the extreme home makeover house is here

[brdhntr]

tonights episode is from moorhead, the city next to fargo and where we just moved from. in fact theold house they moved for the other family was moved to the end of our old block! it's pretty cool seeing your old neighborhood on tv. the whole makeover thing was huge here last summer. it's neat talking wiht people that worked on it. we drive by the new house all the time. i'm not a huge follower of the show but had to watch this one. pretty cool. :thumbsup:

[whowey]

When they did the house in Erie, PA... A bunch of the contractors were family members of mine. It was pretty cool seeing them on TV doing it.

 

My major issue with the show is that they leave the people in an untenable situation many times. I saw a report once that showed like 65% of the people that get a house end up losing within 5 years because the major reason behind them being in the situation they were in is never addressed. Now couple that with a brand new big property tax bill and the people end up in deeper problems than they had in the beginning. The headline was a doctor in CA that had a LARGE family and even with his large income and ability to pay, he still couldn't maintain his obligations on the house.

[87Warrior]

Hype, gimicks, and sob story is how I now feel about that show. They built a home for somebody in a small town outside of my hometown. The town was about 75% destroyed by a tornado.

 

Their first mistake was selecting somebody's home who was not a native/local. We all know how tight knit small Midwestern towns are. Granted they did select a soldier's family who did need a home, but it was the wrong place at he wrong time. The family was pissed they did not get an in ground pool so Extreme Makeover bought them a truck.

 

My grandfather tried to help build the home, he has been in construction for 55+ years. The help they wanted was generally unskilled so that you would not question the construction techniques. How can a foundation properly cure overnight? There was also TV equipment screwed into every wall and ceiling.

 

Ty was there for a few hours on day 1 and a few hours on day 7. He did nothing besides yell in the damn mehaphone. His room was no secret either.

 

Extreme makeover also painted and spruced up parts of the neighborhood that their cameras would catch. They also poured a sidewalk in the city park.

 

The 'move that bus' was a joke to. The family actually rolled up in a car a few blocks down the road and got in the bus. Before that there was 2 hours of fake arrivals while the film crew captured the scene. When the family showed up it was rather lame.

 

1 year after the family moved in, the house was up for sale. Naturally we toured it. Not 1 door operated properly and several walls were cracked around door/window frames. All of the concrete was cracking and the floors creaked.

 

The big kicker was their donation philosophy. The local hardware store donated all lumber and event tents but did not get one word of recognition. Sears stole the glory. The ABC crew also melted 1 of the huge event tents and refused to pay damages since its used was donated.

 

There is a reason this show never returns to the same location...

[DodgeFan01]

^-^

Ouch, that is some interesting stuff there. Some of the ones I have watched end up with someone in the area giving the family the note to the house, which I think is great otherwise the family that couldn't afford things before now is stuck with a new mortgage bill. I watched that one last night, they are good at what they do making it look like they are helping to better situations. I have wondered how these homes hold up after the show since they were built in a week. Thanks for sharing that story.

Adam