The Kansas City Star March 17, 2007
By Bill Graham

‘Makeover’ nearly complete
The Jacobo family will return Sunday from their vacation, and a spacious house will be awaiting.

From cottage to castle, the Jocobo home transformation is almost complete.
Jesus and Michelle Jacobo, plus nine children and a grandparent, will find spacious quarters Sunday thanks to ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

No more will family members eat in shifts or sleep in hallways at 4132 N. Spruce Ave. in Kansas City, North.

Now they’ve got five times the room, more than 5,000 square feet in a 1920’s cottage design.

“It’s been a madhouse rush to get things done well,” said designer Wolfgang Trost, a Prairie Village architect. “My staff spent more than 200 hours working on it.”

Their goal is blending a three-level gable-roofed home into a split-level area, Trost said.

Earth-tone green siding, yellow trim and brown window shutters. Tulip-shaped cutouts in the shutters represents nurturing. Red brick siding covers the basement level. There is antique-style copper guttering.

A one-car garage driveway is flared on the sides to accommodate two cars parked outside. Garden landscaping frames a backyard patio with a stone fireplace and outdoor kitchen.

Relatives say the family enjoyed drinking coffee on a front deck. “Now they’ll have a porch patio in the front,” Trost said.

Curved entryways frame the front door. Inside is a stairway area and hallways leading to space galore.

A south dining room connects to a great room on the ground floor, so the family can dine together. In front is a small reading area.

Relatives say Michelle Jacobo cooks each evening. She now has a large, kitchen with a walk-in pantry and an island.

Ray McMahan, 69, Michelle’s father, lives with the family and helps with the children. He slept on the floor before the makeover. Now he has his own ground-floor bedroom.

Upstairs, Jesus and Michelle have a master bedroom on the south. Adjoining is a nursery room for a 6-month-old niece whom relatives say the couple is adopting.

They also have adopted a nephew; they have legal custody of two nieces and a nephew; Michelle’s daughter from an earlier marriage lives with them; and they have two sons and a daughter.

The girls will share two suites in the upper story, Trost said. In the basement, the boys share suites with plenty of windows, he said. There is also a recreation room.

Room themes and interior decorating will be kept secret until the show is broadcast, which officials say is tentatively set for May 13.

Neighbors say the Jacobos will be amzed.

“This is ‘extraordinary,” Trost said, “really special.”