Now... Where did I leave off..???

The following images were from Wednesday the 12th, which was the day that the church was revealed to the Pastor's family. The church project was actually one day ahead of the house in Westwego because the demo on the church was one day earlier. Both projects ran into difficulties, mostly because of a shortage of skilled labor. There were plenty of volunteers, but the there were problems getting enough tradesmen (i.e. electricians, plumbers, etc.) to come in and help.


Here are some volunteers putting the finishing touches on the landscaping.

Michael gives us the word that the church is done and it's time to bring the pastor and his family back home to see the new church.

It's difficult to believe that here is a church, on Wednesday morning, where there was a dilapidated and storm damaged building on Saturday... that's just four days.

The local media was on hand..

Along with some of the church's congregation...

So we brought the family home to see their new church...

You know the words... "Bus driver, Move, That, Bus...!!!"

Needless to say, Pastor Walker was very, VERY happy.

Here the pastor's family is thanking the designers and builders.

And as Ty says... "Go check out your new church"...

After the church was revealed, it was back to Westwego to see the progress on the other project (the house).

While the outside of the house was nearly complete, the inside was a different story. Here are a couple of volunteers putting down a wooden floor in the main living area.

On the outside workers were busy with the landscape elements, such as shown here putting in pavers as for a walkway from the driveway to the house's main entrance.

In the back workers were touching up the paint...

Volunteers were please to get a supprise visit from Pastor Walker from the church project.

This is the helmet of a firefighter from Torrance... that's Torrance California. There were several fire fighters from California that volunteered to come help some fellow firefighters see their dreams come true.

As night fell, it may not have been obvious to the folks watching the house go up, but there was a lot left to be completed if the family was to come home the next day. Some even said that the builders and the volunteers would have to perform miracles...

Stay tuned to see if the family was actually able to come home on time, or if the builders would have to ask for another day to complete the project.

To see more photos of the Extreme Makeover, click here.

Apologies and… Bad news/Good news…

For those of you who followed this blog, I would like to apologize for not updating it since Tuesday night (really it was Wednesday morning). Turns out, among the many, MANY things I’ve learned about doing a project like this is that I need to learn the capacity of my own bite size..!!! What I mean is that I bit off more than I could handle. While a blog would be “doable” on a normal Extreme Makeover, on a project of the magnitude of this (two separate jobsites) finding enough time to shoot enough to capture all aspects of the making of the show (including almost all stages of construction on a 24/7job) was just too demanding. Most days ended up starting at 5:00 or 6:00 (in the AM) and ending anywhere between 1:00 and 4:00 (in the AM). So, as for not updating the blog since the last post… I apologize.

Now for the bad news… I’m still trying to catch up on sleep and I have taken a needed break from the computer, so I don’t have any new images to post YET, and I’m about to turn out the light and go (as Zander my grandson says) Night-nite. That’s the bad news.

The good news is that there are still lot’s of photos to show you and stories to tell you. Stay tuned and tomorrow I promise to post more of both photos and stories.

Good night…

After a Rainy Night...

Sorry folks... It's after 3:00am and I'm too tired to type. Especially considering that we have to be back on the job at 8:00.

Here are some images from today (Tuesday)...

Building Dreams...

Our day started by ending yesterday. We didn't leave the jobsite until 2:00 am this morning.

Even though the build has fallen slightly behind schedule, everyone is still working together to meet the deadline. FYI... They don't really build the house in one week, they actually do it in 102 hours or less. Any time you hear them say they are 5 or 6 hours behind schedule, now you know what that really means to finishing on time.


We got to take what appears to be the last hop in the helicopter (the pilot said he'll be heading back to Oklahoma in the morning). Both Cesar and I would like to give a hearty THANK YOU to the guys at Simmons Homes for shuttling us around so that we could get some awesome aerial images.

Here we see some volunteers patiently waiting for some "marching orders".


The unique shape of the house (and church too for that matter) is designed to stand up against hurricane force winds. It also is one of the reasons that the project has fallen slightly behind schedule.

Here is one of Cesar's photos of the Hwy 90 bridge that we have to take for the 20 minute ride to get to the jobsite for the house (when we aren't taking the 5 minute ride in the helicopter).

That's "your's truly" getting to play "real photographer" like the big boys (again, thanks to the guys at Simmons homes).


Back on the ground we found the volunteers have mad some progress catching up with the schedule.

Part of the credit for catching up on the schedule is all the hard work put forth by the volunteers. Here you see a fireman that has donated his time to help build one of his firemen brethren a wonderful home.



To see more photos of the Extreme Makeover, click here.

Old Fashioned "Barn Raising" (sort of)

This was another early day, and loosing an hour last night didn't help any..!!! None the less, we got out to the House site to take advantage of the nice early morning light.

It's hard to believe that there wasn't even a slab last night at 10:00pm, but here we are in the early AM putting up floor joists.

Today, Ed has taken on the special project of hand building the doors for the Church. This image is of him laying out the measurements before cutting the VERY expensive Walnut lumber that the doors are going to be made out of.

One of the builders (Simmons Homes) had their helicopter on hand and volunteered to take Cesar and myself up to get some aerial shots of the job sites.

Again, remember that last night there wasn't even a foundation. We photographed the first concrete being poured at about 11:00 pm... and now look at the progress of the family's home.



Time for a quick fly-by on the way to the Church site...

New Orleans, Louisiana

This is the church from above (kind of appropriate don't you think?). Even though the project is running about 6 hours behind, it's still hard to believe that they can put up a building this fast..!!!



With light like this how can a photographer NOT take a shot. Note to self, when you are in a helicopter traveling 1oo+ knots with the door removed for better photographs, when it's in the 40's (on the ground), and you don't have a coat... the last thing you should do is hang out the door. I'm just sayin'...

Now that's what I'm taking about..!!! Light just doesn't get much better than this.



Back to the house we found that the walls to the second floor were going up and there was a flurry of activity inside. You would think that with all of these workers trying to work around each other there would be tempers flaring, but the reality is that EVERYONE is working together to get the job done for the family. I wish there was a way to take this kind of kindness and caring into the "real world".

More to come tomorrow (since it's after 12:00 I should have said later today).

Stay tuned...

To see more images of the Extreme Makeover Home Edition in New Orleans Click Here

Demolition Day #2 - The "Family's" House

Another early morning. Volunteers started showing up around daybreak at the families home to volunteer to be in the march down the street before the team tore down the house.

Everyone had to check in at the production desk and sign a waiver that basically give ABC the right to use their image on the TV show. From there it was more hurry and wait, and while most of us waited, we had to keep our mind off of the cold temperatures...!!!

Eventually... the army of volunteers came running down the street with the designers in the lead, full of excitement of the fact that the house was just about to be torn down.

The crowds really love Ty. It's sometimes tough for the crew to film because the fans (mostly the girls) go nuts when he comes out to be on camera.

Today Ty got a little too close to the action when the excavator was tearing the house down and he almost was hit by debris.

After all the fun and games of making a TV show was through for the day, the builders took over and were down to business in no time.

One of the remarkable things about an Extreme Makeover is the pace of things. Not only was the house demolished in no time by the excavator, but it was removed from the site in about an hour and a half after it was demolished.