The House That Norm Built - on PBS

[Rich Engelhardt]

I guess it airs tonight for members of the Insiders and on Monday Oct 3rd for the rest of us that aren't.
Check local listings for times.

I ran across this info on a Facebook group dedicated to Norm Abrams and I don't have any other details except what this link gives:
https://www.thisoldhouse.com/this-ol...hat-norm-built

I'll be right in the middle of a move and will miss it.

[Curt Harms]

There may be a way to stream it once you get settled. The guy has certainly had an impact on the hobby/DIY market and gives more solid advice than most of the DIY TV shows.

[Richard Coers]

Ate pizza with Norm once, he came to town to open a new Ace Hardware. Nice guy. This show should be sponsored by the pin nailer manufacturers. He single handedly put them in every shop in America.

[Jamie Buxton]

Ate pizza with Norm once, he came to town to open a new Ace Hardware. Nice guy. This show should be sponsored by the pin nailer manufacturers. He single handedly put them in every shop in America.

Wasn’t it a brad nailer which he used so much?

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Norm on both "This Old House" and "New Yankee Workshop" has cost my wife a lot of money, but I have a well-stocked standalone woodworking shop as a result. I miss his participation in TOH and I miss his show!

[Randall J Cox]

I always looked forward to watching him on Saturdays. Randy

[Jim Becker]

I think it's great that they have produced this, given Norm recently retired full time from the TV stuff. It's a nice tribute and I hope to watch it at some point.

[Richard Coers]

Wasn’t it a brad nailer which he used so much?

Jamie, you are correct in today's lingo. We called brad nailers as pinners before they invented headless pins. Bought my first brad nailer in 1987. A rebuild Duo-Fast that cost $99. Google said that would be $267 today.

[Brian Runau]

Thanks for the heads up. Brian

[Alan Lightstone]

Doesn't show up in my zip code for DirecTV on two PBS stations here.

[Paul Haus]

Thanks for the heads up. Brian

For a carpenter to become a PBS 'star' is quite an accomplishment.
I watched a lot of TOH and NYW programs over the years. This man did more to get people into WW (IMO) than pretty much any other single person. Again, this is my opinion, Norm A was a carpenter most of the time vs. a cabinet maker. He made good functional furniture comparable to remodeling a house. He wasn't a Sam Maloof, but then again he never pretended to be IMO.

[Mike Congiusti]

I'm an insider so I watched it on Friday. I think it was well done and Norm got teary eyed when Tommy gave his best wishes. I won't ruin it any further. I will say Norm looked a little gaunt to me. I hope he is OK. I just loved watching him and I’ve built several of his projects.

On a side note, as an insider I was able to watch all the New Yankee shows. Last month I received a message that as of 9/5/22 the license agreement was ending and I would not be able to watch the show. The website newyankee.com has also been deleted. I thought Morash held the rights to the show. I don’t understand after all these years this agreement ended. I was able to download any and all plans for free.

[Pat Germain]

I remember woodworkers busting on Norm for using his brad nailer so much. But consider he was taping a TV show. It would have been pretty awkward to constantly stop and come back the next day to let the glue dry. So he ran a bead of glue, nailed it and kept going. Anyone who wanted to build the same project could easily do so without using nails.

I've been a huge Norm fan since I first started watching "This Old House" when I was a kid. I really admired Norm's practicality and humility. I learned just so much from that guy. He helped to dispel a lot of myths about home building. First and foremost, when people said, "They don't build them like they used to", Norm would say, "Yeah, and it's a good thing they don't". Some people still believe older homes are far superior to new construction. Unless the older home was a high-end, custom build, it's typically not true. (I helped my parents restore a home built in the late 1800s and it was thrown together with a mish-mash of parts and materials.)

I remember watching an episode of This Old House with Steve Thomas. Steve was telling us about Norm varnishing a recently installed banister. When Steve turned to look at Norm, he suddenly looked perplexed and said, "And you're using a ten cent brush?". Norm replied, "It's what the manufacturer recommends". No elitism with Norm.

Some people would also bust on Norm for using plywood for furniture. To this he would simply say if they had plywood 100 years ago, they would have used it. Touche'.

[Jack Frederick]

I remember the uproar in FWW when Norm was on the cover. The following month the comment section was hell & damnation for having polluted the sacred pages of the woodworkers magazine with a “carpenter.” All I know for sure is that as I look across my shop, Delta, LN, Makita, Dewalt & many other manuf smiled all the way to the bank. Norm got me into woodworking. As such it is a love/hate relationship
I look forward to seeing this new show. Back in the early ‘00’s I worked on a few TOH segments from Rich Trethewey’s side of things. Funny how it worked out. You would work on the segment with great inclusion anticipating being on camera, but when the cameras rolled…get real! Rich & I were Reps in the P&H, H&C industry and the show is great for his business. He is a good guy. It was interesting and all in all a pleasant experience. I did play in a couple of Bob Villa’s shows after he had left TOH. So often you look at a show like this and say to yourself, “I could do this.” Then when you see the how the show actually gets produced you have a better understanding of what it takes. The organization, the timing and the output are impressive and not everyone could do it.

[Mel Fulks]

I always liked Norm , I think that’s the norm. Every time he picked up a tool he would give the pre-amble of “ Now I’m just gonna use my
( insert tool name here)”. A clear signal that he did NOT lend out tools ! I think that’s why some people don’t like him.