Amy Wynn Pastor

Northeast Philly native Amy Wynn Pastor had performing in mind when she chose theater as her major at Penn State, but after one carpentry course she was in love. (Her father is not a craftsman, as many people assume -- he plays first trombone in the Philly Pops.) She ended up as a performer anyway, however, in a manner of speaking, when she landed a gig as a carpenter on Trading Spaces, a home-improvement/reality show produced by Philly-based Banyan Productions for The Learning Channel. Like the popular British series Changing Rooms after which it’s modeled, Trading Spaces has found a loyal audience; today, with shooting for a third season soon to get under way, it’s TLC’s most popular show. City Paper caught up with Pastor last week -- she still lives in the Philly area -- shortly before she left for L.A. to tape an episode of another TLC/Banyan show, A Makeover Story, with fellow Trading Spaces carpenter Ty Pennington.

City Paper: What was it like at first? Did you find it difficult to work with a camera in your face?

Amy Wynn Pastor: I actually was very comfortable with the camera, and I'm not exactly sure why. I did just a few commercials when I was really little -- my parents kind of put me into that thing -- but I was just a little girl when I did that stuff. But I think probably because whenever the camera was around I was talking to someone else from the show and we were talking about designs and construction, and I was able to ignore [the cameras] pretty well, you know, and just say Hey, I'm talking to this person,' and that's where it ends. So that didn't really bother me so much.

CP: At what point did you realize you were involved in something that was becoming really popular?

AWP: Wow, that's really tough. It came around really slowly. It was such a slow process. First it was family members saying, Oh, you know I was talking to someone at work and they said that they watch Trading Spaces all the time.' Then it was people coming up to me on the street and saying Hi, I really like your show.' And then it was probably the overload of e-mail that we get on the website, where it was like, wow, people are really watching this show. And they had so much comment on it -- they loved to comment on the rooms, the relationships between the different people on the show, I mean, everything. They have opinions about so much stuff, which is so neat. ... Everyone can have their own opinion [on design], which is the great thing about it.

CP: When people approach you to talk about the show, do they talk a lot about the fact that you're a woman carpenter?

AWP: They do, I get that a lot from women, from young girls. That is without a doubt the most exciting thing. I have e-mails from young girls who say, I want to be a carpenter when I grow up, it's so nice to see you doing it.' I get e-mails from their moms saying, I'm so glad that my daughter can have a female role model like you.' I get e-mails from older women who say, My husband has had a shop in the garage for as long as we've been married and I've never had the guts to go in there and use any of his tools because I thought that I couldn't do it, but now that I see you doing all this stuff I know I could do it too.' And they're going out and they're doing that and they're starting to make things and they're feeling pride in being able to do these things that they never thought they could do. That blows my mind. I think that is the most incredible thing and I never in a million years would have guessed that I would have that sort of impact on people. It's very, very cool.

AWP: Sometimes it makes shopping a little difficult. Only at certain times, though. At this point, I guess it's so new to me that it's still very enjoyable. I can understand how someone who's like a real movie star, like Brad Pitt walking down the street, how it must get frustrating for him. But it's just a home improvement show and the people who watch are -- I guess I'm just not completely overloaded with people. I love being able to get that positive feedback.

AWP: Yes! That's a good one. Yes, that is probably the downside. I have a list of projects that I need to work on, from my father needing to get his garage painted -- which I don't understand how I get involved with that, anyone can paint a garage, it's just a time thing for him. My sister wants a new kitchen floor put in, and that's the next project on the list. I already put a kitchen floor in my grandmother's house, I put an entrance floor in my father's house, I've built shelving units for people. My mother is the director of a daycare center, so I would go into the daycare center and I'd fix their tools. I'd set up the bookcases so that there's no chance of them toppling, because there are little kids, and I would do a lot of different kinds of fix-it work there for them.

CP: Among the designers on the show, are there ones you enjoy working with more than others?

AWP: Oh yeah [laughs]. I mean I love working with all of them, but Frank is an absolute pleasure. He is the biggest-hearted man in the world, and he's so much fun and he brings so much enjoyment into everything that we do. And he also gives me the opportunity to put my own creative touches into the pieces that I build for him. A lot of the designers, they know exactly what they want and they want me to build it exactly as that so it doesn't leave any room for me to put in my own special touches. But Frank's like, Build me a bench, build it however you want, do this to it or that to it, just have fun with it.' And it's nice to be able to have that outlet, to be able to have my own designs put into the show a little bit -- besides the fact that he's just so much fun. Vern is nice to work with because he's so organized and together that I always understand what he wants from me exactly. And it's kind of the opposite side -- he doesn't leave me any room for my own interpretation, but since I know exactly what he wants from me I can build it without the stress of being like, I don't understand this, you want bookshelves with what hanging off of them?' So he's really nice to work with besides the fact that I just adore his designs. When the room is complete it is always such an incredible change. Genevieve -- great fun, I could play with that girl all day long. We have a lot of fun when we're working together. I'd say everyone, I mean, I really get along with really well. Doug is the one that everyone always asks me about, because he obviously throws this impression on people that he's so hard to get along with. He's really not that hard to get along with. He likes to play the bad boy, and I think he gets a kick out of people thinking he's so cruel, but when it comes down to it he's a lot of fun. He is not organized, so he definitely makes it a challenge to understand what it is that he wants, but his creativity is just off the charts. The things he comes up with are just unimaginable and a lot of times it really pulls together into something just amazing. And I don't know what I'm building, but then when I'm done I'm like, Wow!'

CP: Is Paige [Davis, the host] really pushy or is that just the role she's supposed to play, with that whole "time's up" thing?

AWP: No, she's really pushy. But I mean, she's pushy on a playful kind of side of things. She understands that we're all working as hard as we can. But she is paid to be pushy and she does it very well [laughs].

AWP: Everyone always wants to know, Do you get help? How do you really do all that stuff?' And the truth is that we do get some amount of help. There is another carpenter who helps both Ty and I during the episodes. Because Ty and I are so often pulled away from our work to do camera work, to do things inside the houses, and that sucks up a lot of our time. And the truth is, we wouldn't be able to get it all done with that time being taken away from us. So what this other carpenter does is he kind of gives us the chance to go out and do those things while keeping the projects moving.

To find out more about Trading Spaces, including how to get on the show, visit TLC's web site.

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Amy Wynn Pastor

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