Day Made-over
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will pour foundation for a reboot in Austin suburb
Anyone who was awake between 2004 and 2012 likely remembers the ABC show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Iconic host Ty Pennington would walk the audience through a total-home renovation in just one week, with an emotional hook and hordes of volunteers.
Now, the show is returning for its second reboot, and an Austin suburb is doing the honors of reintroducing it with new hosts.
A spotlight is set to shine on Hutto in the yet-to-be-filmed pilot episode of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition reboot. (That’s still a working title, by the way.) The show itself is also getting a bit of a makeover, as it will now be hosted by Joanna Teplin and Clea Shearer, founders of the multimedia home organizing empire the Home Edit.
Set to shoot from September 11-17, the pilot episode will feature a group of local volunteers and skilled craftspeople from the Taylor Morrison Home Corporation building an entire home from scratch. It’ll fit right in, since Taylor Morrison built the entire neighborhood, called Emory Crossing.
"We're still recruiting [volunteers], actually," says Taylor Morrison Austin Division President April Whitaker, adding that anyone near the area can sign up to be involved by heading to the Taylor Morrison Facebook page.
She emphasized the need for more hands on deck to do everything from working the catering tent and keeping the job site clean, to executing skilled labor like woodworking and cabinetry.
Although Taylor Morrison and the steadily growing team of dedicated volunteers are getting ready to go on September 11, the family selected for the new home currently has no idea that they'll be featured on the pilot episode.
“They know that they're in a group of three finalist families, but they won't be notified until the morning of the 11th,” says Whitaker. “How about that? It is a true surprise."
Adding another layer of fun for locals, the family will move into their new home once the building is completed, right in front of everyone who made it happen — and even interested neighbors.
"People can actually come out for that and watch it happen in real life if they want to. It'll be a pretty exciting day," Whitaker says.
Get Organized with The Home Edit fans may also be excited to hear that Shearer and Teplin will be onsite for filming. Although Whitaker isn't privy to the expert home designers’ specific schedules for the week, she confirms: "They are actually going to be doing organizing and legitimately will be on site and on camera, especially since they're hosting the show — so they will be floating around. So hopefully if people come out as spectators they'll get to see them."
Heartened by the excitement of locals already signing up to volunteer, Whitaker adds, "It's amazing to see the people coming together in our Austin community that really want to give back. It's a pretty neat thing, the energy that's going around right now."
She hopes that the impact of the pilot episode, in addition to the diligence of the volunteers, will inspire fans and locals alike.
"Taylor Morrison, in general, has philanthropy in our DNA. We love to give back to our community, all the way around. And it's exciting, because it is a really deserving family,” she says. “But I hope to think that by doing this in our community, other people see we are a big company, and we have a lot of resources, but we can actually make a real difference by coming together as a community and tackling this. It's a beautiful thing to know that you're doing something so wonderful."
There is no confirmed release date as of writing for the pilot episode of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition reboot, but the series has been publicized since June, when it was announced.