Million Dollar Contractor Stephen Fanuka talks family, celebrity clients, and about the million dollar idea.
Mark: We are joined by the best, and I’m going to say this, best green room in-waiting guest ever on MyFixitUpLife.
Million Dollar Contractor Stephen Fanuka has been moving around in the background, just doing all kinds of stuff, talking to all kinds of people. Your personality got here about an hour before you did.
Stephen: You know what, you’ve already read me very well, Mark. Pretty well. Listen, I want to give you guys a big hello, because you guys have really come a long way. I enjoy your show and the fact that you incorporate the kids into this MyFixitUpLife. It’s awesome. It’s special.
Theresa: Thank you. I think it’s hard to avoid incorporating them because it is a Fix It Up Life.
Stephen: It is.
Theresa: They’re a part of it. Our daughter Lexi, for years, she would come home and we’d be renovating her bedroom, moving her around bedroom to bedroom, bedroom and she’s like, “Why is my room Home Depot?”
Mark: Yes. “Why are there buckets of joint compound?”
Stephen: How old is Lexi?
Theresa: Eleven.
Stephen: Eleven?
Theresa: Yes.
Stephen: I have a seven year old and a 13-year-old, so I know exactly where you’re going with it.
Theresa: Do you have them … Are they handy, are they using tools? Do you have them out on job sites yet?
Stephen: Not yet. I don’t think they’re as good as your kids are. Your kids are pretty good, from what I’m hearing. They’re building sheds right now in the back yard, I’m being told.
Mark: As a matter of fact, there’s actually no childcare at home.
Theresa: Not at all.
Mark: You have to blend a bunch of raviolis just out, hands open, and the compressor’s on. They’re nailing two by fours.
Stephen: What’s the wage here?
Theresa: Room and board.
Mark: Room and board, and if the lawn isn’t mowed, it’s just board.
Theresa: Then occasionally an “atta girl, atta boy”.
Mark: Yes, that’s right.
Stephen: What’s great, though, is you guys bring up a really big topic, is that DIY-ing can be done with the family. There’s a lot of things you can’t do, but there are a lot of things that you can do with the kids. One thing I love to do with the kids is grouting. It’s just an example. You can grout, make a mess of the bathroom and wipe it off. DIY-ing can be almost like a hobby, a pass-time with the family if you choose the right project. For example, grouting would be the perfect project.
Mark: Right.
Theresa: I have to say that we’ve encountered a couple of people here just yesterday that were talking about how they had their around seven, eight-year-old involved in demo and how much they loved demo. I was seeing pictures of them …
Mark: Safety first.
Theresa: … where they’re all geared up.
Stephen: Safety first. That’s an important thing. You can do anything with the kids. There are certain things depending on age I may refrain from, like using a miter box or cutting something with an electric saw, but there are plenty of things … even playing around with a hammer, showing them how to use a hammer.
Kayleen was just here, and by the way, she’s a tough act to follow. I don’t know where she is. Around here somewhere, but did you see the lunchbox?
Theresa: Yes.
Mark: Oh, yes.
Stephen: It’s a lunchbox. She thinks it’s a bag … it’s a lunchbox.
Theresa: No, it really is a purse. I thought it was a purse until Mark was asking her of a sandwich in it.
Mark: It’s one of those like city lunch.
Stephen: Theresa thought it was a purse because she’s a lady. Now, Mark, be honest with me. You saw it and you said, “What do you got in there? What’s for lunch?”
Mark: Yes, exactly.
Stephen: She looked at me and said, “It’s my purse.” I was like, “That’s the coolest purse I’ve ever seen.” It’s got a skull on it. It’s got a skull on it, and I see she’s given you a gift as well.
Theresa: She did, she gave me this beautiful washer necklace that her friend made her.
Stephen: She didn’t warn me. I would have brought you something. I would have brought you something at least. Mark, let’s do a dance for her.
Theresa: I kind of like that. He owes me something.
