Legionnaire to appear on ‘This Old House’

Legionnaire Nathan Gilbert is making an appearance this fall on the award-winning home improvement television series "This Old House." He is one of three winners selected from a nationwide casting call to earn an apprenticeship on the 39th season of the show, where he will work alongside team members from “This Old House” to renovate and expand a family home in Newton, Mass.

The 28-year-old from East Bridgewater, Mass., is a second generation carpenter who hopes his experience on the show will help “build the art form back up and make it stronger,” he said. He too is excited to “enjoy time spent working with some legends in the trades and to take in all the behind-the-scenes action that ‘This Old House’ has.”

Gilbert honed his skills as a carpenter by working alongside his father while growing up. And carpentry is not the only family line of service that he followed as he's a third generation Navy Seabee.

During his five years in the Navy, Gilbert deployed three times which included a 2010 tour in Afghanistan where afterward he joined American Legion Post 91 in his hometown. He joined thanks to encouragement from an uncle.

“It’s nice to be a part of an organization that takes pride in the town and country,” he said.

His time in the service allowed him to travel around the world and “build a product that I knew would help the mission or the community,” he said. Gilbert followed in his family’s line of military service after listening to stories told by his father and grandfather of their time as a Navy Seabee. He heard “how much they enjoyed going around the world and the friendships that they made. I knew that when I grew up I wanted to be a builder in the Seabees as well.”

A carpentry project that Gilbert is most proud of was built when he was a Seabee. While deployed to a small country in Asia called Timor-Leste, he was part of a team that was tasked with building a new water basin that collected water from a stream in the mountains and supplied it to the town. Gilbert said they pulled the sand and aggregate from the mountain side, set the forms, mixed the concrete and poured it with help from a few locals. After attaching a pipe to the newly constructed basin, “it worked great,” he said. “I was very proud of the crew and the locals that helped build something that helped so many get fresh water.”

Gilbert will showcase his skills in carpentry, masonry and more during his apprenticeship on “This Old House,” which filming for is currently underway. Afterward, he will continue working for his father's construction company as well as for his own carpentry business where he specializes in millwork installation for homes on Martha’s Vineyard.

Gilbert hopes to come away from the show “more motivated to be a successful carpenter, and to apply the new skills and techniques that I’ve learned,” he said.

"This Old House" featuring Gilbert will air Oct. 5 on PBS. To check local listings, visit www.thisoldhouse.com/tvschedule.