The Okvath Family

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
The Okvath Family
Recap By J.G. Bird
3-13-05


The heart of this episode, and most often every episode of this show, is in making a good life better. It’s clear from start to finish that the Okvath family already have a good life. An eight-year old’s compassion is not solely created from a personal battle with cancer. It’s in a statement of gratitude from her mother, Nichol, which hits me: “Now we can live, having the honor of raising our kids.” Oh! It mirrors the biggest unspoken wish of every struggling American family. So many of us can’t help it, but know we are spending more time working responsibly than really sharing ourselves with our kids. “Love Comes First,” indeed!

Kassandra Okvath’s wish-filled words on the family’s application tape inspire not only the requested makeover for the Bone Marrow Transplant Children’s Ward of the Tuscon medical center that treated her, but a new home for her large family and a children’s book written by Preston Sharp! But, understand, her family’s application is made to give voice to her plan for painting the walls in the hospital only. It’s her intent to redesign the hospital with ABC/Disney’s help or not. She makes bead necklaces at home and sells them to raise money for the local cancer patients’ benefit, or to gift to parents that lost their children. The portion of the family application video that’s repeated for emphasis a number of times in the episode has Kassandra explaining about the design of her necklaces - the pink beads are “on top” because they’re “for Love” and “love comes first,” she says.

The two-hour format for this makeover is based on the double makeover; however, it’s got the lazy feel of most of their past two-hour efforts. Especially since How’d They Do That? began airing, giving two-hours of makeover just gives more time for the designers to repeat themselves. I think the show might have had a more dynamic use of the two-hours if the white lie that the design team is passing through hadn’t been incorporated. Ty calls the family out, says, we’re on our way north to Minneapolis, Minnesota, but we’re leaving a design team at the hospital in Tuscon. Kassandra and her family get to pack up and stay in a Tuscon resort, (90 miles from their Gilbert, Arizona home) so they can oversee the work on the hospital ward. The limo goes down the road, followed by the bus, then they part ways and the bus pulls back up in front of the Okvath home. Ty gets one sly phone call in to Kassandra at this point, asking what are things that eight-year old girls like? This girl is astute – she may be on to the real plan before anyone else. Garden flowers and bright colors are favorites for eight-year old girls – you can see the inquisitiveness in Kassandra’s face as she answers Ty's questions.

I loved this family’s modest ranch style home. I wondered how it could be demolished and rebuilt without the family being aware, nor giving more than a casual “do whatever ya want, Ty”. On the more intriguing legal aspects for this property, I refer you to an article out of Sunday’s East Valley Tribune, an Arizona newspaper. www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=36550

Ty starts some informational recon around the neighborhood to assist the designers in knowing what the family’s needs may be. Nichol and Bryan Harris are the parents of six young children. Eight-year-old Kassandra, their oldest, is a smiling, driven girl whose two-year battle to recover from cancer treatment has left its mark on her neighborhood. She also has siblings, Gabby, six, Levi, five, two-year-old twins Josiah & Tobiah and six-month-old Jonathan. As we’ve learned from a few episode of EM:HE, families often struggle in focusing care on the seriously ill child. Parents have to make separate living arrangements for treatment (Treatment centers never seem to be next door).

Kassandra is shown motivating her team of Disney VoluntEars outside the hospital, chanting, “No white walls!” at the same time Ty is leading demolition and reminding on-lookers that the family is not aware that this makeover is taking place. We are introduced to the Team Leader for the build’s contractor, Mike of Taylor-Woodrow. February 6th the Okvath home was demolished in about eight minutes with three bulldozers pushing it off the foundation. There’s a 40 foot well uncovered on the property that ends up having to be filled in with concrete. This puts the schedule off slightly. However, this has to be the biggest volunteer crew they’ve ever gathered. 1600 total, but about 1000 at this stage alone. Ed makes a tongue twister out of his praise for the fast framing: By the time these framers are finished, no further than five hours behind; these are fine Phoenix framers!
Carly Patterson, Olympic-gold medalist comes to be captured on film for a unique mural on the wall of the bedroom of Gabby’s gymnast room.
Ty and Paige goof around on Handycam to continue to sell the family on the idea that the team is currently in Minnesota. Artificial snow drifting down on Ty in close-up. Ty has Kassandra’s room as his Secret project.
It’s important to point out that Connie, Paige, Preston, Ed and Ty are the credited team-members for this episode, but half-way through all his projects, Ed tries to treat some bad blisters at the heels of his feet with aftershave and ends up hobbling himself. Ty calls Paul DiMeo in to help. Almost everything, design-wise will get further explanation on the How’d They Do That? episode.
We see the wonderfully Disney transformed individual rooms in the hospital. The room Kassandra remembers as “hers” received an “Under the Sea” treatment – a Finding Nemo mural facing the bed. The “Disneyhand” worldwide charitable group of the Disney companies furnished the ward with stuffed animals, books and videos.
So back at the ranch – oh, actually now it’s a Spanish castle – the gathered crowds are kept quiet to keep the surprise to the last minute. Ty admits to getting a little carried away putting a “coat of paint” on the Okvath home. And the home is revealed to the returned family. Before they even venture inside, the CEO of Taylor-Woodrow appears and floors the parents with the news that the mortgage is paid.
We see the most distinctive feature of the redone, now two-story Okvath home is the front double doors opening to a central courtyard. The elegant kitchen inside doesn’t even look like a kitchen. The twin boys have Giant Tonka toy beds in a construction zone bedroom. Gabby’s still purple-dominated room has gym wear and tumbling mats all about. Ty can’t resist vaulting onto the bed as an example of the type of gymnastics that kids can do in a bedroom. The baby of the family is all smiles over a teddy-bear themed room.
The best two kids’ rooms are the first and last revealed respectively. Levi’s kite room – his bed looks like a great big colorful box kite and has a wind monitor for noting acceptable kite-flying weather. Kassandra’s room is decorated, I guess you could call it, from bug-size perspective. Giant flower stalks and grass tufts are painted on the walls. Ty placed brightly colored flowers both on the walls and on a bench that looks like a flowerbed. The bed itself, Ty dubs “a bedbug.” He also shows Kassandra that she has one of his access doors to the parent’s suite. Nichol and Bryan’s suite has red silk bedcovers and white dual loungers in a suite that has massive scale. The scale follows through in the bath as well.
A bead studio and storybook nook are the most personalized sections to complete the Okvath home. A specially written and illustrated book has been made from Kassandra’s story and is placed on a pedestal in the nook for the family. The beading hobby that Kassandra has recently turned to for raising funds and awareness for cancer treatment has been given a huge boost by the enterprising EM:HE designers. They added to the organization and supplies for the home-based business of creating Kassandra’s necklaces. It just says Beads Galore International on the abc.go.com website, but go to beadsgalore.com and you'll find that their 3500 sqft showroom is in Tempe, AZ - very likely the site Connie Ramos visited for the supplies. That shop owner agreed that he would gladly sell Kassandra’s creations. I’ve already heard people are clamoring for the necklaces. Just remember, give the eight-year old a break, these will be precious treasures from her hands to ours. I hate to think of her beading for the rest of her life to meet demand!