"Extreme Makeover" crew welcomes Skaggs family to new home

By Aaron Wright

SLAUGHTERVILLE -- Audra Skaggs barreled out of the "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" limousine Sunday and leaped on Ty Pennington, the show's host, giving him a big hug.

And this was before she saw her new house.

Skaggs is a preschool teacher in Lexington and her husband, Brian is a cattle rancher. The couple, with their two children, 5-year-old Merit and 3-year-old Jhett, had been living in a rental house in Lexington that had termite and mold issues. These conditions made life especially difficult for Jhett, who has medical issues.

After struggling with his health since birth, at 10 months old, Jhett received a heart transplant. Although he has had a relatively good reaction, he still has to get regular checkups with a specialist in Houston. He also has a harder time overcoming illnesses that other children would cycle through in a couple of days.

It was this story that led to their nomination from co-workers and family members for the home makeover.

While the family was away on vacation, volunteers braved the chaotic weather conditions to build a home for the Skaggs on their land in Slaughterville, where their old barn used to stand. The new home is tan with stone pillars and turquoise shutters. A ranch sign over the entry of the road to the house has the family's name carved out of metal and sitting on wooden posts.

Ideal Homes of Norman was in charge of the construction for the Skaggs's new home. Community volunteers like Amanda Lackey and Sherri Williams spent several days at the site, working in what an "Extreme Makeover" production crew member told the audience ranked among the worst conditions the show has had to build in yet.

"We helped get the patio ready, the backyard," Williams said. Lackey said at the time she was there she helped mainly with cleaning, moving furniture, sweeping and other housekeeping chores.

Steve Shoemaker, director of marketing for Ideal Homes, said that logistically the build was about 10 times harder than what the builders originally expected to take on. He said the difficulty was due to the arrival of rain and snow paired with traffic, mud and other obstacles.

However, these setbacks proved to be no problem for the hired contractors, who deal with fickle Oklahoma weather frequently. Shoemaker said the contractors pulled together, aiding each other and giving all they had to get the house completed in time for Sunday's reveal. Shoemaker said there were nights when he would see contractors sleeping in the cabs of their trucks at 2 a.m. so they could be ready to get working on the site come daylight.

"It's been a life-changing experience for everyone involved," he said. "The feel-good feeling is exceeding our expectation."

Biting and damp weather also couldn't stop fans, friends and family from coming to support the Skaggs at the reveal. Hundreds of people stood on muddy planks behind barricades facing the Skaggs's new home. They were bundled up and ready to yell for the bus to move.

Peggy Sealy, with Prodigy Public Relations, the firm that handled publicity for the reveal, said some of the people had been waiting since 8 a.m. for the reveal scheduled six hours later. By 1:45 p.m., the crowd knew the reveal was getting close. For the next hour of so, they stood waving with their homemade signs and cheering for everything from a bus getting through the narrow, muddy roads to the camera, which frequently swung over their heads.

This crowd included former students of Audra's such as Morgan Hamm, who is now in fifth grade. Hamm said she remembers Audra as being "really nice."

Audra's sister Karrie Ferguson also was in the audience. Ferguson said she hasn't been able to contact the family all week and admitted she was dying to talk to her sister.

Ferguson said she was able to take a look at the house before all the production began for the reveal.

"It's great ... it's perfect," she said. "And it couldn't be in a better spot."

An exact date has not been issued yet as to when this episode of the show will air. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" airs on ABC at 7 p.m. Sundays.

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