An 'Extreme' volunteer effort for Kirkland home makeover

What does it take to build a house in Kirkland?

When it's featured on "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," the answer is 700 volunteers, 100 construction hours over seven days, 10 TV stars and a statewide home-builders association.

		Joshua Trujillo / P-I
	Volunteers work Sunday on the roof of the new home of Connie Chapin and her four children as part of the television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

And that's despite the unforeseen problems that keep popping up.

"Every day, hour by hour, it's like crisis management," said Erin Shannon, spokeswoman for the Building Industry Association of Washington, which partnered with ABC on the project.

Saturday morning, the portable radios weren't working, which made choreographing the movement of volunteers and construction materials a headache.

Volunteers have come from as far away as Spokane and Port Angeles to help build the home for Connie Chapin and her four children: Molly, 16, Anna, 14, Rachel, 12, and Danny, 9. The family is in Florida while the house is being built.

"I've got small companies donating thousands of dollars worth of material and labor, and then asking what else they can do," said Daimon Doyle, Building Industry Association president and lead builder on the project.

"I'm just marveling at all these people coming through here, and wishing she could see this," Pam Gunderson, a friend of Chapin's from church, said as she served volunteers coleslaw in the food tent.

Nearby, massage school students were giving massages to volunteer workers. Over the fence, a work crew was leveling Chapin's backyard while another was framing the first floor.

		Joshua Trujillo / P-I
	Bob Horn of Bothell takes a picture of his children Bethany, 9, and Kyle, 11, in front of the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" bus Sunday in Kirkland, where workers are building a new house.

"It shows you what we are able to do," said Paul DiMeo, an "Extreme Makeover" cast member.

Cast members and builders aren't talking about specific features or surprises planned for the Chapins' new home, though it's being touted as the show's "greenest" ever.

Extra attention is being paid to the backyard pool, which Chapin used to pull her family out of poverty by teaching people to swim.

The date the show will air has not been set.

For inspiration, the design team combines their experiences and imaginations with the family's needs and preferences.

"In theater you can make anything come true, from Shakespeare to Sam Sheppard. Here, I just try to build things with a little more guts" than stage scenery, said DiMeo, who is designing Danny's bedroom around his interest in the outdoors.

"I try to think like a kid. That's were I get my ideas," DiMeo said.

The show has a social responsibility, he said. "We lack a time of heroes ... We have a responsibility to teach good."

ON THE WEB

To learn more about building green: greenextremehomemakeover.com/index.html

For information on visiting the project: ci.kirkland.wa.us/Community/project511.htm