When we moved to Pennsylvania 10 years ago, my wife took a giant leap of faith...by allowing me to pursue a dream to find a historic property that I could restore for our growing family. That’s a really nice way of saying I wanted to buy—and live in—a shithole. A place I could re-imagine. One that was going to require patience, love, and effort to make it a finished product. And while I’m not sure that’s ever an attainable result with a 310 year old farmhouse, we have created something magical along the way, and hopefully showed our kids the value of hard work, preserving our historic buildings, and the gratification that comes with learning new things and doing them yourself. I’ve been asked to design and renovate other historic farms or estates, but never wanted to spend more time away from my family than I already did with my acting career. I’m well aware of how precious this particular time is with our kids—they’re young enough to still kind of like me...but I know that’ll change. Then in an instant, the world changed...and given my acting life mainly consists of large gatherings in small rooms, or me kissing a woman I just met....I wondered when I’d actually work again. Almost simultaneously—I was asked to design and work on an amazing historic estate. I couldn’t say no—and didn’t want to. (Of course I then booked 4 straight acting gigs!!) Thus, I got my contractor’s license, registered an LLC, and am now working on 6 other structures. I’ve acquired a stable of heavy equipment and construction materials (kept in an area of our property my wife calls “Shantytown” ...wtf!??) and I work with, and learn from, some true artists. I feel fortunate i’ve found another “occupation” that has the sense of creativity and community I love. Our farmhouse was “In need of TLC” when we got it. That’s one way to put it. Another would be “in need of wires, pipes, windows, flooring, paint, stone repair, gutters, drainage, heat, AC, and an ever-running tractor.” Whether it’s our home or someone else’s...it always starts with a walk, a tablet, and a question; “what do we want this to be in 5 years?” And then the real work starts.