Canada's Worst Handyman 2 was the second season of the Canadian reality TV show Canada's Worst Handyman, which aired on the Discovery Channel. As with the past season, five contestants and their nominators enter the "Handyman Rehabilitation Centre," where a series of challenges await them. This year, the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre is once again located in Toronto, this time at The Foundry, a warehouse in the Corktown neighborhood. Unlike the previous season, when the focus was on home renovation, the focus of this season was on the increasing trend in garage and shed renovation. In each episode, contestants partake in a series of challenges, with one contestant being named the most improved handyman and another being named the worst. At the end of the series, the contestant with the worst shed overall is given the title of Canada's Worst Handyman. The five sheds, as well as one built by the experts, have been sold to the one unlucky and five lucky bidders on eBay, sight unseen. The winning bidders will also appear on the final episode of the series (which traditionally is a recap episode) as the shed is being delivered to them. The proceeds of the eco-shed sale goes to Habitat for Humanity Canada.
Experts Jill Rydall, a licensed carpenter, was the first female member of the Sault Ste. Marie Carpenter's Union. She has over 20 years of experience under her belt, including 14 years as a construction teacher. She replaces Robin Lockhart, who served as the interior designer in the previous season. Greg House, a general contractor, is back for his second season as the show's resident contracting expert. He has experience in building both within Canada and internationally and has 35 years of experience under his belt, including 24 years of residential and commercial contracting.
Contestants Terry Cress, a truck driver from Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, is nominated by his friend, tech support professional Harvey Houle, for his never-ending endeavor into building a shed of his own, using cheap materials (including extension cords to wire his shed, reused wood and straightened-out nails) and tools. Cress takes pride in his skills and claims that his shed costs less than $50. At the beginning of the fifth episode, Harvey had to be hospitalized due to persistent back pain and was replaced with Terry's wife, Angie. Jaime García, 29, is a web designer from Regina, Saskatchewan who is meticulous in reading the directions but not acting on them. He is nominated by his mother-in-law, Sheilla Stengler, a plumbing business owner who, by her own admission, takes great pleasure in belittling and insulting Jaime whenever he makes any mistake. To make things worse, Jaime's wife, Kendra, who is pregnant with their fourth child (at the time of filming; she has since given birth) and, thus, unable to do any handiwork because of it, agrees with her mother. Jeff Gignac, a management consultant from Mississauga, Ontario, is a father whose sons have recently been taking an interest in tools. As the owner of a business, he specializes in delegation of duties, including letting his nominator, firefighter Fred Johnson, do all of his handiwork. Candace Landmark, a nurse's assistant from Calgary, Alberta, is a fan of many design and construction TV shows (including Flip This House and Holmes on Homes), but is very shy around lifting heavy objects, using tools and other basic construction know-how. Still, she believes that she can do things as seen on TV just because she has seen it done on TV and contends that she is better at the do-it-yourself process than her husband and nominator, Justin, a construction worker specializing in metalworking. It is later revealed during the Grouting Challenge that Candace is three months pregnant with her second child (at the time of filming; she has since given birth to a boy). Ruth Summersides, 55, is a retired teacher/psychologist from Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan (near Regina) whose experience as a single mother of three has led her to numerous unsafe projects. Ruth is nominated by one of her two daughters, Michelle Pine, a call center supervisor. She has reportedly complained to the manufacturers about power tools and how she feels they are too big for her to use.
Synopsis Contestant Nominator 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Terry Harvey/Angie IN IN IMP NOM M/W IN IN CWH Candace Justin WORST IMP IN IN IN WORST IN IN Jaime Sheilla IN IN IN IN IN IMP WORST IN Jeff Fred IMP IN WORST WORST IN IN IN IN Ruth Michelle IN WORST IN IN IN IN IN IN
CWH – The contestant is Canada's Worst Handyman. WORST – The contestant is the worst of the episode. NOM – The nominator of the contestant is the worst of the episode. IN – The contestant was considered for the worst for this episode. M/W – The contestant was named both the most improved and the worst for this episode. IMP – The contestant is the most improved of the episode. NOM – The nominator of the contestant is the most improved of the episode. IMP - The contestant and their nominator are both the most improved for the episode. WORST - The contestant and their nominator are both the worst for the episode.
Episode 1: Starting from Scratch Original airdate: April 16, 2007 In this episode, the five contestants arrive at the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre. Prior to entering rehabilitation, the contestants were asked to specify the dimensions of their shed, along with a birdhouse-sized replica. At the end of the episode, Jeff, by virtue of never having done anything considered handiwork prior to rehab and nailing three boards together in this episode during the skills evaluation, is deemed the most improved handyman of this episode, while Candace, whose self-proclaimed "renovation skills" contrasted with it taking her 171 tries and five minutes to hammer in a single nail, was deemed the worst. Her extra lesson was in the use of hammers of all sorts.
