John's Extreme Makeover Blog

Hey Gang! Johnny here and this week we find ourselves in Beautiful Warwick Rhode Island to help Out the Silva family! Now, Rhode Island might be the smallest state in the union but it's giant when it comes to spirit, community, hospitality, and of course food. Where else can you eat Johnny cakes (gotta love that name), stuffies (stuffed clams) and anywhere from Charleston beach to Warwick for the greatest clamcakes and chowder in the world! For a late night snack head on over to Haven Brothers for an incredible burger and wash it all down with an Awful Awful (thick milkshake), coffee, milk or my favorite, and a sure sign of summer - Del's Lemonade. Now I might sound a little partial, for my girl hails from this great state! But enough talk about food, just head to Federal Hill and you'll see what I'm talking about!

OK... for the business at hand! The Silva family! There's Mom, Doreen and dad, Ken, two of the most selfless people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. You look up "fantastic parents" in the dictionary, you will find a picture of these two! They have two biological kids, Kenny 14 who loves baseball and car racing, a love he inherited from his father. Then there is Mathew 11 who loves reading about history and playing his violin (both he and his brother have been diagnosed with mild forms of autism). You might think that for ken and Doreen that would be a handful to raise, well nosiree Bob! For not only have they adopted three more boys Isaiah, 6, Jayedin, 5, and little Sammy, 2, but have opened there hearts and home to foster even more!

I don't need to remind you but this doesn't have a storybook ending... yet. A few months back, following the kids physical examinations, they learned that they all had high levels of lead in their systems. The Rhode Island Department of Health issued the Silvas a letter stating the dangers of lead to their children and also informed them that if they did not remedy this problem that they may take the foster kids out of their home. Upon further testing of the home and grounds, the Silvas learned that their home is literally saturated with extremely high toxicity levels of lead. Ken and Doreen do not have the resources to remedy this frightening situation. They have put all of their financial resources towards raising their children. They have never even taken a vacation. That's is exactly why we are here this week...to give the Silvas a much needed break so they can not only raise their own children in a healthy environment but for their future foster kids as well!

Now this week was not easy, it was a build through bitter weather, from below freezing temperatures to massive snow ball fights, but Eric Johnson and Oldport Homes guided us through thick and thin! It was my Pleasure to design Isaiah and Jayedin's room, now these fantastic young sports fans are just that... sports fans. So this week being in New England you would think Great! Slam Dunk! Patriots, Red Sox, piece a cake right?... wrong! We got the Patriots part right but little Jayedin loves the New York Yankees (a man after my own heart). So after a few sleepless nights I decided to design their room as more of a sports room with an emphasis on the Pats and the Yanks, but no sports room is complete without an actual basketball court floor and since were in New England our friends at the Celtics donated the actual floor from the old Boston Garden! As they say here in Rhode Island that's "Wicked cool!"

None of this would have been possible without our great builder this week, Eric Johnson and the gang from Oldport Homes and from the bottom of my heart I thank you! To all the sponsors and subs without your dedication and perseverance this week would not have been possible. To CVS Pharmacy, Heidi, Stacy and the gang... you guys never cease to amaze me. And last but surely not least I would be remiss if I did not thank our hundreds if not thousands of Rhode Island volunteers, for without you we are nothing. As constant and sure as a Del's lemonade stand opens in the spring you, this week were the constant in our ability to bring the Silva family home!

Thanks again, Johnny!

This week we were fortunate enough to roll into Middleton, Idaho to meet the Stockdale family. Ryan and Karia were high school sweethearts, and after college they decided to get married and start on their beautiful family!

They have four children who all unfortunately suffer from one form or another of an extremely rare condition called Eosinophilic Enteropathy — and extremely difficult to pronounce as well! The condition is better known as EE — a rare white blood disease that attacks protein ingested through the mouth, so all the kids have to be fed through tubes in their tummies, and this process tricks the EE to think that no proteins have been ingested. This is how all these kids survive and how Ryan and Karia have been raising there young family!

