Pennington Ty - Life to the extreme: how a chaotic kid became Americas favorite carpenter

ZONDERVAN

Life to the Extreme

Copyright 2019 by Ty Pennington

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ISBN 978-0-310-35737-7 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-0-310-35823-7 (special edition)

ISBN 978-0-310-35739-1 (audio)

ISBN 978-0-310-35738-4 (ebook)

Epub Edition April 2019 9780310357384

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Cover design: Curt Diepenhorst

Cover photography: Nete Netvig

Cover illustration: Branislav / iStockphoto

Interior design: Denise Froehlich

Printed in the United States of America

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To the amazing humans who believed in me

through so many chapters of my life...

even when I didnt

And you may tell yourself, This is not my beautiful house.

TALKING HEADS

Lights will guide you home

And ignite your bones

And I will try to fix you.

COLDPLAY

It is easier to walk through a door than to run into a wall.

TY PENNINGTON

Contents

IM TY PENNINGTON, AND THE WRITING BEGINS RIGHT NOW.

If youve bought this book, then chances are Ive been in your home. It sounds kind of creepy, but whether its my voice or my face, Ive probably been in your family room at some point. Maybe in the afternoon with Trading Spaces or on a Sunday evening with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. And whats awkward about that is that for some reason, you may feel very comfortable with this. Why? Ill never know. But I do know exactly where you store your unmentionables.

I constantly get people coming up to me saying, I grew up watching you. You did? When did we meet? Was it in detention? You might have never heard of me if it wasnt for my art instructor at Kennesaw Community College pulling me aside one day after class. Thank God it wasnt to tell me, Im giving you an incomplete.

You realize youre talented, right? he said.

Up until that point, the only one who had ever commented on my art and design projects was my mom. Sure, some of my work was good enough to get pinned on the fridge, but mostly people had always just said the same thing about me: Well, youre different. Thats for sure. I heard that a lot, mainly in the hallways while I was in trouble and on my way to the principals office. I had no idea I could turn any of that into a job. Especially a job that would allow me into American homes every Sunday night.

Another comment Ive often heard is someone asking me, You know how lucky you are? I nod my head and agree, and everybody else in my life would concur. Especially my brother, Wynn. We both know that when it comes to luck, some people can fall off a building and land in garbage, others in gold. Im one of those guys. The pendulum has swung both ways for me, however, and like anybodys life, things happen around the corner that I never expect. Were all dealt crazy hands that can surprise us in life.

One thing youll see in my life story up to this point is that you cant trust success. One of the lessons Ive learned (sometimes the hard way) is that what goes up can also come down. Everything in life is like a roller coaster. So whenever you start feeling like Oh yeah, theres no way I can fail, you better watch out. The season 8 premiere for Extreme is a good example of that.

We started the new season in the fall of 2008 by building a facility for Baltimores Boys Hope Girls Hope, an organization providing at-risk students from rough neighborhoods with a place to stay while going to school. The contractor we used planned on constructing an 11,000-square-foot, modular-built house, the biggest single-family home the show had ever done. It would be built in a different way than usualthe walls would come already assembled, and once they were connected, all they needed was to have the roof delivered. I remember thinking, Thats an interesting way of doing things, but wed already had so much success and had built so many houses up to that moment that we felt totally confident.

Who could have imagined that the crane carrying the roof would get a flat tire on the interstate on the way to delivering it? So instead of arriving at 7:00 a.m. like planned, the roof got there later that afternoon. And who could have imagined that a hot summer thunderstorm would come through and fill the drywallwhich was already mountedwith three feet of water? We went from thinking we were going to finish a day ahead of schedule to me hanging on to a tarp on the roof while a tornado roared through.

Talk about highs and lows. Life is a lot like building a house in seven days: so many things happen that you can never predict. You find yourself in situations youve never been in, like having to dry out a home thats been flooded before you can resume construction. Suddenly things get put on hold and everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Yet through hard work, creativity, and the help of people working together, you surprise yourself by pulling off the impossible.

Honestly, Im still surprised I was lucky enough to be a part of a show like Extreme, yet Im not at all surprised by the popularity it had with the public. I think what connects us with the stories on Extreme is the same thing that connects us with other people in everyday lifehow we can all identify with going through a challenge. Sometimes its struggling with a disorder. Sometimes its living with financial chaos. And sometimes its dealing with trying to figure out how to live life after losing a loved one.

Not only could I identify with the people on Extreme because of the struggles they were going through, but what resonated with me was knowing we couldnt cure their problems, yet for a moment we could add something to their life to make it feel better. Thats what designing a room or designing and building a house can do. Its not a cure for your problems, but it can make life easier and provide a bit of hope in tough circumstances.

In many weird ways, thats why Im writing this bookin the hope that somehow in the end, I can paint a funny and familiar story about a troubled kid who overcame a lot of obstacles and eventually found his place in life. Hopefully whatever struggle you may be going through will be made easier knowing that someone who got fired from almost every job he ever had would be the guy leading the charge of do-gooders who would revolutionize television and the way houses are built in seven days. I never expected to be leading this band of do-gooders and to be able to walk away from a job saying that lives were better because of our work.

Lucky? Yes, Ive been extremely lucky to have doors open and experiences in my life leading me down paths I never saw coming. Because of those experiences, Im a much better and different man than I was before they happened to me.