BOSTON — As "This Old House" producer-director Russ Morash climbed the front stairs of the Victorian house that launched the WGBH-TV home-improvement show 21 years ago, he removed his baseball cap and looked around with the awe of a soldier returning home after too many years away.
It was his first top-to-bottom tour of the place since it was overhauled in the winter of 1979 and auctioned off on Channel 2 that spring, and he was thrilled to see how well the 150-year-old home has held up.
He marveled at the sod in the front yard, ran around back to admire a birch tree, fussed over the fencing, inspected the furnace and was so impressed by the pristine condition of the hardwood floors that he told owner Margaret Ramage (the auction winner with a high bid of $55,000) he wished she were the steward of all the "This Old House" projects. There have been 38 total renovations so far.
"Well, it is astonishing to see how well the building has been maintained and improved since we left," said Morash, standing in the kitchen that he and a work crew gutted, redesigned, rearranged and rebuilt. "This is what one hopes of their child, if I may call it that."
Indeed, the 13-week Dorchester project was his baby and gave life to one of the most popular series on WGBH both locally and nationally. "This Old House" is arguably the granddaddy of all "real life" television shows.
Morash, a WGBH producer since 1958, creator of "This Old House" and a skilled handyman in his own right, said the idea for fixing up an old house for television had been kicking around at WGBH for at least 15 years, in part because he showed up to work covered with plaster dust more often than not and regaled his rapt coworkers with tales of his latest home project.
The thinking was, if public television viewers were sophisticated enough to grasp subjects from rudimentary astrophysics to Cold War brinksmanship, they could keep up with a bunch of contractors explaining how to reshingle a roof.
As soon as the idea for the 1979 show was approved, Morash set out to find the perfect house to renovate. Working on a tip from a Boston city official, he found the "shabby but elegant" home he'd been looking for in a historic neighborhood across from a park and a church, set on the ledgy side of a hill.
It was vacant and rundown, but affordable ($17,900) and, from a restoration demonstration standpoint, it had enough wrong with it to be just right.
"The house seemed to have everything: a mansard roof, a corner lot, great detail, great old bones," said Morash. "It was used hard and passed over and passed over again, but it was a fine old house underneath it all, and was like finding a great, original antique."
WGBH purchased the house outright with the idea that they would work on it and film their progress all winter, then sell it as the finale to the Channel 2 Auction that spring.
Because the show had a tiny budget, most of the materials were donated in exchange for a little free advertising, and the crew froze most days using just two hand-held cameras, space heaters, cherry pickers for aerial shots, and a mobile "command unit" that was often more trouble than it was worth.
Locals came regularly to gawk at the project; others traveled from across the state to see the house once the episodes started to air. Morash does a great imitation of an old-timer with a limp and a brogue who came up behind him one day and said, "I heard on the show the other night you wouldn't be needing the radiators. Would ya mind if I took 'em?"
Crew members happily helped the man load his car with the cast-iron relics. "I can still see the little guy today," Morash said, laughing at the memory.
Materials were less than top-notch, and no architect was involved. The crew, led by master carpenter Norm Abram, did manage some innovations that were ahead of their time.
In the kitchen, they installed a bubble-shaped skylight, hardwood floors in tiny parquet dominos, an eating bar, and a stainless-steel sink with built-in stainless drainboard. Because materials were donated, though, and, OK, it was still the '70s, the kitchen countertops are bright orange laminate.
"I'm sorry to have inflicted this color on you," Morash said to the present owned with a chuckle. "But Home Depot wasn't invented yet and this was 'how to.' "
The owner said it took her three years to find a wallpaper pattern that would tone down the color, but she didn't see a need to replace the countertops or the unremarkable oak cabinets (Grossman's, circa 1979) because they still look like new. She only recently ordered a new refrigerator and stove.
"I'm not the type who makes changes or buys things unless I really need to," she said. "I like to keep things simple."
With no owner to please but themselves (unlike today's shows, where the homeowner's visions dictate the renovation), the "This Old House" crew "did what we thought was fun," said Morash.
"We've changed our philosophy over the years," he said, looking out the third-floor window for its view of Dorchester harbor. "There is now greater interest in letting the homeowner know what we think is correct and then letting them decide from there what they can afford."
There were some mistakes in the Percival Street house that they would not repeat today, Morash acknowledged. For example, they used inexpensive, stock doors for the half-bath and some closets, instead of searching for vintage replacements with moldings and glass knobs. They also did not put decorative casings around the doors. Morash said the show simply ran out of money and some corners had to be cut.
"We also wanted to say, 'This is today,' we didn't want to make it feel completely like yesterday," he said. "But today, we would absolutely match the doors and the trim-outs and keep in character with the era of the house."
That first project was shown only on Boston's Channel 2, but it was such a huge hit here that WGBH decided to air it nationally, and "This Old House" has aired nationally ever since.
The crew, led first by host Bob Vila and now Steve Thomas, has been in dank basements, creaky attics and outdated kitchens across the country, reviving all manner of old homes before viewers' eyes and taking them through every step with layman's terms and a folksy style.
The 52-year-old owner of the show's first project said the house has served her well. She purchased it in move-in condition and said the systems remain sound, but she's had to replace the roof and windows and have it repainted.
"Every improvement I've made is because I want to preserve what's already been done," she said. "The house is really solid and really wonderful."