You’d have to figure a show that features sawing and hammering and a wild man shouting through a bullhorn would not go quietly. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” makes its farewell appearance after nine years Friday (1/13) with a special two-hour 200th episode. It’s an epic job the design team, led by Ty Pennington, is unlikely ever to forget: building seven new homes in seven days in tornado-ravaged Joplin, Missouri. Designer Paul DiMeo, known affectionately to fans of the show as the soft-hearted Paulie, tells me they got enough video in Joplin for a full season. “They’ve had a hard time editing it down to two hours. You know, I heard […]

This week’s story takes us to Fayetteville, N.C. where we met up with a woman by the name of Barbara Marshall. Barbara Marshall is a veteran of the Navy and she has seen a problem develop over the years with our women veterans coming back from deployment and then finding themselves homeless, without jobs and in really tough situations. Barbara has decided to take it upon herself to help these women and their children by bringing them into the Steps and Stages Jubilee House and give them a chance to get back on their feet. We had a chance to meet a few of those veterans who were staying with […]

“Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is hanging up its hammer with its biggest build ever — a seven-family neighborhood in tornado-torn Joplin, Mo. Tomorrow night, the ABC series that’s built more than 200 new homes, and changed thousands of lives for the better, ends its nine-season run by building seven houses in just seven days. “For all of us that were there, Joplin was life-changing,” says series designer Paul DiMeo while rattling off stats including the 13,000 volunteers and 21 builders that flocked to Joplin to work on the houses last November, right before Thanksgiving. “To be doing this for nine years, to end on that note, is something that I’ll […]

Carpenter Paul DiMeo shines as a minor celebrity who uses major craftsmanship to create hope on the reality TV show, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition I needed to eat I’m reluctant to call myself a star and prefer the moniker “Minor Celebrity.” And in my case, “Minor, Minor Celebrity.” And a lucky one at that. It all began for me back in college where I majored in theater with the hope of acting in dramas and musicals on and off Broadway. Television was always an option, but I like live theater; I get energy from the audience. So I went to New York after college, hustling audition after audition, and quickly […]