His route to the job was unorthodox, to say the least. Kevin and his wife, Kathleen, were struggling to remove layers of wallpaper in their first home, an 1894 Queen Anne Victorian. They sent an e-mail to Ask This Old House looking for help, and much to their surprise they received a House Call. General contractor Tom Silva and painting contractor Jim Clark, along with a camera crew, showed up to give Kevin and Kathleen advice and a helping hand. As they spent the day filming, the camaraderie was instantaneous. "We had a great day working together, stripping wallpaper and swapping home improvement stories," says Kevin. "It was a fantastic experience. The same guys I watched on television were helping us prepare the walls to wallpaper the front hallway of our new home. It was a dream come true."

What Kevin didn't know was that the producers of This Old House were in the process of searching for a new host "In Kevin, we found the perfect mixture of optimism and energy, two ingredients an old house owner must have to survive," says Russell Morash, creator, executive producer and director of This Old House and Ask This Old House. "When we later saw him on camera, the 'eureka' bell went off and we said: that's our guy. He instantly hit it off with the crew, peppering them with questions and absorbing all of their pointers. His curiosity was refreshing. Who better to host the show than a first-time homeowner and a loyal viewer who grew up watching the show?"

Kevin is certainly that. His father, a civil engineer, practically raised Kevin and his four brothers and two sisters at his various job sites, assigning the O'Connor crew tasks ranging from pushing a broom to hanging Sheetrock. Kevin didn't pursue engineering as a trade — he received a BA in history from the College of the Holy Cross in 1990 and an MBA from Boston University in 1999 — but he never lost his enthusiasm for home improvement. So when Kevin and Kathleen were looking for their first home, they jumped at the chance to buy a beautiful pink Victorian.

"I'm a real home buff," says Kevin. "My wife and I just bought this major fixer-upper, and my dream is to renovate this house. I think This Old House was looking for someone who was a viewer, and I certainly am that."

Kevin, who had been working as a vice president in the Sports Finance Group at Fleet Bank, has no qualms about taking on his new assignment. "My friends are so jealous!" he says. "I've landed my dream job, and my training is simply my native curiosity and my interest in home renovation. I've been a viewer for years, I'm in the middle of my own renovation, and I've got a long list of questions I can't wait to ask. I'm psyched to work with the guys I grew up watching on TV. And judging by Russ's first assignment, which was to get cable and buy more tools, I know this will be a lot of fun."