Day 4 The Midnight Oil Running Low

With more than 100 businesses represented on the site during the week, we were late into Day 4 and were in desperate need of framers. Although many framers gave their time, nobody gave like Mike Toner from Florida Carpentry of Brevard. Mike was still going strong late into the night and had been framing and supervising his personal crew of seven for over 30 hours. With the strong dedication of skilled labor and the many volunteers, the project is staying close to the deadlines.

The night included a tweet-up with around fifty busy tweeters sending live progress out to their tweeps. You can follow the project at #emhe.

This project could not happen without the many sponsors and local restaurants that have given from their heart and the community appreciates everything you do.

Eduardo, Michael and Paige (Designers from EM:HE) made a brief appearance from their busy schedule last night offering  a quick update.

There are still opportunities for skilled labor so if you are sitting home this week, why not reach out and support the community.

The public can go to the site to watch the construction. From 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. today through Friday, shuttles will take spectators from the Cocoa landfill off Adamson Road to the construction site.

"Extreme things happening today," show designer Eduardo Xol said. "I can't really talk about them, we're going to save them for the show, but if people come out here personally, they're going to get to see them first-hand."

Day 3 And The Mud Is Firm And The Team, Incredible!

By 3pm Day 3 the blocks were near completion.

LifeStyle Homes strength is really in their people; very nice people, and very talented, too. Their core values are based on honesty, strong work ethics and just treating people right from their customers to their crew.

These values at LifeStyle Homes started with its founders, John Luhn and Larry Hufford. They were raised in small town America, they were taught these beliefs early in life.

Times have changed, and LifeStyle Homes has grown, adding team members, developing new communities , creating better home designs, and helping hundreds of homeowners achieve The American Dream. What hasn't changed are the components of the original vision that started the business back in 1984:

•Treat people with honesty

•Deliver an excellent product

•Maintain a strong work ethic

•Love what you do



Larry Hufford and Jake Luhn



It shows this week in their dedication on the Extreme Makeover Home Edition Space Coast project. With the long hours that are being put in things are really running smooth and you can see the love that Jake Luhn has for his people and his company. Jake replaced his father in the management of the company after he passed a few years back and today Jake and Larry carry the values that started the company.

From their early days growing up in rural America and their core values it only makes sense that they are doing the good deed of building a home for a worthy family. The Hurstons have given from their heart so many times that it is good to see things come to them in return.

Lifestyle Homes, the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition crew, thousands of volunteers from within the Space Coast community and beyond, are preparing a home and giving back to the family that’s given so much.

The progress is incredible. To think that on Saturday afternoon their house was intact with a yard full of trees and today the new home is almost ready for trusses. Interior framing should start this evening and the Friday deadline looks very promising.



William and Laurie Arbaugh sign the
Scrapbook which will go to the
Hurston Family.



There is a scrapbook that is in front of the ClearChannel Radios onsite broadcast booth. Stop by and sign a piece of Space Coast History as it will be given to the Hurston family upon their return. You can go to ClearChannel stations Live Web Cam by clicking the 99.3 logo at the top right of this page. Stayed tuned here for the progress being made overnight.

Demo Day on the" Extreme" Set

CANAVERAL GROVES —It was cranes crushing Joe and Cindy Hurston's home to rubble within 15 minutes during the first day of construction for the latest project of ABC television's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Space Coast"

The Hurston family will be back in their home by Friday.

"It really didn't take much to take it down, and it's weird to see a closet door here, a bedroom door there," a neighbor said. "I'm shocked that in a week, there'll be a house standing there."

A day before, the Hurstons had been ambushed by the show's hosts and sent on a family vacation to San Diego without computers and phones during the build.

Joe Hurston runs the nonprofit organization Air Mobile Disaster Relief Ministries. He's made about 20 trips to Haiti to deliver over 600 portable water purifiers, along with purifiers to 38 countries.

Cindy, and three children who still live at home have traveled with him.

Jake Luhn,  CEO of LifeStyle Homes, said anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000 volunteers will assist in the construction of a net-zero energy home, which will feature a 9.6 kilowatt PV solar panel array to be installed by PowerShift Solar of Melbourne.

Over an annual time period, the family will not have an energy bill.

"That means they're going to be able to take the money they would've spent on an electric bill and put it toward their charity work," Luhn said.

Emil Gumieny, a LifeStyle Homes contractor whose family runs East Coast Irrigation and Landscape LLC, jumped at the chance to volunteer since a large part of his company's well-drilling work involves treating water to make it potable for homes.

"The thing about water, just because it's clear, doesn't make it safe to drink," said Gumieny. "It's so important to have fresh water, and in the United States we have regulations, but a lot of foreign countries don't. So they depend on the Hurstons and people like them to provide that."

Tasks scheduled for overnight included laying sewer lines, performing termite treatment and land grading -- "everything you have to do before you lay down a foundation," media coordinator William Arbaugh said.

Brevard County inspectors are onsite 24 hours a day to prevent delays, he said.

What you see on TV is sometimes different from real life.

The neighborhood is full of volunteers, production crew, law enforcement and media.  ClearChannel Radio’s Program Director Ken Holiday from Lite Rock 99.3 is broadcasting live from 6 am to 6 pm throughout the build.

Watch The Demolition from Day 1

Video Courtesay of Lite Rock 99.3 FM. Also tune in to the
Live Remote Web Cam CLICK HERE

The Space Coast Finalist, The Hurston Family

While the Hurston family was on a charitable relief effort, a pipe burst in an upstairs bathroom, destroying much of their home and personal belongings due to the extensive, undetected flooding. With little money from the insurance company to repair water damage, the Hurstons have been essentially homeless for now over a year. Yet, the Hurstons’ desire to help others has not changed because of their misfortune.

Joe’s piloting skills and Cindy’s nursing skills have helped others during twenty-five years of international relief work. They have instilled in their children the joy and reward of helping others in the local, national and global communities. As a result, the Hurston family truly works together, sacrificing personal time, comfort and safety, to lend a helping hand to local, national and global communities in numerous charitable missions. Juliet, their oldest daughter, rallies her friends to get involved in many of the community projects she spearheads as well.

Their passion is to “provide clean water to a thirsty world.” To support that effort, the Hurstons established “AirMobile Disaster Relief,” a 501(c)(3) non-profit business. Through donations, they manufacture the “Voyager,” a portable water purifier. To support their family, Joe has a toner cartridge refilling company, and Cindy has a small café.
The Hurstons recognize the importance of clean water for healthy and successful survival of a culture. A mission dear to their heart is delivering and installing water purification devices to disaster-ravaged parts of the world. To date, the Hurstons have delivered and installed approximately 660 water purification devices in 38 countries, literally saving thousands of lives.
The Hurstons also use their resources to transport rescue personnel, supplies and administer life-saving aid in U. S. disasters as well. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Joe found himself in the bittersweet position of providing aid to his hometown, New Orleans. Embodying the phrase “Service with a smile,” the Hurstons have taken in individuals who are in need in their own community — people who are down on their luck and people in recovery from drugs or alcohol. Every Sunday, the family visits an inpatient psychiatric hospital, helping to encourage teens struggling with various issues.
Putting their needs aside, the family continues to help others while they are in desperate need of repairs to their own home. Additionally, the money they need to repair to their donated disaster-relief plane, threaten to hamper their relief efforts.
Courtesy of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition show, the Hurstons are off on a family vacation at an undisclosed location. Meanwhile, Lifestyle Homes, the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition crew, thousands of volunteers from within the Space Coast community and beyond, will prepare to launch a mission: giving back to the family that’s given so much.