Jim Parks

A one-time carpenter's assistant and the son of a civil engineer, Jim Parks brings 25 years of broadcasting and video experience to his position as host of HGTV's home improvement show New Spaces.

"I've experienced first-hand what New Spaces homeowners go through as their personal space is first disrupted and then transformed," he says. "We're there to watch it happen, to document how the homeowner's dream, the architects's vision, and the craftsman's know-how come together into something new--and the homeowners' words we hear most often at the close of the show are 'We love it!'"

Jim lives in a 100-year-old home in the town in which he grew up, Evanston Ill., with his wife, Linda. He has two grown children.