Extreme Makeover: Home Edition's Michael Moloney on the Hill Family
This week we're in Suffield, Connecticut to pay a visit to the Hill Family. Known to local admirers as the "family choir," the 13 Hill family members — William and Catherine along with their sons, daughters, nieces and nephews — have motivated friends and neighbors with their musical talents, academic achievements and selfless generosity. Cramped living conditions and sorely needed electrical, plumbing, roof and other home repairs have continued to take a backseat to helping those in need and providing a good education for the children. Five of the Hill siblings and cousins living at home are college students, and the family also scrimps and saves to provide medical treatment and care in their home for cousin Shamia, who received a kidney transplant from daughter Sonia.
When I look at the Hill family I see an amazing, happy, healthy, thriving family, whose house happens to be falling down around them and after a devastating fire in 1993, which damaged their already cramped home. They really need us. I think we're the lucky ones this week because we get to get in there, make a difference, build a healthy, safe, home for them, and that's just going to launch the potential with each one of these kids. When your primary in goal in life is taking care 13 people, feeding 13 mouths, and just getting by day-to-day, the last priority is things like holes in the floor and the house falling down around you. Those things have become almost insignificant to them. But it's become so bad, that they need us. We're here this week to put that house back together so they can continue their lives, continue to give back to others, and to their community.
Our builder this week is Kent Pecoy from Pecoy Signature Homes. Kent is just steady Eddie. He's here to get the job done. He's a nice guy. He's a family man. His whole family is here. I think they're going to knock this one out of the park with our special guest this week, Xzibit. Now Xzibit is known for his acting and for his rapping, not necessarily for his design skills or his house building. But, he's with us, his heart is in the right place, and he will make a great guest designer this week.
This week's project is Bill and Catherine's room. They're still madly in love, but they give the children the support the need to excel. So one of the projects I'm working on this week is the master bedroom. I want to give them a place they've never had. A rest stop, a sanctuary, a place where they can go in and be together and still be in love.
The Hill family's model is "That's what family does." You do the right thing, no matter what. Whatever the cost is, you do it. Look at them, I mean that they're just a shining example of doing the right thing and how that pays off. You look into the faces of each and every one them and they're smiling and they're beaming and they're healthy and they've got so much potential. And the cool thing is that this week we get to take that potential and just launch it.
