The Pope Family

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Season 2, Episode 3
The Pope Family
Recap By J.G. Bird
October 11, 2004

The recurring cast on the show may or may not be familiar to you, based on your viewing obsessions:
The host/spokesman – Ty Pennington – Trading Spaces’ unforgettable carpenter from 2000-2004 is currently showing up in Sears commercials as a tie-in to his show. He gets his carpentry fix too, usually shutting himself away for a project in the show that is his alone.
The following people complete the design team:
Carpentry/Creativity – Paul DiMeo, who’s not so hidden talent is in recruiting help on his projects.
Carpentry/Creativity – Paige Hemmis, the Renaissance gal of the group, recruited from Monster House.
Building Planning – Constance Ramos – rightfully the one with pen in hand when the team sits down to draw the new layout; she’s got the Architecture degree and experience in the family design business.
Shopping/Style – Tracy Hutson – shopping is the decorator’s delight.
Interior Design/Glamour – Michael Maloney can also be seen on Style Network’s Clean House.
Exteriors/Big Ideas – Preston Sharp – production designer on several prior Reality programs, but you wouldn’t have seen him, just his work.
Construction (and Demolition) come from far and wide and seem never less than 300 strong.
The lead contractor is local, and/or a friend of the family, but more than anything - up for the challenge of a one week build.

The best overall idea that sets Extreme Makeover Home Edition apart? They send the family away – Far, far away! It’s the fantasy factor. Not only do the families not have to get their collective hands dirty, ABC/Disney whisks them away in a limo. So now, I’ve set the stage for recapping the latest renovation.

Lantern-toting design team members arrive before dawn to tour the house of the Popes. The Pope family’s compelling story centers around their pre-teen, Shelby Pope. Exposure to sunlight without protection can cause severe sun poisoning. From her average size room, with highly placed windows covered by dark sheets, she makes it clear how daunting a lifestyle she faces. The house looks pretty livable despite being 99 years old, The clips from the application video show each of the girl’s bedrooms look nicely painted. And upon touring, there’s one main room that looks pretty cleared out like it also was recently painted, but the thing they note is the amount of light that enters that room – so it’s also likely none of the Pope family spend much time in there, just to stay in solidarity with this daughter with the sensitivity to the sun. It’s revealed that The Popes will be sent to the nation’s capitol, as D.C. boasts lovely night viewing and endless museum touring.

Living in Sonoma County, North of San Francisco, on several acres sounds glamorous, but in a small, turn-of-the-Century, white-washed shake shingle home with one indoor bath and one outhouse and several other outside structures, the Pope Family seem like they’ve cocooned into the home since Shelby’s skin condition was diagnosed at the age of six. The younger daughter, Maddie, also seems to have traded an outgoing style for that of a more introverted, suffering artist.

Unlike many of the earlier episodes of EMHE, there’s little contact with the Pope family on their vacation time. Most of the time is spent talking up the UV protection being built into every piece of framing with a pane of glass. Preston complains that the front door delivered is totally wrong for this house, “not real wood suitable only for “Donald Trump’s outhouse.” So, Paige takes the time to renovate the original house’s front door. The revealed home looked like a California mountain lodge compared to the home the Pope family left behind. Cedar shake shingles left their natural color cover the exterior and covered walkways and new windows treated throughout block UV. An entirely shaded side porch was made to look like a camping site, with artificial turf and dome tent, particularly for Shelby. Just out back, the design team set in a full-size swimming pool and spa combo, plus a trampoline, entirely shaded by the triangular tarps that you might see at the popular water ride lines at large amusement parks.

Additionally, Ty cleared out the storage barn and turned it into a separate entertainment room with one end completely devoted to wine storage. Of course, you had no sense that the Popes actually desired all that wine or the live chickens someone decided this former chicken farm needed, but no one was complaining.

There’s already rumors that we can expect to see “Where are they now?” specials on some of the EMHE families, and I’d bet the Pope family will be one of ‘em. Who wouldn’t want to see how Maddie’s paint-by numbers room turns out or how her sister Shelby’s social life will turn around now that she has her “place not in the sun?”

If you haven’t checked out the show’s website, go.
http://abc.go.com/primetime/xtremehome/index.html