Popular Mechanics: >Vila’s job was that of a new kind of storyteller. On This Old House, the iconic home-renovation program he hosted from 1979 to 1989 that continues today on PBS and has won seventeen Emmys, he had a unique role: to describe, to kneel and peer into a crawl space with a flashlight, to pull at the decaying lath, to illustrate the dangers of moving forward with the work. To translate detail and describe the difficulties contractors, and homeowners, sometimes faced. > >Throughout This Old House, Vila leaned in on the personality, capability, and vision of the tradesmen and contractors who came to each worksite. Bob Vila’s interview subjects were always real, sometimes odd; Vila was always Bob. He shared the camera with them wisely. They were often older, somehow wizened, had regional accents, and offered up hard-won, homespun lessons. This was the furthest reach of reality television back then, and Vila was well suited to it.

How many of you are old enough to remember Bob Vila? As a kid, I loved his version of “This Old House” (I never liked the episodes after he left) even though I have no skill or even interest in construction, carpentry or painting creating top professionals completing the jobs we like so much at our  residential or commercial buildings in order to increase their appeal and even attract more customers, look at this site to see some of the projects I have been talking about. Vila made it seem effortless and easy.