damaged people dot com

...watching part of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. They brought the family home today to show them their new home, so Mandy and I along with her sister and brother in-law decided to head up there and check things out. Tom had been told that they family would be brought home between noon and 3pm. We had intended on leaving about 11:00, which would get us to Sandpoint around 11:40 or so, but we got off to a late start and did not arrive until just after noon. We had to get in line to be bussed to the site. We waited in a VERY long line for an hour and 10 minutes (I had a thermos with hot chocolate with peppermint schnapps to keep us warm).

Once we got on the bus it was a short ride to the site, but, as our luck would have it, as we were in line behind another bus waiting for it to unload, we heard the familiar chant, "Move that bus!" So we missed the unveiling by just a few minutes. But, it wouldn't have mattered. The only place the crowd was allowed was at the back of the house. The people in front with the family were all blue-shirt volunteers and workers.

So we milled around with the other spectators for a while then we see Ed from the TV show come around the side of the house, then the rest of the cast (Eduardo, Michael and Paige). They signed autographs for a while during the family's tour of the house.

They loaded a few people in the fort/castle they built for the kids and brought the family outside. The audience was asked to be quiet, but there were a few 15 year old girls that yelled out "Ty!" every now and then. After they did the outside for a few, the family went back in. At that point, we decided to leave. A line had already formed for the busses, so we walked back to the parking lot, just over a 30 minute walk.


- The back of the house


- The castle for the kids


- Paige


- Michael


- Eduardo


- Ed


- My wife, Mandy talking to one of the volunteers


- And, of course, Ty.

OK a little history on the house. I have a good friend who's parents used to own that house. His dad commited suicide in the house with a shotgun and his mom just passed away from cancer 2 years ago. The first time she got cancer she sold the house to a guy to cover her medical expenses. He didn't expect her to live and let her live in the house rent free. Well she beat the cancer and continued to live in the house for another ten years. The second time she wasn't so lucky. So he finally got possesion of the house he bought years ago. Needless to say my friend is really struggling whith this makeover.

Is your friend struggling over the loss of what was - memories and such? Or was there something funky r.e. the deal?

He is just freaked out about them finding out some of the history. Like what if they pulled back the carpet and found a big blood stain. And also it is an end to his memories there which is both good and bad. He has never been able to really talk about his dad and then losing his mom to cancer really tore him up.

Wow...that's all I can say. I'm sorry for your friend.

Actually, I'm quite surprised that his mom would stay there after all that.