Mark: I don’t know, I’m not feeling it.
Stephen: You’re not feeling it. It’s too early. You know what it is, there’s so many construction people around, you and I cannot do the happy dance around here. We may get taken out.
Mark: That’s right.
Stephen: You’re the only people with a nice couch. This is very comfy.
Theresa: You probably would. Yes, we are very lucky.
Mark: Exactly. We’re not leaving here, by the way.
Theresa: Tell us about your background, because this is the first time that we’re meeting you, and you’re the Million Dollar Contractor on DIY Network. That’s when we first got to know you, is on that show. Where were you before that?
Stephen: I was a cabinet maker. My father is still a cabinet maker. He apprenticed me when I was about 12 years old, and I was apprenticed from 12 to 17, and by the time I was 17, I was a master craftsman. I could build you, Mark, right out of wood.
Mark: That’s awesome.
Stephen: Without a ruler. Just give me a chisel and a hammer.
Theresa: That is so creepy.
Stephen: Yes, isn’t that a little creepy? It’s freaky and creepy.
Theresa: Yes. Please don’t do that.
Stephen: All the chiseling and the little cuts, he’s got like …
Mark: When you say apprenticeship, though, you’re not talking about the U.S. kind of, “here’s a hammer, get busy,” when you say apprenticeship, you mean real apprenticeship.
Stephen: My father sat me down, gave me … For the first six months, I was hammering nails. He was giving me used nails and I would hammer them straight. For six months, I’m sitting like, “I am so bored, I don’t want to do this.” I had no choice.
Theresa: How old were you?
Stephen: I was 12.
Theresa: Okay.
Stephen: I wasn’t given an option, I had no summers off. Almost sounds like I needed psychiatric help at the end, but at the end it really worked out well. I did it for six months. Finally, all the nails I straightened out. He started to give me and I started to just hammer nail into wood to wood, and what happened was, I would bend the nail, and I would be so upset because I took so much time to straighten out that nail. It was almost like The Karate Kid.
My father came up to me and goes, “You appreciate that nail? That nail is less than a penny, but you don’t want to throw it away, do you?” That was the first lesson he ever taught me.
Theresa: Wow.
Stephen: The first lesson, and then from there, I became a cabinet maker, and then when I was around 20 years old, a lady by the name of Imelda Marcos had asked if I wanted to get my contracting license. She had a job and she wanted me to do it; she wanted someone green, someone who really was ambitious and didn’t know much, so she could, I guess, push around.
I got my license and then from there I ended up working for all the people that I was doing cabinets for. All the interior designers … the big ones, the big names … all started to say, “Wow, he’s a contractor.” Then I started going from just doing cabinets to contracting, and then I did a little bit of a few other shows, and finally got my own show, Million Dollar Contractor.
Which is an interesting show, because Million Dollar Contractor, it’s not about the million dollars. I work with the biggest decorators, the biggest architects in the world, and we’re always doing something that’s going to trend. We’re working outside the box, as opposed to what’s inside the box, almost like the cookie cutter method. I’m giving you these new ideas that you can now put in your home; what’s trending, what’s out there. It’s not the million dollars, but the million dollar ideas. You may not be able to have me as a contractor, but for 30 minutes you’ve got me. I’m all yours.
Theresa: I love that. I love knowing about things, the beginning of the curve of the trend. I always talk to Mark about how things happen and the beginning of the curve, and by the time you adopt it and you’re at the top of the curve, it’s going away.
Stephen: Yes. Someone asked me once do I think I’m the best. First, there is no such thing as “the best,” but my answer was, no. They later looked at me very funny, and I was like, “There’s a 10-year-old right now drinking Ovaltine who will take me over one day,” and that’s how it goes. You get to the top, you try to stay to the top, you work hard, you’re always trying to think of new ideas. Once people get bored, it’s over, so you always have to think of the next best thing.
