‘Ask This Old House’ finally arrives in Delaware

Lights, camera, action. The “Ask This Old House” crew from PBS rolled into Delaware.

Repair work on a quaint home nestled in the well kept Wilmington neighborhood of Union Park Gardens gave the show a chance to finally make their way to the First State.

“So, this is our first trip to Delaware with Ask This Old House. We’ve been on the road for 14 seasons and we’re very excited to make it to Wilmington,” said senior producer Heath Racela. “It’s always been on our radar. We just haven’t found the right project until now.”

Wilmington residents Joel Saufley and Jane Chesson reached out to the show in hopes they could get the guys to help them with a few repairs around their home.

“I feel like we really lucked out,” Chesson said.  “We sent them an email a little while ago asking them for some help with some different projects we had around the house and they connected us back and said, they had never been to Delaware and would love to come.” 

Armed with tools, lights, cameras, and a monitor, the crew got to work on their first project.

Plumber Richard Trethewey started with replacing a pedestal sink. “The homeowner got here about 7 years ago. They looked down and had a big crack in it. It didn’t leak but it cracked and it’s the only bathroom, so we thought we’d get them a new pedestal.”

While Trethewey always makes it look so easy, he says there are some challenges. “The hardest part for us if you look we’re actually shooting in the only bathroom with 7 different people in our crew jammed into one bathroom and that’s the hardest thing actually.”

Whether it’s a small bathroom or a dark basement, it’s the senior producer’s job to figure out how to make it work. “I oversee all the projects,” said Racela. “Figure out what stories we want to tell and help put the camera in the right place and make sure we’re providing great lessons for people at home.”

One thing viewers won’t see on-air is that sometimes the job requires more tools than you’ve brought. When that happens, they turn to the handy man, also known as the homeowner, for help.

“I’m Richard’s helper, yup,” said Saufley. “We went to the store and got a couple of parts that we needed and, basically, I’m just kind of helping him along and holding things and just seeing the inner workings of the whole sink and everything. So it’s a really interesting process.”

You’ll have to wait to see the end results of this home improvement project. Tune in to “Ask This Old House” in the fall to see the final reveal.

WHYY’s behind the scenes look at the show’s visit to Delaware can be seen on First, this Friday night at 5:30 and 11 p.m. on WHYY TV.