Design Firm Goes To 'Extremes' To Make Over

SOUTH OZONE PARK, NY '

Tucked away in the this neighborhood of Queens, NY sat a one-bedroom home ravaged by the elements. It was left unlivable by a contractor who ran off with $72,000 of the owner's money after only ripping off the roof.

The owners'the Ali family headed up by a single mom raising two adopted, 12-year-old boys'were left essentially homeless in October 2002, living for two years on family members' couches, moving from hotel to hotel and even staying at a homeless shelter briefly.

The family was finally able to move into a small studio apartment while paying the mortgage on an uninhabitable house.

GOING TO EXTREMES

Enter ABC TV's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and Alure Home Improvements in East Meadow, NY last year. The Ali family was chosen by the show to receive an extreme home makeover, and Alure was picked to be the contractor to execute it.

"I think the biggest outrage for me is that someone in my business took advantage of this hard-working family, stole their money and left them homeless," says Alure president Ferro. "When Extreme Makeover asked us to step in and undo the damage... we threw ourselves into the job."

Indeed, Ferro spearheaded the Ali project for Alure, which was selected upon a suggestion of a West Coast remodeling firm that was also picked for the show. That firm is a part of the same Remodelers' Advantage Roundtable as Alure. When it heard the show was going to New York, it suggested Alure. The show contacted Alure, and after some initial interviews, the firm began the pre-planning stages.

Ferro put Doug Cornwell, CKD, in charge of the planning. As executive director of the Ali project, Cornwell scheduled all 11 project teams, including everything from framing, sheet rock and landscaping to the kitchen and 2.5 baths. He worked with each team's leader, which was either a project or department manager at Alure, and also did much of the design work. And, he coordinated with Lock and Key Productions, which produces the show for ABC, and the show's stable of other allied professionals.

The show was filmed in August 2004 over a seven-day period. As usual, two days were devoted to the before shots and moving out. The five remaining days were devoted to the actual remodel, from start to finish. To say there was a time-crunch would be an understatement. But Cornwell and his team rose to the task.

"Actually, we had five days and nine hours," recalls Cornwell. "But the bigger challenge was scheduling and keeping track of 100-plus people and what they're doing at any point in time during that timeframe. Scheduling was difficult, but we kept everyone on schedule, so there were few surprises. And those were nothing a normal remodel could have in store'only, here, the timeframe was sped up."

For example, the front porch and the living room were sitting on nothing. "We had to rip out both, re-do the foundation and rebuild the front porch. We also had to re-shore up the entire left side of the house and rebuild the left wall because it was termite-infested," explains Cornwell.

LIVE-IN KITCHEN

When it came to the kitchen, it was important for Cornwell and his kitchen team to give the Ali family one large enough so the mom could have the neighborhood over for her traditional salad dinners on Friday nights.

"We really had to make the kitchen functional enough to accommodate that," he says.

To that end, the kitchen team widened the space by borrowing some hidden space behind the staircase and backed the Kenmore refrigerator in there. The team also opened the kitchen to the adjacent great room.

Since she did entertain on a large scale and enjoyed cooking, the team gave her a suite of professional-style Kenmore appliances, including a 24" dishwasher, a 42", dual-fuel range and a 42" hood.

The appliances' stainless steel finish complemented the sleek, black-and-white color palette Cornwell and his team devised based on her love of contemporary design. Stainless steel is also seen on the Kohler Co. Swerve kitchen sink and Essex faucet.