Makeover Update

The Mister and a friend spent some time yesterday morning looking for the exact location of the Extreme Makeover's project. They found it pretty easily, as the dirt pad next to the Walgreens at Higley and Guadalupe is the staging area for supplies. The road to the house was blocked off, and they declined to make the quarter mile trek down the street, but the Mister did see some folks he knows, wearing the blue tee shirts as volunteers. It makes sense that they would need a lot of help. We heard from those who did walk down that there were a ton of folks there watching. And the house was completely razed, down to nothing, nada, zip. They have a bleacher section set up for the curious bystanders, so I'm sure the Mister and I will wander over and spectate a bit.

Both the local papers are giving the project some great press. The East Valley Tribune provides the warm and human side of the story:

A limousine whisked the family away to Tucson over the weekend to watch 50 Disney animators make over the children’s area of the hospital, complete with murals on the walls and new decorations. "She looked so happy Friday when they came to take her in the limo," Beltran said of Kassandra. "Usually she looks so frail." But host Ty Pennington didn’t tell them about the bigger surprise: The one-story, 1,800-square-foot house that they had lived in for a year near Guadalupe and Higley roads would become a twostory, 5,300-square-foot house in just a week. The family has no clue. The new house will be unveiled when they come home Friday from a vacation at an undisclosed location. They have no access to newspapers, television or telephones.

And the AZ Republic lets us know a few of the sponsors who are helping out:

For the next five days, the show's designers and crews from Valley home builder Taylor Woodrow Homes will build a five-bedroom, 5,000-square-foot home where a much smaller ranch-style house had stood. Scottsdale-based furniture company Breuners Arizona also contributed more than $60,000 in furnishings for the family of eight.

Kinda warms the cockles of your heart, doesn't it?