ELKINS PURPLE MAJESTIES Red Hat Chapter

Extreme Home Makeover
Fairmont WV * March 9, 2008 (airdate)
Pictures coming soon!

The epsiode of "Extreme Home Makeover" that Barbara helped out on will airs SUNDAY, MARCH 9 on ABC at 8PM (Eastern Time). Check your local listings for the channel in your area but if you are in Elkins and have cable, ABC is channel 4 out of Pittsburgh. FYI: For Elkins people, WBOY, channel 12 is also supposed to be airing a one-hour special just prior to the ABC show at 7pm. Don't forget to switch over to ABC then at 8pm.

For those that don't know, EHMO has been picking one family from each of the 50 states to build a house for. In late November they selected a Fairmont, WV family. Fairmont is about 1 1/2 hours from Elkins. ABC came to town at the start of December to build the house. I drove to Fairmont and volunteered 27 1/2 hours of straight time. (Yes, I stayed awake the whole 27 1/2 hour shift.) I was going to go back and volunteer some more and see the reveal but naturally, since they picked December (of all times!) to built in WV, we got a bad snowstorm and the roads were extremely icy, so I didn't get to go back. Still, I had a lot of fun during the time I was there.

The first few days were planning and demolition and no volunteers were allowed to work the site. (People were allowed to view the demo of the house, however, and the city bussed spectators to the site each day.) After demolition, volunteers were needed to help with food, cleanup, and whatever else came up. These volunteers were all in addition to the hundreds and hundreds of laborers who had donated their own time. Not to mention businesses. (Some of which were from Elkins and other surrounding areas and cities.) At any one point I know there were 100-200 skilled people inside hanging drywall, plumbing, doing electric, painting, or some other thing. I counted.

I mostly manned the catering tent outside -- although I did help a little on handing up siding for the left side of the house. (Of course, the siding looks best on that side now.) At one point, in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, when I was watching the food tent by myself, it started to blow away! The winds were pretty bad at times because of the oncoming snowstorm and it was close sometimes as to whether they were going to have to call off the outside work for a while because of the weather. (When I got there they were putting shingles on the roof in a pouring rainstorm.)

When the catering tent started to blow away, I naturally just took charge and put all the construction workers I could find to work for me for a few mintues. I commandered the VIP tent as it was the only solution at the time (other than blowing down the hill.) Turned out nice since the VIP tent had heaters in it and the catering tent didn't. It also didn't have an open side blowing wind, rain, and snow in on us.

I mixed a lot of hot chocolate that night but come morning I knew I was going to have to move everything right back. Come sunrise that's just what happened. I did manage, however, to convince someone that the food tent (where all the construction workers hung out on breaks) needed heat too. The way I saw it, those were the real workers, building the house, fighting the elements. They deserved to be able to sit down for 5 minutes, warm up, and get some food. Especially if they had been laying shingles or siding in high winds and freezing cold!! The VIP people came for only a few minutes and went.

I am sure I looked my most attractive ever in my hardhat (no, I didn't get to keep it) and my standard EHMO blue work shirt (yes, I got to keep that.) Luckily I had dressed kinda warm so I didn't freeze. All the workers thought I was nuts for having stayed 27 1/2 hours straight. I actually lapped some of them that had been working, went home, and came back for another shift.

When I first got there I meet Ed Saunders, the British chap, who is a designer. He was one of the people I wanted to meet most. I got a picture of me and him on my cell phone but it turned out blurry. He seemed really nice. The next day I saw Didiayer, one of the newer design team members, walking across the site. Later on they had me and the girl who was volunteering in the tent with me, go inside to film a scene with Eduardo. They ended up only using the other girl but I got to see Eduardo and say hi. He is very handsome in person and even taller and leaner than he appears on TV. The scene is him walking into one of the bedrooms and explaining what they are planning for it.

Luck was on my side a little later though when they grabbed me and several others for a scene shot with Tanya McQueen, another designer. They were collecting Boxtops for Education all week and they had the group of us put boxtops into a collection box. When they asked for anyone who wasn't shy I raised my hand. They gave me a bag of boxtops, I walked up carrying a propane tank (to look like I was busy), put it down, said something to Tanya about how I had collected a whole bunch, and dumped the entire bag into the collection box after Tanya opened the lid. Hopefully that will make it to the final cut. I only wonder, since I said lines (and even "wrote" them myself!), if I can get a SAG card now???? Ty Pennington alluded me while I was on job site.

Anyway, in the end it was all fun. I'd do it again. The Odd Fellows here in Elkins also just held their annual awards dinner and the gave the construction company the Odd Fellows "Good Samaritan of the Year" award. I touched base with Project Manager and his wife at the dinner and she remembered me.

This is the smallest house (600 sq. ft.) EHMO has ever redone (new house about 2100 sq. ft.). The ABC people also said this was about the worst/most difficutl construction site ever. That includes Hawaii, when they had to ship a lot of production equipment and other stuff there. The weather played some part in that but it was mostly due to the fact that the house site sits on top of a steep hill where the path to the top includes several sharp turns. (Not switchbacks but definitely something to be careful of in a car, not to mention the ABC bus they use for the reveal.) There was a lot of doubt as to whether they could actually get the ABC bus up to the top for the reveal. I think they worked on how to do it all week. Finally, in the end, they had to take out part of the hill in order to have enough room but they did get it to the top for the reveal to the family.

During my time "on top the hill" I saw them finish the roof & siding (I waited forever to see the siding get finished -- I vowed I wouldn't leave until I did!), finish up plumbing & electric, start & finish drywall, do most of the painting, and start the outside landscaping and build of the walkway to the front door. I am anxious to see the show on Sunday night. If you want to see pictures of the build or more information you can visit the links I give at the end.