Bob Vila has spent a lifetime paying attention to the spaces people call home. As he approaches 80, his gardens, preservation work and seed catalogs on the kitchen table are proof that some passions only deepen with time.
By Amy Carlson Gustafson • Photos by Mary Beth Koeth
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On a February evening at their home in Palm Beach, Florida, Bob Vila and his wife of 50 years, Diana Barrett, are digging into newly arrived seed catalogs. It’s something they’ve done together every winter for decades.
It’s that time of year, Vila explains, when their imaginations are ignited. They leaf through pages of potential, planning a new beginning, especially for the vegetable garden at their Massachusetts home.
For a man whose name has been synonymous with old houses, renovation projects and power tools for nearly half a century, Bob Vila is often happiest with his hands in the soil.
“Having a garden is like having a good and loyal friend,” he says, quoting the late actress and author C.Z. Guest. “I love that quote because once you have established a garden, you realize that it’s more than just a collection of plants.”
The joy of watching things grow
Vila and his wife split time between their two homes, each with blooming gardens. Up north, peonies, Vila’s favorite flowers, arrive every June; down south, orchids are his passion.
His enthusiasm for gardening in New England began when he and his wife renovated a Victorian house. This property was shown on the public television series “This Old House.” Their home’s gardens had lush lilacs, beautiful poppies and a bed full of peonies. A garden passion was born.
The couple’s Massachusetts property has been in the family for 25 years, filled with layers of history. Trees that Vila and his wife planted long ago are now mature. Flower beds have been rearranged and reimagined season after season. The vegetable garden is always changing.
When the couple recently sold their Florida home of nearly 50 years, the emotions were bittersweet. They were ready to downsize but had to say goodbye to a well-loved garden.
“The importance of your garden memories, especially when you reach the age of 79, is something very strong,” Vila says. “But you make new ones.”
The connection between architecture and gardens has always felt natural to Vila. Both are about paying close attention to what’s around you and dreaming of the possibilities. His philosophy: Patience is one of the things a garden teaches you whether you like it or not. It’s something you can’t control or rush.
“There’s a lot of pleasure in watching things grow,” he says. “That becomes especially evident when you leave a place and you’re gone for 5 months, and then you come back and see what nature has done.”
Get Bob Vila’s advice for staying connected to what matters — plus, a behind-the-scenes peek at his photo shoot.
Deep roots that continue onward
Long before Vila became the face of American home improvement, he was a kid growing up in Miami, working on house projects and pulling weeds. He did this with his father, a Cuban immigrant who built his family’s 2-bedroom home toward the end of World War II. The suburban lot was a modest size but had an orange tree, banana plants and a carefully tended hedge. There was always something to care for.
“[My dad] loved to garden, and so when I was old enough, I was his little helper in all sorts of home improvement projects,” Vila says.
That early experience taught Vila that a home is more than walls and a roof. The land around it matters just as much. This lesson has shaped everything Vila has done since. He went on to study architecture in Boston before becoming the face of “This Old House.” He spent more than 2 decades on television helping millions of Americans see their own homes differently and wrote several books. He also created a website providing maintenance and repair advice, remaining one of the most familiar names in home improvement.
“I still meet younger people who tell me that the reason they decided to study architecture or become a plumber or join any of the trades was that they were inspired by our TV shows,” he says. “Sometimes they’ll just hold on to you, and you’re practically brought to tears. That’s an amazing experience.”
Caring for what matters
Today, Vila’s commitment to historic preservation is as strong as ever. He serves as a trustee of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in New York. He’s also involved in the Finca Vigía Foundation, which works to preserve the home of author Ernest Hemingway, and its archive outside Havana, Cuba.
That project is personal in ways that go beyond architecture. As a child, Vila visited his grandparents in Havana every summer, and his family briefly lived there.
He didn’t return until his late 50s, when friends invited him to help save Hemingway’s Finca Vigía estate. (The name translates to “lookout farm.”) The property held a treasure trove of Hemingway’s possessions including more than 9,000 books, manuscripts, photographs and letters.
