick a face.
20:41So I'm going to spin it.
20:43That looks good right there.
20:45One, two, three.
20:47It kind of, it does go with the angle of the slope.
20:50All right.
20:51Nice job picking the face.
20:53I already threw compost in the hole so we could start backfilling it.
20:57It's mulch time.
20:59This is leaf mulch.
21:00Okay.
21:00And so it breaks down.
21:01It's going to add a lot of nutrients to your soil.
21:03I'm going to apply about two to three inches.
21:05Okay.
21:06And if it gets too much around the base of the plants, we'll just move it away with our hands
21:10at the end.
21:12All right.
21:13So I think we have accomplished what you called in for, right?
21:16Yeah, definitely.
21:17You have a beautiful hillside now, but it's also functional.
21:20It has erosion control that Frank made the nice step in it.
21:24It's going to slow the water and the runoff down and then these plants are really going to lock it
21:28in.
21:28We've added a curb appeal and it looks beautiful.
21:31How do I take care of them?
21:33It's a very good point because you have to keep it looking beautiful.
21:35The maintenance, it's going to be easy because the grasses and the limelight hydrangeas,
21:40they both require pruning at the same time in February, March, whenever it's like before the new growth starts to
21:48emerge.
21:49The limelight hydrangeas, they bloom off of new wood.
21:52So that's the best time to cut them back and shape them.
21:55And then the grasses, you want to cut to two to three inches high before the new growth emerges so
21:59you don't chop off the tops.
22:00Perfect.
22:01Okay.
22:01One more thing, the endless summer hydrangeas, they bloom on new and old woods.
22:05So prune them at the end of the season.
22:07Just deadhead them when they're done flowering and then let the Japanese maple go.
22:12Perfect.
22:12Watering.
22:13Just water throughout the end of the season.
22:15You're going to want to add some drip irrigation on the shrubs and the tree.
22:19Grasses you could probably hit with sprays, but address that next year.
22:22Okay.
22:22And then maybe top dress with an inch of the leaf mulch and you'll be all set.
22:25Awesome.
22:26Thank you again.
22:27Yeah.
22:27Nice to meet you.
22:28Nice to meet you.
22:28All right.
22:28Take care.
22:41Next time on Ask This Old House, Heath helps a homeowner run power to their new shed.
22:48It's incredible.
22:50Then, Morrow shares some of his favorite painting accessories.
22:54Do you cut him?
22:56A little magnetic.
22:57Beautiful.
22:57And, Jen and Richard play a fun game of disposal or compost.
23:03And it is...
23:05Chicken.
23:06All that on Ask This Old House.
23:09He watches the laundry books.
23:13Don't go to�� find yourself.
23:39How to release a Farewell Burner.
23:39Maybe it's infinite.
23:39you
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