Extreme Makeover Experience

August 20-25th, 2010: The ABC crew of Extreme Makeover Home Edition was in Pocatello, Idaho! Local members of the community were given the opportunity to volunteer their time and money to help this family out. I jumped on board as soon as I could, however, did not get to volunteer from the application process. I got an even better opportunity, I volunteered through the Walgreens Cooperation.

The first night, Elle and I went down to the set and kind of were more like Walgreens Promoter Girls! It was a lot of fun for the first couple of hours. We were recommending flu shots, handing out sunscreen, giving pain relievers and putting stickers on EVERYONE! We stayed a couple of hours but mainly went there to check it out.

Sunday night, Elle and I went down to the house again and this time we were prepared to get dirty and sacrifice. We showed up to the site and it was beginning to pour in rain. So, we began the night off by holding wooden poles up to shield the open parts of the building from the rain. And that was interesting because there was two little girls holding two massively heavy poles up and having little success without others' help.

The next thing we know, we are being pulled to the front of the house, so that cute girls can be at the front of the house to help move pavers around to set up the lawn. After a while, of lifting heavy loads of dirt, pavers and scratching our acrylic nails - we moved on to new jobs.

Next job, was helping the vinyl roofers on the back side of the house. And yes, I helped roof the house and it is still standing. That's right still standing! From there, we were so sick of being outside that our efforts went inside the house. And we then learned how to lay wood flooring as well Elle learned how to put a door on the house. We don't need no stupid men to get the job done, we are muscle women and independent thank you.

Sunday night ends and then Monday school does. I decided that this once and a lifetime experience, was better then getting sleep and being well rested for school. When school was done on Monday, I went home put my junk clothes on and went back to the house. Yes, day 3 at the house. And this was just cleaning things up outside, as well as beginning to move stuff inside the house to be decorated. I moved in decorations and furniture all night long.

Ended up not leaving the house and stayed there through the night. At about 6am, Channel 6 arrived to do some interviews of workers and unfortunately, I know Stuart Summers and got pulled aside to do the interviews about the house.
Interview 1 - Kathryn Channel 6
Interview 2 - Kathryn Channel 6
When I got done being highly embarrassed, I took Stuart through the house and showed him several details, which I apparently was not really supposed to do OOPS! At about 8am, the design crew showed up to the house and the final work began. The family was suppose to come home at about 1pm and we had an entire house to decorate. PROBLEM!

Actually the designers leaned on my shoulder to help them out. Apparently they trusted me because I spent the last 4 days at the house and got to know them. They actually asked me to head up decorating one of the rooms in the house. I was told to get all the camping gear, plaid material and the grill and take it to the outside patio, and my job was to make a PLAID PUKE room. I was absolutely shocked but did as I was told and got three people to help me with it. It was a cool thing to work on because it was an outdoor patio overlooking the front of the house, where thousands of people were gathering together to see the bus move!

This is the view we had from the house. It was extremely cool to see them set up all the filming crew as well as crowds. And I can not tell you how many times we watched them practice, MOVE THAT BUS! I would say at least 30 times. It began to get annoying, but they had to get the perfect shot of it, so the more shots the better the chance of getting the footage right.

Finally, the limo arrives with the family and I am still inside the house. Right as they are about to move the bus, we are finally allowed out of the house to see the commotion. It was extremely nuts to see the production. When the bus moved, I rush out of the traffic and went home to change into my Walgreens attire so I could go to work. I was so exhausted and definitely ready to sleep for three days straight.

It was a great experience and something I will always remember! I met great people, celebrities and got to experience some life changing things for the Marshall Family.

Marshall-Spreier Family Extreme Home Makeover <- Link to the episode

This was a cool experience and I am glad I did it. This is was when I was painting the little girls' bed and Ed walks into the room and helps out. It was really fun and cool to see the hott Aussie in person.

Here is a house tour of the final product!   Marshall - Spreier House Tour