Handcrafted: A Woodworker’s Story

Everyone has a story. Once upon a time, ordinary people seldom had the opportunity to tell their stories. Nowadays, self-publishing has made telling stories much easier. Even better is a bit of fame.

Clint Harp is a regular on the HGTV show Fixer Upper, as he is shown building tables and other items, usually with just a few strokes of a pen by the talented Joanna Gaines. After a few years of appearances on Fixer Upper, Harp has become a well known artisan, and his business has grown along with his reputation.

I’m like most readers in that I enjoy a “rags to riches” story, and Harp’s autobiography is very much such a story. From his earliest recollection, his family had very little money, and his folks moved frequently. As a teenager, he found friendship and some stability in school and in church. With the help of student loans, Harp managed to graduate from Baylor in Waco, Texas, and that is where he met his wife, Kelly.

Without giving too many details, or spoilers if one can have those in an autobiography, Clint went through a number of jobs, including a stint as a missionary in Europe, before ending up back in Waco, volunteering for Habitat for Humanity and trying to follow his dream to become a furniture craftsman. The Harp family struggled with finances, and they maxed out credit cards as they had trouble buying groceries and keeping the power on in the workshop. Still, he persevered.

Apparently Waco is like a lot of smaller towns, where folks do a lot of networking. In the south, it isn’t just who you know, but who your friends know, also. And, his friends kept telling Harp that he needed to meet Chip Gaines. Eventually, Harp was able to connect with Chip Gaines and his wife and business partner, Joanna. Some of the early projects were a stretch for Harp’s woodworking skills, but he worked very hard and put in insane hours getting everything done right, and on time. The furniture and home design of Harp Design Company and Magnolia Homes symbiosis was just beginning when Fixer Upper began filming for in Waco, and Clint was featured in many of the shows. As the show became more and more popular, Harp Design Company grew more profitable.

Handcrafted is not a how-to book. There are only a few details about making furniture, but there is an inspiring narrative about how a struggling young couple kept on trying to make their dreams come true, while dealing with the problems that life throws at all of us. In sharing his story, Clint Harp is certainly engaging in a bit of self-promotion, but many readers will certainly enjoy the gems of wisdom in the book, and most anyone would find his determination inspirational.

 

SlingTV—Not Quite Ready for Prime Time

As a “cord-cutter” and a football fan, finding a way to stream college games has been getting better, but after watching the buffering symbol instead of watching the Bulldogs and the Crimson Tide in the National Championship game, I cancelled my subscription to SlingTV. Oh, if you want to watch “Vintage Flip” on demand (which is one of my favorite HGTV shows, by the way) then all is well. But let lots of fellow fans try to see the national college championship, and there are many, many technical issues.

We tried everything— change computers, different web browsers, modem reset. In the end, we switched between listening to WSB radio, which worked great except for the visuals, of course, and trying to at least see some of the instant replays. Even if the interface had worked, the evening would have been disappointing, as hubby’s beloved Bulldogs lost, but we didn’t see much until the end of the game. Perhaps a few fans dropped off, because the stream got better during the forth quarter and overtime.

I think SlingTV is a good alternative for folks who might want to see some mainstream news or some obscure shows, but for sports, which was the only real reason I signed up, it is lacking. In September, I’ll be looking for a new way to stream college football, and YouTube TV may be my next attempt to feed my need for live sports.

The Magnolia Story

A friend and I were talking about how much we love the HGTV show Fixer Upper, and she was saying she had just read the book about the hosts, Chip and Joanna Gaines. When I heard that, I’m like, “Hey, can I read it?” So, the next time I saw her, she had the book for me.

Now, I have to confess that I am not a stellar housekeeper, nor am I a good decorator. However, I am genuinely inspired by the show, and I did find the book fascinating. It is told from two first person perspectives, those of Joanna and Chip. A total difference in fonts makes this quite easy to follow. Joanna begins with a discussion how she was approached (in 2012) by a television production company, wondering if the offer to film the two of them working on homes was a scam. Chip was sure it was some sort of scam, but Joanna wasn’t convinced, so she talked with them a bit more. The rest, as the cliché goes, is history, of course. We know it was real, because Fixer Upper is in season four as I write this. So, Joanna goes all the way back to when she began dating Chip.

There’s a good bit of humor, as well as some insights into how difficult their lives often were, before the cash that comes with a hit television show enabled the duo to become the owners of the very valuable portfolio of companies that all bear the name of Joanna’s favorite flower, the magnolia. While the book is about the hosts, it does indeed concentrate on their businesses.

Rather than spoil it for potential readers, I will just say that the book is a more in-depth history of a somewhat familiar story. Chip had already begun buying up and fixing up small homes before they married. While he was a student a Baylor University, Chip realized that college students needed a place to live near campus. Their first home together was one of the rentals— the first available at the end of the semester. That home was the first one Joanna decorated, on the cheap as they were pretty much broke. Soon, they realized that together they could make some money flipping houses. Over time, their reputation was so good that locals began asking them to help with remodeling projects, large and small.

Because she enjoyed home decor so much, early on, Joanna found a small shop that they were finally able to purchase, and it was there that they first used the term “Magnolia” for a business. As the family grew, their businesses both expanded and contracted, but there is a common thread of hard work, good fortune, and a belief that things would work out for the best. Much has been made of the the pair’s faith in God. For me, this seemed to be secondary to their work ethic, but it is a constant aspect of the book, which is published by W Publishing, an imprint of Thomas Nelson, which publishes religious works.

For fans of the television show, this is a very good read. Yes, I’d like even more about how Jo learned design and how Chip learned to be an expert contractor, but the book is general in nature. There is a promise in the end that there will be a Joanna Gaines design book forthcoming, so I shall have to wait.

Overall, I really enjoyed The Magnolia Story.