So its Tuesday after school and we've got everything loaded up in Pamela's church' van. Six of us got to go to Joplin to the Extreme Makeover Home Edition work site. Kay and I were soooo excited. After getting through security checkpoint on Conner's street, we drove down the street in front of all the houses. There were people everywhere, going in and coming out of the 6 houses. Carrying furniture, toys, household accessories, you name it. There were big tents at the end of the blocks with people working away, building things, painting, etc. On the other side of the street were travel trailers. These were the designers headquarters, where we needed to check in. We waiting for one of there assistants to give us our shirts and directions. All volunteers had to wear the blue EMHE shirt while on site. Then it was off to our houses, thinking we'd get this done in a couple of hours and be on our way. Hahaha! What we found in those houses was pure organized chaos. Each house has a young little designer who is in charge, with people everywhere, in and out of all the homes. Each house was in a different stage of being ready. While we were waiting for our designers to tell us what to do, we got to walk up and down the street and check out the houses. They are AWESOME! Even the yards were awesome. We weren't supposed to take pictures, but I had Kay's little camera in my jean's pocket and it slipped out every once in a while and went off. As it got dark, the flood lights on huge poles came on, lighting the whole street in front and in back of each house as if it was daylight. Every house has a different theme, from cabin to beach. While they were beautiful and exquisitely decorated, they were modest homes, not too big, not too over the top, but very livable, mostly practical modern homes.
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| House # 6 |
But back to what we were supposed to be doing there. Hang curtains and drapes, but there were no curtain rods in the houses. O.K then lets put pillow forms in the pillows. OH, no one knew where the pillow forms were. Assistants were sent scurrying to find curtain rods and pillow forms. So we waited. We had satin covered headers for a king size bed and king size duvet for a bed. But room wasn't finished, wallpaper hadn't come yet. Its supposed to be there by midnight, then someone would put it up and then the room could be finished. Remember, the big reveal was the next morning. NO problem! While we were waiting for something to do, Kay and iI decided to find where our quilts were supposed to be. Kay's "We love Joplin" 's quilt's new home was to be in the first house, the cabin style which was the fireman's family's house. Since it was the first to be revealed in the morning, the race was on to get it finished. The seamstresses in that house were also waiting on pillow forms and curtain rods. There were six or seven big hunky construction type men working on hanging a canoe from the ceiling. People were working feverishly everywhere! As we were waiting for the designer to talk to us, In walked Ty Pennington and a couple of camera men. One of the women with us, Louise ran up to him and asked him to take her picture with him. ( I know, we weren't supposed to take pictures) He said No, but she didn't take no for an answer. So here is the picture.
He was there to film for the show, so we decided to come back later, we left out the back and took my quilt over to house 2 to find its new home. I told the designer in that house that I had the quilt and she said, "NO, a lady is making a quilt for me tonight" I smiled and said No, i brought this one remember' Oh yes, she says, I remember i saw a picture of this one, Just put it in the bathtub of the master bedroom and we'll put it in its place when we're ready. ( that's where they keep the bedding, accessories, etc to keep it clean and safe, in the bathtubs. The bathrooms are the only rooms in the houses, completely done and ready to go) So off we go to the 'eco green" master bedroom. It was so cool, had bed posts made out of real birch trees. It wasn't finished yet, still needed a bottom for the bed, mattress and box springs. But it made a perfect backdrop to take a final picture of my quilt.
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| Here I am in front of the drapes in house 6 |
Then it was back to house #1. Ty was gone and we finally got the attention of the designer about Kay's quilt. She was excited about it and told us to leave it in the master bedroom bathroom. sigh. So Kay and I both had to say goodbye to our babies in the bathrooms. We don't know where they ended up, hopefully in the hands of someone who will love them. And we also hope the quilts will provide some warmth and comfort to the families in those homes.
Finally, someone found some curtain rods, so our work started in house 7. A couple of our team worked on those windows, so we went over to house 6. Finally the curtain rods for house number 6 were found. Of course they weren't all the right size, but we adapted. Did you know you could put several together to make one really long curtain rod? As we worked putting the drapes on the rod, hanging the rod hardware, people kept coming in and out of the house, putting together furniture, hanging up clothes in the closets, putting away all new dishes, pots and pans, cleaning supplies, everything you can think of that goes in a house. Candles, vases, fake plants started to appear. When we could get her attention the designer would tell us where she wanted them hung, where she wanted them to go, how far from the floor they should be, and how many panels she wanted on each window.
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| Here is Pamela, her husband Don and Kay working on the big window in house #6 |
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Brocade drapes in house #6, Turned out beautifully!
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