How does Extreme Makeover Home Edition work?

January 12, 2005 10:50 AM

Extreme Makeover Home Edition: How do they do that/... No, really, how? Do they really build a house in a week? Do they really just show up and surprise the family? This seems improbable. [+]

I admit it, I'm a sucker for taking a down and out family that I feel sorry for and giving them stuff that makes me jealous. Sometimes I even cry at the end.

But do they can't actually be doing what they claim to do...They can't just show up at somebody's house at 7am and wake them up, send them on vacation and build a house in a week while they're gone.

There are of course plenty of things that indicate that they're not actually doing this (the family is always awake, home, and dressed when they arrive), and plenty of things that make it improbable (how can they draw up the plans and design the house if they've never seen what's already there?) and things that make it impossible (presumably they need building permits).

So what actually happens after you send in your hard-luck video? I know they had that "how'd they do that?" episode, and I had high hopes for it, but it just showed the designers going shopping (ooooh...so that's how they get the couch...*yawn*).

Has anyone live near one of these projects or otherwise have any knowledge of how they do it?

posted by duck to society & culture (16 comments total)

Here's an article from the Seattle P-I about an Extreme Makeover that happened recently in Kingston, WA. They talk a bit about the speedy techniques the producers use.
posted by arielmeadow at 11:02 AM on January 12, 2005

Oh, and here's a follow-up piece.
posted by arielmeadow at 11:04 AM on January 12, 2005

Don't they have to deal with permits and licenses? That seem to be the kind of thing that needs to happen months in advance.
posted by spicynuts at 11:17 AM on January 12, 2005

I heard an ad on the radio the other day for "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: Behind the Scenes" that will apparently show how they do it.
posted by mrbill at 11:22 AM on January 12, 2005

ah, here we go. Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How'd They Do That?
posted by mrbill at 11:23 AM on January 12, 2005

Don't they have to deal with permits and licenses?

From the Seattle P-I article: "Kitsap County building inspectors are giving the project top priority."

I grew up in Kitsap County, and it's not an area used to attention from Hollywood. From the sounds of the news reports, the small town folk and rural county rule-makers were star-struck and excited to make the process as easy as possible. I mean, according to that PI article, even the Navy got involved in helping!

My guess is that this small town excitement must be pretty standard, and that inspectors and permit-granters give the Extreme Makeover folks some pretty special treatment in exchange for publicity. Having never watched the show, I don't know if this theory really holds water -- are most of the houses in non-urban areas?
posted by arielmeadow at 11:53 AM on January 12, 2005

I read somewhere that EM:HE exploits a "tenant improvement" loophole to skirt tax problems; namely, they "rent" the house from the family for the week, pay that rent via the new appliances and stuff they install, and thereby get the family off the hook in terms of taxes. Obvsly the families get hit when the property is assessed, but if that loophole works, it's somewhat elegant.
posted by blueshammer at 12:21 PM on January 12, 2005

My wife is a big fan of this show, one of the rebuilds was in east LA or Watts or similiar place.

I'd like to see an honest review show go back to some of these places after a couple years to see long term durability. There is a lot of water vapour trapped in these one week projects from the uncured concrete and curing drywall and paint.
posted by Mitheral at 1:05 PM on January 12, 2005

The follow-up articles on the Kitsap county home mention minute-by-minute orchestration of the work. I would guess that in addition to hard-luck videos, the show obtains interviews of the people, measurements and plans of the homes, and estimates from local businesses and contractors as they get closer to making their final selections on which families to feature on air.

one of the rebuilds was in east LA or Watts or similiar place.

I caught part of an episode in Watts that rebuilt the home of community activist "Sweet Alice" Harris. According to this article the show's team did some work on 41 homes in the neighborhood (Harris owns 8 on the block), many of which suffered flood/rain damage.

I'd like to see an honest review show go back...

I'd like that too, for other makeover shows as well, like that car pimping one - it seems the customizer used by the show is facing fines for disabling safety equipment, and it makes me wonder about any problems the car owners may have encountered since the makeovers.
posted by PY at 2:18 PM on January 12, 2005

If you read the articles linked to above, it is clear that the project was chosen ahead of time. For instance it said that an architect has spent the previous four weeks designing the home. They don't tell the family until the week of, but I am sure that they are putting the whole process in motion before that. The whole part about the "design team" planning the house the first morning is obviously just for TV.

Also the tax loophole blueshammer is talking about was discussed in Newsweek a while back. Also, in that same article one of the families says that they felt like some of the workmanship was shoddy.

However, I love the show. Even a not-so-perfect house done in a week is a major improvement for most of these families.
posted by bove at 2:30 PM on January 12, 2005

It's not a surprise.

The homeowners have to agree to be nominated, so they know months ahead of time that it's a possibility that their family plight could be selected for the show.
posted by xyzzy at 2:49 PM on January 12, 2005

The homeowners have to agree to be nominated, so they know months ahead of time that it's a possibility that their family plight could be selected for the show.

Still, that's a far cry from knowing you'll be on the show. I'm willing to bet that the show gets slightly more applications than they end up using...
posted by NotMyselfRightNow at 6:38 PM on January 12, 2005

I read somewhere that EM:HE exploits a "tenant improvement" loophole to skirt tax problems; namely, they "rent" the house from the family for the week, pay that rent via the new appliances and stuff they install, and thereby get the family off the hook in terms of taxes. Obvsly the families get hit when the property is assessed, but if that loophole works, it's somewhat elegant.

Rental income is still income, so I don't think the above scheme would provide any tax advantage.
posted by b1tr0t at 7:04 PM on January 12, 2005

FWIW: I always cry at the end.
posted by ColdChef at 8:33 PM on January 12, 2005

Most of the tax professionals that Newsweek consulted seem to believe that the show's strategy to avoid taxes would not work, and that if audited the families would end up paying huge tax bills. As for how they do it all in one week, maybe they fake it...For Woslum, the problems go beyond taxes. He describes leaky bathrooms and cracked stucco. One of the snazziest additions—a carwash shower—has never worked; he claims producers used air compressors to make it appear functional for the show.
posted by PY at 1:08 AM on January 13, 2005

God help me, I cry too. It's my biggest guilty pleasure, that show. The only way I avoid being laughed out of the house for watching it is that it airs on Sundays, so my boyfriend has usually spent the preceding five or six hours watching football, so I have some slack.
posted by jennyjenny at 12:00 PM on January 13, 2005