PASADENA, Calif. — Paul DiMeo, who attended Point Park University (then Point Park College) from 1977-79 and worked as a stage manager at the Pittsburgh Playhouse, is one of the stars of National Geographic Channel’s “Building Wild” (9 p.m. Tuesday).
City slicker DiMeo, best known as the designer with black glasses who was prone to crying on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” partnered with woodsman/fabricator Pat “Tuffy” Bakaitis on a construction business called Cabin Kings. They design and build cabins for guys in off-the-beaten-path locations.
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“I was working mostly with children on ‘Extreme Makeover,” DiMeo said after a Nat Geo press conference. “Now I’m working with older children!”
The guys who want the cabin have to help build it but there are hundreds of fewer hands at work on these projects than on “Extreme Makeover.”
“We’re doing it with eight carpenters as opposed to 2,000 or 4,000 volunteers,” DiMeo said. Episodes are filmed over six days as opposed to nine on “Extreme Makeover.”
In other ways its similar, DiMeo said. “I alwas try to fit what I do for who I’m doing it. You listen to what people like.”
“I try not to cry, right?” DiMeo said to Bakaitis during a Nat Geo press conference.
“You do your fair share of crying,” Bakaitis replied.
Rob Owen PRESS TOUR: Former Point Park student Paul DiMeo hosts ‘Building Wild’ for NatGeo, communityvoices.post-gazette.com, January 11, 2014.
Paul DiMeo while best known as the carpenter with attitude on ABC Television’s two-time Emmy winning Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, is also an established actor, a man’s man and the first to cry on his hit show. 