‘This Old House’ at home in Needham Victorian

When Liz and Patrick Sheehan bought their Needham home in 2017 they knew they wanted to do some renovation, but they wanted to live in the vintage 1896 house awhile first to get a feel for what they would change. “We just kind of wanted to open it up and make it more family friendly,” said Liz Sheehan. 

Like most construction projects this one didn’t go quite as expected. First there were some difficult personal setbacks. Then came the unlikely opportunity to work with the popular public television home improvement program “This Old House.” 

The renovation of the Sheehan’s simple suburban Victorian will be featured this season in nine episodes of the long-running TV series beginning tonight (Jan. 22) on GBH locally and PBS stations nationwide and streaming on Roku beginning Jan. 24.

When they were initially ready to start the project in 2019, COVID hit. Although it was a time when many people did construction, that couldn’t work for the Sheehans because their oldest son, Declan, has severe autism and would find it too difficult to be at home with the chaos involved.

When schools reopened they began again, but Declan was diagnosed with leukemia. After two more years, “As he started to get towards the end of his treatment — fortunately which went very well — we did the whole thing all over again,” said Sheehan.

This time they worked with architect Marcus Springer, who drew up plans and put them out to bid with contractors. “And then I got pregnant, much older and later in life,” said Sheehan. “But we decided we can’t stop because we’ll never get it done. We have to just do it.” 

Then Springer called with an unexpected opportunity: working with “This Old House.” “It wasn’t something we ever thought of,” Sheehan said. 

The team from Silva Brothers Construction, the contractor for “This Old House,” came to meet with them and they were interested. That was last April and work began in June. 

This is the first time “This Old House” has done a project in Needham. Senior series producer Sara Ferguson said it was pretty typical for the program. The plan involved opening up the center of the house by removing a fireplace and chimney that ran up through the second floor. Taking that down opened the first floor to create a big kitchen that goes into a living room. On the second floor, it provided a better layout for a primary suite, laundry and linen closet. Each floor has a 200-square-foot addition on the back.

“What I love about it is it’s nothing crazy where someone’s adding on a big giant addition and primary suite,” said Charlie Silva, owner of Silva Brothers Construction. “By adding simply 200 square feet on the first floor and second floor, it made each level so much more practical and usable. They’ve really changed the lifestyle in the house.”

One feature of the renovation was the relocation of a built-in china cabinet from the original dining room. The Sheehans wanted to keep it, so Silva’s team removed it by taking it apart and then restoring and reinstalling it in the new dining area. 

Sheehan said doing the project with “This Old House” was a very good experience. “I think we’re very lucky to have worked with them because everything goes much more quickly.”

That’s one of the advantages, said Ferguson. “We have to stick to a time schedule to deliver our shows. That’s one of the best benefits for having a show follow along.”

The project will wrap in another week, though the TV episodes will continue through April. Sheehan said she is happy with how it turned out and looks forward to moving back into her new old house. 

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