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.
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