New Orleans, April 1--When ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" recently came to redo a local home, the winter weather did not catch the transformative spirit of the occasion, according to the Times-Picayune.
Rain swamped the one-week renovation project and wrapped the site -- and every worker on it -- in viscous mud.
Imagine you're the guy whose job it was to install the carpet.
Imagine you're Anthony Foret.
Manager of Acadian Carpet in Marrero, Foret oversaw six flooring crews who put down carpet, laminate and bathroom tile in the levee-view home, located on Louisiana 39 in Braithwaite.
The house belongs to Robin Leslie, who was widowed by a car accident not long after she and her husband, Doug, purchased the house as a fix-up.
Robin Leslie's oldest son, Merlin, was also killed in the late-2003 car wreck, and she was left to care for three younger children plus the unfinished house.
Enter supercarpenter Ty Pennington and his home-wrecking heroes. The Leslie-home episode is scheduled to air at 7 p.m. Sunday on WGNO-Channel 26, which means that the "reveal" -- or the segment in which most of the dialogue consists of the homeowners saying "Oh My God!" over and over again -- should begin about 7:40 p.m.
The series' weekly lagniappe hour, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition: How'd They Do That?" is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday.
Foret had seen "EM:HO" only a couple of times before getting the call to work on the job, so the first meeting between subcontractors and series producers was an eye-opener, he said.
"They kind of kept saying, 'If you think you need 10 people to do the job, bring 20. If you think you need 20, bring 40,' " he said. "It's that difficult."
In total, Foret used six crews on the job.
"It was totally different than any normal thing you would ever deal with," he said. "You're in a room working with four or five other subs. Normally when someone builds or remodels a house, we're in there pretty much last.
"Our production got much better from midnight to about 7 in the morning. A lot of the subs went home and we were able to get a lot more done."
Acadian paid its crews for the hours worked on the "Extreme Makeover" house, essentially a donation to the production.
Another cost to the company was in lost work on other paying jobs. Materials were donated.
"It was a fairly costly thing," said Foret, crediting Acadian owner Don Barge for making the decision to step up. "We looked at is as an opportunity to give something back.
"It's a pride thing."
Foret also had high praise for the volunteers who worked on the job site, many of whom were family and friends of the Leslies. Amid all the muck, their assistance and inspiration provided a boost to the skilled workers on site. Plus lots of hot coffee.
"It would have been very easy to get disgusted and say, 'You know, I just can't deal with this,' " said Foret. "They had so many people out there with great attitudes. Even at 12 at night they were busy working. They knew they were doing something that was good.
"The emotional part of it is what I liked. The construction end of it is something we do every day."
Another plus for Foret was watching his company's crews, who normally work at separate sites, work together on a job.
When Foret would signal that it was time to clean out a room and start putting down flooring, every one of his workers -- a total of about 20, he said -- would pitch in.
"It wasn't like there were four in there and the other 16 were watching," Foret said. "It was almost like they were trying to outdo each other, like, 'This is how hard we work.'
"At 5 in the morning they were working just as hard as at 4 the afternoon before."
The only small bit of PR benefit Acadian was expecting out of the job was seeing its name on promotional signage around a VIP tent and in view of spectators came by to observe.
