A few short months ago ABC's Extreme Home Makeover crews invaded my tract housing neighborhood in order to create an episode of their beloved show. If you don't know about the show, it is one in which a needy family gets a new home built for them within one week's time. It started out as a show performing simple, but terrific remodel work for families who had faced a recent death, or illness, or hardship.

The producers helped out the needy families by rebuilding their homes and filling them with all the special goodies they needed to get past that hardship, or celebrate the good things the subject family selflessly did for their communities. Pretty cool show, I thought. I was a fan.

But then the EHM crews came took over my neighborhood in Las Vegas, and made life miserable for many of us living very near by the project. They blocked off the subdivision, posted their own security team, then brought in the thousands of volunteer construction people, who would, in seven short days, completely knock down the exisiting tract home, and replace it with a brand new structure. Was it a brand new tract type house with all the modern gizmos the needy family could use to make them happier, safer and healthier? Well it was designed to cover all the latter issues, but it was no tract house. Instead EHM thought it would be cool to build the family what can be best descibed as a Malibu Beach House! It was beautiful, and ugly at the same time.

Meanwhile, the wife and I missed out on several night's sleep due to the 24-hour banging and yelling. The volunteers would shout, laugh, and talk day and night. They, after all, were doing a wonderful thing for the needy family, whose children had a special medical issue to deal with. What a great thing ABC was doing. That was the majority opinion at the time. I too thought if the children were ill, due to their current living conditions, then yes, change their environment and help them out. I can put up with some annoyance for a good cause. The wife and I both kept telling ourselves..."it is for a good cause."

But then the crews kept driving up my driveway in order to get to a camera they had placed on the roof of my next door neighbor. Their heavy lift couldn't get up there by using the neighbor's drive. They marked up and dinged up our driveway and I had to complain. The show people also parked a dumpster right in front of my house and spilled blue paint in a line about 20 yards long from the neighbor's home to the dumpster. The producers did not have verbal or written permission to be on my property, so they promised to clean everything up once finished.

They tried the clean up shortly after filming the episode. The TV stars were heroes, the family, back from their week-long vacation in Hawaii was now famous, the volunteers all excited and all was fantastic, right? Wrong. The clean-up crew pitted both my driveway and the street with their power washer. So much so, that I had severe pitting damage for over 20 feet of driveway. I had to threaten to sue to get them to replace the concrete, instead of just doing a patch job. The contracted cement crew did a good job, but now that slab of drive does not match the existing portions. And the asphalt street was patched, but still shows the long dug in line. The injury to my property in the name of a good cause for another is bad enough. That the local government officials would grant the producers permission to build a custom beach house in my tract of homes is also bad enough. But, that isn't what this is all about. No. Now, the famous house is up for sale!

The needy family never registered their several vehicles with Nevada plates. They were even given a brand new car as part of the show's gifts, to shuttle the children to doctor and such. So I always wondered if this needy family was on the up-and-up or not. They enjoyed their summer in the house. The kids were outside without their famous masks worn in the show soon after ABC's people all left the scene. Then one day they had a used travel trailer parked out front of the house, also with out of state plates. The mother painted the trailer, as the two girls played around her, again without their masks to protect them from the fumes. Soon after that, they were nowhere to be found and a local high-end realty company had "open house" signs up!

When I spoke to the realtor, he said the home was listed at $600,000 and had "about" 2900 square feet. Quite a difference from my once $300,000 house, now valued at less than $175,000.

How do you get a house built for you in seven days, and have it built because of the needs of your children, then not stay in the home? I'm not sure of all the facts surrounding the sale or the family, but I hope to find out. Is this just another "balloon boy" type story? Unlike the little balloon destroyed by the authorities hoping to also save a child's life... we will have to live with the eye sore that is the famous beach house. It is right there, blocking out my afternoon sun.

I hope this isn't the story of another scam-artist family. I hope theirs is a valid reason for moving. Is this a case of an extreme home fakeover? We will find out.

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