Going to the Extreme

Keyser resident Gary Broadwater, along with several other local residents, got the chance of a lifetime when he was asked by his cousin, Ken Broadwater, owner and operater of Ken Broadwater Homes, LLC out of Cartersville, Va., to participate in ABC’s “Extreme Makeover Home Edition” (EMHE) in Rice, Va.

Ken was initially contacted by EMHE to work as the builder and main overseer of all projects. 

EMHE is an Emmy Award-winning reality show, which surprises one lucky family with a complete home makeover.  

Gary Broadwater, who was chosen as the Project Manager, was more than honored to help out his cousin.

“This is the main highlight of my career. I thought winning first and fifth place in the same year for the Parade of Homes in Virginia in 1989 was the highlight of my career, but I was wrong,” said Gary, who has 30 years of construction experience under his belt. He owns G&D Broadwater Custom Builder and Design Company in Keyser.  

After agreeing to help his cousin, Gary had to begin the task of finding a dedicated team —  and he knew exactly where to find it.

Gary chose two shift teams, each composed of several assistant supervisors.

“I rounded up the guys that I felt were suitable for this job,” Gary said.

For the first shift he chose his son, Gary Broadwater III, Kevin Simon, Jerry Whisner, owner and operator of Jerry Whisner Homes in New Creek, Gary Trentner Sr., and Gary Trentner Jr., all of Keyser, as well as Chris Ayers of Moorefield.

Terry Courtney of Ridgeley, who is the owner and operator of TC Construction in the Wiley Ford/Short Gap area, was chosen as a project manager for the second shift, while Buck Courtney, Dennis Courtney, and Jeff Myers of Rawlings, Md.,  were chosen as assistant shift supervisors.

All managers and assistant managers are building contractors and were strictly volunteer. Gary estimated there was around 180-plus years of experience from both shift teams. 

“The assistant managers were my eyes and ears, because I couldn’t be everywhere.” said Gary. “They did more than what was asked of them. They gave a 120 percent.”

Once Gary had his team in place, they had to begin the daunting task of building the dream house (a Federal Style Colonial home and a separate private museum) for the Lucas family of Rice, Va.

The Lucas family was chosen out of a group of five other families.

Michael Lucas, who was a member of the National Guard Unit 116, was attempting to build a home on a former Civil War battlefield for his wife, Jean, and two sons, Michael, 11, and 7-year-old Joseph, before he was deployed to Iraq.

EMHE chose the Lucas family so that Michael would not worry about his family’s safety while in Iraq, and so that he and his family could continue to preserve the civil history of Virginia, hence the need for the private museum.

The extreme home makeover — typically a four-month project — had to be built in seven days. Four-and-a-half days were allotted for actual construction and the other two-and-a- half days for TV production. 

To accomplish this amazing feat both teams worked non-stop 24 hours a day with one shift working from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. and the other working from 11 p.m. until 11 a.m.
However, some team members put in overtime, working up to 20 hours a day. However, all the hard work paid off  as the teams were able to complete a 106-hour job in only 96 hours.

“Gary often works very hard and I had to be there to make sure he took time to take care of himself,” said Melissa Broadwater, Gary’s wife of 30 years. “I initially went down to make sure that Gary took care of himself, but I ended up volunteering. They called me the walking secretary — I had a brief case that I carried with all the contact information in it.
“It was a lot of hard work. It was grilling and it was thrilling, but we enjoyed it. We would drop everything and do it again in a heart beat.”

As Head Project Manager, Gary’s job was to help with the design layout of the house and oversee the whole project.

“I had a wire and was connected to various teams like the build team, the stock yard, and the volunteer tent — all on one channel — and then the design team and the security team were on different channels. It was hard to listen to everything going on with those teams,” Gary said.

Prior to starting the Lucas home, Gary visited a house in Kentucky that was being made over by the Extreme Team. The visit was a learning process and enabled him to know what to expect when he started on the Lucas home.

Gary’s team agreed that at times it was a little overwhelming with the 100-plus people all working on, in, and around the house and once. Not only were there workers everywhere, but there were also cameras and fans everywhere to cheer the workers on.

“It was nice to have the fans there. You could tell the workers were getting a little tired and then the fans would start cheering ‘Build that house!’ and the workers would gain spunk,” said Gary.

The volunteers weren’t the only ones who helped motivate the workers. Gary noted that when several of the construction workers wanted to give up and go home after the long hours, he told them, “When that video camera comes in and does a close up on something you worked on, do you want millions of viewers to see a half-done job or a very well done job?”

For more information on the Ken Broadwater homes, please view the Web site at www.extremekenbroadwaterhomes.com.

For more information on the show and viewing times please visit http://abc.go.com/primetime/xtremehome.