Marion stonemason featured in TV reality show

A Marion stonemason will be featured on a Do It Yourself Network competition in the coming months.

Donovan Sweem, who’s been a stonemason for 16 years, is part of a three-man competition that was filmed in Denver in mid-October for DIY Dominator.

He’s not sure when the show will be aired, but has been told it might run in February. The masons compete for $10,000 and the title of “DIY Dominator.”

Sweem was contacted by DIY after they found him based on his company’s website, GTMasonry.com.

He was given six hours to put a stone veneer on a fireplace in the competition. DIY provided an assistant for Sweem and his competitors, who came from Arkansas and Michigan.

“It was a race to build the best, most appealing fireplace,” Sweem said.

“It was fun, a great experience. It was the first time I’ve done anything in front of cameras,” he said. There were five cameras, which made him feel like he was surrounded by a bee hive. “It kind of pumped me up,” he said.

The competition was held at a fairgrounds at the Adams County Regional Park and Fairgrounds in Brighton, Colo.

His wife Allison couldn’t believe that he was selected, Sweem said. His 10-year-old twins were excited, too. They had a blast on the four-day trip and got to visit a hotel in Estes Park, Colo., where “The Shining” movie was filmed.

The trip to Denver came at the end of a Maine vacation, Sweem said. It was their first vacation as a couple after being together since 1992.

Sweem has owned G.T. Masonry for 10 years. He named it after his son, Gunnar Thomas.

Sweem enjoys working with natural materials, “just the creativity of taking a pile of rock and being able to make something out of it,” he said.

He specializes in building fireplaces from scratch, which he calls “full masonry.” He mainly uses brick, glass block or flagstone, and works on houses or patios. Water features and arches are examples of other masonry work he does.

Sweem worked as a framer for several years before starting in stonemasonry as an apprentice for a Kalispell business.

There is enough work to keep him busy in the current tough economic environment, but he noted he had 40 workers on his crew five years ago. Now he has only three.

His brother-in-law, Eric Cunningham, works as the office manager, while Allison helps with payroll in addition to her full-time job as an oral surgeon’s assistant and part-time job as owner of a Vantage Point Property Management.

If it sounds like they are busy, it’s true. Sweem volunteers as a firefighter for the Marion Rural Fire Department. He’s a certified wildland and structure firefighter. Allison is training to be an emergency medical technician. The Sweems live on a lake and spend time outside swimming, boating and hiking.

That doesn’t leave much time to watch TV.

“We save that for snow days,” he said, tongue-in-cheek.

Reporter Caleb Soptelean may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at csoptelean@dailyinterlake.com.