Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
Issue link: https://wellesleywestonmagazine.epubxp.com/i/78488
library reading belles-lettres literature books bestsellers media authors The Best Homes from This Old House CHERYL FENTON writer talk about frustration. You hap- pily devote 55 minutes to a television show that focuses on reinventing a subject—a home, a fashion, a person, or a recipe. The process is fascinating, but then at the pro- gram's end, you're left with only a quick, five- minute snapshot of the outcome. Weeks later, you're still wondering what really happened during that show that made the stories so compelling. With their book The Best Homes from This Old House (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 2011), Wellesley photographer Michael Casey and Kevin O'Connor, Casey's long-time friend and an Emmy-nominated host of This Old House, finally satisfy our need to see what happens next. They take snapshots of some of the favorite homes that were transformed on the famous show and turn them into a compilation of riveting stories and glorious photos. "Kevin found that as he traveled around, airports, trade shows, people asked whatever hap- pened to that house they liked. People really wanted to know more about the finished proj- ects," says Casey. "The book picks up where the show leaves off." As part of America's longest-running home-improvement show, airing on PBS since 1979, the duo chronicles ten of the decade's finest transformations. The book, a labor of love that took three and a half years to complete, is rich with more than 200 stunning photographs of before-and-after interiors and exteriors, along with unique insights and stories. According to O'Connor, the homes had to meet two criteria—they had to be from within the ten years he has served as host of the show, and he had to consider the transformations "remarkable." From finials to fireplaces, patios to porticos, Casey then turned these evolu- 164 WellesleyWeston Magazine | fall 2012 COURTESY OF STEWAR T , T A BORI & CHANG / PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL CASEY