Ty will be in Atlanta!!
By ALMA E. HILL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
ATLANTA HOME SHOW
Thursday through Sept. 21, Cobb Galleria Centre, across from Cumberland Mall at Cobb Parkway and I-285.
• Admission: $8 adults; $3 children 6-12; ages 5 and under free.
• Hours: Noon-8 p.m. Thursday; noon-9 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Saturday; noon-6 p.m. Sept. 21.
• Info: 770-798-1997;
www.atlantahomeshow.com.
To enter the Ty Pennington look-alike contest, visit the Web site. Entry deadline is Thursday. Winner to be selected at 2 p.m. Sept. 21 at the home show. Prize includes a trip to the Ritz-Carlton, Reynolds Plantation, on Lake Oconee.
Admit it. Part of the enjoyment of watching "Trading Spaces" on the TLC cable network is to see carpenter Ty Pennington open his shirt.
His dashing good looks and chiseled abs landed him on Entertainment Weekly's "It List." People magazine dubbed him one of the "Most Eligible Bachelors," even though he's had a steady girlfriend the past five years.
Now comes a Ty Pennington look-alike contest, with the winner to be selected at the Atlanta Home Show, which opens Thursday.
So we asked Pennington, a former model and ex-Atlantan who now lives in Los Angeles, the one asset a contestant needs to capture his look.
Pennington, who will be at the home show on Saturday and Sunday to answer questions and share his experiences with the audience, cleverly dodges the question, opting instead to play up his inner qualities.
"My best asset would probably be my sense of humor," he says, laughing. "And my patience. Being on the show with the designers really takes some patience."
Carpentry began as a hobby for Pennington when he was a teen, then turned into a source of income to help pay his way through college.
"It's not something I wanted to do professionally," he recalls. "It was just something I always fell back on to pay the bills."
However, after turning an old warehouse in Atlanta's Castleberry Hill neighborhood into loft apartments, Pennington knew he had wood chips in his blood.
He went on to purchase a three-bedroom, two-bath home in Grant Park that he renovated and furnished for $10,000. Pennington still owns it, although home for him now is a one-bedroom, one-bath cottage in L.A.
In late October, his first book, "Ty's Tricks" -- featuring tips on carpentry, home repair and decor that is both cheap and chic -- will hit bookstores.
"I make crap craptastic," says Pennington, 38, noting that an entire chapter focuses on how to "build a champagne house on a beer budget," as he did in Grant Park.
"What's great about the book is it's definitely full of all kinds of tips and tricks to do just about everything from tiling floors to plumbing," he says.
"It's not a use and snooze home repair book."
Talking with the speed of an espresso-fueled engine, Pennington shared some of his home improvement tricks with us:
Q: Give us an example of how you decorated your Atlanta home.
A: I made lights out of [toilet] plungers. They're really killer. I call them flush lights. I also made countertops out of flooring from flatbed trucks.
I built all the furniture and put it together with glue and wooden pegs. It's pretty much Zen-like in that there are no screws or nails.
Q: What's one of the easiest repair jobs?
A: A toilet leak. Close the shut-off valve some at the base of the toilet. Most people have it opened all the way.
Q: When should a novice do-it-yourselfer call a professional?
A: Electrical work. Sometimes you can do some of the work, but when it comes to attaching wires to wires and putting in boxes, go ahead and hire a professional. The last thing you need to do is light up yourself and your house.
Gas lines I would save for the superprofessionals. The trick is to know what you can do and what you can't do.
Q: What should people do before starting a home renovation project?
A: Expect the worst and inspect it first. Sometimes it's worth paying a professional to come out and look at your house to tell you what you need to take on before you start your project.
Evaluate before you renovate. It's great to be an eager beaver; just make sure you can finish the job.
Q: What is one of the most common problems do-it-yourselfers face when making renovations or repairs?
A: When doing trim work or crown molding, a notorious mistake is to cut a piece too short. My advice is to leave it long and you can't go wrong. Go a blade longer; you can always go back and cut that off.
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