In contracting, you’re always thinking of the new design, the new idea, but what’s important as a contractor, it’s integrity. It’s honesty. I want to make this business right. It’s a great industry, great people around you, but there are a lot of people out there who get their license and then … You’ve heard these stories about these contractors that come around. They’re not the people here, they’re the people who don’t show up to the shows, that don’t care. If you do a good job …
A woman told me once. She’s a little old lady. She’s like, “Stephen!” and I’m like, “What?” “I want to tell you something.” I’m like, “Uh oh.” She’s like, “You sold me a Mercedes.” I’m like, “Yeah?” and she’s like, “And you gave me one.” That’s how it works. When you give the person what they paid for, and you do it on time, and you show some integrity, you are going to be the best, even if it’s just on your block.
Mark: That raises a good point, because that happens to every home owner and every re-modeler, whether it’s just a simple bathroom or it’s a multi-million dollar job in Manhattan. Things go wrong, there are mistakes that happen … whatever. You can’t get the tile from Italy …
Stephen: All the time.
Mark: Or it snowed and you can’t get to work.
Stephen: It’s a hurdle. It’s all it is.
Mark: When you run into a conflict like that, something out of your control, whatever it is, how do you approach it? What’s your advice for people who are going through it right now out there in the world?
Stephen: You don’t give up, first off, so easily. The minute you give up, everyone around you gets disappointed, so you try as hard as you can. You try to find alternate ideas. If you can’t get that certain stone, you try to find something that’s going to complement the next design, that’s going to work with what you already want, with the same premise.
You just don’t say, “I can’t do it,” without showing proof. You have to prove that you can’t do it, and I’ll tell you something. Nine out of 10 times, if you put your mind to it, you’ll figure it out. If you can’t figure it out, then good luck with the rest of your life. That’s just your job.
Mark: Yes.
Theresa: That is so true. Especially when you put it in the perspective of raising kids and having a family, that … you can’t ever say that you can’t figure it out there. You always have to figure it out.
Stephen: You know what, and you have to love what you do. I always tell people, “If you love your job, you’ll never have to work again.” It’s important, especially as a contractor or as a builder. You have to really enjoy it. You have to want to wake up and say … It’s got to be Christmas every morning. I wake up every morning and I go, “I just can’t wait!” That’s huge, because if you love it, it goes so fast. You’re happy. People aren’t happy with their job. How do they do a good job if you really don’t like what you’re doing? Choose something else.
Mark: Even though contracting picked you in terms of your dad being in it, and you being an indentured servant most of your …
Stephen: Pretty much. Karate Kid wipe on, wipe off. Nail down, take out.
Mark: Exactly, but there was a time when you were 20 you could have said no to Imelda Marcos. You could have said, “Whatever, I’m done,” so in some part of your life, did contracting actually pick you?
Stephen: What happened was, when I graduated college, I left and I went into advertising. I worked at a company called Young and Rubicam for a while. There’s only two times I saw my dad cry. One was when his father passed away when they were closing the casket, and the second time was when I left to go work there. I just get all emotional even thinking about it, but I left and he started to cry, and I went, I did my thing for about a year and a half, and one day I just woke up and I said, “I miss it. I miss the whole thing.”
I was lucky. My dad worked his whole life, and I never got to see him as a kid, but then as a young adult, I worked all the time with him, so I got to spend all this time with my father. Quality time. I started to miss everything, so I stopped advertising and went back, and that’s when I got my contracting job.
Theresa: I have to say that if you’d never done that, you probably always have a little nagging thing in your …
Stephen: What could have been, what would have been.
Theresa: Exactly, so that is such a good lesson.
Mark: What would have been, Stephen Fanuka, Million Dollar Contractor. We had a blast talking with you. You are the real deal.
Theresa: We did, thanks for stopping by!
Stephen: Hey, get back to work.
Mark: We’ll come back with more from the Builders’ Show in the Therma-Tru and Fypon booth, MyFixitUpLife.
