Volunteers step up to help with "Makeover"
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Volunteers from Ogle County stepped up to take part in a makeover of a Lena family’s home.
From demolition to landscaping, contractors and individuals from northwest Illinois pitched in for ABC’s week-long “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” at the farm on U.S. 20 where Philip and Joey Stott live with their three teenage children.
With the Stotts off to San Francisco for a vacation, the TV show’s crew, along with contractors and volunteers moved in Sept. 9 to begin demolition and rebuilding, not just of the house, but also several outbuildings on the farm.
Larry Moring, Forreston, owner of Moring’s Disposal, provided containers for the debris and trash hauling services for the project.
“I was glad to be a part of it,” Moring said.
He said the demolition began about 3 p.m. Sept. 9.
The first order of business, he said, was to build a driveway large enough to accommodate large trucks and demolition equipment.
By 9:30 that night a sheep building, granary, and two sheds had been demolished and the foundation for the new house had been poured.
The work site was a frenzy of activity late Sunday morning as excavators and trucks buzzed around the site and workers were everywhere.
Some put metal roofing on the house while others installed the siding. A crew inside was finishing the interior.
Outside, the 100-year-old dairy barn was getting a coat of pale yellow paint. Other workers had already shored up weak spots in the barn’s structure.
A crew built forms to pour a concrete apron for the new sheep shed, while another worker painted the siding.
Down in the valley in front of the house, an excavation team dug out dirt for a pond and loaded it into a string of waiting dump trucks.
The dirt was unloaded several yards away where fill was needed for the landscaping.
Hasken Construction, Freeport, was chosen by show officials to be in charge of the project and coordinate workers and the round-the-clock operations.
Rick Hasken, owner of the firm, said Sunday that he was impressed by the number of volunteers who turned out to help.
“The most amazing part is all the people coming to help — it’s huge,” he said. “It’s not me building here — it’s thousands of people.”
The volunteers came on all skill levels and everyone was given a job.
Barb Ferling, Winnebago, was doing her second four-hour shift on Sunday afternoon.
She said she signed up online to help. She and her 18-year-old son worked from midnight to 4 a.m. Saturday carrying lumber and picking up scraps.
Neil Langill, Forreston, was working on a mural for the master bedroom with show personalities Paul DiMeo and Ed Sanders.
He said he signed up to work as soon as he learned the makeover would be so close to home.
“I heard about it just by word of mouth through our church and in the community,” Langill said.
His father-in-law Dave Vietmeier, Forreston, was driving a dump truck.
Vietmeier said he worked for about six and a half hours on Sunday.
“I ran a dump truck and cleaned out for the pond, “ he said. “Then I went and got a couple of loads of rock.”
Vietmeier said he was impressed was how fast the project progressed.
“It’s something to get all that organized,” he said.
Steve Lehne, owner of R&S Builders Supply, Forreston, and one of his employees, Mark DeVries, worked through the night Sunday installing cabinets.
“We worked from about 4:30 Sunday afternoon to 5 the next morning on the islands in the kitchen,” Lehne said. “It’s a lot of stuff going on at one time and a lot of people, but it’s going really smoothly.”
Hasken said the work was ahead of schedule despite items being added on as the filming went along.
“We’re definitely ahead of schedule on most things,” he said. “The weather has been a big factor in that.”
Clear skies and pleasant temperatures prevailed throughout the project.
Plans called for moving new furniture into the house on Tuesday with crews outside planting trees and flowers and laying sod for the lawn.
The filming of the popular TV show so close to home also drew thousands of spectators to the site.
With U.S. 20 closed for the project, onlookers could reach the farm only by taking a shuttle bus from the Lincoln Mall, Freeport.
“It’s a once in a lifetime experience,” said Arleta Gordon, Freeport, as she watched the construction progress Sunday afternoon.
She watches the TV show “all the time” she said, and had already purchased tickets to attend ‘Reveal Day” Sept. 16 when the finished home was scheduled to be presented to the Stotts.
Christina Vergin and Sue Boomgarden, both of German Valley, parked their lawn chairs under a large tree Sunday morning.
“It’s pretty awesome,” Boomgarden said from her vantage point about halfway down the long drive from the road to the buildings. “There’s so many different things moving all at the same time.”
Both she and Vergin are fans of the show.
Laura and Kevin Albert, Woodridge, drove two and a half hours to get to the site. They love the show, they said, and have been to every makeover so far in Illinois — this one made four.
“This is the closet I’ve ever gotten,” Laura said as she watched from the spectator’s area behind a chain link fence. “This one has more workers and equipment because they’re doing more buildings. The others were in urban settings.”
Film crew member Nathan Piotrowski, a native of Stevens Point, Wis., wore his trademark cheese head hat to make sure everyone at the construction site knew he’d be cheering for the Green Bay Packers when they faced off against the Chicago Bears that evening.
As he made numerous trips back and forth from the production crew’s staging area to the construction site in front of the spectator area, some Bears fans took notice.
“Every time I go down this line there’s like one or two death threats,” he joked.