The Birdhouse Prior to entering the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, each contestant was asked to specify the dimensions of the shed they would like to build, with the only restriction that the total dimensions of the shed be no bigger than by by . Then, the contestants are asked to build a birdhouse-sized replica using 100-year-old barnboard. Terry: Terry had issues with splitting the wood, which caused him to nail the pieces back together, but in doing so, he nailed the pieces to his deck. His birdhouse was eventually completed with the help of a stapler and a reciprocating saw. Jaime: Jaime was constantly pressured by nominator Sheilla throughout the task. Although he had minor issues with splitting the wood while installing screws, he did take the time to meticulously measure. Jeff: Jeff nearly cuts his work surface in the process of cutting his wood with a jigsaw and he uses oversized screws to screw his pieces together, causing the wood to split. Ruth: Ruth had made numerous unsquare cuts from her skill saw and had numerous issues with splitting the wood (accidentally or on purpose). The end result is that her birdhouse has a significant number of holes. Candace: Candace, despite having no experience with power tools, is pressured by nominator, Justin, to use a skill saw to cut her wood. When she starts installing screws, Justin forces Candace to stop as she doesn't actually screw her pieces together.
The Reveal Upon entering the Handyman Rehabilitation Centre, the shed frames, assembled by the show crew to the contestants' specifications, are revealed to the contestants (and their nominators) for the first time. They are also given their own color-coded areas: Candace in orange, Terry in blue, Jaime in yellow, Jeff in purple and Ruth in green. Ruth's, Jeff's and Candace's sheds are on one side of the warehouse, with Jaime's shed opposite Ruth's and Terry's shed opposite Jeff's. The area opposite Candace is used as the site for various challenges as well as the area where contestants "hang their head in shame" when they are named the worst of the episode. Terry: Terry's dream shed, at tall, was too tall for a roof to be installed (as it alone was nearly the height of the warehouse). With its large width and length, Terry was forced to settle for a shed half the size. Furthermore, Terry inexplicably asked for three different types of roof (flat, peaked and sloped) to be installed—a moot point considering the height of his shed. Jaime: Jaime's shed had only one major flaw, caused by changing his mind on the dimensions three times due to pressure from Sheilla. The flaw in question is that the peaked roof made the shed far too tall. Jeff: Jeff's shed, criticized by Terry and Jaime as being far too flimsy, had between studs (which resulted in the entire shed being held up by a total of only six studs). His shed is also far too short, as it was only in total height—meaning that, with the subfloor taken into account, that both Jeff and nominator Fred would not be able to stand in the shed. Jeff also chose to have a flat roof, which Andrew notes was an option specifically intended to catch out the handymen, as flat roofs have far too many problems (including far more water and snow buildup than their sloped counterparts) to be viable choices. Ruth: Ruth's shed is perfect for her frame, which makes it too short for virtually everyone else (including Andrew, who worries that his shoulder would bump up against the roof. Candace: Candace's shed was specified ambiguously, having given an area ("7'4x10") instead of a length. Her resulting shed is a 7x10 shed with studs apart (far too close together and using far too much lumber), with a sloped roof three feet higher at the front (she originally intended her shed to be three feet wide, which she later told Andrew that it was meant to be three inches), meaning that the -tall shed is too tall for the warehouse door.
Skills Evaluation In the skills evaluations, the contestants have up to 30 minutes to cut a board into three equal pieces, so that the laminated board can be used as a pedestal for their birdhouse replica sheds. Terry: Terry, apart from determining where to make his cut by trial and error (which did, however, get him to the correct measurement of per piece), manages to cut and screw his pieces together without too much issue. He is also the fastest to finish at 12:36. Jaime: Jaime's strategy is to purposely undercut the wood and use the previous piece to cut his next piece. Although it gives him three pieces of equal size, he has four pieces overall. He had minor troubles in using the power drill to screw in his pieces, instead opting to install screws by hand. When that does not work out, he resorts to using only nails. Nevertheless, he finishes in 21:44. Jeff: Jeff takes a whole minute in staring at a measuring tape, although he uses a jigsaw to cut his pieces (although the technique is incorrect, as he nearly jackhammers his saw to make a cut). Jeff finishes in 28:23, although his lack of skills meant that very little was done correctly. Ruth: Ruth, with gardening gloves on, had accidentally mismeasured her boards, resulting in the third piece being shorter than the first two. When laminating the boards, she does not securely place her bits in the drill's chuck, causing her gloves to be trapped in the drill. Avoiding the gloves from then on, Ruth finishes in 20:07, but admits she needs rehabilitation. Candace: Although Candace figures out the correct length needed, cutting the boards proves to be quite the task, as she misuses her initial choice of a crosscut saw (by using the saw to cut forwards when in fact it is a back saw) and opts for a jigsaw that scared her. However, her biggest problem is laminating the cut boards: she could not even sink a single screw in due to the drill being set off-center to the screw and it took her 171 tries to hammer in a single nail. Because of this, she could not finish in the 30-minute time limit.
Building a Workbench