Chris Lambton from HGTV’s ‘Going Yard’ talks about HGTV’s “Going Yard,” what he’s doing to honor his mom, what works working with his brothers, and how he got noticed by the ‘Bachelorette.’
Theresa: And you are inside MyFixitUpLife with my husband Mark.
Mark: And my wife Theresa. And we are going yard.
Theresa: We are going yard. We’re going post bachelor style too. Do you like that?
Mark: That’s right.
Theresa: Little bit of degree in there.
Mark: Everybody in our yard is single.
Theresa: No post bachelor, like college. Education, you know? Post bachelor style.
Mark: Post baccalaureate.
Theresa: Do you get it?
Mark: I get it now. Yeah totally missed that. No idea what’s happening now. And I’m glad we’re joined by our guest from HGTV’s ‘Going Yard,’ Chris Lambton. Chris are you still there, or have you run screaming?
Chris: I have not run away yet, I am still here. How are you guys doing today?
Theresa: We’re doing fantastic and you know my husband is very excited to talk to you because he read up on you and learned that you guys have a similar background. And that always makes Mark kind of really excited and delighted to find someone who’s similar to him in the world. And he kind of wishes he had been part of the whole Bachelor thing too.
Mark: Yeah they didn’t have The Bachelor when uh…
Theresa: When you were a bachelor.
Mark: Yeah, but Chris give us just a little like five seconds on who you are and what you do as a landscaper on Cape Cod.
Chris: Okay, Chris Lambton. I was born and raised on Cape Cod. My dad started a landscaping company in the early 90’s and now my brother and I have taken it over and hopefully taking it to the next level.
Theresa: That’s very cool. I like that a lot.
Mark: Nice, nice. Now is it a full service company like you’re doing everything from lawn maintenance to construction and instillations and design and all of that stuff?
Chris: Oh yeah. We do everything from top to bottom. We’ll tear everything out of the backyard. Put in a brand new yard from walk ways to patios to grass to plants — we do just about everything.
Theresa: So not only can people watch you on HGTV’s ‘Going Yard’ with your beautiful wife, but they can also, if they live in the Cape Cod area, they can call you up and say ‘Hey can you help me out with my yard’?
Chris: Exactly. I mean watch me on Saturday on ‘Going Yard’ or you might see my mowing a lawn on a random day. You can come watch my mow a lawn.
Theresa: What is your company’s website in Cape Cod?
Chris: It is elamptonlandscaping.com.
Theresa: Okay and we will put up a link on our website too so everybody can go check it out.
Mark: That’s for sure. So be prepared for your servers to shut down immediately.
Theresa: Now does that happen? Do people set up lawn chairs and watch you? They’re like ‘I recognize you from TV.’ And then they just sort of hang out and gawk at you.
Chris: Well people recognize my house from being on The Bachelorette so in the mornings sometimes — like last Summer I was walking out to get the newspaper like 7 o’clock in the morning, still half asleep, bend down the pick up the newspaper and look up and there’s a car full of people taking pictures. ‘That’s Chris!’ I’m like ‘Oh my god, really?’
Theresa: That is so ridiculous. And now that you’re married to Peyton does it happen in double? Do people just totally go nuts when they see you guys together?
Chris: They do. And I feel bad for Peyton, because a lot of times they’re like ‘Peyton, can you take a picture of us with your husband?’ And they’ll hand Peyton the camera. And Peyton is just like ‘Ugh again.’
Mark: Oh man.
Theresa: So, give me the dirt on your yard. Is your yard totally spectacular or is it kind of like us and our house where it needs a lot of work?
Mark: Sort of the cobbler’s kid syndrome.
Chris: My yard was always okay. I mean it was never a landscaper’s yard. If you saw it you’d be like ‘Oh it’s nice.’ But luckily enough, we actually taped a special in my yard last month. Peyton and I wanted to have a wedding reception back on the Cape in our yard because both my brothers got married there and since we got married in South Carolina, we wanted to have something in the yard to kind of keep the tradition alive. So we were lucky enough to film an episode of ‘Going Yard’ in my own yard, and now my yard is incredible.
