'Extreme Makeover' helps Pilsen family get dream house
By Angie Timmons
It is not
unusual for your doorbell to ring on October 31 and for you not to know who
may be standing on your stoop. Last Halloween, the Noyola family of Pilsen
opened their door that morning to see reality TV handyman Ty Pennington and
his crew from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.
Pennington greeted them enthusiastically with his trademark “Good morning Noyola family!” Behind him stood a veritable army of show staff and roughly 800 tradespeople with Chicago contractor Norcon at the helm. They were ready to give Geno and Melinda Noyola, along with their six kids who range in age from five to 13, a well deserved dream house—and do it all in less than a week.
The Noyolas were sent off to Disneyland, leaving the crews to work around the clock to gut and then breathe life back into a severely run-down Pilsen house near Western and Ogden Avenues. Geno, a union carpenter, had purchased the property thinking he could make it habitable for his young family. At the time of the show, the family had been living in a tiny, dilapidated attic apartment for more than eight years.
“What were you thinking when you bought this house?” Pennington asked Geno after the show’s cameras captured the structure’s problems, including water damage, decay, defective plumbing, dangerous wiring, asbestos, and lead paint. Unwittingly, Geno had a teardown on his hands, not a fixer-upper. Near tears, Geno told Pennington, “I just thought I could do it myself.”
The Noyola family’s television appearance capped a checkered personal journey for Geno, a man whose past involvement with gangs, drugs, and crime had been destroying his family but who now is a doting father and involved member of his community.
Merit involvement
A few weeks after
hosting a January 14 viewing party for the Noyola Family episode of
Extreme Makeover, Cesar Cazares and Shalisa Kline-Ugaz from the Merit
School of Music, where the Noyola children take violin lessons, sat down for
an interview at their West Loop location. Cazares handles the school’s
communications, and Kline-Ugaz, director of Merit’s Alegre Strings, teaches
the Noyolas along with hundreds of other Chicago youngsters, many of whom
come from financially strapped families.
To say Cazares and Kline-Ugaz were “instrumental” in helping the Noyolas win their dream house is an understatement.
Kline-Ugaz said the story began last summer when Geno brought in a Merit violin one of his children had borrowed. Exposed to the stifling temperatures of mid-summer in Chicago, it had cracked. Kline-Ugaz reiterated that extreme heat and cold are terrible for violins, which cost as much as $500 just for an inexpensive instrument. Apologetic, Geno told her his family had no air conditioning.
“It had to be really hot for the violin to crack,” she said. Geno tried to alleviate her concern, saying, “It’s not so bad. Kline-Ugaz urged him to come by her house to pick up an air conditioning unit she was not using.
A couple of weeks later, Cazares came to Kline-Ugaz, telling her the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation contacted the school asking that they nominate a family for a possible appearance on the Emmy-winning Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. She knew immediately whom to choose.
“This is perfect,” she said to Cazares. The Noyola house needed so much work the family was living down the street in Geno’s grandmother’s attic. Also, Geno and Melinda have displayed a deep commitment to serving their community. “Let’s nominate them,” she said.
What followed, Cazares and Kline-Ugaz excitedly said, was a whirlwind few weeks during which they acted as go-betweens for the show’s producers and the Noyola family. There were pictures to take and ship off, questionnaires to fill out, and video to shoot. There were late nights and last minute dashes to Fed Ex as Hollywood continued to call, wanting more.
Cazares and Kline-Ugaz even began to develop a Plan B, working their connections to piece together some help for the family in case the Noyolas did not win the makeover. “What I was always worried about was, what if they weren’t selected?” Cazares said. “That tormented me.”
Then requests stopped coming, they had done all they could, and it was time for the Noyolas and Merit to hurry up and wait.
Behind the scenes
With Cazares and Kline-Ugaz on pins and needles just a few blocks away, the phone rang at Norcon, a West Loop based general contractor. Co-owner Jeff Jozwiak fondly remembered the call.
“We talked to the show’s executive producer for 40 minutes,” Jozwiak said. Norcon came to the show’s attention after the producers called the City of Chicago to discuss their intention to film here. The City wanted environmentally friendly construction to play a prominent role in the project and suggested the producers tap Norcon for the job.
While he mulled over the daunting task, Jozwiak said they called a few general contractors from past shows. The contractors literally dropped what they were doing late on a Friday to talk to him, Jozwiak said. After hearing about how great the experience was for the others, Norcon was on board.
Norcon had four weeks to get all the pieces in place for the build—a process that normally takes as much as six months—and Norcon management and workers had not even seen the house, Jozwiak said. “That was one of the hardest things.”
Norcon’s staff had to move quickly, yet keep up with their usual workload. Everyone was going the extra mile, and the enthusiasm Norcon encountered still puts a smile on Jozwiak’s face even four months later.
One hundred other companies agreed to donate materials and labor for the construction, and more than 800 tradespeople ended up volunteering to work on the house. “The response was amazing,” Jozwiak marveled. “The majority said ‘yes’ on the first phone call.” (see related article, page XX).
The special moment
It was a moment millions of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition viewers had to wait more than two months to see: Melinda Noyola fell to her knees in tears when she and her family entered their beautiful new house. On January 14 the Noyolas, along with hundreds of loved ones, gathered to watch the show and celebrate the family’s good fortune at the Merit School.
Kline-Ugaz and the Alegre Strings—a talented group of young violin players dressed in crisp white shirts and red ties—entertained the capacity crowd, with the Noyola children joining them on stage with their violins. When the show began, the crowd erupted in applause. Later during the show, when Kline-Ugaz was presented with 55 new violins for Merit from the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation, there was not a dry eye to be seen.
After the show, Geno addressed the audience, saying the program did not delve fully into his past before he turned his life around. “The road I was on was a dark one filled with drugs and alcohol,” he admitted. He also wanted to acknowledge how important his grandmother’s help was. She had given his family a place to live for more than eight years.
“Without her,” he said. “I don’t know where we would have been.”
Geno and Melinda continue to make an impact in their neighborhood, where they work on issues affecting Harrison Park and on the Angel Tree Network, which helps children whose parents are incarcerated. Geno coaches kids’ sports teams year round with the Pilsen Athletic conference, and the family members are very involved with their church.
“The support we got through this whole experience will never leave us,” Geno said.
Noyola house goes green
The Noyola two-flat had “good bones,” as Norcon’s Jeff Jozwiak said, so unlike past shows in which houses were razed and new ones rose in their place, contractors worked with the original structure and doubled its original 1,700 square feet.
Eco-friendly demolition and construction were key. Workers used original wood to create a carport and custom furniture, and they installed solar-powered lighting and a three-story well to deliver light, ventilation, and cooling. A rooftop garden features 9,000 pounds of soil, five planters, 50 plants, and ground cover; rooftop cisterns will collect rain to water the garden. Carpeting, countertops, and flooring are made from recycled materials.
The colorful house, inspired by Latino art, provides modern amenities and even a music room (which was Extreme Makeover’s Ty Pennington’s secret project) where the Noyola children can practice their violins. The kids have themed rooms, and Geno and Melinda, who for years had slept on the floor, now enjoy a beautiful master bedroom.
Jozwiak was overcome with the gratitude the Noyolas have displayed. “Melinda is genuinely just overwhelmed with what the home will do for her kids,” he said.
For more information, visit: www.meritmusic.org, www.norconinc.com, and www.extremehomechicago.com.
