I had an interesting day last week visiting on-site during construction and filming of the ABC-TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. This is the first home they have built in Iowa, so my wife, Cathy, and I decided to drive the hour and a half north of Des Moines on a sunny, autumn day and check out the action.
Security was heavy and we stopped at the sign-in booth. I signed in as “Media” and they decided that Cathy would be considered a V.I.P. We found out later that meant that I would be in a little tiny tent and she would be enjoying the food and “freebies” in a big luxurious tent with sofas! (Okay, they let me sneak into the V.I.P tent as well.)
If you’ve never watched Extreme Makeover: Home Edition here’s what happens: A family is selected who has some unique and deserving problems (such as physical handicaps, their home has been destroyed, life-threatening illness, etc.) The design team led by star Ty Pennington shows up at their home on a Sunday morning, surprises the family and then sends them on a free vacation for a week. While they are gone, their current house is torn down and a new house is built for them in only 7 days!
I’ve always enjoyed the show, but had a healthy bit of skepticism about how much of this is real and how much is just “made for television.” Can they really build a quality house in 7 days? After having visited the building site, I was truly impressed.
The house built in Iowa was for the Kibe family. They had moved from the city to the country because one of their son’s was being bullied and they thought this would be a better place to raise their family. Everything was going along fine until their farmhouse was burned completely to the ground right before Christmas. They have been living in a small trailer and a couple of small tents since then.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition selects a local builder to work with. In Iowa, this was Hubbell Homes out of Des Moines. (This immediately was a challenge since Des Moines is an hour and a half from the building site!) I visited with Rick Tollakson, CEO of Hubbell Homes about the experience. When I asked him about how much advance notice Hubbell Homes had that they had been selected to build the house he said, “It’s a secret. I can’t tell you, but it is a lot less than you would guess!”
Hubbell had to line up all the subcontractors and partners, order materials, get security, create websites and signage, work out the complete plan to build the house, get night lighting, find caterers, get building permits, and a million other details in a matter of days.
I spoke with Kathy Krafka Harkema from Pella Windows and Doors. They are one of the subcontractors for this and many of the other Extreme Makeover houses. Kathy said that all of the materials and labor are donated. And the subcontractors have to be very flexible. Pella has 65 windows and doors going into this house and two barns on the site. At one point she found out at 6:30AM that they would need some special windows. She called up a Pella plant two hours away and they made the windows and had them on the site ready for installation before noon!
When the production company found out I worked for Woodsmith, Workbench, and ShopNotes magazines, they asked if I would like to interview Ed Sanders, a member of the Design Team who is passionate about woodworking. As Ed describes himself “I’m the bald guy with the funny accent.” (He’s from England.) Ed was very generous to give a couple of other journalists and me a long interview.
Ed is extremely personable and talked about how he grew up as an actor in England. His father recommended he get some practical training in another area “in case this acting thing doesn’t work out.” Ed took up carpentry and furniture building so I enjoyed talking to him about some of his favorite woodworking projects he has designed and built for the show and even a little about mortise and tenon joinery. It was obvious he knows woodworking!
Though they wouldn’t let me into the house under construction, it was fascinating to watch the progress during the three and a half hours Cathy and I spent on the site. (At one point in the interview with Ed I asked him what he was working on in the barn that morning. His response: “It’s a secret, so if I told you, I’d have to kill you!”) Even from afar, it was also fascinating for me to watch the filming of some of the members of the Design Team such as Preston Sharp discussing construction details with Hubbell Home’s Rick Tollakson.
Overall, I came away with a lot healthier respect for the show and all of the “stars,” contractors, sub-contractors, and production team that puts it all together. They travel and do this constantly for ten and a half months of the year. They have to be extremely flexible, very creative, and giving of their time and energy.
One final thought. I was told by someone on the site that the person who created the concept for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition had previously worked on the TV show Fear Factor. On Fear Factor, the contestants compete against each other in things such as eating bugs or hanging from helicopters. He felt that there must be a more positive show that features the good things that can happen when people work together as a team. When I thought about this, it is true that there is very little on commercial television today that is inspiring and features positive news.
The Iowa Extreme Makeover house and barn will be on the show in late October or November. The show is on ABC-TV every Sunday night at 8 PM (eastern time) and 7 PM (central time). I hope you and your families get the opportunity to watch it some time. Let me know your impressions.
To see more of my photos of the Iowa site click here: extreme-makeover gallery.
-Doug Hicks, Executive Editor