Ryan Stockdale is my hero this week! Not only does he hold down a full-time job, but he attends night school to become an expert on the disease his children suffer from. Not only does he want to help find a cure for this rare disease, but he's also extremely focused on spreading awareness of this disease!

My special project this week is Jetty's room, and Jetty loves — and I mean loves — Star Wars! Visiting with Jetty in his room, it is very apparent that all he does is live, breath and dream Star Wars — his room is covered with toys, light sabers, costumes and model spaceships! And that's exactly what he's getting this week... The ultimate Star Wars room! But where to find my inspiration? But of course! I will go to the source. The genesis of imagination and magic, Lucas Film, in San Francisco! There I met the greatest people with the greatest job. From creating to marketing, I saw it all. To Stacy and the gang at Lucas Film, I cannot thank enough!

So this week I am not only filling Jetty's room with everything Star Wars, but I am building him an X-wing fighter bed, and the console of the Millennium Falcon! When the room is complete the console will sit in front of a wall, painted so Jetty can always be making the jump to light speed. His bed is an X-wing fighter just like Luke Skywalker's. Now it is a bed and jungle gym, and the nose cone is a toy box. The wall that the bed sits in front of will depict (by some fantastic air brush artists) the Deathstar trench where Luke destroys the Deathstar! So now Jetty can save the galaxy too! I think it's fitting that the first Star Wars movie is called a "New Hope," for this room will be a new hope for Jetty as well!

I have the greatest job in the world — to travel this great country of ours and assist in helping great families who not only struggle each day but still find time to give back to their communities. And the Stockdales are no different — a family strong in faith, community, integrity, character and compassion. It was a truly blessed week to be a part of!

This week the crew and I find ourselves in Waleska, Georgia, building a home for a wonderful family who taught me a thing or two about remembering and persevering. This week is about hope, love and never giving up.

The Tipton-Smith clan is your typical American family. Faith, the mom, and her son Ransom and daughters Melissa and Emily were out of town when they received a phone call that their home had burned to the ground, a total loss. Faith, being the person that she is, just buckled down and persevered. She knew all those material items were replaceable and that as long as she was with her family she would find a way. Faith and the kids had a dream to build a new house together and got busy with the task at hand. Then tragedy struck this family one more time.

Exactly three months after the fire, Faith received another devastating phone call, this one much, much worse. Ransom and his sister Melissa were in a terrible car crash less than a mile from their home. Melissa was able to walk away from the collision, but Ransom wasn't so lucky. He passed away the next day. The Tipton-Smiths were rocked to their foundation. Losing Ransom changed their lives. They reluctantly started construction again, but the insurance money quickly ran out and so did the drive to finish. We were there to see their dream through.

Building a house in a week is a logistical nightmare, but it's even worse if you factor in a construction site that sat exposed to the elements for over a year. The frame, or skeleton of the house, was tweaked, warped, corkscrewed and had settled. Each subfloor plank was like a trampoline. We spent more time fixing the old structure than it would have taken to build a new one from scratch. We had to raise the frame up, pull all the bad lumber and replace it, reinforce all the studs, all the while abating the existing mold and coating the entire house in mold-inhibiting chemicals. What you won't see on Sunday's show is all the mold remediation work that was done by Disaster Services Inc. Without their time and determination, the existing frame may have been a loss. All this work was to keep Ransom's dream alive, and it was the most important thing we did all week.

Tony Perry of Oakwood Homes, joined by all his sub and trade partners, stepped up big-time this week. Oakwood gave all of themselves on this project. Not only did they volunteer their efforts to rebuild this home, they also came together with RBC Centura Bank and the community to completely pay off the mortgage — what a generous spirit. That's just Tony!

