March 11, 2007: Tipton-Smith Family
This week the crew and I find ourselves in Waleska, Georgia, building a home for a wonderful family who taught me a thing or two about remembering and persevering. This week is about hope, love and never giving up.
The Tipton-Smith clan is your typical American family. Faith, the mom, and her son Ransom and daughters Melissa and Emily were out of town when they received a phone call that their home had burned to the ground, a total loss. Faith, being the person that she is, just buckled down and persevered. She knew all those material items were replaceable and that as long as she was with her family she would find a way. Faith and the kids had a dream to build a new house together and got busy with the task at hand. Then tragedy struck this family one more time.
Exactly three months after the fire, Faith received another devastating phone call, this one much, much worse. Ransom and his sister Melissa were in a terrible car crash less than a mile from their home. Melissa was able to walk away from the collision, but Ransom wasn't so lucky. He passed away the next day. The Tipton-Smiths were rocked to their foundation. Losing Ransom changed their lives. They reluctantly started construction again, but the insurance money quickly ran out and so did the drive to finish. We were there to see their dream through.
Building a house in a week is a logistical nightmare, but it's even worse if you factor in a construction site that sat exposed to the elements for over a year. The frame, or skeleton of the house, was tweaked, warped, corkscrewed and had settled. Each subfloor plank was like a trampoline. We spent more time fixing the old structure than it would have taken to build a new one from scratch. We had to raise the frame up, pull all the bad lumber and replace it, reinforce all the studs, all the while abating the existing mold and coating the entire house in mold-inhibiting chemicals. What you won't see on Sunday's show is all the mold remediation work that was done by Disaster Services Inc. Without their time and determination, the existing frame may have been a loss. All this work was to keep Ransom's dream alive, and it was the most important thing we did all week.
Tony Perry of Oakwood Homes, joined by all his sub and trade partners, stepped up big-time this week. Oakwood gave all of themselves on this project. Not only did they volunteer their efforts to rebuild this home, they also came together with RBC Centura Bank and the community to completely pay off the mortgage - what a generous spirit. That's just Tony!
My project this week for the family was a home theater. Whenever I spoke with any of the girls' friends, they all told me that the one constant in the Tipton-Smith household were the dozens of friends in and out of their home all the time; it was the hangout spot. I liked that idea and decided to make them an area where everyone can gather to watch movies and just chill. So I modeled the whole room after an Art Deco theater with a huge concession stand as the centerpiece.
I think they'll enjoy many great times with friends and family in this new home, creating memories to last a lifetime. I know they will always hold Ransom dear in their hearts and I hope that they feel him through the legacy he was able to leave in the design of their new home. I love this job - where else could you work with such a talented group of people? From the builders to the show's crew, everyone's goal is the same: to help other people.
