Clint Harp from ‘Fixer Upper’ talks about his NC ties ahead of Raleigh Home Show

Before Clint Harp landed on HGTV’s smash-hit “Fixer Upper,” he struggled to get work as a carpenter in Waco, Texas. In his early 30s, he’d just moved to town with his wife, Kelly, and two young kids, and they were already running out of savings.

“I’m thinking, ‘I’ve made a mistake. This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done,’” recalled Harp, now 46.

That all changed in 2011 when he met Chip and Joanna Gaines, owners of nearby Magnolia Homes, a construction company.

Bonding over their shared passion for reclaimed wood — and white shiplap, of course — he quickly became the couple’s go-to artisan woodworker, crafting bespoke furniture for their clients.

A few months later, when they filmed the pilot for their new home renovation show, “Fixer Upper,” Harp appeared as a guest, paving the way for his TV stardom.

“The next thing you know, they get a TV show and I get to do something that just felt like a dream.”

He appeared for five seasons before leaving to launch his own show, “Restoration Road with Clint Harp.”

Created by Magnolia Network, a collaboration by the Gaines’ and Discovery Channel, the series follows Harp as he travels across the country in search of abandoned colonial homes calling to be restored.

This weekend, he’ll share some of his experiences from the road as part of the Raleigh Home Show at the Raleigh Convention Center.

Harp talked to The N&O beforehand. Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the conversation.

He spent his formative years living in Asheville.

Born in Atlanta, Harp lived in Asheville from age 3 to 11. “North Carolina is home to me in many ways,” though he’s never been to Raleigh, he admits.

At 30, he quit his six-figure medical sales job to pursue carpentry full-time.

“I was just miserable,” he said. So he turned to a life coach, meeting every other week for nearly two years.

“I kept going back to the desire to do something creative. My grandfather was a builder, and I got all those genes.”

Eventually, he realized he wanted to make furniture. “It felt silly for me to say for a long time. When I finally said it, a lot of things unlocked.”

He started out of his garage with a few tools.

Harp said his grandfather sent him $1,250 to buy his first set of “real” tools: a table saw, a drill saw, a chop saw, a planer and some hand tools.

He began teaching himself the tricks of the trade from watching YouTube videos.

“The next thing I know, I’ve spent about $300 on a lathe and taught myself how to turn legs, and just kind of went from there.”

The lathe would eventually become his “calling card,” he said.

He first crossed paths with Chip Gaines at a gas station.

When Harp first relocated his family from Houston to Texas, friends suggested that he reach out to Chip Gaines, who was already popular around town pre-”Fixer Upper” days.

But Chip Gaines never got back to him, Harp said.

“Then one day, we ended up at a gas station. A Magnolia Homes truck pulled up and parked right next to me. “I said, ‘Hey, my name is Clint. I’m looking for some guy named Chip.’”

“’That’s me’, he said. And it went from there. The rest is history.” Soon he was carving custom pieces for Joanna Gaines’ growing clientele.

His new show is inspired by his maternal grandfather, Verner Martin.

“He was a colonial-style builder,” Harp said. “He’d get deep into these old timber-framed houses and figure out how to build them. That’s literally what I’m doing today, but just with cameras rolling. So it’s pretty wild.”

Over four seasons, the show has featured a Missouri log cabin built in 1849 by German Saxon immigrants and a 1906 Vermont blacksmith shop. To date, no homes from North Carolina have made the cut.

Harp said he’s working on it.

“It’s been one of those near misses, a handful of times, but I want to do one. Maybe in the future.”

For him, almost nothing is a teardown.

Case in point: He’s currently restoring a 100-year-old home in Waco, Texas. “If you look at it from the sidewalk, you’d never touch it,” he said.

But once you take out the trash and remove the wood paneling, older homes often reveal good bones. “Underneath, beautiful rooms have just been hiding there,” he said.

At the very minimum, do a property search and check the walls.

“If they’re more than three inches wide and nails bend when you hammer into the walls, you’ve probably got a cool house on your hands,” he said.

It’s easier to gut the place (but reclaim what you can).

Harp’s favorite renovations are homes where there is nothing redeemable “except the bones.”

“That might sound crazy, but it ends up being a little easier,” he said. “I rip out every single line of electricity, plumbing, gas, HVAC and start from scratch. You get much better rates with electricians and plumbers.”

He also salvages whatever scrap of wood or trim he can. It’s become not only his life’s work, but his own personal philosophy.

“We all can be restored and find new life,” he said. “I’ve sometimes wondered, if those structures could talk, they’d say, ‘Wow, I never thought I’d be doing this today. I thought I was done.’ But they’re not.”

How to go to Downtown Raleigh Home Show

The Downtown Raleigh Home Show is at the Raleigh Convention Center from Feb. 16-18. Harp appears on the “Fresh Ideas” stage on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 3 p.m. and Sunday, Feb. 18 at noon.