New York ? Bob Vila found a nice surprise.

“We had a discovery,” he tells the camera crew that just arrived. “I would love to get some ‘B-roll’ of it. I’m not exactly sure how we’ll fit it in, but I’m sure we can use the footage, and I’ll voice it over.”

They are standing on the sidewalk in front of a century-old brownstone on Manhattan’s Upper West Side where, on a beautiful morning last June, another Vila makeover has begun: Here is his latest renovation project for his syndicated series “Home Again.”

This cycle of eight “Home Again” episodes, just starting, “involves the renovation of one floor of this five-story building,” says Vila, “and it’s a wonderful story vehicle for us. The location is ideal: This is an A-number-1 luxury address. The condition is ideal: It’s got a lot of things wrong with it, but that’s what we want.”

As Vila speaks, at certain moments he can hardly be heard above the banging from the demolition inside, mixed with the roar of the garbage truck as it compacts the debris the workers are removing.

“The stuff that’s coming out of there,” he says, “is the conversion, which probably dates from about 1940.”

While tearing out the apartment’s drop ceiling, workers revealed the sort of prize that thrills Vila: Entombed for decades against the original 12-foot ceiling are beautifully detailed neoclassical moldings.

“The owner didn’t care about those kinds of fancy decorations: They’re old-fashioned,” Vila says with a laugh. “The owner wanted smooth, ‘Cole Porter’ lines.”

For a quarter-century, Vila has guided homeowners — current and would-be — in a process of re-education. Indeed, he can lay claim to TV’s original home-improvement series, “This Old House,” which he, then a Boston area homebuilder and contractor, created for PBS in 1979.

A decade later he left that show and, forming his own production company, started “Home Again,” now in its 15th season. The 58-year-old Vila also has written books and serves as spokesman for Craftsman tools, as well as continuing his real-estate development business: This brownstone will eventually be put back on the market.

“Putting a media career together with the design and real-estate career is a real stroke of serendipity,” Vila says. “I have a degree in journalism and an associate’s degree in architecture, and how I ended up using them both is amazing to me.”