My project this week for the family was a home theater. Whenever I spoke with any of the girls' friends, they all told me that the one constant in the Tipton-Smith household were the dozens of friends in and out of their home all the time; it was the hangout spot. I liked that idea and decided to make them an area where everyone can gather to watch movies and just chill. So I modeled the whole room after an Art Deco theater with a huge concession stand as the centerpiece.

I think they'll enjoy many great times with friends and family in this new home, creating memories to last a lifetime. I know they will always hold Ransom dear in their hearts and I hope that they feel him through the legacy he was able to leave in the design of their new home. I love this job — where else could you work with such a talented group of people? From the builders to the show's crew, everyone's goal is the same: to help other people.

I always say that the families we help are metaphors for the larger story of America; this story is no exception. This week we helped a true American hero. A man who selflessly served his country in its time of need, all without seeking any spotlight or reward. The man I'm talking about is Jason Thomas, a former Marine who threw on his uniform and drove towards the danger on that fateful September morning of 2001.

On September 11, 2001, a day that no American can ever forget, Jason Thomas was living on Long Island and had seen the reports of those planes hitting the World Trade Center. Donning his Marine Corp. uniform, he sped toward ground zero to lend a hand wherever he could. He and another rescuer found and rescued the two Port Authority Police officers from underneath the rubble of the Trade Center and were eventually immortalized in the Oliver Stone film World Trade Center. The most amazing part of the story is that Jason just went home after the rescue and never came forward. He went on with his life, bought a house in Whitehall, Ohio, and got a job as a security guard at the Ohio State Supreme Court. Jason, his wife Kristi, and their five children took in Kristi's aunt and her two children, and lived a quiet suburban life as an unsung hero.

Unfortunately for the Thomas family, the home they lived in was completely substandard and falling down around them. It just wasn't safe for children to be raised in and it certainly wasn't going to last very much longer. We decided that this Marine, this American hero, deserved the security of a home he could trust would be there for him and his children, it was the least we could do. Together with our generous and talent builders, M/I Homes, we built Jason Thomas and family a home not only he could be proud of, but a home that all Americans can take pride in. Our builders Bob Schottenstein, President and CEO, and Mark Norris, Division President, of M/I Homes out of Columbus, really stepped up to make this home a reality. As soon as they heard Jason's story and saw the conditions he and his family had been living in, they jumped at the opportunity to be a part of repaying this Marine for his selfless service to our country.

My project for the week was 13-year-old Jason Thomas' room. I called him "Size 13 Jason" because he is a big kid. He's my man, the quiet type, but when he does talk he means business. It's an honor to work on his room. I really wanted to capture an urban-sophisticated look with an industrial feel. I really got into metal sculpting, welding, grinding.... I even went and found some graffiti artists to add some color to the room. It turned out great, and I know Jason loved it.

We had one final task we had to accomplish before we handed the keys over to Jason and family. We were, after all, bringing a Marine home. With an honor guard, the Thomas family, the designers, our builders, a sea of blue-shirted volunteers, and with the National Anthem being belted out by R&B star Yolanda Adams, we raised the American flag over the Thomas home on their very own flag pole. A very fitting and moving house warming for an American hero and his family.

This Sunday's special 9/11-themed Extreme Makeover: Home Edition airs an hour earlier, starting at 7 pm/ET, on ABC. For more on Extreme Makeover's honoring of a 9/11 hero, see Interviews & Features.

One of the great things about my job is the travel — touring America, taking in the sights, sounds and smells of the real communities that intertwine to create the very fabric of American society. This week we roll the bus into Raleigh, North Carolina, and without exception — from everyone we met — we got such a feeling of giving and community through the altruism of these strangers coming together to help this one amazing family. Maybe it's a Southern thing — you know, that famous Southern hospitality. It sure taught me a thing or two about what it means to truly be selfless, to not have very much but still find it within yourself to give.