Theresa: Wow. You are lucky. That you could make over your own yard and do it for not only for your wedding, but for a TV show too. That’s like bam, bam, bam.
Chris: Oh believe me, every time I walk into my yard I’m like ‘I cannot believe this is mine.’ It’s incredible and I love every square inch of it.
Theresa: Now who designed it? Was it your wife Peyton, or was it you, or somebody else completely?
Chris: It was a thing where Peyton and I sat down and kind of discussed what we wanted in the yard. We were like we have a huge family, we love to have Sunday dinners, we definitely would like some sort of huge custom made dining room table. And we have a huge custom-made dining room table now. So we kind of like brainstormed ideas, and she gave me a lot of input because obviously we’re a couple now I need to listen to her input, and nine times out of ten her input is a lot better than my input.
Theresa: Oh, you’re like a dream husband I have to say. Nine times out of ten.
Mark: Thanks Chris. Thanks.
Chris: I mean she’s really smart and we sat down and brainstormed together and came up with some great ideas for our yard and I helped design it and then we had a designer who was working on the show as well and we kind of went back and forth with different ideas and came out with a yard that was perfect not only for camera but also for us, more importantly.
Theresa: Now is that how you work with your clients too? Do you just go in and sit down with them and ask them how they want to use their yard and what their goals are and the whole thing?
Chris: Yeah that first question always is what do you want this space used for? Do you want it for entertaining, do you want it just to look at, do you want it for kids, do you want it for adults? And that kind of dictates the next question — alright if you want it for family what do you envision yourself doing out here? Do you want to have cookouts, do you want like a game area? So that’s how I kind of weave the questions to find out the perfect yard for each client.
Mark: Now that raises another question, which is… you get thrown all kinds of situations, all kinds of different people. Is there anything that you’ve been asked to design or build, whether its on ‘Going Yard’ on HGTV or not, that’s made you step back and take pause and say ‘Are you kidding? This is crazy.’
Chris: Ha ha there has been a few projects where when I’m halfway through it I’m like ‘What did I get myself into?’ It’s either way over the top, or I’m not going to get done in time, or I’m never going to get done under budget. Even my yard was like that. We put in a huge pergola, arbor, patio, and table and when I was half way through this project I was like we’re never going to get done in time. I was like maybe I bit off too much. But luckily I have an incredible crew, and my brothers who work with me are incredible workers and we got it done in time thankfully.
Theresa: Now how do your brothers kind of deal with the fact that you’re on TV? Do they give you a super hard time when you’re working with them on projects for your company?
Chris: Oh god yeah. My friends and family and brothers, they give me a hard, hard time about it and really just make sure they keep me in check, which is great I love it. That way I don’t walk around like I’m like a star or anything. I just walk around like I have been for 35 years now. They make sure that they don’t let me get a big head or anything; they’re great about knocking me right back down.
Mark: Now are you older, middle, younger? Where do you fall in the order?
Chris: I’m the oldest, but I act the youngest.
Mark: There you go. Well can you still take them? Do they still retain that from you terrorizing them when you were a child?
Chris: Ha ha actually my brothers and I have always had a pretty good relationship. I’m lucky enough that my brothers are like my best friends. We work together; we hang out all the time. They are just cool people — I love them and I love that I get to work with them not only on the show but also in real life. And their wives and my wife are best friends as well and we’re actually very lucky, it’s like a ‘Leave it to Beaver’ kind of thing going on.
Theresa: Oh that’s kind of sweet. Okay so I have to go back to ‘The Bachelorette.’ Now how did you get to be a part of that show?
Chris: I got to be part of ‘The Bachelorette’ because we were actually working at a house in the next town over, and they lady’s house that we were working on was an avid ‘Bachelorette’ fan and at this point I was single and she listened to my whole life story and could not believe that I was single, took a picture of me and sent it in, and because of her I got on the show.
