Sun Gazette March 15, 2007
By Jared Hoffmann

Extreme Home Makeover Shock
Surprise visit from TV show thrills family

Sunday, March 11, began like any other day for Clay County resident Jesus Jacobo and his 12-members family. They were mingling in the kitchen of their cramped living space, on North Spruce Avenue off Chouteau Trafficway, and were working toward a consensus on what to have for breakfast. But their discussion was abruptly interrupted long before any food was on the table.
“We were all in the kitchen talking about what to eat, and before I knew it everybody was screaming,” Jacobo said. “They just said, ‘He’s here,’ and I was like ‘Who?’ and they said ‘the bus.’ Believe me I don’t even remember how we all ran to the door at the same time.”

“The bus” happened to be transporting the cast and crew of the widely known ABC television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” Following the bus were trucks, vans and trailers carrying enough equipment to turn the neighborhood into a bustling Hollywood-style movie set. The rush of excitement came as a welcome surprise to Jacobo, who had been told by producers that his family had a one in five chance of beigh selected.

“The truth, it was just like a dream to us,” Jacobo said. “We just had a 20 percent chance. You’re talking about a small amount. All we could do was hope and pray about it.”

The family spent the majority of the day Sunday shooting and re-shooting various sequences for the show as a cluster of neighbors looked on. The process included several re-takes of the crew’s arrival and the family’s departure. Bystanders snapped pictures from afar while family members embraced, cried, laughed and dreamed aloud of how their home might look upon returning.

Brittany McMahan, Jacobo’s niece, said she immediately notified several classmates after she first realized her family was chosen. When asked what the Winnetonka junior looked forward to most over the next week, her emphatic response was “coming home and seeing the house.”

The family eventually left the Northland in the early hours of Monday, March 12, for a weeklong sequester in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Before their departure, Jacobo said he looked forward to spending quality time away with his family.

“I haven’t had fun with my kids for a while, so we are just going to try to enjoy what’s there and be happy,” Jacobo said. “It’s just a miracle.”

A family biography prepared by the show’s staff stated that Jacobo and his wife, Michelle, were raising their four children along with five nieces and nephews in a 912-square-foot home. Michelle’s father, Ray, had also moved in to help take care of the children, who span the ages of 6 months to 18 years. Though the home’s exterior appeared to be in decent condition, the prepared statement painted a picture of cramped living conditions in which several family members slept on hard floors throughout the house and in an unheated garage.

Debbie Fenter, the children’s aunt, was overwhelmed to know that the family would soon have a new place to live. She said her second greatest joy was to be able to lend a hand in the building process.

“Nobody else deserves this like they do,” Fenter said. “To play a part in it, I feel very honored to do that.”