TV Carpenters, Anthony Carrino and the real deal

You know who the toughest critics of ‘TV carpenters’ like Anthony Carrino and others are?

Carpenters.

A carpenter’s life, for anybody who cares about what we really do, is an intense mash-up: Part heart, part business. Part design, part danger that’d rattle the enamel off most people’s teeth.

When you’re on the high end of the ladder, running a mile of trim or contorting yourself like a yogi to install a dryer there’s an intensity we feel. And a pride in being able to do all those things well—and often in the same hour.

A lot of people don’t get it. Or care, to be honest. But we care. And that’s my point.

When ‘TV carpenters’ aren’t actually, you know, carpenters it pisses a lot of people off.

Many feel lied to. Or cheated. Or secretly jealous. Whatever, it’s unnerving when an ‘expert’ on TV is being fed his or her lines by one of us. What’s more, when a carpenter comes to your house—whether through the front door or through the TV—there’s a baseline assumption that person should know what they’re doing. Am I wrong about this?

So what’s this have to do with Anthony Carrino?

This story:

After shooting our MyFixitUpLife podcast at Formica Corporation‘s Kitchen & Bath Industry Show booth, I got a booth tour. Upon seeing their scintillating Jonathan Adler-designed luscious green cabinet doors, I entered geek-mode. It’s a wow-design.

As I stood there Rushmore-ing the color, I heard someone behind me say to the Formica person—at level 11 geek mode—I love it. What are the lead times?

It’s Anthony Carrino, ‘TV carpenter’.

No entourage. No camera. All business. All builder.

Only people who know what it’s like at the high end of the ladder, or twisted around a dryer talk that way.

You know, real carpenters.