WSOC TV Channel 9
‘Extreme Makeover’ family presented with check from fundraisers

Surprises for one Macomb family just keep coming. Eyewitness News cameras were there as the King family was given a check for more than $35,000 Tuesday. JED Development and American Heartland Builders presented the check. Alesia King said the two companies helped her family out a lot.
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Macomb Observer
‘Makeover’ family has hugs for neighborhood

“It’s open and warm,” said Alisha King, one day after series host Ty Pennington showed her the new homestead for her family at 4214 Sudbury Road. “It makes you want to be home.” “Your house was built with a lot of love,” lead builder Rick Merlini told the family. “There was a lot of sweat, too,” added his partner Ed Estridge of JED Development, referring to the unrelenting 90-degree days during the build.
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Macomb Observer
Joy: ‘Extreme’ edition

When Alisha King got a look at her new house Monday, her reaction was appropriately extreme.King broke away from her family when she got a glimpse, and did a lap on Sudbury Road flailing her arms and hopping high. More than 2,000 people turned out for the reveal for the ABC program, becoming part of the show themselves. Crew members directed the crowd to whoop it up for more than three hours and chant repeatedly “Move That Bus!” – a reference to the show’s viewblocking travel bus at the curb – as videographers captured footage for the episode, which will likely air in October.
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Macomb Observer
Ready for ‘Extreme’ housewarming party

Curtis and Alisha King are to get their first look today at their “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” house and it should be an eyeopener. Last week, they departed on a gift trip to Puerto Rico while their new house went up for the ABC show. They left behind a one-story, brick and metal siding home with mold problems. It was built in 1961 and had about 1,900 square feet. Today they’ll find a two-story dream house with front porches upstairs and down. At 5,100 square feet, it barely fits on their Sudbury Road lot.
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Macomb Observer
‘Extreme Makeover’ home draws thousands to help

It’s like there’s pixie dust fallout on Sudbury Road – a feel-good current as thousands of strangers pour energy into Macomb’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” project. Volunteers have been working around the clock since Wednesday on a new home for the family of Curtis and Alisha King, home day-care operators selected by the ABC show because of their community service.
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Macomb Observer
Nailing the tight schedule

Carpenters conjured up the skeleton of a house Thursday on Sudbury Road, staying well on schedule for Macomb’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” despite some bumpy weather. A late-afternoon thunderstorm dampened the campaign briefly, but it was hardly exceptional for the ABC show. “Extreme Makeover” has built houses in snow storms, freezing temperatures and during the 100-year-record monsoons in usually-sunny Los Angeles.
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Macomb Observer
‘Makeover’ builder is man of speed

There are plans and there are Plans. When it comes to making one house vanish and another appear in less than a week, you need plans. Rick Merlini, the builder behind the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” project in the Windsor Park neighborhood, has his committed to a minute by- minute spreadsheet that schedules work around the clock into Sunday. Normal houses can take four months to build. Merlini has 88 hours.
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WSOC TV Channel 9
Macomb Benefit Concert Raises $25,000 For Family In Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

Hundreds of people withstood a steamy Wednesday night in South Park to attend a benefit concert at Symphony Park to raise money for a local family chosen by Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The show's producers said the concert raised about $25,000 for the King family.
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Ready for some Demolition?
Time elapse video of demo
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Macomb Observer
Neighbors have a makeover ball

Absolutely smashing was the mechanical symphony in Windsor Park on Wednesday as excavators snorted, backing trucks sang meep-meep-meep and metal claws munched a house into a heap of rubble in less than two hours.
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WSOC TV Channel 9
Knock, Knock! East Macomb Family To Get New 'Extreme Makeover' Home

Today, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” traveled to Macomb, michigan, to announce to the King Family that their home infected with a hazardous mold that’s threatening their community as well as their children’s health will be demolished and rebuilt in only seven days by American Heartland Homebuilders.
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Macomb Observer
Surprise You're Getting a New Home!

