The Brady Bunch cast didn’t just reunite at the site of their old TV home, they’re also going to be a part of the house’s renovation.
On Nov. 1, the six Brady siblings who starred in the beloved sitcom came together for the first time in 15 years to kick off A Very Brady Renovation, HGTV‘s show about overhauling the iconic house that served as the Brady home’s exterior from 1969 to 1974 to match its memorable sets on the inside. As part of the celebration, the cast announced their plans to participate in the redo, with each actor pairing up with designers from the network’s hit shows to restore the home inside and out. Renovation will premiere on HGTV in 2019.
“You know when there are times in your life where everything comes together and it just feels like it was so meant to be and everything feels right? That’s how this feels,” Maureen McCormick, 62, who played Marcia Brady, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “It’s so perfect.”
McCormick, who considered buying the home herself before HGTV placed the $3.5 million winning bid, will team up with Property Brothers stars Drew and Jonathan Scott to tackle the home’s front facade, entryway and living room.
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“In my heart, I am so fond of everything that this house represents,” McCormick says. “This is going to be an amazing year. They’ve taken the greatest HGTV stars who are all so nice. You can just see their hearts, which I love. They’re beautiful people and I think they’re going to do an amazing job on this. I can see that they really care.”
However, she admitted she has “no idea” how they’ll replicate the house’s memorable interior — on the show inside scenes were shot on a sound stage — in a space that doesn’t currently look anything like it.
“Our responsibility is that we don’t screw this up,” Drew tells PEOPLE with a laugh. “In the end, we want to make sure that what we do is exactly what this house should look like.”
They plan to fix up the landscaping around the front facade, Jonathan explains, but the interior will need to be drastically remodeled, since the house was never actually used for the show’s filming.
“I want to see the cast react to the house, because originally it was all studio space,” he says. “All the sets were on one level so when they used to walk up those stairs and it was a dead end. Now, they’ll be able to come into this house when it’s done, walk up the stairs and go to their bedrooms that they had when they were kids.”
Susan Olsen, who played Cindy Brady in the series, admits she feels a little bit of resentment toward the house because as a child, she asked the producers why they chose that house for the exterior and they told her, “I’ll have you know that if you walk into that house, it looks exactly like this set.”
“I racked my brains trying to figure out how that could possibly be and I finally asked my mom [who said], ‘Oh, honey, they were just trying to shut you up,” Olsen recalls. “I was lied to. It hurt my feelings all those years ago. There’s a nine-year-old inside of me saying, ‘See, see, I was right!’”
Olsen will work on the girls’ bedroom, the second floor landing and hallway and the jack-and-jill bathroom alongside Good Bones mother-daughter duo Mina Starsiak Hawk and Karen E Laine. Although Laine understands they may have to compromise some aspects of the design because of the home’s layout, the one thing she says they must include on the property is a dog house.
“They’re going to cry,” Laine says of the Brady kids. “That’s our goal, to make people happy cry. Just have a lot tears, ruin whatever makeup you might be wearing and hug everybody.”
Mike Lookinland, who played Bobby Brady, will also team up with Laine and Starsiak Hawk to assist on the second floor hallway and landing and the boys’ bedroom, but admits there’s no way the bathroom can be exactly as it was on the show.
“There are six people and six kids that shared a bathroom with no toilet,” he jokes. “It had no toilet. You can’t get a permit for a house without a toilet and you shouldn’t be able to.”
Restored By the Fords’ sister-brother team Leanne and Steve Ford will team up with Eve Plumb (Jan Brady) on the family room and kitchen, which Leanne is currently adorned with “lots of orange and lots of avocado [green].”
“I think the biggest thing is that HGTV is so about family and The Brady Bunch is too, so this is such a natural easy, fun combination,” Leanne says.
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Hidden Potential‘s Jasmine Roth will take over the master suite with Christopher Knight (Peter Brady) and Mike’s Den and Office with Barry Williams (Greg Brady). Flea Market Flip‘s Lara Spencer will partner with Plumb and Williams on Greg’s Attic and Alice’s room.
“This project is going to help this show transcend generations,” Roth tells PEOPLE. “I don’t know necessarily that The Brady Bunch would’ve made it to the next generation without a big project like this, but it’s going to make it really accessible and relevant to this generation, which is so cool.”
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