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Ty Pennington of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” will be a celebrity guest presenter at the National Home Show on February 19th.  Below is a recent article from the Toronto Star.

February 12, 2010 (Toronto Star Article – Ryan Starr)

Ty Pennington reckons he could beat Mike Holmes in an arm wrestle.

Pennington might be a tad smaller than the formidable host of Holmes on Homes – whose big guns are recognizable to avid HGTV viewers – but the peppy front-man of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition insists muscles aren’t everything.

“What a lot of people don’t understand about the strength of an arm is that it’s not in the muscle, it’s in the tendons,” Pennington jokes over the phone from California. “I’m scrawny, but I’ve got a lot of strength in my tendons. So yeah, I could possibly win.”

Pennington will be in Toronto next week. Unfortunately, he won’t be here to go arm to arm with Canada’s beefy home improvement icon.

Instead he’ll be a celebrity guest presenter at the National Home Show, Feb. 19-28 at the Direct Energy Centre at Exhibition Place.

The event will feature more than 700 home and garden specialists offering handy advice and solutions for whatever projects homeowners might be planning for this year.

Pennington, who is slated to appear Friday, Feb. 19 (at 2 p.m. and at 6 p.m.), will cover a variety of topics during his presentation, helping attendees to map out their very own home makeovers.

Among other things, he’ll talk about how to personalize a room by using your own story as a source of inspiration.

“It’s becoming the kind of world where you walk into a home and it looks like the same furniture that the person two doors down bought from the same place,” Pennington says.

“It’s really important to personalize your home, whether it’s colours or textures that define your personality, or artwork that’s made out of pieces of instruments, which says that you play music, for example.

“So when you walk in, you can immediately feel the people who live there.”

Pennington will also discuss photography and how it can help add unique touches to a space.

“The camera has really become my favourite tool,” he says. “It’s everything to me. I use it to shoot nature: trees, flowers; things that give me inspiration to design.

“It’s about human nature, too,” he adds. “You can capture a moment and a person’s expression and you can bring that into a home and it adds life.”

In keeping with the spirit of the times, Pennington will talk about how to incorporate green elements into a home’s design.

“I think all home-product manufacturers are starting to realize that sustainability is a huge thing,” he says. “Bamboo flooring, concrete countertops, recycled stones – there are so many things out there now you can put into your home that aren’t damaging to the planet.”

The home has become a far more important place during the economic downturn, Pennington notes.

“(The recession) has definitely changed the way people look at their homes. Instead of just trying to fix up kitchens and bathrooms to turn around and sell, now it’s more about how do we make this work for us as a family?

“It’s all about personalizing; going for the ultimate game room because you’re going to be entertaining more at home. Or converting rooms – formal dining rooms are turning into offices or into spare bedrooms because you’re bringing in extra family members.”

Can anybody tackle a do-it-yourself project?

“I think everyone has the ability to do cosmetic redesigns: colour, texture or things that go on the walls,” Pennington says.

“But when it comes to the major stuff like plumbing and electrical, it’s best to leave those jobs to the professionals. You might learn a lot in the process (if you DIY), but chances are you end up paying twice because you have to fix the damage you did.”

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, the popular ABC reality television series in which Pennington and his crew renovate homes for families in need, is currently in its seventh season.

Pennington admits playing host can be emotionally and physically draining, given the amount of travel involved in taping two shows in different locations at the same time.

“Being able to pull this thing off is pretty remarkable,” he says. “I think you have to be cut out for it, and you have to enjoy the gypsy life, because you’re on the road 300 days of the year.

“You sort of have to give up your home life to make sure that other people have a home life. I mean, I don’t even have a dog.”

The gratification outweighs the hardships in the end, though.

“The best part is knowing that the work you do has changed someone’s life; that it really does make a difference,” he says. “So it’s worth putting your life on hold for a bit.”

Pennington has been to Toronto once before, to tape the short-lived television series Wild Card.

“I was only there for a day and a half,” he says. “It’s so awesome – I’m excited about going back. It’s like going to Europe.”

This last comment draws a poorly contained snicker from his interviewer.

“You’re laughing,” Pennington says, “but there are some aspects of it that are very … well, it’s different from the States. It’s cool.”

For more show information, visit www.nationalhomeshow.com.