Vila helped lead a fundraising effort that restored the house and built a climate-controlled building on the grounds to protect the most important materials.
“This allowed me to reconnect with Cuba,” he says.
A trip to northern Spain — where his family originally came from — offered another window into why preservation matters so much.
“When you’re going through winding lanes that have been trodden for a thousand years, and you come home to the United States,” he says, “you realize just what a new country we are.”
That idea shapes how he thinks about American preservation today.
“Whether you’re talking about a historic house in Washington or an old house on your street, the concept of preservation came alive around the Bicentennial,” he says. “Now that we’re celebrating 250 years, I think it’s still very strong.”
He believes anyone can be a part of preservation projects and encourages people who are curious to look for local opportunities. He suggests finding a preservation society and browsing its website. You don’t have to commit to anything right away — just start noticing.
“Almost anywhere you go in America, you will find like-minded people who are interested in preserving the courthouse, the church building or the old house on the corner,” he says. “You’re unlikely to ever be someplace where you won’t find this kind of active interest group.”
Above: Vila on the set of “This Old House” in 1983. He hosted the television show from 1979 to 1989, which was watched by millions of Americans. (Photo by Michael Lutch/©PBS/courtesy Everett Collection)
Above: Vila with his wife, Diana Barrett, attending a ball at Pier 60 in New York City in 2008. (Photo by Patrick McMullan/Getty Images)
“There’s a lot of pleasure in watching things grow.”
A blueprint for meaning and connection
If you ask Vila what he would put in a blueprint for a vibrant life, he says: Get involved in something beyond yourself.
“I started out my career after college as a Peace Corps volunteer,” he says. “I’m a very big booster of volunteerism. I especially think it’s an important thing for people to consider when they are retired and when they don’t go to an office anymore.”
That spirit of service has never left him. His wife Diana shares that same commitment. She’s served on the board of the Everglades Foundation for more than a decade, working to protect one of Florida’s natural landscapes.
For people figuring out what comes next, Vila says the answer is simpler than it might seem. Get involved in something that matters to you, whether that’s a preservation society, garden club or community group. He believes staying engaged means staying connected to your community, to the people around you and to the living world outside your door.
“Find alternatives that fit who you are, what your skills are and what your interests are,” he says. “I think those are the most worthwhile things people can do for their happiness and mental health.”
Above: Bob Vila first appeared on the cover of Renew magazine in 2016. He revisits the issue 10 years later.
As he’s gotten older, Vila has made some practical changes to his life. He gave up cycling, a passion of his for nearly 40 years, after too many close calls with traffic on busy roads.
“I love to swim, and walking is good exercise, so I focus on those,” he says. “One of the things I’ve noticed in my 70s is that your balance might not be exactly what it once was. I wasn’t aware of that until I fell 2 years ago and badly injured my shoulder. That’s made me very aware, so I try to work out a couple of times a week with a trainer, focusing on muscle tone and balance.”
Close to home, 5 grandchildren, ranging in age from 15 years to a few months, keep life full. With the younger ones, the outdoor world is already part of their time together.
“The ability to just go to a little waterfront park and spend an hour with the kids and the dogs is something I don’t take for granted,” he says.
The couple is also busy making their new, smaller Florida house into a home.
“We look out the sliding doors in any one of the rooms, and we see nature and we see plantings,” he says. “We’re slowly changing and adding things.”
Embracing every day
As we finish our conversation, Vila is corralling Roxy and Maddie, his Labradoodles, into the car. He’s getting ready to head to the nearby Mounts Botanical Garden.
He climbs in the car, dogs in tow, and goes.
It’s a February afternoon in Palm Beach, warm and bright. Vila has seed catalogs on the kitchen table, peonies coming in June and a botanical garden waiting across town. He has seen a lot. He is still watching things grow.
Video: Driven Films • Grooming: Frances Lordan • Location: Mounts Botanical Garden (West Palm Beach)
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