Mike Holmes - Make It Right: Inside Home Renovation with Canadas Most Trusted Contractor

Family photos of me and my dad.

It was something my father always said to me. And it was something he believed insomething that he lived. He was a true jack-of-all-trades. He had trained as a plumber, then worked at General Motors for his whole adult life, eventually becoming a second-class engineer. But from the time I was about three years old, all my memories of him working take place at our familys house in Torontos East End. I was always beside him, watching, infatuated with his ability to change thingsto take down walls or redo our houses plumbing. He realized I wasnt going away, so he started to teach me. Dad, let me do it, let me try it, I used to say. Eventually he let me, overseeing everything I did. By the time I was six, I had rewired the whole house under his supervision. I chose where to run the wires, put them through the receptacle boxes and switches, and wired the whole thing together. For me, it was a totally exciting thing to do. When I wasnt working on the house, I was taking apart my toys. Why are you taking them apart? my dad would ask. I want to know how theyre put together, Id tell him. Later I was building go-karts, and I put together a trailer that was so big it had to be pulled by two bicycles. When I was eight or nine, I built a three-bedroom tree house and freaked my dad out because Id used every single nail and piece of lumber that he had hanging around the house.

My dad and I worked on our house constantly, and I picked up how to do things the proper way. One time I was helping him gut a room. Being young and foolish, I was just ripping things down, letting the floor get covered with debris. He said I should stop and clean it up, but I said I was almost done and I would clean it up later. Then I grabbed a chair instead of a ladderand put it on a pile of debris. I didnt realize that the debris was covering up a hole where we had taken out a hot air register. When I stood up on the chair to pull the rest of the ceiling down, one chair leg went into the hole. I lost my balance, landed on the chair, broke it, and cut myself big time.

The first thing my dad said to me was, Are you okay? The second was, Does that teach you anything?

In addition to working on our house, my dad was always being asked to work on other peoples homes, to come in and help themsomething he found very hard to refuse. After a few years he started telling them, Hire my son. When I was twelve years old, I did my first basement renovation. It was my uncles house, and my dad knew I could do it. I did the whole thingthe panelling, the stairs, the dropped ceiling, everything.

I kept working and learning. By the time I was nineteen, I was being offered a lot of money to run a renovation company with fourteen employees. We built two custom homes and completed major renovations, including many kitchens and bathrooms. I talked to a lot of pros, and I learned from them. With every home I went into, I learned more. And the more I learned, the more I wanted to let homeowners know what was going on, too. Id always grab the homeowner and say, Hey, see what I found here? This is the problem, this is why its happening, and this is how it should have been done. I guess that was the beginning of my career as a real pro contractor, a contractor who wanted to let homeowners know, each and every time I priced a job, why we do what we do and why its important to use the right products. I didnt really think it would have anything to do with my future as a contractor, especially on TV, but I began to see that my impulse was to teach others what I knew.

Two and half years later, I realized it was time to go into business on my own. One job followed another, including an 18,000-square-foot showroom for La-Z-Boyprobably the biggest project I had ever done. Every once in a while Id bring my dad in to take a look at the projects I was doing, just because I respected and loved him so much. When I was about twenty-four, I designed and completed a $52,000 bathroom, and I brought my father in to see the job. Ill never forget what he said. He actually swore and was upset. I was a little stunned by his reaction and asked him what was the matter. He said, I cant believe what youve done. Youve created a bathroom far beyond anything I could ever see or do. I said, What are you talking about? You can do this, Dadyou can do it in your sleep. He replied, Mike, youve taken everything Ive taught you and taken it to the next level. You know codes Ive never even heard of. That was the day I knew my father was proud of me, and its a day Ill never forget.

The most important lesson I learned from my father wasnt about wiring or plumbing or carpentry. It was about doing things right. He cared about what he did, and so for him, doing something right wasnt just a business practice, it was about who you were as a person, and how you treated others. My dad is gone now, but that lesson has stayed with me. Ive tried to carry it into everything I have done, from renovating houses to writing this book. I have always tried to get it right the first time.

Dad, this is for you.

Toronto, 2006