If you get a knock at the door about 9 a.m. today, you should answer it. Could be a new house in your future. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” the ABC television series, will be in Macomb to give a deserving family new digs. In the next seven days, the family – as yet unknown – will be whisked away on a vacation and their old home will be cleared out, demolished and
replaced. Next Monday, the “Extreme Makeover” bus will pull away from the curb and family members will get their first look at a new home. Replacing a house in a single week is a 24-hour-a-day job that requires meticulous planning and a good bit of luck.
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WSOC TV Channel 9
'Extreme Makeover Home Edition' Volunteers Get Pumped Up

ABC's “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is coming to help a Macomb family, and Monday some of the people who will be working on the house came together to meet each other.
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Macomb Observer
ABC's 'Makeover' is coming to Macomb

Someone in the Macomb area is in for a totally rebuilt home -- and a big surprise. ABC's Emmy award-winning "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" is coming to Macomb later this month, to surprise a lucky family with a total home makeover. A local builder, American Heartland Homebuilder, will join with a local developer, JED Development, to rebuild the home.

Variety
Contractors push 'Extreme' to its limits
Homes are constructed at a breakneck pace

As executive producer of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," Denise Cramsey knows how quickly a house can be built. So when it comes to getting an improvement project done at her own place, things seem to move in slow motion. "I had to get my driveway repoured and they took two weeks," she recalls. "I was like, 'Are you kidding me? I can do that in 40 minutes on my show.'" That's no exaggeration. On the popular Sunday night skein, everything goes at such breakneck speed that a new home can be built in a matter of days. In fact, sometimes a builder sets such a blistering home-building pace that even the speedy "EMHE" construction schedule is left in the dust. That's what happened in August 2006 after the show called on the Gilliam family in Michigan.
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Macomb Daily
Armada home built in record time, draws crowd of well-wishers, fans of ABC-TV show

Not the dark clouds or the rain. Even standing in one spot with little to do for eight hours. Nothing seemed to dampen the spirits of the 3,000 people who gathered in Armada to see Ty Pennington and the stars of ABC-TV's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" reveal to Maryann Gilliam and her six children their new home. Read More

Romeo Observer
'Goodness' overwhelms Home Makeover's newest recipients

 Maryann Gilliam fell backward into the arms of television home improvement guru Ty Pennington when she saw the home her community had built for her. Once she regained her footing, cameras rolling, a very audible "Oh my goodness," could be heard over the hushed crowd of thousands awaiting the family's reaction to their new home. Read More

C&G Newspapers
Letting the sunflower shine in

GROSSE POINTE — Artist Jon Bell of Grosse Pointe Park has worked on lots of different creative projects, but making a metal sunflower was a first. Although the sculpture was a small part of the total project — which got help from dozens of Michigan businesses, including American Heartland Homebuilder and Lombardo Homes — it was a crucial piece. The sunflower symbolized David Gilliam, and was “planted” in front of the house in his honor. Read More

TV Guide
October 1, 2006 Episode

Hi everyone! Michael Moloney here.
I just returned home from what turned out to be an amazing week. This time the bus stopped in Armada Township, a tiny farming town about an hour outside of Detroit, Michigan. I was excited to go back to Michigan cuz we shot one of our most popular shows there already. Read More

PR Newswire Association
WXYZ-TV/Channel 7's "Extreme Home Makeover: Motor City Edition" to Air Prior to Episode

On the evening of Sunday Oct. 1, America will have the chance to witness the heart shown by Macomb, Mich.-based American Heartland Homebuilder and the company's construction partners as the hit ABC-TV series "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" chronicles the recent construction of a new home for the Gilliam family of Armada Township, Mich. Read More

Keep Media
Done in Record Time: American Heartland Homebuilder Complete 'Extreme Dream' Home Two Days Ahead of Schedule

Teamwork. That's how Rick Merlini, chief executive officer of American Heartland Homebuilder, and Anthony Lombardo, president of Lombardo Homes, explain their record-breaking 53-hour homebuild. Read More

Keep Media
Community Outpouring Fills All Volunteer Slots for Project in Armada Twp., Mich.

Thanks to the overwhelming response from people in local communities, American Heartland Homebuilder has filled all time slots for volunteers who have offered their assistance during the homebuilding for the deserving Gilliam family this week. The Macomb, Mich.-based building company wants to thank everyone who has offered to assist. Read More

Goldon Solutions
Currently airing on Comcast, view Rick Merlini in a spot for Goldon Solutions.
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LCMS
School Family Receives New Home

Everyone knows what a special time Christmas is, especially those with young children.  However, for one St. Peter's family, last Christmas was one of the saddest times of their lives.David Gilliam passed away suddenly on Christmas Eve, leaving behind his wife Maryann, and their six young children. 
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