This Old House master carpenter Norm Abram is a home improvement TV genre pioneer. After 43 years, 1,000 episodes of This Old House, more than 50 home renovation projects, and 280 episodes of The New Yankee Workshop, Norm is officially retiring from the show.
Norm will be sent off with a one-hour tribute special, The House That Norm Built, premiering Monday, October 3 at 9 pm ET on PBS and streamed on The Roku Channel.
Admired for his easy-going manner and common-sense approach to renovation, Norm is an uncompromising old-world craftsman who searches out new construction products and processes.
Let’s take a look back at some classic Norm moments while celebrating his storied career on This Old House.
Left: Norm poses in a cowboy hat on set in 1996. Right: Standing in a door frame of season 18’s Nantucket project.
The cowboy hat photo was taken during the 1997 Tucson project, one of This Old House’s signature location shoots. As Norm himself recalled in the magazine’s 40th anniversary issue: “The magazine used some early photos for four 40th anniversary covers. Here’s Cowboy Norm in Tucson, 1997. Wherever the show went, we liked to incorporate things from the area.”
Former This Old House host Steve Thomas and Norm pose together during the demolition of season 17’s Salem project in 1995.
The crew hangs out together on the second-story roof of season 23’s Manchester project in 2001. From left: Richard Trethewey, Steve Thomas, Norm Abram, and Tom Silva.
The camaraderie captured in these behind-the-scenes moments extended well beyond the job site. During the 1996 Nantucket project, the crew held a wrap party featuring belt-sander races—which Tom Silva won. Steve Thomas and Norm also found time to go fishing together during that same Nantucket season, a testament to the genuine friendships forged over decades of working side by side.
See More Great Norm Moments
Left: The cast of This Old House sits together on the steps of a project house. Kevin O’Connor, Norm Abram, Roger Cook, Tom Silva, and Richard Trethewey are pictured from the left.
Right: Friends since the show’s early days, General Contractor Tom Silva and Norm stand together on a project site.
Norm’s iconic flannel shirts became his on-air signature thanks to show creator Russ Morash, who made the tartan Norm’s trademark look. Over the decades, Norm wore a rotating collection of classic patterns—from Colquhoun Modern while applying wood stain in 2005, to a black-field variation on Royal Stewart that was among his go-tos back in 2001. As This Old House Magazine put it, Norm became “a reluctant plaid ambassador.”
Reflecting on the show’s longevity in a 2004 This Old House Magazine interview, Norm said of the early days: “After we did the first series in Dorchester, Russ said, ‘Well, maybe we’ll do this again—I’ll give you a call.’ A few months later he called and asked me to come take a look at the Bigelow house in Newton, which ended up being the second project. Even then we really didn’t know what was happening.”
Norm and builder Charlie Silva and Tom work with Generation NEXT apprentices Erick Ellison and Carly Comitino on season 40’s Brookline project.
Norm Abram builds furniture inside his New Yankee Workshop.
Over his four decades on the show, Norm quietly left behind a small woodworking masterpiece at each project house—a tradition that began about 16 years into the run, after Tom Silva took over as general contractor, freeing Norm to focus on the finish work. Among his proudest creations was the inglenook at the Manchester house. As Norm recalled: “This was my all-time favorite project. It was quite a challenge with those curved walls and seats. I’m really proud of that job.”
