Playing Hooky Meeting Some EXTREME people

Well, just wanted to post some pics and share a brush with TV we had in our city last week--Extreme Makeover Home Edition was in town most of the previous week and a half or more rebuilding a home in our downtown area for a very deserving family. The mom is a SW who works with kids at a charter school, her husband is blind and they have two kids. Whenever I watch the show I always get teary at the end. The whole city was caught up in the bewildering process where they completely demolished the house and rebuilt it in one week. Now, being in the industry of design and dealing w/permitting, I know this had to take months of coordination to get approvals and inspections lined up in such a short span of time. (And quite frankly it has always made me wary about the quality of the finished product!) The City officials must have pulled through though and the house looked pretty sturdy. It turned out very nice and I was happy that they made an effort to make it look a little vintage like the rest of the neighborhood, however, a bit fancier. One of my coworkers got caught up in the excitement and talked a couple more of us into taking a few hours off work in the middle of the day to take a shuttle to the house and help yell, "MOVE THAT BUS!" It is very near our office and we figured we wouldn't often get this opportunity, if ever again. It was quite a circus over there at first--there were thousands of people there to cheer them on. It was so interesting to see some of the process of producing the final moments of the show.........let's just say it is very slow and the move that bus is yelled quite a few times throughout the day to get as many versions as possible, as well as the crowd, over and over again. After the family was inside, (which we unfortunately missed that actual moment, due to some transportation issues, darn it) most of the cast of designers and carpenters were outside shaking hands, signing autographs and posing for pics--except Ty, it seems he causes such a frenzy, he can only keep a distance and wave at the crowd or people just lose their minds! Whenever he looked out at the crowd, everyone started cheering and the girls were screaming! Too funny. My favorite is actually Ed, the carpenter. In fact Maggie and I got our picture taken with him and he was EXTREME-ly nice......and adorable-love the accent! okay, I know, I couldn't help it! Heh, heh! P.S. the episode is supposed to air Jan 21!