When you think of Maryland, what comes to mind? The seashore? The naval base? The port? That is what came to mind when I pictured Maryland — what I didn't expect to find was rolling hills and horse farms… thousands and thousands of acres of farms! It was so unexpected and so gorgeous! Ty, Eduardo, Ed, Rib and I looked out the windows of the bus over never-ending rolling hills, bridges, scenic waterways and beautiful farms. We knew it was going to be a great week.
We surprised the Luther family, and quickly got them on their way to vacation. The Luther family runs a therapeutic horse-riding facility called Rolling Hills. They have touched so many people's lives, and we got the opportunity to meet some of these courageous people. From young children to adults, ranging in disabilities from debilitating diseases to spinal cord injuries, we got the chance to see how the simple act of riding a horse can help in unimaginable ways. We learned so much — how riding a horse can actually be therapy. The movement of the horse moves the human body in ways that simulate walking or running, something that these people are unable to do. And even though it is therapy, the smile on their faces suggests that perhaps it is more like an adventure than work.
Knowing how much this riding facility helps the community, we knew we needed to build more than just a house for this family. We decided to build 3 structures — our largest build yet: A 4,700 square-foot house for the family, a 6,500 square-foot indoor riding arena, and a 6,000 square-foot indoor stable. That's almost 18,000 square feet in one week! In order to pull this off, we would have to have some sort of superhero, and that's exactly what we got… Super Clark!
Clark Turner, of Clark Turner Signature Homes, was our knight in shining armor this week. He teamed up with Paul Risk Associates, Inc. to build the barn and stable. He and his team not only built a large, quality home for the Luther family, but they built one of the most beautiful homes we have ever done on the show. I know from doing these builds every single week, that building a house in a week is difficult, but these guys went above and beyond! Every detail of the house was amazing — beautiful, oversized baseboards and molding, crown molding, intricate wainscoting, elegant fixtures, and best of all — all of the ceilings in the house had these amazing details. It would be way too much to describe to you — you will just have to watch! The workmanship was awe-inspiring, and so was the morale of the entire crew. Everyone on the set kept saying that it was a perfect week. Nothing went wrong… pretty amazing when you consider the scale of the job in such a short timeframe! That is why, at the end of the week, we all started calling Clark "Super Clark." His crew even made little stickers of this superhero that I still have on my bag today.
My job this week was taking care of Ellie, the oldest daughter. She is 17, and loves Christian rock, calling it "pretty metal." Well, that gave me an idea — real metal! I had my own version of "pretty metal!" I worked alongside of Matt Harris, or Harris Metalworks, and together we created a work of pretty metal art. There were sparks, sparks and more sparks! I love working with metal! And Matt opened my eyes to the extreme art that can be created from metal. He was able to take old-looking metal and twist and turn it into a beautiful rose — he even gave me one to put in Ellie's room.
Overall, it was one of the best weeks that I have had on the show. Ahhh… if they could all go this smoothly!
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