My Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Experience, Part 1

I know I’ve kept you hanging for a few days {I took a little time off with the family & headed to Florida for a little break}, but now I’m back to reality & ready to tell you all about my fun experience with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

Several weeks before Christmas, I found out about the show coming to our area, and my brother & I decided we wanted to be volunteers. I was really excited about that, but then a few days before the build was scheduled to start, my husband got a call from a producer of the show, asking if his company would like to have a part in the build by providing wall murals and other specialty graphics for one of the rooms. Of course, he said we would, and that’s when the real fun started.

Dave then met & began working with a Design Producer named “Yogi”, who is a major player in the behind-the-scenes designing that goes on when the cameras aren’t rolling. As you probably guessed, there are many people involved in the process of each build that are never seen on camera.

Yogi is a great guy who’s extremely talented when it comes to extreme designs. You may have caught a glimpse of this “submarine” room that he had a part in in one of the Joplin houses in the last episode.

{photos from ABC.com}

See the portholes on the wall? He told me he made those from outdoor thermometers from Lowes. He removed the thermometer part, decorated the frame to match the decor, & added lighting & graphics behind them to make it look like a real porthole. Really creative!

It was so interesting to see the design process, including how he started the concept for the room we worked on with a hand-drawn “white model” that he assembled from a plain white sheet of paper. I wish I could show you more of it, but you can get a glimpse of it in this pic.

I probably drove him crazy with questions about the process & his part in it all, but he was very nice & put up with me & even told me about some of his projects & finds from previous rooms. I found out the designers do most of their shopping in the area when they start a new build. Yogi came to town 2 weeks before the family was announced to start shopping & picking for great finds.

We met with Yogi at the build site several times during the week & saw all the action, but somehow I never personally got to meet the “faces” of the show that we’ve come to love. However, it seemed like every time my husband went without me, he would run into someone & text me the pics…

John Littlefield with my husband, Dave…

Picker Sister, Tracy Hutson, shooting a scene…

And Ty, being interviewed by the local news…

By the time it was over, our company was able to have a part in three of the bedrooms. It was great to be able to help out this family, and it turned out to be great exposure for our company as well. Both my husband and my brother (who also works there) were interviewed by our local news on two separate occasions regarding the company’s part in the process, which was just an added bonus.

Overall, it was tons of fun. Stay tuned, because tomorrow I’ll show you a little more behind the scenes & tell you about my favorite part!