Extreme Makeover : Home Edition

[iNTeNSeBLue98]

We've now watched 4 episodes of EM:HE on ABC, and I've had tears in my eyes at the end of each one. Our favorite was the family of 8 kids who lost both parents within weeks of each other. They were sharing a run-down 3 bedroom home. The Extreme Makeover team built new bedrooms so they no longer had to share, plus Sears paid off the mortgage!

It is jaw-dropping, the things they accomplish in one week. It blows my mind that they send these families to Disney (land or World) during the renovations, give them all those appliances, furniture, electronics, etc.

 

[BWVDenise]

Is that cool, or what? It is so great that you can see GOOD things happen to people on tv!

 

[gdulaney]

I really like watching this show! The stories are always inspiring...especially the one with the eight siblings.

Ginny

 

[zippeedee]

I thought I was the only one sitting there crying over a tv show! I also love how they find people who are so obviously deserving. So many have an incredible support system of friends and neighbors, you can tell they are nice people. It's heartening to watch after constantly being bombarded with so much bad news in the world.

 

[SetzKitten]

I just found this show a couple of weeks ago. It's really great. I love Ty, is he a cutie-pie or what?

 

[gymnasticsmom68]

It is such a good show and the designers really get their hearts involved. I've grown to really like ty from watching it too. He has such a good heart.

 

[rcyannacci]

There is no way I can watch this show without completely bawling! Literally tears streaming down my face...I even caught a tear in my Dh's eye once (although he'd had a couple of beers). I didn't like Ty on Trading Spaces (Amy Wynn fan), but he is great on this show.

 

[wvrevy]

Wondered why there wasn't an "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" thread on here, since it seems like the perfect show for people on this board (not to mention that the families are usually sent to Disney for the week while their house is torn down / built).

I LOVED the episode with the kids who's parents died, and I'm not ashamed to admit I did get a bit of a tear in my eye when the Sears guy gave them their mortgage to burn

One thing about it...That show makes me REALLY want to buy from Sears Better than any commercial they could have bought for the money, that's for sure !

(I'll have to ask DW if Ty's a hottie, as he ain't exactly my type ...I have noticed that he seems to always find an excuse to take his shirt off during the episode, though )

 

[lovemygoofy]

I LOVE this show but like I was asking my Dh lastnight when we were watching the reruns: how do those people pay for the upkeep or pay for the increase of property value such as in taxes? I do not own a house so maybe I'm just dreaming up these things that have to be paid on. I notcied that several of the families chosen were of a lower income and I guess I was just concerned that they wouldn't be able to pay for the upkeep.

Am I wrong wondering about this???

Tina

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I love this show. The families are so deserving, and it is definitely a tear jerking/feel good show. I also love how the designers do not ALWAYS get along, and sometimes get into little tiffs..LOL. The last one was particularly touching, they remodeled a home for a soldier's (Iraq) family who was deployed before he got a chance to do anything to their new home. And my favorite line was when the guy who was the exterior designer went to a neighbor's house to borrow her oven so he could make a birthday cake for the interior designer's 40th birthday. He referred to himself as "the straight one"!

 

[castlegazer]

Originally posted by lovemygoofy
I LOVE this show but like I was asking my Dh lastnight when we were watching the reruns: how do those people pay for the upkeep or pay for the increase of property value such as in taxes? I do not own a house so maybe I'm just dreaming up these things that have to be paid on. I notcied that several of the families chosen were of a lower income and I guess I was just concerned that they wouldn't be able to pay for the upkeep.

Am I wrong wondering about this???

Tina

You're not wrong in wondering this, in last night's re-run there will be a serious re-evaluation on the house due to the increased size, baths, rooms, etc. Take the house they completely demolished and put a new on on the site, that will also incur serious increases in property taxes.

I think it is a fair trade-off, though, and most if not all families have some form of income that could justify being able to afford the increase. The theme seems to be, life getting out of control and not being able to keep up with the maintenance needs of their houses and afford major renovations. This is all then taken care of by the show. It is something that I get the feeling each famliy will sacrifice to be able to keep and maintain becaus eit is so special to them to have these things in life now.

 

[Big V]

I admit that I usually tear up a bit during the show. I just wish that it was on for 2 hours instead of 1. They don't show enough of the building process for me!

 

[stinkerbelle]

This is me at the end:


always always always cry

I think we were at Jiko when they filmed last night's little "prank" with the blue prints.

that was back in January. (we saw a film crew and asked our server what was going on...and he said something about a home makeover show)

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

I saw it last week & caught it again last night -- I also had tears in my eyes. What a great show.

I also agree w/the Ty analysis ... and I also am inspired to buy from Sears...

 

[Aimeedyan]

I love this show too!

I did read an article awhile back about a family that they did that struggled afterwards, I think it was about taxes and such... because of how quickly things are done, there were penalities and the family couldn't pay for it. Maybe someone else has the article... I can imagine that's something that the producers considered, at least I would hope.

 

[Cyndiu]

I don't know about the increase in property taxes, but I read an article about the gift tax issue.

It seems that the families actually lease the property to the show for the repair time frame. The article explained that improvements done on the home by "tenants" are not taxable to the owners, even after the "tenants" leave.

 

[krissy3483]

Well I"m glad to see I'm not the only one who cries like a baby during this show. I was so glad to see that someone actually decided to help deserving families...instead of say, two families who just wanted to have fun and redo a room in each other's home. The first one I saw was where the soldier was deployed to Iraq, and when he came home at the end, I lost it completely. Last week's, with the 8 siblings, was also great too, they made their house so beautiful.