Tech landscape students working on 'Extreme Makeover' house: AJ Link
A horde of Texas Tech landscape architecture students have shuttled to Wellman, shift by shift by shift, since Friday night to create a new front and backyard for the Brown family, who will have a new home Monday, thanks to the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" reality TV series.
In all, 85 volunteers from the undergraduate program signed on to help their department chairman, Alon Kvashny, implement the drought-tolerant front yard design and assist in installing a more traditional recreational backyard.
The front yard has Smartscape low-water-use plantings. The backyard is off limits to media and spectators because the design includes a surprise for the family "" Johnnie Mac, Jeanne and their daughter Katrina "" when they get back from a week's vacation in Manhattan on Monday for the "reveal."
Saturday, the fifth day of the seven-day, round-the-clock home construction program, was the first full day for the landscaping students, who were on a break around noon to make room for the fencing company to get its installation done.
Producers of the ABC series contacted Kvashny about two weeks ago to see if he and his department would be interesting in undertaking the project, providing another example of the kind of stealthy tactics Lock and Key Productions uses in its advance work.
"They got the family away for a lunch up in the Lubbock area, so we would have some time to look at the property," Kvashny explained over a circular saw's whine and the rumble of small front-end loaders. Trees and other landscaping materials for the project were donated by TG Trees of Lubbock.
There wasn't much room for the landscaping crew to work in the front yard Saturday as other teams were putting finishing touches on the exterior, including an atrium-style entry and a stacked-flagstone style exterior on the Palm Harbor modular home.
However, some work had already been done among various pieces of heavy equipment, creating small elevations in the yard and working around a prickly-pear cactus and two trees that the plan calls for keeping in the new design.
Some small elevations had been created, as the plan calls for trying to retain rainwater in a small "dry river" on the property rather than having it run off into an alley behind the house. And in terms of drawing assignments, the undergrads found that rank doesn't always have its privileges.
The first team in, arriving Friday night, were the fifth-year students, Kvashny said, adding that fourth-year students were next. Second-year students were in Saturday afternoon, and more crews will be shuttled in today to finish the work.
Maury Kennedy, vice president of sales and marketing for Palm Harbor Homes, predicted the build will be finished with plenty of time before Monday's "reveal" "" the moment when the family comes back from the vacation and sees the new house.
Earlier in the week, construction was about four hours behind schedule because of wind issues and retakes requested by the production crew as the pieces of the three-bedroom, two-bath house with garage were swung into place on a crane.
Cold weather early in the process delayed pouring the foundation and winds made moving the modular home's pieces "" the house arrived in three sections, the garage in two more "" into place tricky.
"We found the production crew does most of its filming during the day, so we were able to make the time up at night," Kennedy said. "We're probably about 20 or 30 minutes ahead, although it's hard to tell with 40 people out there on the site doing so much at the same time."
Kennedy had plenty of praise for the local partner in the project, the West Texas Home Builders Association, which did a lot of local drum-beating to get volunteers, along with help from member companies.
And they get worked "" hard. Crews work roughly six hours on the site "" 1-7 p.m., 7 p.m.-1 a.m., 1-7 a.m., 7 a.m.- 1 p.m. and, Kennedy said, there's usually no reluctance about heading out when the shift is over.
"They want to come back and do it again tomorrow, but after six hours, they're usually ready to leave for the day," he said. "The volunteers don't do this every day, so they're finding muscles they didn't know they had."
Kennedy said the showing of support from volunteers and spectators has been outstanding, recounting the story of finding a new computer for the family.
Kennedy said he mentioned it to someone in the media tent in conversation, and within minutes "" before he'd had a chance to post the need on the build's website "" a volunteer walked into the media tent and said they had a computer store's commitment to donate the sought-after machine.
That was one of several instances, Kennedy said, where volunteers on the site heard about a shortage or a need and passed the word to local merchants who came through with supplies and materials.
"The community support has just been overwhelming," he said.
Written By Walt Nett / Avalanche-Journal
CONTACT: Alon Kvashny, chairperson, Department of Landscape Architecture, Texas Tech University at (806) 742-2858 or alon.kvashny@ttu.edu
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For more information, click http://lubbockonline.com/local-news/2010-11-21/tech-landscape-students-join-throngs-working-extreme-makeover-house-wellman
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