'Extreme Makeover' house faces foreclosure

[kskiska]

LAKE CITY, Ga. -- More than 1,800 people showed up to help ABC's "Extreme Makeover" team demolish a family's decrepit home and replace it with a sparkling, four-bedroom mini-mansion in 2005.

(snip)

After the Harper family used the two-story home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, it's set to go to auction on the steps of the Clayton County Courthouse Aug. 5. The couple did not return phone calls Monday, but told WSB-TV they received the loan for a construction business that failed.

The house was built in January 2005, after Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA and ABC's "Extreme Makeover" demolished their old home and its faulty septic system. Within six days, construction crews and hoards of volunteers had completed work on the largest home that the television program had yet built.

(snip)

Some of the volunteers who helped build the home were less than thrilled about the family's financial decisions.

"It's aggravating. It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it," Lake City Mayor Willie Oswalt, who helped vault a massive beam into place in the Harper's living room, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/tv/1401ap_tv_extreme_makeover_foreclosure.html

[Lance_Boyle]

1. tacky, pawning a gift like that.

Somebody might have told them that a ginormous recession is not a good time to hock your house to fund a construction business. But then I bet they got sweet tax incentives on their "business SUVs." :eyes:

[Hydra]

2. As Carlin said:

"Have you ever wondered why Republicans are so interested in encouraging people to volunteer in their communities? It’s because volunteers work for no pay. Republicans have been trying to get people to work for no pay for a long time."

[Debi]

3. Oohhh, I always wonder about how the families can afford these homes

after they are completed (going from a decrepit home to a four-bedroom mini-mansion had to raise the taxes/insurance/heating/maintenance costs of the home). But then to use a paid for home as collateral to start up a business seems not so smart as well.

Hey Extreme Home Makeover folks - pls come re-do my home!! Keep it the same sq. foot, don't add any fancy amenities (except for stuff to help Debi Jr. get his wheelchair around a 1974 pre-fab w/VERY deferred maintenance) and just repair the tornado damage!! I promise not to increase my mortgage!

[slackmaster]

4. The Harpers refinanced the house twice

First on September 13, 2006 for $300,000, then on May 18, 2007 for $450,000. They had owed only about $100K on the old place.

What did they use the money for?

What were they thinking?

[AlCzervik]

6. the article says they started a construction company that failed.

[Marrah_G]

5. Dumbasses

[slackmaster]

7. Thanks, I guess it helps to read it

Dumbasses.

[kskiska]

8. Easy come, easy go

[onethatcares]

9. wow, and I'm just happy that my wife and I can

finally put a coffered ceiling in our bedroom with can lights so we aren't always in the dark. It's gonna cost about 200-300 as a do it yourself project and we aren't gonna refi afterwards.