These Jersey Boys hammer it home.

by Ronald Sklar

Originally known on HGTV as The Kitchen Cousins, John Colaneri and Anthony Carrino have a family construction business that is growing as fast as their TV ratings. These Bergen County boys – and first cousins – are based in New Jersey but are known throughout the world these days as the Cousins on Call.

They continue to make guest appearances all over the tube (including memorable rehabs on Ellen and Rachel Ray) while preparing yet another series for HGTV later this year called Undercover Overhaul.

“There is nothing better than to be able to showcase your work on a national level,” Anthony says. “And if you are not passionate about what you do, you couldn’t do it on TV.”

Their family company, Brunelleschi Construction, is located in Jersey City (a whiffle ball’s throw from Manhattan). HQ is a dynamically refurbished antique firehouse that, of course, the Jersey boys transformed themselves.

Fortunately, they ain’t afraid of no ghosts, or a family feud over conflicting tastes.

John says, “Luckily, our vision is very similar so when you come into a space like a firehouse or even a client’s home, the space plan really opens up and we think a lot alike on the same level. The fun part is tossing the layout and design ideas back and forth.”

When the firehouse became available in 2005 (the city’s new fire trucks could not fit in the old structure), Anthony says, “We knew this was home. So my dad and I went to the city auction and we weren’t leaving without it. We won a restoration award for it, so we’re real proud of it.”

Their construction business was thriving long before they became TV stars, but a series of happenstances (“we tripped into it,” John says) took these good-looking charmers and talented rehab experts to Cable Town.

“They don’t tell you about the hours,” Anthony jokes. “They let you figure that out on your own; to that end, no big deal. We really love what we do, to be able to showcase our work and get instant feedback on social media. It’s incredible.”

He adds that there is quite a difference in response after your face – and considerable skills – are suddenly known to the immediate world.

“In Hudson County, people knew our name, knew our trucks,” Anthony says. “When they saw our sign go on a building, there were 20-30 inquiries coming in on email the next morning. Now we have a show that airs on Wednesday night, and there are 150-250 emails in our office manager’s inbox in the morning. It’s incredible.”

He adds that the cousins’ goal is not just to entertain or give a rehab fix to millions of viewers, but to educate as well.

He says, “Everybody’s had a bad contractor experience, unfortunately. So we now have a responsibility to educate. It’s something we take seriously and we’re proud of. You can see people’s eyes when they are listening to you. They are just so intense and focused. You know you are giving people good information.”

A good part of that information comes from years of dealing with client experience, the good, the bad and the ugly.

John says, “One thing we find is that people don’t plan. They jump into things. That’s human nature, especially if you are doing any construction design. Anthony and I always plan prior to even starting a job. We are sure that we have our design theme aesthetic and our construction schedule in place. Too many people think they can design on the fly. Then your project that you thought was going to be three months turns into two years. That’s because you are constantly changing everything and you have no plan, the contractor is not on the same page with you, and no one understands what the design really is. Most people don’t know that it takes forever just to get the materials. You have to schedule it properly, have the materials, and be on the same page as your contractor.”

Anthony adds, “The other question we have with our clients is space planning. Nobody knows how to use their space, especially in the urban core; small rooms are cut up into a living room or a reading room. Before, everything had walls. Today, everybody wants open space. So you’ve got structure but you also have to play with use of space. How best do we use the space? It’s the practical and the design totally meshing together.”

The cousins continue to mesh together, with another series, a phone app and more construction projects in the hopper. Yet they still keep it real, on the block in Jersey City.

“We don’t sleep anymore,” Anthony says. “We used to hang out a lot before, but now we’re inseparable.”

For more information on The Cousins on Call, click here. To follow them on Facebook, click here.

Photos by Harley Reinhardt

This Renovation Raiders host is a woman outstanding in her field.

Going out to dinner? You may come home to find a brand new space, if Amy Matthews is in your nabe.

The HGTV star of Renovation Raiders is uber-handy and quick with a sledgehammer. She has a world full of ideas for your little corner of the world.

Meanwhile, on DIY, her hit series Sweat Equity seeks to increase the value of your home by $10,000 in just two weekends. Seem impossible? Ye have little faith (unless you’ve watched her in action).

Amy is a licensed contractor, and also gives back with her contributions to Habitat for Humanity and The Jimmy and Roslyn Carter Work Project.

Her deal: take on any project, and break it down so that even beginners could grasp it completely. No contractor double-talk.

Here, Amy takes time out of her incredibly busy schedule to chat with Modern Home.

