A moving and inspirational memoir from your beloved maverick carpenter on HGTV’s smash hit Fixer Upper that presents how to convert your interests and craft into a career and celebrates the energy of meaningful work.

Now known to a variety of fans of Fixer Upper as Chip and Joanna Gaines’s go-to desk manufacturer and acclaimed artisan, Clint Harp hasn’t always lived the DIY fantasy we see in the show. Ten years ago, he was dutifully operating at a sales job that, while it provided security for his family, do about Handcrafted: A Woodworker’s Tale nothing to help him attain his unfulfilled dreams of building furniture.

With the support of his wife, the encouragement of a mentor, and a life full of lessons, he finally took the step, quitting his job and aiming over the quest to become carpenter. Without formal schooling, financing, workspace, or customers, the Harps were quickly in the edge of economic collapse. Then Clint met Chip Gaines at a gas train station—an opportunity encounter that designated the next section on a wild trip Clint could do not have imagined possible.

Spanning Clint’s remarkable trip—from a childhood learning carpentry and hard work at his grandfather’s knee, through his struggles to balance pursuing his dreams with assisting his family, to his partnership with Chip and Joanna Gaines and the countless ventures and misadventures of filming Fixer Upper—Handcrafted is normally part memoir and part manual for dreamers of most backgrounds. “From the ground of his 1st shop towards the foundations of Habitat for Mankind homes, to building home furniture for the globe to see, Clint Harp is definitely living a handcrafted lifestyle” (Leader Jimmy Carter).