An EXTREME visit.

I think I've mentioned (a few times maybe) that Extreme Makeover Home Edition has come to Toledo.

Maybe once or twice. Or three times. Who knows. I'm a fan... What can I say?

I am set to volunteer on Saturday night into Sunday morning (the big reveal is shortly after my shift ends on Sunday... BONUS!). I was supposed to work last night but I was sicker than a damn dog. Rather than show up green I bowed out gracefully. *sigh*

So... This late afternoon - early evening we ventured out to the Extreme site.

Keep in mind that it's only day two.

We were greeted with this:

An hour long wait for the bus that takes you to the neighborhood the house is in. Good God that's a mouthful. The kids hung in there and I was impressed. I should have seen the crowd and realized I was in over my head. But no. Not me. More on that in a bit.


When you step off of the bus you're greeted with this blanket release. Basically anything you do or say can be recorded and used on the show. Or any other show. So don't do anything you wouldn't want your Mother to see you do on National TV. At this point I decided that it would be *bad* to rip my shirt off in Ty's presence. No Epi Gone Wild moments today.

You have to think about the kiddies you know.

ISOH/Impact is collecting donations for disaster relief. I believe the donations are heading to Haitian children affected by the recent hurricane devastation. The family that the house is being built for has adopted five children from Haiti and three from Toledo. The donations have overwhelmed the organization... Several PODS units have been packed to capacity. They were turning donations away tonight when we left.

We managed to catch a local news reporter delivering a live report from the site. Since my Step Dad is the Chief Photographer for the same station and both of my kids have been on the news more than once, they were less than impressed.


Here's where things got very interesting. I don't have any pictures that can convey what this neighborhood has been transformed into. Picture this. You live on a nice little street in a middle class neighborhood. On a typical day there are kids playing everywhere, the noise of traffic is audible but still a distance away.

Compare that to this. Your normally fairly quiet neighborhood is overrun by THOUSANDS of people. A queue line is set up with metal gates, people are trampling your yard, standing in your driveway, taking pictures of your neighbors house. Cement trucks, construction crews and random people stroll around. Flood lights blanket your house at ungodly hours. The quiet is gone. Your normally peaceful nights are replaced with the constant sound of trucks, folks laughing and talking, and the sound of hammers pounding nails.

I love the idea behind this show, I really do. But at the same time, I'd probably elect to spend the week at a friend's house. Either that or I'd charge folks to stand on my formerly green lawn.

This is as close as we got the the actual house. It's hard to believe that a little more than a day ago there was another home standing here.

If you look really hard (and squint your eyes and stick your tongue out and point north), you'll see a white splotch within the white circle I so skillfully drew in photoshop. That splotch belongs to the hardhat worn by none other than Paulie. This guy:

It took us an hour to make our way up to within twenty feet of the fence they had set up. Rather than scar my kids for life (the crowd was kind of intense, as someone who is a veteran of some crazy concerts where I sat general admission, I'm willing to admit that) we hung out for a few minutes and headed back in the general direction of the bus. At one point I lost Future Cardiologist and just about lost my mind in addition. He was two feet in front of me. In front of a 400 lb woman on a hoverround holding a "Marry Me Ty" sign. We retreated to the relative calm of yet another line. This time to catch the bus that would shuttle us back to the parking lot where we could finally sit.

We chilled out. Which is good because I was ready to die at this point. Feeling like crap and dealing with large crowds do NOT mix. Don't let the smile fool ya.

We ran into a friend from my former employer. She was taking her kiddies to see the site. I tried to express to her how insane the scene was that way, but she didn't seem to notice. I didn't want to spoil the fun for her girls.

Thank GOD we retreated when we did. I can only assume that the crowds will just be getting worse as the time goes on.

In all, it rocked.