Our family, the Riggins, will always have a special place in my heart. Linda Riggins is a phenomenal human being. She gives and gives of herself to the family and her neighbors. She is a superhero. I can't say enough about her, through all the troubles in her life that she battles every day. Her husband, William, is legally blind and she has a history of medical problems, which then have added up to a history of medical bills. Not to mention this house, which has fallen into such disrepair that the city has threatened to condemn it. Through all of this, Linda has managed to raise her family while becoming a pillar of hope and a wonderful example of what giving really means by running the local community center's after-school program and the ministry, and by just being there when someone needs help.

After putting the family in the limo and sending them off on their first "real" vacation, I got right down to it. In honor of Linda's work in the community center, we decided to go ahead and fix up the old dilapidated building that had become the hub for her work. This building, while serving its purpose, still needed a face-lift. New paint, new roof, new windows, weather sealant, modernize the auditorium, you know, a little TLC. I loved being able to enlist all the neighborhood kids and work with them; they gave me tons of help and kept me on track.

While the kids provided valuable labor, we have to thank our awesome builder this week: HomeLife Communities, and the hundreds of skilled craftsmen who worked tirelessly to complete this mammoth project, which not only included building a home for the Riggins but also renovating the community center with me. What a great group of guys, also superheroes in my book.

To cap off the great week, we decided that the community center needed an insignia, a school seal, so we commissioned a mural to be painted. Underneath this mural we painted the words "Hope is Eternal." It was our wish for the children that they would continue to hope for their families, communities, futures and, ultimately, for a better world.

Go Big Red! This week's gig takes us to Lincoln, Nebr., home of the Huskers. It was a little cold, but absolutely beautiful. After getting to know this community, I understand why it's called the heartland of America.

We're here for a very special purpose — to unite two families into one and build them their dream home. We have Mom, Teresa Fullerton, and her three children — Tucker, Brianna and Chelsey — and Dad, Kenny Machacek, and his two — Erika and Justin. Kenny and Teresa desperately want to be married and create one big family. But for the last four years, they have been splitting their time between Kenny¹s very cramped house and Teresa's even more cramped apartment. They tried to sell Kenny's house to buy a bigger one; however, there are serious structural and foundation problems with Kenny's home, making that option impossible.

It's pretty cool if you think about it; so many families are always going in separate directions with soccer practice, baseball practice, ballet, whatever. They take family for granted. And here are two families who just want a home that can bring them together. They just want to be able to eat a meal together.... It's a rare thing to see.

On the morning of the demolition, Preston and I are packing up the families' belongings. As we're packing and chatting, we both hear this music off in the distance, and it's getting closer. Turns out it was a marching band.

Well, not just a marching band, the marching band. It was the University of Nebraska Huskers' marching band, with Ty Pennington leading them, of course. The whole band just comes rolling up, playing the fight song trailed by all the volunteers and the construction crews! It was incredible.

Arriving with the band were our builders, Duane and Betty Hartman of Hartland Homes. We began talking to these two, and it turns out they've got a very similar story to the Fullerton-Machacek family. Duane had a family of his own, and Betty one of hers. They got together and raised their families as one, under one roof. When they heard the Fullerton-Machacek story, they immediately understood what these two families needed, 'cause they've been there, done that. Great synergy.

The special project I took on this week was 17-year-old Chelsey's room, which was cool; it was my first girl's room. In the little time I had to get to know her and what she loves, I tried to envision what she would want in her room. A name for what I came up with doesn't really exist — it's more of a potpourri, mish-mash, and has a kind of eclectic thing going on. I called it the Art-Chelsey-Deco Room. How about that?

Believe it or not, I still feel like the new guy. But that's a good thing. I get to travel the country helping families. My personal favorite time of the week is always the reveal. The day we bring that family back to experience their new home for the first time, when they come home, and we "Move that bus!" That's when I love this gig. I love hearing the stories and helping these families, because it's what drives me all week. We build in just seven days; it's really hard, with the setbacks, the weather, in the dark, with little rest. But, when I find myself tiring, I just think of the expressions on the families' faces, and those expressions drive me to finish.