The search is over, let the renovations begin! This Old House today announced it has selected its next TV project house, a rundown, nearly 100-year old, two-family home with eclectic architectural influences. It’s a tale of two apartments and two generations of women in the same family—with different styles and different needs. Living on the first floor, Liz Bagley has modern sensibilities, while her aunt Christine Flynn prefers a more traditional approach for her second-floor unit.

For its fall 2006 project house, the Emmy Award-winning This Old House opened up the selection process to homeowner submissions. Hundreds of Boston-area homeowners vied for the honor, submitting their renovation plans to thisoldhouse.com. The list was carefully whittled down to ten finalists, and at last a final choice has been made.

“As single women, Liz and Christine represent the fastest growing segment amongst all new homeowners,” says This Old House producer Deborah Hood. “This is one angle that makes this project very timely and exciting for the This Old House crew.”

The Bagley/Flynn residence, located steps away from the waterfront in East Boston, Massachusetts, was built in 1916 and has a strong family history for its current homeowners: Bagley’s great-grandfather, an East Boston ferry captain, originally owned the property. With minimal improvements made since the two-family house was built nearly a century ago, its homeowners today are struggling to reconcile their wish list as they prepare to renovate on a limited budget.

Ready to write a new chapter in their family’s history, both Bagley and Flynn will roll up their sleeves to work alongside This Old House host Kevin O’Connor, master carpenter Norm Abram, general contractor Tom Silva, plumbing and heating expert Richard Trethewey, and landscape contractor Roger Cook. The story will unfold over 16 episodes premiering nationally on PBS in October 2006 (check local listings and/or thisoldhouse.com/tvschedule).

“We’re all about meeting the needs of our homeowners,” O’Connor says. “For the This Old House East Boston project, we have two stories to tell: Liz is looking to open up her floorplan front-to-back to create more informal spaces, while Christine hopes to preserve more traditional elements such as the formal dining room. And with two kitchens, two bathrooms, and two sets of designers, there’ll be twice the information, inspiration, and transformation in every episode.”

In addition to extensive renovations on both kitchens and bathrooms, plans for the East Boston project include re-wiring and insulation, new plumbing, and modifications and updates to the existing heating system. On the landscaping front, the property has a tree strangling the sewer line, a vine engulfing the exterior of the house, and unsightly hedges that will be removed. The front and back porches are rotting, and the stucco exterior needs to be patched and painted. The house’s current sound-mitigation windows, installed by the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) to ward off noises from nearby Logan International Airport, will not be replaced. Together, these enhancements will allow for Bagley’s and Flynn’s project to take flight, and will give a whole new meaning to coming back home.

Thisoldhouse.com will feature progress of the East Boston project 24/7 through four Webcams powered by EarthCam. Visitors to thisoldhouse.com will also be able to access other special features, such as editorial diaries and a time-lapse archive for each camera to capture an in-depth preview of the progress from the beginning of the project. This Old House magazine will feature the East Boston project starting with the October 2006 issue (on sale September 25).

This Old House is produced by This Old House Productions, Inc. for This Old House Ventures, Inc. and presented on PBS by WGBH Boston. Senior producer and director is David Vos, and producer is Deborah Hood.

This Old House is the No. 1 multi-media home enthusiast brand, offering trusted information and expert advice through award-winning television, a highly regarded magazine, an information-driven Web site, a comprehensive line of books, a DVD series, and live events.

This Old House Ventures, Inc. is a business of Time4 Media, a multi-media company whose enterprises include leading magazines, Web sites, television and radio programming, feature films, and events and exhibitions. Time4 Media is a subsidiary of Time Inc., which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc.

WGBH Boston is America’s preeminent public broadcasting producer, the source of fully one-third of PBS’s prime-time lineup, along with some of public television’s best-known lifestyle shows and children’s programs and many public radio favorites. For more information, visit www.wgbh.org.