Last Sunday's episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition was filmed here in Raleigh…and more specifically…my neighborhood. I live in an old historic neighborhood named, "Mordecai"(pronounced MORE-DUH-KEY…which goes against every thing Southern. Shouldn't it be MORE-DUH-KYE?)
The Riggins Family are the lucky and deserving recipients of a brand new home and Ty and the gang also renovated the community center/charter school that Linda works for….and is right across the street from the house.
I feel a bit guilty for the limited amount of bitching I did about the inconveniences. The only real one being I had to rearrange my daily dog walk…which wasn't that big of a deal till one of the rent-a-cops had 'tude when "explaining" it to me.
What a great story, though. Linda has bad arthritis in her hips, her husband is legally blind and the house had so much structural problems that vines were growing inside. She asked that all their old furniture be donated so that others could benefit from her "blessing". (and why aren't they doing that anyway? C'mon Ty!)
You can check out the ABC recap of the eppy here.
And for those EM: HE junkies..check out The News & Obeserver's library of Riggins related stories, pictures and a time elapsed video of the renovation.
The company that helped build the house, HomeLife Communities also have a site full of stuff about the experience.
Watching the show got me a bit 'itchy-eyed' and made me feel good about people in general. …which I really needed considering my Lucy had to get a staple in her jaw for a wound/cut caused by tussle with a neighborhood dog. We were leashed. They weren't. I'd go into more details…but I'm back to being relatively calm and don't want to screw up the mojo I gots going.
This Space For Rent... 
WOW! I was just watching that last Sunday! I was crying loads of times. I can't believe you lived right across the street. Did you get to see Ty? =P
Luckily, I live a couple of blocks from the house. I would have gone insane. I think they offered the people that lived in the immediate area of the house were offered paid hotels. Sooo much traffic and noise! The only times I got close was when I was walking the dogs. I did see Ty from a distance one morning as they were practicing what they call the "Braveheart" moment…(when the all the volunteers descent on the house at the very beginning). I did walk right beside 'the' bus, though…lol.I "met" Linda briefly the weekend after the house was finished as I was walking the dogs. She paused to say "Hey, how ya'll doing". Woohoo! I had heard her husband was given a seeing eye dog…but I haven't seen it yet and didn't see it on the show. They weren't allowed to show the home to anybody till after the program aired. Haven't received my invite………….yet!
So were the volunteers really her friends? She seemed like a nice lady to me so I wouldn't be surprised…
From what I understand…a lot of the volunteers were from the community center that she works for…but also from the company that built the house and just regular people from around Raleigh that wanted to help…(and be on TV…lol)
I watched that show about the Riggins family. Very very nice.
EM:HE was here last summer too. We had a super-tornado in April. When it hit, a mom in one house got her two little boys into the basement and laid her body over theirs, just as the tornado hit their house head-on. The dad is a firefighter and was at work. The house was completely demolished. When it was over, the boys had scratches and bruises, but the mom's back was broken by falling bricks, beams, and other debris, and she's permanently paralyzed.
EM:HE built a new house on the same lot and made it accessible for her being in a wheelchair (low countertops, wide paths of travel, smooth floors, angled mirrors, and even added a therapeutic hot tub with a lift, also a swimming pool with a lift since swimming is one of the few things she can still do semi-normally with the kids. Then they took the downed trees from the tornado and built a fort for the boys in the back yard. (I know what you mean about "itchy eyes" — you can see all the photos here on ABC's site.)
Good catch on Africam, and I like your blog so far — keep it up!
Most of the volunteers were recruited by the builder. They said they lined up more than 1300 workers and another 800+ volunteers. Some other organizations contributed volunteers — Alice Ligon of Triange Homeworks (they did a "knockoff" of Extreme Makeover last year) had about 30 or so of her people chip in. Some of the volunteers were friends of Linda's, most actually had never met her — which made the spirit of the build even more impressive.
Jan – I usually don't watch the show as much as I used to be its nice to see a connection to some of the stories. I'll be on the lookout for a repeat.Thanks for stopping by with the added info, GoodScout!Its nice to hear about people helping people. I was very impressed with the owner(?) of HomeLife Communities. He sounds like a great sincere person.