About Steve
After 14 years hosting This Old House, Steve went on to highlight historical restorations on the History Channel’s Save Our History and green renovation across America on Renovation Nation on Discovery's Planet Green.
Steve has renovated his own homes for more than 40 years, starting with a run-down 1920's craftsman cottage in Olympia, Washington, then a number of historic homes in Salem, MA, and two houses and a barn on an island off the coast of Maine. Most recently, he renovated and restored Sea Cove Cottage, a 1905 Victorian in a classic Maine lobstering village. Steve builds and renovates homes for clients in the mid-coast Maine area with Steve Thomas Builders.
Steve is a popular speaker, video producer, and writer. He is also committed to public service and served for 9 years on the Board of Trustees of the LifeFlight of Maine Foundation. He worked with Habitat for Humanity International on the ReStore and Home Builders Blitz initiatives for 5 years.
The other path in Steve’s life has been adventure, which he attributes to his late grandfather, an Episcopal missionary in the remote Alaskan Arctic village of Point Hope. After college he sailed a 40’ sloop from England to San Francisco via the Panama Canal, Galapagos, Marquesas and Hawaii.
In the early 1980's, Steve journeyed to the remote Micronesian island of Satawal to learn the ancient skill of star path navigation under the late master navigator, Mau Piailug. His research resulted in the critically acclaimed book, The Last Navigator, and a one-hour documentary for PBS’s Adventure. It was in 1989, in between research trips to the Alaskan Arctic for a second Adventure book and film, that Steve got a call from the series publicist, who also worked for This Old House, whose producers were conducting a nationwide search for a new host ….. and the rest is history.
Steve hosted PBS’s This Old House for fourteen years, from 1989 through 2003, during which the show rose to the top of PBS's list of most-watched ongoing series. He was honored with a 1997-1998 Daytime Emmy Award, and received a total of nine nominations for Outstanding Service Show Host and the show received 16 Emmys. In 2022, Steve received a Lifetime Achievement Emmy for his work.
In 2007 Discovery Communications launched Planet Green, a network dedicated to programs about sustainability. Steve was brought on as producer and host for Renovation Nation, a one-hour show about green building and renovation. Over the next two years he shot 66 episodes all across the country.
From 2004 through 2007, Steve was host and producer for 13 1-hour episodes for Save Our History. Here are excerpts from two of the best:
Steve made his television debut on PBS’s Adventure Series with the documentary film The Last Navigator based on his book by the same title. A revised edition of the book with lots of new pictures is available now from Abbeville Press or Amazon or Barnes and Noble.
Habitat for Humanity International
Steve worked for Habitat for Humanity for five years in Africa and the US producing brand videos, PSA’s and commercials for a variety of Habitat initiatives. Here’s a selection. Check ‘em out.
Domestic Global Village
Steve is Crazy (in Kenya)
Kibera
In 2017, filmmaker David Berez and wildlife biologist Tom Goettel and Steve set out to shoot a full length documentary on the wild islands of Maine’s National Wildlife Refuge. They shot a pilot and put together a prospectus before the project got stalled. Maybe someday they’ll get to do the film.
Wild Islands