Finishing touches go on Powell house
Volunteers and crew give last-minute push to make site ready for its TV close-up
Delores Powell and her four children will see their new West Side home for the first time this afternoon.
That's when Ty Pennington and the rest of the cast of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" are to show them the house — and the upscale urban furniture loaded into it Friday with the help of scores of volunteers, pop singer Ashanti and 10 members of the Buffalo Bills.
The furniture was picked out Sunday by show designer Michael Moloney and provided by Ashley Furniture HomeStore.
The load-in was delayed more than two hours, with about 300 spectators patiently waiting as 50 to 75 volunteers laid sod and landscaped the front and side yards of the house at 228 Massachusetts Ave. at breakneck speed.
Moloney and home builder David Stapleton of David's Homes also needed a half-dozen takes to bound out of the house-turned-television set to say, "Let's move in the furniture," before it could be unloaded.
But that didn't seem to matter too much to fans of the show thrilled to see "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" up close and in person.
"I love this show — I've been watching it since it started and I love Ty. I'm hoping to get a glimpse of him," said Dawn Gandolfo of North Buffalo, who expected ribbing from her friends.
Debbie Loretto of Lancaster called what was happening with the home and the extensive home improvement projects in the neighborhood, "The Miracle on Massachusetts."
"I wanted to see this. It's only going to happen once in Buffalo. Good weather, all these volunteers — Buffalo is shining," Loretto said.
Timothy Quinn, co-owner of Ashley Furniture, said the company donated the living room set, dining room set, and "dozens upon dozens" of accessories that included a grandfather clock, wall art and lamps worth, at a minimum, $20,000.
Audra Kane, Ashley Furniture's spokeswoman, said she is an ardent fan of the show.
"Every week I cry. I love it," Kane said.
Bills backup quarterback Gibran Hamdan stepped out of the crowd to compliment 7-year-old Alessandra Celotto, who was watching with her mother.
Hamdan said many of the Bills there are also fans of the show, and were glad to participate in some way even though he said others deserved the credit.
"I kind of feel a little bad because so many of these people with work shirts have been volunteering their time, and we just kind of showed up," Hamdan said. "We have mentioned how much the volunteers are really doing."
Earlier in the day, the speed in which neighborhood projects were completed resembled a trick of time-lapse photography. People looked awestruck, and happy, walking on sidewalks that were poured the day before, entering community gardens that were empty lots 24 hours earlier, and seeing a colorful mural that a day earlier had been a graffiti-marred wall.
The finishing touches were applied to numerous projects even as some other projects were added. Heavy equipment competed for space at times with workers carrying out a variety of tasks.
Buffalo Re-Tree volunteers were in the neighborhood, planting 120 trees.
Buffalo ReUse, which demolished and salvaged materials from the home, began the process of demolishing a second home on Normal Avenue from which they previously salvaged materials for reuse. Program Director Michael Gainer estimated it would take 12 to 14 hours to bring the house down.
Across the street at the staging area set up outside School 77, volunteers were painting customized furniture for use in the family's bedrooms.
Volunteers moved with purpose. Before a group photo, Tina Dalka of AmeriCorps told the group to hurry. "We don't have time for this. We have to get back to work," she said.
Also on Normal, three D'Youville College Upward Bound volunteers began delivering the first of 120 turkeys and fixings provided by Save-A-Lot, to families. Downtown, Labatt USA delivered 500 turkeys to City Hall as part of the "Extreme Makeover: Food Drive Challenge" in which canned goods were being accepted through Sunday, between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m., at International Preparatory School at Grover, 110 14th St.
Matt Cain, an AmeriCorps project coordinator, said things were going smoothly overall.
We have a lot of things wrapping up. It's a beautiful day and we're just working with what we've got as far as sunshine. It's really helping the spirit for that final push," Crane said.
Today's "move that bus" event is expected to start between 1 and 2 p.m. Attendees are urged to park at Erie Basin Marina between 9 a.m. and noon, where buses will shuttle to the Massachusetts Avenue site.
LaSalle Park, which had been a rendezvous point earlier in the week, is closed for part of the morning for a race, organizers said.
Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment
MyBuffalo is the new social network from Buffalo.com. Your MyBuffalo account lets you comment on and rate stories at buffalonews.com. You can also head over to mybuffalo.com to share your blog posts, stories, photos, and videos with the community. Join now or learn more.
Reader comments