Carter Oosterhouse doesn’t want to talk about how good looking he is.

But it’s kinda unavoidable now that one of the former stars of TLC’s “Trading Spaces” franchise is now a leading man of sorts. He’s got his own home improvement show now and it’s even got his name in the title: “Carter Can.”

“I was at the right place at the right time and there was a job available,” Carter said when I caught up with him recently. But being named one of People magazine’s sexiest men on TV probably doesn’t hurt, right?

“Someone said the other day, ‘You look like a model,’” he said. “I was like, ‘Dude, I am not a model, I’m a carpenter.’”

On HGTV’s “Carter Can,” which debuted last month, the 28-year-old Oosterhouse has the chance to show off his carpentry skills to a national audience.

“It’s a blast,” he said of the gig. “Being on a show, being able to rebuild and help people in their homes and being able to get the feedback instantly from fans all over the U.S. I work with the exact same things people are dealing with every day and re-purposing and re-doing things for their homes. When they see what you’re doing and they like it, it’s a great feeling.”
The idea is "not to just put color on the walls but the idea is to construct. We're able to get in there and actually move walls around and make the house what they really want. People don't want to leave their homes, they love their homes. But maybe they want it a little different and that's what we do."

He looks at me, like I’m from the moon.

“No, I didn’t do Kirstie Alley’s kitchen,” he said patiently. “But there are a lot of kitchens that we have done.”

Not much of a name-dropper this guy.

Carter’s older brothers, Todd and Tyler, are also carpenters and there is still a bit of sibling rivalry among them. He knows though, that he has landed a dream job being able to ply his trade on television.

“It’s great, going to different places to do this,” he said. “You’re able to build this great piece of furniture and then you’re able to leave it in a different part of the U.S. There’s something kinda cool about that.”

Is he surprised at how popular home improvement shows are these days?
“There’s always mindless entertainment and then there’s entertainment that’s almost mindless,” he explained. “But with us, people can learn stuff. They can sit back and relax and watch how to do this and how to do that.”

Carter is mindful of the writers strike that is crippling Hollywood and is worried about it: "We're not affected by the strike, hopefully we will never be affected by that. But are crossing our fingers and hoping it gets resolved real soon. I have a lot of friends who are involved in it."