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Miracle on Rosemary Place
Two little boys, one wife pregnant with triplets and a 1,100-square-foot home. Talk about number crunching. When 35-year-old Tom McCrory of Costa Mesa hatched the outlandish idea to apply for a complete remodel by ABC-TV's new reality show, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," he was simply doing the math: Seven people in one cramped, three-bedroom home added up to one very desperate situation. What else was an able-bodied provider to do but turn to the gods of television? "We were considering a move out of state, away from family and friends," says Tom's wife, Deirdre, 35, who everyone calls DeeDee. The couple have two sons, 3-1/2-year-old Rory and Connor, 2. The triplets are due July 4. "I had gone on a website called FindYourSpot.com to find a place where you could raise a family on one income," recalls Tom, an account executive with Sierra Pacific Wholesale Mortgage in Mission Viejo. He had finally zeroed in on Charleston, S.C. But fate had other plans for the expanding McCrory family. One channel-surfing night last December, they stumbled upon the pilot episode of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition." The wheels started turning. Tom downloaded an application from ABC's website. To the question "What makes your story unique?" Tom wrote in big, bold letters, "TRIPLETS! NO INVITRO, NO FERTILITY DRUGS. JUST GOOD, OLD-FASHIONED, IRISH KNOW-HOW." Incredibly, the couple conceived triplets naturally. In medical terms, it's known as "spontaneous" triplets, a l-in-81OO odds chance, according to a specialist in high-risk pregnancies. In layman's terms, that translates to, "Honey, from now on, you're sleeping on the couch." Apparently, the gods at ABC thought it smacked of good TV. Early Feb. 11, reality TV rolled onto Rosemary Place, production vans and television crews descending on the McCrory home with orchestrated efficiency. It was a Publisher's-Clearinghouse moment. "McCrory Family! Top 0' the mornin' to ya!" yells the show's star, Ty Pennington, through a bullhorn, in his best Irish brogue. Tom is a first-generation Irish immigrant. His parents came to America with "two suitcases, two kids and $200." On this early morning, he family staggered out of the house, in shock, not yet comprehending that they had won. Their lives changed forever in one jaw-dropping moment. "This is a living endorsement of “Dream big, anything can happen." The usually animated Tom is speechless for one, rare moment. Here's the catch "Pack your bags, McCrory family, we're sending you on a dream vacation to Scottsdale, Arizona. And while you're gone, we're going to completely rebuild your home, inside and out, in just one week," heralds the mighty ABC. As one production assistant aptly puts it, "ABC is playing the role of God, building it in seven days. That's the metaphor." But completely rebuilding a home, from demolition to final decorating touches in only one week...how is that possible for mere mortals to pull off? "It's not only feasible, we're doing it," says Len Jay, general manager of Sea Pointe Construction and Development in Irvine, the contractor chosen by ABC to lead the project. How? Massive manpower. Jay and his crew of about 150 trades people worked around the clock, pounding, sawing and sweating, while the rest of us were sleeping, to add 500 square feet to the McCrory home -one bed- room and a nursery -and revamp the kitchen, two bathrooms and living space. Including the completely furnished interior and lush, new landscaping, the total, unconfirmed value of the makeover is estimated up to $460,000. "Wouldn't it be nice if that's the way it worked all the time?" asks Costa Mesa Mayor Gary Monahan, who visited the work site frequently, more out of curiosity than official duty. Monahan lives in the area and owns a restaurant down the street. Good question, mayor. Why DOES it take so long for us average folks to get building permits and pass inspections? Carol Proctor, a management analyst for the city of Costa Mesa, claims, "If people have their paperwork together, they can get permits in a relatively short period of time." Gary Hook, the city's building inspector, has a different take. "It normally takes three to five months to do something like this, without any glitches." But money talks. "It costs a lot to throw this many guys and this much time, organization and effort toward something like this." A sleep deprived Hook hovered over the project the entire time, making sure improvements were safe and up to code. "It isn't anything different than what I see on a day-to-day basis, except it's pushing the fast- forward button." The McCrory’s didn't have a clue they'd been chosen. It was all part of the plan to set up that once-in-a-lifetime moment of surprise that makes riveting television. Instead, ABC told the family they were one of five finalists. A little white lie. In reality, the "Extreme Makeover" staff had been working with the city behind the scenes for more than a month, pulling permits and arranging logistics. "We were all told to keep it a secret, and we did," City Councilman Chris Magee Steel says. "We were shocked and overwhelmed that they wanted to do it here, of all places. It's been kind of historic. It puts Costa Mesa on the map." The circus comes to town The McCrory’s put all their faith -and keys - into the hands of the production crew (they'd be getting new doors and locks, anyway), and jetted off to the Four Seasons in Scottsdale on the beneficent network's open-ended tab. They roomed in the 3,000-square-foot Presidential Suite where Oprah stays -ironically, three times the size of their own home, with a