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Mandy and Daniel Watson and their children head past the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" television crew to their new home on Wednesday. The Watson family spent most of the past week on vacation in Florida while the Emmy-winning show — along with more than 4,000 local volunteers — demolished the family's dilapidated farmhouse on Robinson Road and replaced it from the ground-up. (J. MILES CARY/NEWS SENTINEL )
Inside the home
"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" won't allow cameras inside the Watson home. They're keeping that for the show's November airing. The News Sentinel was allowed in for a tour without cameras. Here are some highlights:
* Five bedrooms, three upstairs and two downstairs. One downstairs is the master.
* Two and a half baths. One of those is upstairs.
* Open floor plan with tall ceilings in part of the downstairs
* Wood floors in much of the house
* First-floor playroom
* Traditional feel with lots of natural light
* If you see the show, look for a very creative dog door for the Watsons' golden retriever
* The duplex for the Restoration House families is joined by a courtyard. A stone courtyard also joins the Watson house with the duplexes.
* Each duplex is two bedrooms with one bath. They are mirror images of each other but decorated differently.
* Each duplex is about 700 square feet.
Daniel and Mandy Watson and their three young children on Wednesday ran down newly placed sod to the front door of their new home. Just before Daniel's hand hit the doorknob, the family stopped, turned and walked back up the hill.
It was time for another take of the "reveal" of the Knoxville family's new Robinson Road home, built thanks to the ABC television program "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
So shortly after 11 a.m. the Watsons — Daniel, Mandy, Atley, 7, Ava, 6 and Silas, 2, hurried for the cameras a second time to their new front porch. This time Daniel opened the door and the family stepped inside. The door with the wreath of yellow fall flowers shut behind them.
Some 800 to 1,000 volunteers and spectators came out Wednesday morning to see the Watsons get their house. Once the show taping ended, they trooped through mud and puddles to catch shuttle buses that would transport them back to Middlebrook Pike churches where they'd left their own vehicles. Some wore white hard hats and blue "Makeover" T-shirts, signs they'd helped with construction. Others people, who braved 30-degree temperatures because they were fans of the program, stopped to buy "Extreme" T-shirts as mementos.
Local donors and more than 4,000 East Tennessee volunteers built the house and nearby duplex in cooperation with the television show.
What volunteers created, under the umbrella of local firm Grace Construction, will be revealed in a TV special to air around Thanksgiving. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" has been canceled as a televisions series but will still have several specials.
In keeping with that Thanksgiving theme, pumpkins sat on the Watson front porch.
In keeping with creating a television program, some parts of the reveal were filmed more than once. Associate director Josh Zilm yelled through a megaphone, urging onlookers to practice cheering and yelling the show's trademark "Move that bus!" chant. In each show's finale, a large bus parked between the new house and the deserving family is slowly driven away to show the dwelling.
At the Watson property, the bus had to roll across sheets of plywood placed over the muddy drive.
Zilm advised fans not to use cellphones or cameras during the filming or they'd risk being axed from footage. "We don't want pictures of you taking pictures of us," he said.
Eight days earlier the Watsons found out they'd been selected for a new "Extreme" home. The program has created new, often larger homes for families across the country for about the past nine seasons.
The Watsons' previous house, a two-story white farmhouse on 3.5 acres, stood with a crumbling foundation and leaky roof. That house was demolished last week, clearing the land for a new version of a farmhouse with a tan board and stone exterior and baby blue window shutters. Near the main house a duplex was built, to serve as new homes for some of the single-mother families with whom the Watsons work.
About five years ago Daniel and Mandy Watson began The Restoration House of East Tennessee. That nonprofit offers single mothers and their children housing, mentoring and advocacy.
Many of Wednesday's spectators had stood in mud and behind metal barricades for hours in near-freezing weather under cloudy skies before the grand unveiling. Some held signs that said "Move That Bus."
Hours before the Watsons were driven in a black limousine to their home, spectators waited and sometimes cheered. Volunteers kept working, spreading mulch, planting large magnolias and carrying a swing set to a playground. Crews cleaned wooden floors inside and pressure-washed driveways outdoors.
Singe mom and volunteer Julie Shendel spent four shifts caulking and painting at the site. Her blue T-shirt and jeans were splattered with cream and brown paint. The University of Tennessee student came Wednesday to witness the Watson family, whom she had previously met, see their new home.
Seven-year-old Sacred Heart School student Maddy Hadrys and her mother, Melissa Hadrys, were up at 5:15 a.m. Wednesday to take the shuttle to the site. They'd been to a fundraiser earlier in the week for the family. Maddy is a program fan.
"I love it," she said. "It helps people."
© 2012, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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