WESTFORD — The Donald Cameron House was bursting with life on Wednesday in celebration of its renovation, the first time since its fire in 2016.
Photographers, town residents, friends, family, and the production crew were there all “packed like sardines” at the homeowner’s hosted wrap party to signify the completion of renovations and filming for the TV series “This Old House” that was done on the property.
The Cameron House is a yellow Colonial Revival style 19th-century house that was built by Donald Cameron in 1893. The house has historical and architectural significance to Westford and has been awaiting attention since a fire tore through.
The rehabilitation of the property has remained in disrepair since the three-alarm fire destroyed the house nearly a decade ago. At the time, the fire was estimated to have caused at least $250,000 worth of damage according to then Fire Capt. David O’Keefe.
At the 2018 October Town Meeting, the town voted to appropriate $700,000 for the purchase and stabilization of the property. There was debate about what to do with the property after that. Some said that the property should be turned into a venue or Town Offices while others declared it should be torn down. However, they finally agreed to put the house up for auction instead.
Renovating the property
In 2021, Diane and Charles Grondine purchased the property at 63 Main St. After putting in their bids, submitting their proposal and working with the town, the Grondines finally owned the property. Now they needed to figure out what to do with it.
According to the homeowner’s daughter Emily Grondine and fiance Ethan Hudon, the demolition work started at home.
“It was just studs everywhere, studs and old moldy installation,” Hudon said.
They conducted smaller projects such as getting rid of damaged plumbing, removing electrical, and digging up dead trees. After that, they hired Sara Mallio to draw up the architectural construction plans.
“That took a while, the architectural plans, because there were none for the house at the time because we needed to reconstruct an entire roof,” Grondine said.
Mallio said that she approached the project much like any other project by first speaking with the clients and addressing their needs. A big part of the project involved incorporating sustainability and protecting the historical integrity of the house, which she was all for.
“I’m really into sustainability and I love old homes so I was like ‘Yes this is my project,’ I was really excited to work on it and they really wanted to keep it pretty much the same,” Mallio said
However, that does not mean that restoring it was a small feat, the entirety of the roof had to be replaced as it took the brunt of the fire. Mallio said that she used old photos to create plans that would restore it to what it was.
Due to the age of the house, some of the materials could not be found anymore and needed to be made such as the trimmings. However, they were able to keep the majority of the house intact, even the exterior.
“The floor plans didn’t change very much, the main staircase was saved due to its historical significance and it was restored to its former glory,” Mallio said, “That’s a unique staircase, it’s pretty special I haven’t seen anything like that.”
Drawing up the architectural plans started in June of 2023, with the actual construction of the project starting in June of 2024, and the Grondines knew exactly who they wanted to do construction for the project.
“The entire time we were actually wanting to work with Charlie Silva who is the contractor and regardless of whether or not it was going to be with the show we kind of had him in our back pocket,” Grondine said, “We had shown him our architectural plans and he said ‘all right I can’t guarantee that anything is going to happen with the show, ‘don’t count on it’ … and all of a sudden we got a phone call and he was basically like ‘all right the producers want to meet with you.’”
“This Old House,” which runs on PBS, had been monitoring the Cameron House project for a long time before renovation had begun.
“We heard about this project before Diane and Charlie actually purchased the property, when they were deciding they reached out to us to see if we’d be interested in following it,” Senior Series Producer Sara Ferguson said.
Once the homeowners had a plan, an architect, a contractor and got the ball rolling, “This Old House” was fully on board.
“This place had the fire so that made it different from the beginning because it was already severely damaged and gutted and it was begging for somebody to come and save it and the right people came along, it couldn’t have been a more perfect match,” Ferguson said.
This Old House
The Grondines paid for all the renovations themselves and “This Old House” documented the process. The Cameron House will be featured on the Emmy award-winning series for 10 episodes, closing out their 46th season.
The production crew focused on what was being preserved, what was being updated, what new techniques were being used and the construction process. However, “This Old House” is not just about home renovations, Ferguson said, it is about the tradespeople and their expertise.
“We want to touch on everything from HVAC, electrical, carpentry, landscape, energy efficiency,” Ferguson said, “However, “This Old House” focuses a lot on the people in the project. Those who the project means the most to and those who are putting their blood, sweat and tears into making it a success.”
Ferguson then mentioned the muralist who worked on covering all four walls of the dining room in a fox hunting scene set in 19th-century Westford.
“Lisa Curry Mair, who painted it, she now lives in Vermont, but she grew up right across the street,” Ferguson said, “So it was a very large coincidence that the homeowners who wanted to have this mural painted happened to reach out to an artist in Vermont. Come to find out the artist lived across the street and has a soft spot in her heart for Westford.”
This project seemed to have many such coincidences pop up as Grondine was a witness to the fire nine years ago.
“I was stuck in traffic and I remember just looking over and I saw the smoke pouring out and I’m like ‘oh my God what a shame, what a beautiful house’ and it’s really just come full,” Grondine said.
Bringing the historic home back to life
The Grondines have always been history enthusiasts and have envisioned living in a historical home.
“I had always envisioned myself living in a home with a historical plaque on it. It’s just so special to me being able to do. It’s honestly been a family adventure too,” Grondine said.
Setting up the house for viewing was a process in and of itself according to the couple. Rugs went down on Thursday, everything else shuffled in after and the house was open less than a week later.
“The show has been one thing, but we are kind of ready for all the chaos and hecticness to subside and ready to get our home back,” Grondine said, “It’s been a long time coming … and it’s taken us this long but I feel like it’s 100% worth it.”
Grondine, who will eventually inherit the house from her parents and live there with Hudon, said they had been antiquers for a very long time and purchased much of the furniture in the home.
“[Some] are family heirlooms like in the dining room downstairs there’s a working record player and Ethan and I usually put that on when we’re cooking dinner and stuff and that was my parents,” Grondine said.
The process was full of ups and downs and many moving parts, but they had a lot of help from everyone who worked on the project.
“It seemed to happen very fast which we were OK with but was also very overwhelming,” Hudon said, “A lot of last-minute decisions, very fast but we were fortunate that we had a lot of people to provide insight for those questions so that was helpful for us.”
With the project finished, they are excited for the whirlwind to be quiet.
“Overall, I feel like looking back this is just how it was supposed to go. I feel like it was a roller coaster of craziness and emotions,” Grondine said.
This Old House featuring the Donald Cameron House will air on Thursday, March 27.
