Gilroy
– A local business recently helped make a California family’s
dreams come true, and the entire project was caught on tape.
Malibu Heating and Air Conditioning in Gilroy, owned by resident
Rick Hattaway, pitched in to help on the ABC Television Network’s
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Hattaway, 28, and his crew of five
worked to remodel a house in Encinitas, that will be featured at
8pm this Sunday on the show’s two-hour season premiere.
Gilroy – A local business recently helped make a California family’s dreams come true, and the entire project was caught on tape.
Malibu Heating and Air Conditioning in Gilroy, owned by resident Rick Hattaway, pitched in to help on the ABC Television Network’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Hattaway, 28, and his crew of five worked to remodel a house in Encinitas, that will be featured at 8pm this Sunday on the show’s two-hour season premiere.
The premise of the reality-based program is to surprise a deserving family with a completely rebuilt home.
Families who believe they’re worthy submit letters to ABC pleading their cases, then cross their fingers and hope the show’s host, Ty Pennington, knocks on their doors, telling them they’ve been selected.
When Pennington makes the housecall the winning family has one hour to pack up their stuff and be whisked away by limousine to an upscale hotel, where they stay for one week courtesy of ABC.
During that week, a group of diligent contractors, electricians, plumbers, carpenters and other crews work nonstop – literally – for 24 hours a day to finish the remodel, a job that usually would take at least four months. In late June, that lucky group was the Wofford family – a widowed father – whose wife died from a rare case of the flu – and his eight children. Their roughly 20-year-old house was 1,200 square feet, one story and had only three bedrooms, Hattaway said.
The “extremely made over” version of the Wofford abode is a seven-bedroom, two-story, 4,800-square-foot house, with improvements totaling between $300,000 and $400,000, Hattaway said.
“The house is beautiful,” he said. “It has marble and all new countertops, and each bedroom has a theme for each kid. One of the kids loved outer space, so they painted the whole room to make it look like outer space.”
Hattaway got the job when Air Cold Supplies, a firm he buys supplies from, recommended him to ABC executives.
“It was really exciting for us,” Hattaway said.
Hattaway and his crew installed two complete heating systems, one upstairs and one downstairs, in about one-and-a-half days – a job that normally takes about a week.
“It was a hectic few days with a lot of pressure,” Hattaway said. “We basically did a week-long job in one day. We were exhausted on the way home. In fact, I think we barely made it home.”
The almost 200 workers remodeling the house were not paid – the work was 100-percent donated, Hattaway said, but the personal fulfillment was compensation enough.
“The fact that we know how to do our job, and knowing that we’re giving that to a family who had nothing, makes us feel good,” he said. “Just to know that we’re giving something of quality and of value, that’s a good feeling.”
For the most part the supersize job went smoothly, except when the plumbers walked off the job out of frustration with the amount of work, Hattaway said.
“That threw the schedule off a whole day,” he said.
Hattaway said he met the Woffords when ABC presented them with their new home.
“They were completely overwhelmed, in absolute shock,” Hattaway said. “When they saw the house, they were in tears just to see what they had and what they have now.”
Thirteen-year-old Anna Wofford said her family has settled into their new home, and they’re loving it.
“It’s so much bigger than what we’re used to,” she said. “It’s beautiful. My dad is so happy.”
When asked what theme her bedroom is painted, Anna didn’t miss a beat.
“You’ll have to watch the show to find out.”
Who:
Gilroy resident Rick Hattaway and his business Malibu Heating and Air Conditioning
What:
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
When:
8pm Sunday
Where:
ABC
