Extreme Makeover Recap

Extreme Makeover - Home Edition rolled into town in the middle of August. Work officially begin with the "door-knock" on September 6th at 5:00 p.m. and for 7 straight days after that I put in 12-14 hour shifts as an on-site volunteer coordinator with 4 other lucky folks. I had a fantastic time and would do it all over again even though I saw my family about 30 minutes a day and I felt like I had been hit by a semi-truck by the time I drug myself home at 9 at night.

The Oregon State School for the Deaf was chosen as the site for Extreme Makeover and it received a brand new, green living, dormitory wing and a complete "over-haul" of it's haunted house, The Nightmare Factory, which is one of the school's main sources of revenue each year. The haunted house has always been super scary, but Extreme brought in Rob Zombie for this makeover and now it is truly over-the-top, shit your pants SCARY! I am going to wear a Depends when I go because I know I'm going to mess myself!!

All-in-all I had a great time and I was lucky enough to make some new friends, meet some incredible people, including Ty Pennington himself. And yes, he really is that crazy, energetic and nut-so in real life.

I vaguely remember saying in my last post that I would write during the week and post pictures and all, but I was completely oblivious to what laid ahead of me. It took every last ounce of strength I had just to get my teeth brushed at night so blogging was out of the question. But better late than never, here are a few pictures of my week. Be sure to check out the episode when it airs on Halloween night - it's going to be wicked good!

This is the beginning of the scene the show's producers call the "Brave Heart" scene, where all the blue shirts come marching in. On TV it looks like it happens just once, but of course we shot this scene three different times.










There were soooo many cool things being created in "Art World" that I could have went nuts taking pictures. They didn't really want a lot of pictures being taken of the haunted house stuff so I behaved myself and just nabbed these guys as they were "bringing out the dead". These are just a few of the beauties that will grace the haunted halls of The Nightmare Factory for years to come.
















Here's a group of firemen who came to add some additional "heat" to the work-site. Especially the two cuties on the left. Smokin!














I like to draw, especially on dusty patrol car windows. For some reason the cop didn't appreciate my work so much.














This is "Big Dave", one of the main behind-the-scenes guys with Extreme. I had to get an adjustment from the on-site chiropractor after this hug.















This is what a 12 hour shift will do to people. And he was just delivering pizza!



















And finally, this is Jeanette, my good friend with ridiculous connections. If it wasn't for you being who you are and knowing who you know I wouldn't have experienced all that I did. Thanks for asking me to be part of your team - you are a rock star!