LEWISBURG (WVDN) – Mark Bowe is excited for the new season of “Barnwood Builders.”
“It’s going to be a little bit different,” Bowe says about the show’s 13th season. The show follows Bowe and his crew of West Virginia craftsmen as they salvage antique cabins and structures and repurpose the wood to create modern homes and structures.
This season, he says they’re branching out from the traditional teardowns and featuring a lot more interesting people and craftsmen. But fans needn’t worry — the work sites and crew audiences know and love will still get air time.
“The projects are really fun,” Bowe says. “It feels really good to have some firsts this season. We’re taking down and restoring the most historically significant structure we ever have worked on. Also, we have the first cabin built by Finnish immigrants we’ve ever encountered.”
After 12 years of television where they “put one log up or tear one down,” Bowe said it’s exciting to see new, historically and architecturally significant structures this season.
He’s also excited to branch out and off of the work sites to enter the studios of talented people across the country.
Bowe says that the ability to highlight craftspeople across the country stems from the new partnership with the Magnolia Network.
“Chip and Joanna Gaines want to empower people, they want to see people succeed,” says Bowe, and, they’ve given him the freedom to reach out to makers who are doing cool things.
“We’re meeting interesting people,” says Bowe. “As a producer of the show, I’m pushing the production company to find people who do things the old way,” says Bowe. “I admire people who know how to do things by hand. I wanted to see the best, and I wanted to see something unique.”
The show’s premier features Greenbrier County artist Mark Blumenstein, a welder who salvages scrap metal to make whimsical and humorous sculptures. Bowe and his crew travel to Blumenstein’s Alderson studio in the Thursday night episode.
Bowe says he’s happy to showcase the Greenbrier Valley in the premier episode, because he loves it here and loves showing it off.
“I’ve been all over the country and overseas. I could have grown my business anywhere,” he says. “But this is my happy place. I’m two and a half hours away from where I grew up, so I’m close to my parents. My wife is two hours from her parents. I can kayak, float, and go play in the woods. I can dig for ginseng and morels. I love being surrounded by state and national forests.”
Bowe, a Lewisburg resident, says he also appreciates what the town has to offer as well.
“I’m still a student of life. I love arts, music, food,” he says, and Lewisburg fills those needs as well. “We’ve made some great friends here. This is a great place for us to grow old.”
Bowe says he also appreciates that most folks in Lewisburg don’t hassle him too often.
“Here in town, people don’t make me feel like I’m famous. People don’t bombard us,” he says.
Bowe does note that if he wants to feel famous, and needs to feel important, he knows just where to go: “I go to Lowe’s to stroke my ego,” he says. “Everybody recognizes me there.”
He’s not the only one who enjoys a little bit of celebrity. “Johnny Jett goes to Cracker Barrell,” Bowe says of his popular “Barnwood Builders” castmate. “He just walks around waiting for someone to recognize him.”
After that quip, Bowe quickly demurs – “Seriously though, none of the guys have changed since we started this show. Our original pilot was shot in 2004. It sat on the shelf for 10 years because no one wanted us because we wouldn’t fight amongst ourselves. They wanted drama, and we all get along.”
Bowe is excited to introduce two new cast members this season, Evan Canterbury and Ryan Franklin.
“Evan is a 22-year-old and an awesome representation of Greenbrier County and a super awesome ambassador of how young people still work hard in West Virgina,” says Bowe. “And Ryan, who is from Rupert — this guy can do anything. He is the epitome of a badass, West Virginia person. He welds, he cooks, he is full of positivity. He is what being a mountain man is all about. There’s nothing this dude can’t do. We couldn’t have done this season without them two.”
The show is also going to feature more of Bowe’s White Sulphur Springs store, Barnwood Living, this season, along with its staff Katherine Shelton and Arlene Canterbury.
“Over 500 people per month come from all over the world to visit our store,” he says. “It’s really cool.”
“Barnwood Builders” premiers this Thursday, April 7, at 9 p.m. on the Magnolia Network.
