Joe Macaluso

Joe Macaluso was born and raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Growing up, he and his kid brother Jimmy spent countless hours playing stickball and wiffle ball by the corner pizzeria. Summer evenings were the best, when they would anxiously wait to hear the daily jingle of the ice cream truck coming down their block.

When Joe was 12, his mother commissioned him to create holiday displays in the front window of their Brooklyn home. Shortly after that, she started farming him out to the neighbors for handyman work. Usually after school, he found himself scheduled for kitchen-drawer repair or doorknob detail. Saturdays, however, were usually reserved for larger, more encompassing jobs –– like toilet fixing. At 17, he was rewarded with his own basement apartment. The only catch was that he had to make it habitable.

Joe now lives and works in Los Angeles, where he is currently remodeling his own home from the ground up. In his spare time, he enjoys riding his motorcycle.