An Extreme Makeover Week

Extreme Makeover Home Edition is here in town! I’m not going to pretend that I’m not excited, because, well…I am. How often does something so interesting happen here? Not very.We had heard rumors for several weeks that this primetime network show was coming to our humble southern city to bestow the blessing of a new home (and more) on a deserving family. There was a builder selected, hundreds of craftsmen and trades, and of course, five families.

I must say that I never knew any of the other families' stories, so I can't compare. But the family that was chosen is certainly deserving. I'm so thrilled for them! I wanted to volunteer to help anyway, because it's such a neat opportunity that will never come around again. But then, when I found out it would be the Kadzis family receiving the house, I was even more thrilled! You see, I have two adopted siblings from China. The Kadzis' have adopted five children from China. We have connected many times over the last few years at the TFWAC (Tallahassee Families With Asian Children) functions. So, getting to help out a family that I actually know makes it a double blessing for me!

So, Seth and I signed up. We volunteered through the Fire Department, so we were on a team with other firefighters and their wives/partners. Our first timeslot was Sunday morning at 5:30 am until 6:00 pm. This was after the family had been filmed, house knocked down and cleared away, the parades, the fireworks, the stars... The construction of the house was to begin. We showed up at Calvary Chapel to check in. How cool, right? Now I'm triple excited because Calvary is our church, and they get to help out too. They were able to provide their grounds for parking, storage, and volunteers. All because the Kadzis' live in the neighborhood just across the street. But I digress...

We signed paperwork saying, um, something. Hey, there were a lot of words and it was dark! I'm pretty sure it went something like this, "I agree to allow Extreme Makeover Home Edition to use any videos of me picking my nose and falling down, and I will not sue them if I die." Right. I'll sign my name to that. No problem.

We were bussed to the construction sight and given blue shirts and white helmets. We had to wear these at all times so that we could be allowed to wander freely in the area and be protected if a crane fell on our heads. There was a section across the street where spectators could stand and watch. Other than that, security was rather tight. No one in and out except volunteers signed up to help at that particular time.

In addition to that, we were told not to bring cameras. So I didn't. Silly me. I was one of the only people who wasn't carrying around a camera! I spent most of the day asking people if they would take a picture of us and email it to me. All I wanted was a bit of evidence that I was there, and maybe some to put on my blog. I figured if I asked enough times, I would eventually end up with one or two. As you can see, it worked. My friend Pam, from church, showed up with her camera and was kind enough to snap some pics for me. Thanks Pam! (I'm bringing my camera today.)

This photo is of the barricade area across the street where the spectators stand. Most of the time, they quietly watched. A few times, a big star would show up, wave, and the people would clap and cheer. It was kind of surreal for me. Like, doesn't this kind of silliness only happen on TV? Oh wait, this is TV. So strange. I'll tell you some more TV silliness in a minute, but first I want to tell you about what we got to do.

At first, there was nothing to do. It was dark, people were standing around, staring at the empty lot where a house had stood only a few hours ago. There was some dirt that had been spread around by a machine that was now sitting vacant in the center. We were directed to the food tent, where Seth ate second, third, and fourth breakfast while we waited for someone to give us something to do. Just when I was starting to think we were just unnecessary dead weight, a woman comes up and asks us if we want to help set up a tent. Yahoooo! Something to do! (We found out later that the company responsible for bringing the foundation dirt was late--thus all of the standing around.)

When the dirt trucks finally showed up, the real work began to happen. The lines of the house were marked out with wood stakes and strings. Blue shirts and white helmets swarmed the area--plumbers, electricians, foundation people and landscaping people. Our team was given the job of digging footers. These are basically trenches that trace the outer walls of the house that will be filled with concrete to support the whole of the foundation. Most of the footers were not too difficult to dig because it was in dirt that had just been dumped there. But the garage was at the front of the house--the highest ground--and it was solid red clay. This was where we spent most of our day. It was hard! The ground I mean (and the work, too). We had to use pick axes to chip through and shovels to dig it out. Each trench had to be 18 inches deep and 20 inches wide. That may not sound like much, but when you're doing it for a nearly 4200 square feet of house in only a few hours.... it's a lot! I quickly stripped off 3 of my 4 layers I was wearing once we started digging.

Here's a picture of Seth and me a the end of the day. The area behind us is the garage, now filled with concrete, where we spent most of our time chipping away at the clay. We were sweaty and tired, but I feel a small sense of accomplishment about it. We finished what we needed to do!

The thing that surprised me the most was how little time the "design team" spent on the

construction site. They actually did no work at all on this day unless you count "pretending to

work while in front of a camera" as work. It was really very funny to me. At one point, the landscape-designer-star-guy, came up with his camera crew and asks Seth if he can borrow his pick axe. He takes it, chops dramatically at the dirt a few times, then holds up a chunk for the camera. "This dirt is extremely hard! This is backbreaking work!" he says with a grimace. The shot is over. He walks in front of the crowd and waves, then disappears back into his VIP trailer area. Similar things happen all day. Ty came out several times to shoot scenes of him scooping some dirt with a shovel or pointing at the various machines with his arms held wide. The camera men gather a few people in blue shirts to stand behind him and look like they are doing something too. Someone asked Seth and a couple of guys to act like they were doing something with the machine that was digging the well while Ty talked in front of it. Seth said, "I felt rediculous! I don't know anything about well diggers! We were just pointing at it and trying not to laugh."

Mostly, we had a lot of fun. Everyone was in good spirits and enjoying the day. Hey, hard work is fun when you're doing it for a good cause and for a short period of time. But it was definitely hard work! One of the regular construction guys we were working with said our team was great and he would hire us any time. The fire captain who was with us quipped back, "Thanks, but I think I'd rather run into burning buildings for a living!" Ha ha ha :) Me too.

So, we'll be back again today, hyped up on Advil and water. I'm excited to see what new things we'll being doing and watch the house progress.