As Home Technology Expert on Ask This Old House, Ross Trethewey is responsible for seeking out some of the coolest stories in home technology and bringing them to a national audience. You could say that Ross has This Old House in his blood. His grandfather Ron served as the plumber on the very first season in 1979, before Ross was even born. His father, Richard, has been known as the face of all things plumbing and HVAC to This Old House fans for four decades. Growing up, Ross remembers accompanying his dad to job sites. He especially remembers the excitement…

As Painter on This Old House and Ask This Old House, Mauro Henrique helps teach the correct materials, tools, and techniques for painting and staining projects to millions of homeowners across the country. Mauro served as an on-camera painter during the This Old House Auburndale project in 2010, but his experience with the team goes back further. He was first hired by the daughter of show creator Russ Morash to paint her kitchen. When Russ saw Mauro’s work, he invited Mauro to his own house and asked him to paint some small sections of siding. Not knowing who Russ was…

We recently discovered the work of Menorca, Spain–based Quintana Partners (thanks, Megan, for clueing us in) and have been poring over their portfolio ever since. The firm was founded by Escat Benito Diaz, a watchmaker turned interior designer who honed his skills restoring houses in Frankfurt, Miami, and Venezuela before moving to the island of Menorca. Diaz recruited two compatriots, Benito Escat Velez and Pol Castells Segarra, to join him, and now the three designers work together creating some of the most charmingly eccentric and innovative interiors we’ve seen in a while. Case in point: the firm’s Sa Calma project, a reimagined 150-year-old townhouse in…

We love every inch of this compact 14-by-10-foot kitchen in the Peckham neighborhood of London. Designed by architect Jonathan Nicholls and his partner, Alex Randall, a lighting designer, it occupies the rear extension of their Victorian home. While many architects find the experience of designing their own home an existential nightmare, Nicholls found it be quite the opposite: “As an architect, working on your own house is great fun. Because of time constraints, I didn’t get a chance to do full, proper drawings, so a lot of the time I’d scribble some plans on the wall at night for the…

The ultimate luxury for tea drinkers? A hot water dispenser coupled with the kitchen faucet that delivers near-boiling water at 190-210°F. Read more about hot water dispensers in our post Remodeling 101: The Verdict on Hot Water Taps and see our 10 favorite models here. Above: In a Mill Valley kitchen designed by Ken Linsteadt, the kitchen faucet and hot water dispenser are from Lefroy Brooks. For more see our post Kitchen of the Week: A New-Build Kitchen in Mill Valley, CA, the Six-Month Check-Up. Above: The Waterstone Parche Suite Hot Filtration Faucet (1400H) is $481.50 at Quality Bath. Above: The Quooker…