This weekend was just a perfect Carl weekend…I feel so selfish about all the fun that I had. First I got to have a guys night out with great BBQ, Sin City, a visit with Jeff at A to Z Comics, and then (since Mary was at a women’s conference) a late night of computer time.
I woke up Saturday morning to hit Planet Comicon and later in the evening took a walk with my wife and introduced her to Jeff at A to Z Comics and then we spent a quiet evening together at home.
Sunday I got to take another pleasurable walk with my wife, then I headed over to Jimmy’s House…literally…so that we could GO EXTREME!!!
That’s right, I got to tag along with Alco Countertops to work on the latest house being reimagined by ABC’s Extreme Home Makeover team.
I’ll try to mostly share my own experience of this as Jimmy will be posting about this, hopefully with pics, at the Jimmy’s House site later today. It was a luscious 80 degrees when we loaded up the trucks and headed out to the house site. I arrived at James’ house around 2:30 and just returned from the makeover house at 9 a.m. this morning. Suffice it to say that I am plum tuckered out! 11 hours of total sleep in 3 weekend nights is not too much sleep! 🙂
The whole experience was very surreal. You know that you’re essentially working on a national hit television show for a day and yet it doesn’t really sink in. Although in 2 years of the show they have much of the work down to a science the reality is that not all science works well! 🙂 (James will share more about this). We were supposed to be able to start work at 6 p.m. I’m not sure what time it was when we finally got down to the house to start working but it was late. The house was cool, at least what was completed of it, yet it is not one of the bigger houses that they have done on the show. We were saddled with more work that we thought going into the job and a great deal of my night was spent moving the same boxes over and over again from location to location.
My brother-in-law Mike showed up to help about the time that my feet started to feel like they were being tortured by trained interrogators. 10 hours later they still feel horrible. Standing for hours on concrete, hard floors, and rock does not do wonders for the dogs!
I really felt like I was able to contribute. I got to help move MANY cabinets into the house and was able to help install a few of the kitchen cabinets. I also helped James’ dad Richard install cabinets in the hearth room. Mike and I put some of the finishing touches on those by putting the shelves in and Mike mentioned how cool it will be when the show airs to say that we put those shelves in!
Several times during the night I heard someone grumble about not seeing anyone famous. Around 7:30 in the morning I turned to him, pointed, and said, “there’s your somebody famous”. It was Michael Moloney coming to check out the house.
He said ‘hello’ and signed some t-shirts. My dogs were barking too loud for me to walk over and have him sign mine. I really wanted to see Constance Ramos:
as she is my personal favorite…alas, that was not meant to be. I did get a blue Extreme Home Makeover t-shirt out of the deal, however, as well as the honest satisfaction of not only doing some really satisfying labor but also knowing that I was giving of myself to help James and his dad as well as the family whose house we were working on. It was a true labor of love and sore feet aside it was a wonderful, wonderful day!!!
It is my understanding that the show airs May 15th with the How Did They Do That? follow-up on Monday the 16th. Make sure to watch as they had the camera on the crew several times. Maybe, just maybe, you’ll see some of our mugs on either one of the shows. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity and I feel so privileged to have been included. Thanks again for the invite, James…I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
I am really happy that you guys had this opportunity. Mike will be a walking zombie by this afternoon as he headed off to work after he got home around 7 a.m. and took a quick shower. I am really excited to see this episode.
Hurray! How exciting to be able to take part in the building of a house that will make life easier for this family. I am proud of you, Carl, and Mike, Richard, Janet, James, and the rest of Alco Countertops.
I hope you are able to get a nap in today. Love you!
Who do you hope gets a nap? And…You love who? ME, or all the guys at Alco Countertops?
I’m just getting ready to head out to work and I also have to work a shift at the group home tonight so I won’t get off until 10. I’ll be the walking dead any moment now! 🙂
Undoubtedly the Alco boys were, or at least will, laugh at my expense when they see how far I shoved their truck seat forward when I drove it back to the shop this morning!!! 🙂
I hate to break this to you, Carl, but you missed Constance by about 30min. I have the autograph to prove it!
I want to thank you and Mike for helping us so much. We could not have done it without you! There were at least 3-4 times more cabinets then we were told.
We finished up just in time because shortly after you left over 30 trim carpenters showed up and things got even more crazy.
Dad and I can’t believe how many cabinets we got installed in such a short time. Most jobs half this size take at least a day and a half for a couple of guys to do. We were there for 18hrs but probably in the house for 12 putting in cabinets.
According to the production crew every home so far has been held up by the cabinet people. I think we broke new ground by having cabinets done by the time the trim team showed up.
This was a job well done, congratulations to everyone involved!
I had a feeling Constance was gonna show up after I left! 🙁 Ah well, I was getting too delirious to drive and probably left at the appropriate time! 🙂
yea! glad you had a good time & things went smoothly!
talk about a once in a lifetime experience! 🙂
Yes, it was quite cool and will seem even more-so when it airs next month. I’ll be watching the Sunday AND Monday night shows of this episode!
LOL! I’m posting on blogs as I’m doing other paperwork at work as an effort to remain conscious! Its so funny because I frequently look up and my posts look like :sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss
Mike is going to be so upset that he missed Constance. The chance of meeting her was probably what was keeping him going all night!!
