[photopress:070926_kirkand_emhe.jpg,thumb,alignright]I call this “The Little Yellow House That Couldn’t”. It’s my understanding that the “Makeover” turned into a “Teardown”.
The show airs tonight, and I will be watching it at The Kirkland Performance Center with a start time of 7:45 P.M. to make sure everyone is in their seats before the show starts. Sure, I could sit at home and watch it for free instead of $15 (with proceeds to Hopelink), but I want to get a centrally located seat so I can hear the audience reaction.
Will be interesting to see how the show justifies the Teardown vs. Makeover, and hear people’s reaction to what was done over there at The Little Yellow House in Kirkland. I don’t watch the show, so maybe they always tear them down in order to “make them over”. Any insight on that from RCG readers would be appreciated.
Ardell,
This is one of those shows that our family sits and watches every week. It always puts things in their proper perspective when you get to see a family in genuine need having their lives drastically changed by the Home Makeover Team. Many of these people who are the recipients of the show’s generosity, help others of their own free will, but yet there is not enough extra to meet the needs of their own family. It’s an absolutely heartwarming show that underscores the joy of truly helping others.
From the show’s inception, they used to simply remodel, however, many of the homes and people that they are helping in recent series truly needed a teardown as the Makeover Team could simply not bring the home to code without starting over.
Enjoy the show tonight – we’ll be watching too!
Hi Ardell ~
They did one in the Boise area and that show aired a couple of weeks ago.
It was a teardown due to mold, a contaminated well (country property), etc.
Good family with four seriously-ill children with rare diseases, etc.
I had always thought the show was overly-emotional, but now believe they do good things for families in need.
Our entire community got behind the effort and the volunteering was utterly amazing!
Just got back from the show. It was truly amazing! Reminds you that it’s about HOME and not “a house” or “an investment”.
Two of the children were sitting in the row in front of me and the family was so awesome. Lots of tears. You just couldn’t help weeping again and again, especially when the show was over and people asked Connie lots of questions about their favorite parts of the new house.
Kim looked a little perplexed about why I was dragging him to see a TV show in a theater. But even he was glad we went to see this wonderful woman and her children in person. Many of the people in the audience were volunteers on the project, and the film about Hopelink and all of the people they have helped was fabulous.
Hi Ardell,
Thanks for the update about the show. I was not able to go to the performance center last night to see the show “live”. I live in the same neighborhood, The Kirkland Highlands, and it was wonderful to see how the neighborhood supported the Chapin family and the project. The whole block had to participate as the block was set up as a work site for the project and the neighbors were just terrific about it. The neighbor across the street got creative and set up a barbecue and sold hot dogs to the onlookers! The energy at the site was just amazing. It truly was a “feel good” project and people were excited to participate. It gave me a new perspective on the show (I do not usually watch it either), and, most importantly, on the neighborhood. I was truly impressed as people bonded over the whole experience.
I intended to go by, maybe once or twice, to blog about the project and, instead, I got hooked! I went by the site a couple of times a day and took lots of photos and wrote a number of posts about the progress of the project on my Kirkland blog, http://kirklandhighlandsrealestatebuzz.com/category/kirkland-highlands-extreme-makeover-home-project/.
Everyone I spoke with was pleased to see the Chapin family receiving this wonderful new home.
I thought the show did everything it could to accommodate people, given the inconveniences. The TV show sent people to to the neighborhood association meeting and met with the immediate neighbors numerous times. One day I stopped on of the show’s co-ordinators and mentioned I lived in the neighborhood. His first concern was about whether I had been inconvenienced!
Hopelink, http://www.hope-link.org/is a great organization that serves the Eastside neighborhoods of Seattle with various food banks and resources for people in need. It is not too late to support it!
I’ve always wondered if the families that get these huge houses can afford the heating/cooling and property tax bills. It would be a shame to get all that volunteer work done to help, then get foreclosed on because of it.
My wife and I had the opportunity to work with a home builder that did the show for a family in the Houston area. We did a complete photo shoot and virtual tour of the property after it was completed. I had a chance to meet with the family and talked at length with them while my wife did the photo shoot. The process is quite amazing. An advance team comes in and works with the community to rally together donations from companies in the general area, contractor supply companies, furniture companies and dozens more are involved. It truly is a community event. So much takes place behind the scenes that you do not see. In addition, funds are raised to help with things like taxes and issues that will be there long after the cameras are gone. The family told me that everyone involved with the show, including Ty and the celebrity designers are very genuine. We went into it the effort as a sponsor, we left it with a sense of pride in what communities can do to help neighbors in need.
http://www.extremeroycebuilders.com/thehome-virtualtour.asp#content
Mike & Laurie
Debra,
Fabulous coverage! Some really great shots there. I encourage everyone to follow the link in Debra’s comment and see the action in progress.
Thanks, Ardell. It was fun and a great experience.
Ardell…FYI. I’m referencing you in the last line of my BloodhoundBlog post tomorrow. It’s meant as a compliment to you (just n case it comes across as muddled)
I’ll be watching for it Geno.
How much would her family’s lot be worth? Kirkland highland is an expensive area. If her lot is worth anything above 250k, she could have easily sold it and rent a big apartment. Then she’d be irresponsible to let her kids sleep in a structurally unsound house.
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