Theresa: Now did you do extra special projects for her because of that?
Chris: Ha ha well maybe she wishes, but no I didn’t do anything special.
Theresa: Like she was asking for a regular deck or a patio or something and you just went all out and went crazy.
Mark: Let’s deck this with platinum.
Chris: Ha ha yeah I’m going to do all gold plated fixtures in her back yard now.
Theresa: She’s living large.
Chris: No I mean it was one of those things where I never watched the show before I was on it and I thought she was just crazy. She was like ‘Oh yeah I want to send you into this show.’ And I was like ‘Alright whatever lady go right ahead as long as you pay me when I’m done with this job I don’t care.’
Mark: That’s great and you were working without your shirt on and you said ‘I’m going to put my shirt back on because her shades are drawn.’
Chris: It was a really hot week and I definitely did have my shirt off I’m not gonna lie.
Theresa: That’s fantastic.
Mark: Oh you’ve got to. That’s how you keep the tan.
Theresa: So for everybody else that does landscaping work, take your shirts off because maybe your customers might make you famous some day.
Mark: Yeah that will probably happen.
Theresa: Unless you’re a lady person, don’t take your shirt off.
Mark: So Chris clearly ascribes to the rule that I follow in my life — sun’s out, guns out.
Theresa: I know.
Chris: Oh believe me today is a perfect day for sun’s out, guns out are you kidding me?
Mark: You’re killin’ me.
Theresa: So you and your wife are going to be doing a race, what is it in August this summer there in Cape Cod? Tell me a little bit about that. Because I know you have a track and field background and I want to know how fast you are. What kind of time do you think you’re going to put up?
Chris: Well this is a seven-mile race. The Falmouth Road Race, I’m running it for ALS. My mom passed away from and ALS disease so this is my third year in a row running it kind of in her honor to raise money in her name. So it’s not really about time. The Falmouth Road Race is just kind of a fun race and the first two miles it’s really hard to get a good time because it’s a really thin road. So I think last year my first mile was 11 minutes just because there are 15 thousand people that run it so you can’t really weave your way through everybody. I got under an hour, which was good, but I’m hoping for close to 50 minutes this year. That’s my goal I think.
Theresa: Can people sign up to participate in this race still?
Chris: Um The Falmouth Road Race is I think the second hardest race to get into in the United States I think, behind the Boston Marathon.
Mark: Yeah it’s a premiere race. It’s the most famous non-marathon race in the country.
Theresa: Really? How were you able to do this race then?
Chris: Well Compassionate Care ALS, which is this company that helped out my mom a great deal, they have like I think 15 numbers or 20 numbers every year. Because if you’re raising money for charity, the race gives you a certain number of numbers, so I get one of those numbers, and Peyton is actually getting one of those numbers. And we help raise money for their company, for their organization and we run with their name on our shirt and try to raise money for them.
Mark: Is there someplace someone can go to donate or help out when they hear this show?
Chris: Yeah actually on my Facebookaccount I have posted a link to The Falmouth Road Race where you can donate in our name and for this charity that I’m running for. And it’s a great cause; ALS is a terrible disease it took my mom away way too young. And I try to do everything I can to keep her spirit alive, keep her name alive and help out other people who have ALS like she did.
Theresa: Well that is just fantastic, and I’m really sorry about your mom and for everybody listening you definitely want to go to Chris Lambton’s Facebook page, and follow him on Twitter because you’ll be tweeting out information, too, I’m sure about the race and how you can get involved and help you raise some money in her honor. So we have to go to break.
Mark: We have to run, we have to run to a break. Unfortunately it’s not on the coast of Falmouth, Massachusetts — Chris Lambton thanks for joining us. We’ll be back with more MyFixitUpLife.
Check out the MyFixitUpLife talk show that features this interview with Chris Lambton.
