The ABC-TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is doing a “makeover” (what else) for a St. Louis family this week. It all started last Friday when they demolished the house.
A crew of hundreds went to work night and day rebuilding the house.
They did the “reveal” this afternoon. That’s where Ty Pennington says “Bus driver, move that bus!”, and the family sees their new home for the first time.
The family is the Matirez family of Shrewsbury, a suburb of St. Louis. They have three children, two of whom have rare diseases. More about the family can be found here. This episode is set to air in November.
Double Whammy
At the same time the TV program also did a makeover of a coffee shop belonging to Sam Malek. Sam has cerebral palsy. He was abandoned when he was born. He was never expected to live. He opened his coffee shop to give disabled people a place to work, and to give to charities. He keeps no profits. Every cent is donated.
His shop was small, too small for wheelchairs to get in. He was nominated for the TV shot Extreme Home Makeover and was a finalist to have his home rebuilt. But he said no. But the crews wouldn’t take that for an answer. They wanted to do his business. He still said no, worrying the charities that depend on him would miss out on too much money if he closed down for re-construction. < ?xml:namespace prefix ="" o />
The show decided to renovate a home in < ?xml:namespace prefix ="" st1 />
The decision was made that More than Coffee would be rebuilt.
And of course there was the merchandising….
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Very Cool!!!! I live in Newark NY….a few miles away is Geneva NY. Extreme Home Makeover was there last month. It was fascinating to watch. I’m friends with the sister of the family and got to hear several interesting stories about everything that happened. What a great concept.
This is very noble. Good for them.
We went to the reveal of the coffee shop it was pretty awesome ……Ty pennington wasn’t there but the British guy did the presenting it was very moving and great to be part of.
Building a house that fast will only bring future problems. Concrete needs time to dry, and more time to cure, before covering it up. Plus it will have a lot of settling to do before it’s done. Walls will crack, pipes may burst.
this is the show that puts people into bigger houses, and bigger property tax loads and a bigger house to heat or cool. As you know, fancy houses and big screen TV’s are what the poor/unfortunate need.
@realist
Generally the community gets money raised to pay their taxes and utilities. I’ve seen where over a $100,000 was raised for it. This way they are not burdened by having a more expensive house with no means of being able to afford to live in it.
Does anyone know the address of the coffee shop? I live in the St.Louis area and would like to patronize it.
More Than Coffee at 14240 Manchester Road, just east of Route 141
aww sam is a great guy:) actually i just went to that coffe shop today… and i will diffently continue going there for sam(and its really really good) god bless u sam u are truly a great guy:)