Extreme Home Makeover

[oktommy]

Oh i agree with that... most of the decisions that cause these gifts to go bad are on the shoulder of the owner, but some of the houses they build are multi-million dollar homes, I guess maybe it just seems like overkill to me.  I can only imagine when you come from a situation where you have little or nothing to owning something like that with all the things they fill it with it can lead to a lot of temptation that could be overwhelming.  When you haven't ever had money to manage making the right decisions could be tough.

[TheArtist]

I was told that this is one of the smaller homes they have done.  Will be there in a few hours and on through the evening and then morning doing the mural for the boys room. Got called last night to do the job so have been shuffling my schedule around and thinking out the mural, what I want to do, supplies, friends to help, etc.  One of them noted there was a liquor store right around the corner,,, ought to make for a fun evening, wooo hoooo paint fumes and liquor  

[Conan71]

I think the intentions behind these projects are great, My brother in law has now helped with this one and the one they did a few years ago near bartlesville. Helping out families in need with the many resources that would otherwise just be sold to someone is wonderful, however, the reality of these situations often don't work out as well as intended.  As green as they make some of them these houses are generally huge and come with big utility bills, also because most of the time they come mortgage free its all too tempting to borrow against the value of the house.  More than a few of these houses have ended up in foreclosure.  Like I said the idea is fantastic and sometimes it works out great, just seems it would make more sense to build a sensible sized home with a bit more modest furnishings to be more realistic to a lifestyle these families will be able to maintain.

+1 to what the others said, but one more thing to think about: Yes this is a great help to a family, but this is also big television.  Small and spartan wouldn't create near as much interest with viewers, which translates to ratings.  It's a shame what some people do, it's much like the lottery mentality where you hear of a multi million $$ winner being flat azz broke five years later.

I am curious though at what point "deadline" reality shows will fade from popularity.  So many home or vehicle project reality shows always have manic deadlines of some sort.  It's a bit tiring to me, but I guess it still sells ad revenue.

And William- great to hear your work will be included.  Any idea how you got recommended for the project?  I'm thinking something bold and Grecian for the mural 

[TheArtist]

As was reported in the TW story, there is a little girl who came up with the theme for the room, so no Grecian stuff lol.  But not sure if I can "disclose" what the theme is.  And drats, wasnt able to get started today, (kinda glad, the paint fumes were a bit much even for me lol) so will be there super early in the morning and pull an all dayer.  I think its going to actually be quite interesting to see what I can do in one whole day. I am gonna have to be mooooving and throwing all those years of experience at it.  As for how I got the gig,,, I actually got refferred to them via several people, and was called several times last night and early this morning by different people to see if I could be a part of the project, so that was very flattering. 

[Conan71]

Real proud of you, William, this is great!

[Red Arrow]

Congratulations Artist.

[OpenYourEyesTulsa]

A couple of my friends helped on this project.  Artist, that is very cool that you were involved.  I got to see a presentation by the project manager of Simmons when they did the house in Bartlesville.  It was amazing to see the time lapsed construction and hear about the challange of building it in 6 days.  They apparently use some kind of fast drying cement that is very expensive.  I was also amazed at how much of it is donated.  I figured the show payed for everything but almost everything is donated by the builders, sponsers, and locals that want to help.  Also the new home owner is helped out later if they have trouble with the taxes or anything.  They don't just give them the house and say good luck paying for the bills.  The energy bills are not much worse and sometimes are better because it is a more efficient house than the old one.  At the presentation I went to, Simmons said they wanted to do more projects like the one in Bartlesville so it is good to see it happening.

[Red Arrow]

Also the new home owner is helped out later if they have trouble with the taxes or anything.  They don't just give them the house and say good luck paying for the bills.  The energy bills are not much worse and sometimes are better because it is a more efficient house than the old one. 

I'm glad there is help if the owner needs it, especailly with taxes.

[patric]

Good going, William!  Ill have to TiVo it when it airs ('cause I really dont watch anything on 8 ).

It would have been fun to design their outdoor lighting, if nothing else than to provide a good example people could judge with their own eyes.
Mostly recessed, not shining in windows, brightness to proper scale, etc.

[Conan71]

Good going, William!  Ill have to TiVo it when it airs ('cause I really dont watch anything on .

It would have been fun to design their outdoor lighting, if nothing else than to provide a good example people could judge with their own eyes.
Mostly recessed, not shining in windows, brightness to proper scale, etc.

Big acorn light in the front yard...

[patric]

Big acorn light in the front yard...

...with a 5-watt compact fluorescent bulb as the light source.
I could go for that...

Decorative lights should have decorative intensities.
There, I just saved all TU's and DTU's investments 

[sgrizzle]

The moment finally arrived almost 3 hours late, but here it is:

[Conan71]

Did you shoot that Scott?  Looks like you had a great vantage point.  How many people were gathered around?  I was wondering if they had a big kegger last night to celebrate 

[sgrizzle]

Did you shoot that Scott?  Looks like you had a great vantage point.  How many people were gathered around?  I was wondering if they had a big kegger last night to celebrate  

Yes, I shot it. Had a really great vantage point. I'm not a good counter of people but I'd say it was a 4 digit number.

Here's a few more photos I took: (no zoom used in these)

[rwarn17588]

Holy cow ... Sheryl Crow and Miranda Lambert both were there?