Elgin carpenter tests mettle on national TV

For the last 20 years, Mike Howell has honed his craft.

Now, he will have the chance to prove his talents in front of a national television audience.

Howell, owner of Elgin-based Carpentry with Integrity and a 1987 Larkin High School graduate, will appear on the DIY Network program “DIY Dominator” at 7 p.m. tonight.

While Howell has earned a reputation as a skilled carpenter who specializes in home remodeling, decks and gazebos, this will be the largest audience he has ever had.

“As a small-business owner, I'm looking for all the exposure I can get,” Howell said. “This is just a small part of what I do. Hopefully, the quality of my work and my work ethic will show through.”

The producers of the show first contacted Howell in August 2010. After submitting to a series of interviews and a four-minute screen test, Howell learned in October that he made the cut.

At that point, he had one to two weeks to design a 64-square-foot gazebo before flying out to Denver to film the show at the end of October. Howell would only have seven hours to build the structure, so he decided on a Japanese-influenced design.

“I knew I couldn't accomplish a really detailed Victorian gazebo in that time,” Howell said. “I thought, ‘What can I do that looks elegant in that time period?' The Japanese arts-and-crafts style really lends itself to that.”

The show provided him with a $1,500 budget and a helper. Aside from that, he was on his own. At the end of the competition, a panel of three judges decided who had designed and built the best gazebo. The winner goes home with $10,000.

Like most television competitors, Howell, can't say much about how the show turned out. But he said racing the clock was no small task: “It went right to the wire,” he said.