private, heated pool off the master suite. With triplets on the way, it was probably the last time they'd be relaxing for a while. Meanwhile, after a moving van drove off with every single item in the house, including "empty potato chip bags," the place they had called home for nearly four years came tumbling down on a Friday morning. "It woke me a little early, around 6:30. About 60 guys were out there, ready to charge in and demo the house, which they did in an hour and 15 minutes with hammers, sledgehammers and wrecking bars," remembers Joe Walsh, who has lived in the neighbourhood for 32 years. "We took the house down to the frame," says Jay, Sea Pointe's lead foreman. The biggest challenge was having all the trades working side by side. "It's hard to work on walls, floors and ceilings at the same time, but that's what we're doing." Add in a television production army, Ty Pennington and his celebrity design team, delivery trucks, police barricades, hired badges and a constant stream of curious bystanders held back by ABC's vigilant security team, and Ladies and Gentlemen, you have quite a circus. The construction phase took five days and five hours to complete, and cost ABC about $175,000. "For Orange County additions, that's very inexpensive," calculates Jay. "We lowered our rates 65 percent to work on this," says Larry Andersen, a Sea Pointe Construction Lead Designer. In figures provided by the company, the full rate for construction, alone, would have been $250,000-$300,000. So why do it? "The driving force is that it's helping people," says Jay. "It's extreme. We're working 24/7. Not too many people would attempt to do this in that short of time."
What did the neighbours think? You can't pull off a production this big in the middle of suburbia without cooperation from the neighbours. Indeed, before work could begin, the show's location manager went door to door getting written permission from surrounding homeowners. “AII the neighbours are behind them 100 percent," says C.K. Allen, a 20-year resident of Rosemary Place. "We're so happy for Tom and DeeDee. They're a great family, a great couple, so deserving," gushes Cynthia Best, who lives across the street. "We were excited enough just having triplets on our street, let alone this whole production," volunteers Christi Freeman, 19, a student at Orange Coast College. The atmosphere was block-party-festive. Neighbours watched the impossible dream unfold from across the street, many from lawn chairs parked in their front yards. It was better than going to the movies. Instead of passing the popcorn, they passed the time together. Some neighbours hadn't spoken in years and had lots of catching up to do. "It's given us all a reason to talk again," says Freeman. "We like that they've taken into consideration the architectural structure and are sticking to the original design so it won't look like a totally different house in the neighbourhood;' says Cindy Falk, whose 3- year-old plays with the McCrory boys. Falk says the architect who designed their homes was an understudy to Frank Lloyd Wright. What's on the outside counts "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" banks on that first impression, the WOW factor when the family sees the home's transformation for the first time. It makes for good TV, so the outside design had better be spectacular. And it certainly is. Cliff Raitz, owner of Terrascapes, a landscape design firm in Costa Mesa, rose to the challenge, but had to squeeze three weeks of magic into only four days. "I tried to project myself into their situation," Raitz explains of his design concept. "They needed a play area, an adult area, a place to escape." Raitz chose a contemporary, Asian theme for the adult area, which encompassed the front yard and courtyard. His staff of eight landscape installers created a feeling of peace and serenity with a trickling water feature in the front yard -a stark contrast to a life of happy chaos that would await the couple inside. Surrounding the property are some 8- to 30-foot screen bamboos and ornamental grasses, "These plants are low maintenance, and with five kids, they don't have a lot of time. You can trample them and they'll grow back. They're very forgiving." Sears, the official sponsor of the show, donated a stainless steel barbecue and stylish, teak patio set. The kid zone features a huge, brightly colored playset with tube slides and a swing, like the beloved ones at Burger King and McDonald's. Simply kid heaven. A ride-on train, valued at $35,000, was originally planned, but couldn't be delivered on time. Ah, shucks. The centrepiece of the back yard is a $15,000 tropical, "pondless" waterfall, a Terrascapes specialty. "Instead of a basin filled with fish, it's filled with gravel and is totally child-safe with just an inch of water," says Raitz. Next to the waterfall, an escape hatch - a secret garden where DeeDee can go to relax and hang out. "It has a teak bench with pergola around it -a wood structure that goes up and over the bench that you can plant with sweet-smelling jasmine." It's positioned so she can still see her children playing in the yard. Raitz estimates the overall landscaping tab at $70,000. He donated the labour and convinced a few companies to pitch in free materials. What's more, the McCrorys get free gardening for a year. What's in it for him besides strengthening community ties? Raitz lightly taps his heart, "Helping somebody out. This is a good family. They're nice and deserving." A peek inside By the time my story went to press, the episode hadn't yet aired on ABC (airdate was March 21); the network was very protective and tight Iipped about the interior details of the remodel. But after a quick walk