Carl, wake up!!! Don’t you wish you were a coffee drinker now? 😀
James, you are the man! What was that talent comment you posted a while back? I’d say you have it coming out of your ears. Just think what an impression you’ve made with the show’s producers.
Good job, bro!
Yeah, the Constance sighting was quite the show. James said the men just stopped and stared cuz she was bouncing around, climbing over the rail etc., in very tight, low, hip hugger jeans and a little tight half shirt with a much too small bra on!
James is on the couch snoring and Elaina is laying beside him sound asleep, too.
Yep, after Julie’s comment, I really am disappointed that Carl had to miss the show stopping Constance…who has a very lovely personality by the way…
Sure James…blame it on ALL the other men for staring. That is quite an accurate description!!
Ahhhh….Constance! She has nice little age lines on her face and still looks like a hottie! 🙂
Rob, after grapes, an orange, and sunflower seeds for lunch I finally had to break down and go get a Mt. Dew! Don’t know if its helping though, I may be too far gone! I think I drank 47 bottles of water last night so one Dew isn’t going to kill me.
Wow, you ladies are a lot more progressive than I gave you credit for. Or maybe it’s that I’ve been living in the puritanical Deep South for too long. 🙂
Carl, a coffe has no calories. 😉
Sounds like a great experience Carl. My wife and I will be watching for you on the making show.This could be the moment Hollywood discovers you! We can all tell everyone about how we knew Carl way back when…
Yea…right! Most likely if they do catch me on tv it will be a moment when I was just standing around! 🙂
Rob, we aren’t progressive, we are sarcastic!
James’ mom said that Tracy Hutson came up to her this morning and thanked her for her hard work. Janet said she seemed super sweet and really tiny. She said she was too tired to care and just said “Thank you” and kept walking!!
Cool!
That is really cool that you were able to do that. Good for you, and I hope that if the camera did catch you, your face is all joy, and no “ouch, my feet hurt.”
Rob says…Wow, you ladies are a lot more progressive than I gave you credit for. Or maybe it’s that I’ve been living in the puritanical Deep South for too long.
Julie Says:
Rob, we aren’t progressive, we are sarcastic!
Rob, Rob, Rob, what are we goin’ do with you? The first lesson of a successful marriage is being able to
tell what the woman is “really” saying. You better run some pretend conversations with Julie and me the next time you’re in town. We’ll teach you how to interpret typical statements made by women.
Try this one on for size (pun intended), “That sure was a cute “little” shirt that Constance was wearing, wasn’t it, Carl?”
:o)
Carl, if you are so smart (read smarty pants) then you can just figure out who I was referring to when I said I love you. I meant to say that I hope that everyone would get a chance to hop into bed to take a nap.
;o)
LOL! Mary, when can I sign up for that class? “Deciphering WomanSpeak, 101”. Can you recommend a good textbook?
😀
just chiming in to say i dig your your site there guy.
Welcome Jay and Gatsby, thanks for dropping in (no pun intended). Look forward to checking out your sites more as well!
Rob…don’t worry about the class. It makes for a more blissful existence if you just hear what you want to hear…. 🙂 Just kidding, dear…really!
On the off chance that anyone reads this within the next hour AND lives in the KC area, they are going to be interviewing Ty Pennington on local ABC news at 10 tonight.
Mary and I watched the short tv news interview with Ty. It was exciting to see the house again and know that we where there. It was also a little melancholy because once you’re involved in that kind of thing you want to be able to keep helping and see it all finished. Its going to be hard waiting an entire month to see the show! The family comes home today. Wish we could be a part of that but it will be a nightmare!!! I heard on the radio that they are running shuttles from the Kansas City Chiefs stadium to the house ALL DAY for people to go and welcome the family home. That area will be nuts!
were they able to tell you anything about the family?
He’s a single father. I believe he is a local fireman who saved a woman’s life. I think she nominated him. He is also an adoptive father, which appeals to me.
I think he has five kids.
Yep Julie, you got it right! I was thinking on the way over to my office just now that in a few short hours this family’s lives will be changed forever. They will be coming off an awesome family bonding vacation to a new home…each child will have their own space, they’ll have scholarships (I heard the builder on the radio the other day saying he was raising money for scholarships for all the kids), and who knows what other blessings. Things will never be the same for them. Its so amazing. I feel so privileged to have been a small part of this large and awesome thing. 🙂
i cry every time i see that show. it’s amazing what they do for those families.
reminds me of what the local church should be doing to an extent for hurting families like these.
and i know they sometimes help out with these shows too.
I think James said that this was the first show ever where they actually used a church as the base of operations for the whole thing! Pretty cool for KC.
very cool!
Well, that’s it! They’re home! I just saw the brief news report that showed them seeing their new home for the first time. It’s still a very odd feeling to look at that house and know that we were there helping out. Now the long wait until the show airs!
The house looks very nice!
We should all drive by it sometime when things have calmed down.
Man, those green shingles above the garage, above the front door on the second floor and above the windows on the far right must have taken those guys 8-10 hrs to do.
he,he….is that inside knowledge? 🙂
I just remember being there for so long and those guys working on the part over the garage for most of the afternoon and into the evening.
have you considered remodeling your own home?
I’ve done some stuff with my dad already and James and I (mostly James) built wonderful new cabinets for our kitchen a couple of years ago. I’ve done some small landscaping projects here, etc. Its fun…usually money is the only inhibitor to doing more!