Look up… way up… And you just might see Bryan Baeumler! Yes, the HGTV Canada star has his pilot’s license. And now the Baeumler kids are learning how to fly, too! It looks like the commute to Caerula Mar Club will be a lot easier.

Speaking of birthdays, Bryan has a favourite confection: “It’s black forest cake,” he tells us. “Growing up it was always a black forest cake at my house.” Sarah, who was sitting beside Bryan, responded: “I just learned something new about my husband!” He’ll also take a crumble in a pinch – apple or pear will do the trick.

Bryan knows all about disconnecting when on holidays, so should you find yourself at their Caerula Mar Club resort in the Bahamas, you’ll know you’re in good hands. “The first time that Sarah and I got away together without the kids to a bona fide resort was actually to the British Virgin Islands,” he recalls. “[It was] a place called Surfsong. We were terrified that we were just going to lounge around and do absolutely nothing for a few days [but] then quickly realized that’s exactly what we needed to do before we got into diving and exploring.”

The Baeumlers prefer to vacation off-the-grid in little pockets of the globe that don’t immediately come to mind for most people. “We look for places where you can experience the local culture and connect with the local people, and eat at the restaurants where the people who live there eat,” he says. “We tend to avoid over-commercialized destinations, and I think a lot more people are starting [to seek that type of] experience.”

While Bryan’s wife, Sarah, loves to spend her downtime doing yoga, Bryan prefers to be closer to the water (or up in the trees). “I walk past the gym on my way to get coffee,” he teases with a laugh. “[Joking aside], I like to get out on the water. I’ll join a couple of guys down here, Mark and Jesse and a few others, and hit the ocean with diving [equipment]. I also enjoy just fishing in the boat.”

“I’m actually, surprisingly, a pretty good singer,” Bryan reveals. “I received a karaoke machine for Christmas one year, and I’ve been practicing. Believe it or not, I’m also pretty good at the flute. I went up to Grade 10 conservatory on the flute. At the music festivals, all the guys would make fun of me for playing [it]. All the guys, sitting together playing their oboes and clarinets would sit there and go, ‘What a loser playing the flute.’ And I’d be sitting there with 20 girls, going ‘Oh ya? I’m a loser?'”

He laughs, “The Art of Not Giving a F*ck [by Mark Manson]. That was a good one.”

“I used to stare out the window a lot at the maintenance guys and wish I could be out [there] working,” Bryan recalls. “Honestly, I’d always wish I could go out there with those guys and cut down the trees, drive the tractor, stuff like that. But my favourite subject was probably geography or math.” Interestingly, math was also Sarah’s favourite subject.

“[This one client] had an old piece of furniture bought from a second-hand store, and they installed it into the wall. So we’re pulling it all apart and we pull the drawers out and find a Ziplock bag. Inside it is a giant bra, a tube of lube, two $100 US bills, condoms and a paper towel. That was on one of our Disaster DIY shows, and we were like, ‘Is this yours?’ And [the client] grabs the two $100 bills and stuffs them in her pocket,” Bryan says with a laugh. “It was pretty funny. So if you’re buying used hotel furniture, look behind the drawers first!”

“Actually, the farmer [who lived] behind us [growing up] hired me to drive the tractor in bailing season,” Bryan says. “I was too short to reach the peddles on the tractor, so he’d get it in gear and I would be on the tractor going real slow. He’d point to the bales and the older kids would put it on the trailer. Every now and then, they wouldn’t get to one, and I would run over a bale, because I didn’t know how to stop or anything. I just knew how to steer.”

“Apart from my family, I think I could live without anything, really,” Bryan says. “I’d like to have at least a flint and a rock. [Although] you know what’s one item I could live without? Email or voicemail. I don’t even check my email, I don’t care. If you phone me it goes to voicemail and says, ‘Do not leave me a message, send me a text.'”

Hint, hint. It’s the same colour as his shirt in this photo. That’s right, Bryan is a big fan of the colour blue.