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General News: Makeover Show-Local Contractors Play Big Role
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| Andy Stahl of Hearthstone is the lead contractor on the project. |
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| Dan and Andrew Mahoney take a break from wiring the house for security, audio and home theater. |
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| Timothy Vanderberg, owner of Caring Hands Massage, gives a massage to a volunteer at the work site. |
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| Center Line Studios president Roger Gray with Paul, a show designer. |
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| The volunteer crew was busy on the house on Tuesday. |
August 24, 2011
Tear down one house and build a new one, completely furnished, in just seven days? And on top of that, do the work with professional contractors willing to donate their time and materials? That was the challenge face by local building contractor Andy Stahl when he agreed a month ago to be the lead on building a new home as part of the TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Stahl, a Cornwall native who owns Hearthstone Commercial and Residential Contracting, says that he started contacting painters, carpenters, landscape companies, concrete foundation contractors and other companies that wanted to pitch in to support building a new home for the Korpai family in Crawford.
The Korpai family, parents Jimmy and Darlene and their two children, 1-year-old Hudson and 5-year-old Halley, were chosen by Extreme Makeover to receive a new home because Halley has a form a dwarfism that makes it difficult to perform routine chores like brushing her teeth or turning on a light switch. The new one-story home will make it easier for her to be independent.
Area Contractors Respond to the Call for Volunteers
Among the dozens of contractors and businesses that responded to Stahl’s appeal to donate their services are several Cornwall-based service providers. Dan Mahoney, who runs Safe & Sound Home Services Corporation with his brother, Andrew, was chosen to wire the new house for a security system, home theater and audio. He said the producers like to work with local businesses and that is why they chose him over a big national company.
Mahoney said that he, Andrew and a couple of other installers and CWA members from Verizon who also volunteered have been working alongside the construction crew on-and-off since 4 am Sunday morning, when the house frame started to take shape. “The speed with which things are progressing is a little nerve-wracking,” Mahoney admitted during a break on Tuesday afternoon. His brother Andrew described how the building design in one room was altered during the construction. “There is a lot of winging it going on,” he said.
Timothy Vanderberg, a massage therapist in Cornwall and the organizer of a business-networking group that meets bi-weekly in Cornwall-on-Hudson, was one of the first to offer his services. Vanderberg, who is Stahl’s brother-in-law, set up a massage tent onsite for the volunteers and other workers. He also helps run the county’s VIP tent that welcomes visitors to the set.
"I Knew It Would Be Crazy"
On Tuesday, Stahl spoke briefly with News from Cornwall and Cornwall-on-Hudson, stopping to answer logistical and technical questions from site workers who contacted him via radio. He said that companies have donated tens of thousands of dollars in materials and labor to complete the project on a tight deadline.
“I kind of knew it would be crazy,” Stahl said. “And it wouldn’t have been possible without all the help.”
Julie Ann Festa, who runs Diamond Painting with her husband, John, from their Cornwall-on-Hudson home, said that they worked on the house until 3 am one night, then returned to pull an all-nighter. Other Cornwall contractors who have volunteered include Imperial Painting and Ceramic Tiles by Sal. The folks at Center Line Studios, a set design company, built out Halley’s room set in its studio on Mill Street in Cornwall while a film crew captured the action.
The Big "Reveal" Set for Thursday Afternoon
All the paint should be dried, the wires in place, and the final touches to the home completed by 2 pm Thursday. That’s when the Korpai family returns from the Disney cruise the show producers sent them on. Hundreds of the volunteers who made the project a reality, along with neighbors and visitors, will be on hand when the family pulls up in a limousine to their new home, which will be blocked from view by buses. Host Ty Pennington will shout the words “Move that bus!” and the new house will be revealed to the family.
The new season of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition begins September 25. The airdate for this episode has not been announced. Click here to see more of the businesses that have volunteered for this community effort.
Comments:
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Can we get them to do the DPW building next?
posted by Stephan Wilkinson on 08/27/11 at 8:35 PM
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Hearthstone will be working on a project in Kingston. We will be counting on the Hudson Valley community again to work next to us as we help re build a soup kitchen and shelter.
posted by margaret stahl on 09/25/11 at 8:40 PM
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