Arizona’s Verde Valley to be focus of historic home restoration show
Jul 25, 2017, 11:09 AM | Updated: 11:31 am
PHOENIX — Arizona’s Verde Valley will soon enjoy a little time in the television limelight as the focus of a historic home restoration show.
The Camp Verde Bugle reported that “Boomtown Builders,” hosted by Jerome resident Tim McClellan, would film 13 episodes in the area pending the success of Tuesday’s pilot episode on the DIY Network.
“The show is about resurrecting historic homes in American boomtowns: Towns that quickly boomed in population from a flurry of mining, then busted when the resources went dry, and are now booming once more,” he told the newspaper.
The pilot episode was scheduled to air Tuesday at 5 p.m. In it, McClellan will help Jerome’s chief of police renovate his 1912 home while keeping its historical bones intact.
The pilot was filmed in the spring.
McClellan earned the hosting gig after winning Ellen DeGeneres’ show, “Ellen’s Design Challenge,” in 2015.
However, the judges ruled McClellan’s winning design was a copy of another piece of furniture. McClellan denied the accusation and DeGeneres later told him she didn’t believe he intentionally copied the design.
In addition to his television appearances, McClellan owns Western Heritage Furniture and was the co-founder of Verde Biofuel, a company that specialized in creating mobile biodiesel processors.
