Bailey Beers, 18 | Eustis, ME
Bailey Beers will complete her first year of college as a building construction student before she heads from Hermon, Maine to Newton for her apprenticeship with TOH. The 18-year-old keeps a busy schedule: her day begins with a job at Home Depot in the mornings before class and includes time spent with her classmates building a Habitat for Humanity house. Watch her application here.
Bailey grew up watching This Old House with her dad, a hobbyist auto mechanic, and eventually started working alongside him in the garage. That hands-on experience helped her realize how much she enjoyed working with her hands, and she cemented that interest by taking shop classes in eighth and ninth grades. Math has always come naturally to Bailey—she says it runs in the family—and it helps with measurements on the job site. With a piece of paper for crunching numbers, she says, she can keep a pretty small scrap pile.
Austin Wilson, 18 | Castle Hayne, NC
Austin Wilson, an 18-year-old high school student from Castle Hayne, North Carolina, is dual-enrolled at a community college where he’s taking a course in construction management. You can find Wilson at the woodshop most nights after class, working on his own projects or helping others with their own as part of the Kids Making It Woodworking Program, which he joined at age 12. Watch his application here.
During his apprenticeship on the show, Wilson jumped into hands-on work with enthusiasm, learning skills ranging from tearing down siding to shingling a roof. Working alongside general contractor Tom Silva and project manager Charlie Silva, Wilson picked up a key lesson about staying ahead on the job. “You always need to be five steps ahead,” Wilson said. “You’ve got to know what comes next after the job that you’re working on.” To make sure nothing slipped through the cracks, he kept a diary throughout the 10-week experience. “It was just so much to take in at one time, so I’ve got a diary. It’ll be great to be able to go back and look at it.”
Nathan Gilbert, 28 | East Bridgewater, MA
Nathan Gilbert is a 28-year-old second-generation finish carpenter from East Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Also a third-generation Navy Seabee, his childhood building skills were honed during a 5-year enlistment that concluded in 2014 after three deployments. Gilbert now continues to work with his father’s construction company and for his own carpentry business, completing millwork installation for homes in Martha’s Vineyard. Watch his application here.
Gilbert credits his father with fostering his passion for the trades early on: “Instead of giving me menial tasks at the job site, my father took the time to teach me the skills I needed to become a successful carpenter,” he says. “He challenged me so I could learn more.”
Gilbert’s apprenticeship with Silva Brothers Construction on the Newton project proved to be a launching pad. “One of the best things about apprenticing on the Newton project was all the advice I got from Charlie Silva, not only about how to be a good builder but also how to run a business,” he says. “It’s really helped me as my own business has begun to take off.” His talent and work ethic made such an impression that Gilbert recently joined the crew of Ask This Old House.
