Everyday Drama Enlivens `This Old House' Whenever the Crew Takes on a Home-Renovation Project, Neighbors and Viewers Tune in to See How the Experts Do It

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WHEN "This Old House" comes to a neighborhood, there's more than the usual curiosity about a new construction project next door. Even joggers stop and stare; people who've never met before drop by to discuss how things are going.

Everyone on site, and just off, is caught up in what the show's host, Steve Thomas, calls the "romantic dream" of fixing up an old place like the shingle-style Victorian on Lawndale Street in this close-in suburb of Boston.

The dream is most intense, of course, for the owners, Dean and Lauren Gallant. They had figured on 10 years to refurbish the 86-year-old house, Dean says.

But when their home was chosen from about 200 proposals …