COVER STORY
If anybody can lead the movement in using
CARTER
CAN
40
greener building materials
Good looks might have steered Carter Oosterhouse
toward a career in television, but it was
definitely his ability to wield a hammer that
landed him his first job as the carpenter replacing
Ty Pennington on TLC’s “Trading Spaces.”
Oosterhouse, who has two older brothers who are carpenters,
has worked construction since he was 13 in his
hometown of Traverse City, Mich. After attending Central
Michigan University, he headed to California to pursue an
acting career, using his carpentry skills as a backup.
Today, at 32, he’s one of the most popular home renovators
on television. His current shows are “Carter Can” and
“Red Hot and Green,” both on HGTV.
PHOTOS PROVIDED BY VMG
Oosterhouse lives in a contemporary-style home in
Hermosa Beach, Calif., with his girlfriend and also has a
Victorian farmhouse in Traverse City.
Oosterhouse, who will be the featured speaker at the A.E.
Backus Museum and Gallery’s Art of Living Green festival
in Fort Pierce on Jan. 17, shared some of his views during a
telephone interview in December with Indian River Publisher
Gregory Enns.
How did you get into home renovation?
I started working in construction when I was 13 or 14 years
old. And that was my job my majority of summers until I was
out of college. When I moved out to California that was an
extra job to fall back on. I had no idea it would put me in the
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As a youth, Carter Oosterhouse spent summers working construction in his hometown in Michigan. After college, he went to Los Angeles to pursue an
acting career but wound up as one of television’s best-known carpenters.
LIVING GREEN