I hope this doesn’t sound sexist, but I don’t know of too many female contractors.

I am continuing to take [contracting license classes], and I laugh because I am literally the only female in the room. I definitely find myself as an anomaly.

But as far as do-it-yourselfers, so many women are doing their own projects. I know a lot of guys who say they had come home from their office jobs and their wife had tiled the bathroom floor.

So women are doing it and loving it, obviously. But yeah, I haven’t met too many female contractors.

What drew you to this vocation?

At first, I came into it from a teaching aspect. I was doing home improvement and helping friends and just giving advice in general.

Anybody who is in the trades learns from someone next to them, or they seek out the best advice.

If there are ten contractors in the room, there are ten different ways of doing things. I just started learning from everyone around me.

I had a base of knowledge and I just kind of took it and ran from there. I just tried to soak it in.

Where do you find the rewards?

I love getting in there and getting my hands dirty. In any kind of creative work, you really see the beginning and the middle and the end of your project.

It’s such a great feeling at the end of it to stand back and look at your work. I love to help people through that process.

You’ve definitely come a long way from your original, humble contracting aspirations.

I started getting so passionate about the deeper levels of home improvement.

I really got interested in the envelope of the home and how our building practices are working for us, and the different technologies that go into the home — everything from insulation to the way you frame the home, and all different types of energy-savings ideas.

That kind of information became my passion, and passing that on to homeowners. There is so much information out there and people don’t know where to start.

To me, it’s really exciting because I always do something different. And there is always something really different for me to research. A lot of people in the trades, they do have one facet that they focus on. For me, I’ve been able to work with a lot of different experts in their particular field.

What kind of advice are people seeking from you?

First and foremost, if you can just do a bunch of little things that cost you a little and save you a lot, I find that people always love that kind of advice.

Where do home-improvement seekers usually go wrong?

Getting realistic with your money. And really setting a timeline. Most people really don’t think about that.

As a contractor, you are always basing everything on a timeline. So I think for a homeowner to look at it from a project manager standpoint, sitting all your ducks in a row, ordering products.

There is always a lead-time on products. You may not always be able to run to the home improvement store and pick it up.

You start tearing apart your bathroom on a Friday, and you think you are going to put everything together by the next weekend. But then you realize you have a lead-time on certain things.

It’s really that project management that people stumble over. They don’t struggle with it once they have the tools.

How can a homeowner envision a timeline and make it a reality?

People have an idea of what they want to do with their projects. They may have a vision for the end results. They may have an idea about what product to use or what they want the project to look like. And they might be really willing to get their hands dirty. But from a project management aspect, that’s probably one of the things that people find the most challenging.

So we are really looking at the beginning to the middle to the end of a project, and you’re setting your budget and being realistic and accounting for 10% to 15% more into your budget for those surprises, incidentals and extras, overages.

Does every project have to be 100% do-it-yourself, or can you seek help?

That’s the other part of it: what part of the project do you want to do yourself?

Where do you want to save the labor costs? What are the best projects to save on labor and yet have a really good finished look?

The return on your investment is only as good as how you finish it. If you are not a very good tiler, you may get more of a return on your investment if you get somebody to help you.

It’s really about looking at your skill sets and what do you want to learn to do really, really well. And then feeling comfortable to hire someone else for the rest of the things you need to do.

With your outlook on projects, you seem like a natural to host shows on DIY and HGTV.

It was just one of those things that clicked, that I really, really enjoyed — looking at challenges and problems and being able to explain it; to simplify it for the regular viewer. Break it down for them and to explain how to go about fixing it.

The complaint I find with a lot of homeowners is that they’ll have an issue with something and they’ll call a contractor to help them with it. But contractors often don’t often speak in lay terms. Nobody really knows how to break it down.

That’s been one of my fortes and that’s why I’ve been able to continue in the business: home improvement broken down in a very accessible way so that you can make educated choices as a homeowner and move forward.

With a series like Renovation Raiders, it must be really rewarding to surprise homeowners with a completely new space.

They fall on their knees when they come into the house. They just can’t imagine that their house can turn into something so beautiful, with quality. There is this visceral reaction to the instant beautification of something.

Also, we are really trying to cater to their needs. We’re going to figure out, while talking to their spouse, what they are looking for.

You always want to remember who your audience is at the end of the day. Perhaps it’s a person who has never had a good quality home to live in, and we want to blow their mind.

It’s about bringing your best work and the best attitude you can possibly have. That is going to create an amazing project.

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To find out more about Amy Matthews, click here.