through the home and conversations with a few key people involved in the project, I managed to piece together a few of the highlights: •New electrical "We take ordinary people and ordinary homes and make them extraordinary," says the show's interior designer, Michael Moloney. "It's all about gifting a family with what they need and never knew they wanted." But what if they don't like it? "We wouldn't change it," he says. "When you sign up for an extreme makeover, you sign up for the risk of allowing someone else to create your dream home. And that's what makes it exciting." One week later On February 18, with cameras rolling and crowds cheering, the McCrory family stepped out of a black limo and saw their newly remodelled home for the first time. It was finished right on schedule, impressing even the sceptics who didn't think it was possible to rebuild and furnish a home in one week. But there was one glitch in all the festivities, something even the gods at ABC had no control over: rain. But the deluge didn't dampen the excitement of the hundred-plus well wishers shivering for hours under a sea of umbrellas to witness "the reveal," as the production crew calls it. The eager crowd included neighbours, friends, Tom's old college buddies, well-travelled family (Tom's brother flew in from Spain), curious passers-by, the mayor and some councilmen There was buzz Oprah might even show, since she was in town fur the Academy Awards, but she never did. Tom's father, Michael Patrick McCrory, jetted all the way from Ireland “This is a life-changing event for the whole family It's going to affect all of us” Mary Murphy, DeeDee's mother from Santa Monica, was glowing "It's a dream come true It's hard for me to talk without crying” tears well up “The most thrilling part for them will he finding out the sex of their babies!" To add to the drama, the McCrorys learned the genders of their triplets by walking into the new nursery that day and seeing the colors incorporated by the design team "It was a tremendous experience," recalls the mother-to-be of two more boys and a girl "Usually you're in a private room with just your doctor and husband, but this was witnessed by so many people at the same time.” All in all, the McCrorys felt like they had won the lottery. "I'm a pretty lucky guy” says Tom "My buddies said, 'You know, McCrory, you're the only guy who could take a one in 50,000-shot, which is to have natural triplets, and turn it into a one-in-a-million-shot, which is to get someone to come and rebuild your entire house:" "We're grateful for this opportunity. It has really changed our lives," says DeeDee. Well? What do you think? So, what do they like best? "I love the fireplace," says DeeDee "It's a hologram, not actually a real fire, but it puts off heat. That way, the kids can't burn themselves”. Tom loves the master bathroom "Our old bathroom was literally smaller than a closet. Now it's almost as big as what our master bedroom used to be” And of course he digs the ESPN Zone. Marie McCrory, Tom's 58-year-old mother, is thrilled she doesn't have to sleep in the garage anymore when she visits. By far, the most practical improvement is the indoor laundry room. It used to be outside in a shed on the side of the house. "Now I don't have to worry about a cat coming by and using my sweatshirt for it’s litter box," DeeDee jokes. The McCrorys are still adjusting to everything and making discoveries every day. "It's the little things that aren't obvious right away. Like the windows. This house was so drafty and cold, and you could hear everything. Now it's like a museum!" They can't even hear the "100 or so cars that pass by every day" filled with curious onlookers. While ABC did a "spectacular" job set- ring up their new household, the couple miss some of their old things, packed away in storage by the network. "The kids' little table where they ate snacks. And the videos they used to watch." Tom claims they'll be digging in boxes for old, cherished items for the next six months. The real story The cameras are gone and the crowds have settled back into their own homes. Life resumes. But in the end, it's not about free plasma TVs and sub-zero refrigerators. After all, carpets thin, paint fades and dishes break. No, this story isn't about the interior of a home, but rather, the interior of a family. Tom told ABC, "You're not coming to remodel our house. You're coming to remodel my, future as a father. You're giving me an opportunity to be a father to my children. To coach their baseball teams and go to school plays, instead of having to work a second job and get home at 11:00 at night." The bonds within the inner circle have tightened, too. "Our family, friends and neighbours supporting us has been a total blessing," says a very thankful DeeDee. And it's been good for the community. Many neighbours have reconnected and goodwill has poured in from all over Costa Mesa as the city rallies behind one of its own. "Yes, a family is getting what it really needs. But the key has been all the people coming together," says the mayor. The real magic is yet to come when the triplets are born July 4. While they've yet to take their first breathes, these sweet souls have already turned lives around in a wonderful way. Not only have they reinforced family ties, but also, they've done what many of us struggle our whole lives to do...they've made a difference in the world. From inside their mother's protective womb, their command central, the McCrory triplets have united 'an entire community. And that's the real miracle on Rosemary Place. Lynn Armitage is a senior writer for Southern California Home and Outdoor Magazine.
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