Elite Eight: Stoneham Woman Advances on HGTV's 'All American Handyman'

It was a rough week for Stoneham resident Allison Oropallo, after placing as one of the bottom four contestants on HGTV’s "All American Handyman".

In the end, she pulled through and staved off elimination, now as one of the show’s eight remaining contestants.

“For some reason I thought I knew what I was doing,” said Oropallo after a stair-making challenge on Sunday’s show.

“It was my first time feeling what it was like to be in the bottom,” she added. “I was like, ‘Please don’t let me go home today.’”

Oropallo, an applied technology teacher at in Arlington, was of 3,000 contestants nationwide.

On the show, the 20 contestants are taken to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York, where they’re given tools and a project to build. They are timed and their projects are later scrutinized by two judges.

At Ottoson, Oropallo teaches technology and engineering, where she takes math and science and puts it into hands-on learning.

"All American Handyman" airs Sunday, 9 p.m., on HGTV. To vote for Oropallo as a fan favorite, visit her profile on the HGTV website.