S18 · E19

The Tucson House - 1

This Old House hits Tucson, Arizona, for an eight-part winter project: the renovation and and expansion of Jim and Colleen Meigs' 1930 Pueblo Revival home. After an overview of Tucson's sights - tract housing, golf courses, Old Tucson Studios, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, the Air Force's ""Boneyard"" of old planes, Biosphere 2, and the magnificent Catholic mission San Xavier del Bac - we head to the Meigs' house, where we see that the homeowners have for nearly 20 years, they are pretty certain: a new kitchen, an outdoor cooking area, a finished courtyard with fountain, a media room, library, a new master suite and a new coat of stucco. Their target cost is around $150,000. As Jim is an architectural designer, we visit one of his completed houses. However, since as Jim puts it, ""A new lawyer who defends himself has a fool for a client,"" he has hired an architect for his own job - Alexandra Hayes. She shows us the model she has built for the proposed project.