Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s designers Tracy Hutson and Paul DiMeotalk w/ Mark and Theresa about the show’s final episodes, their music, and the families they’ve met through that ABC hit’s 200+ episodes.
Mark: You are back inside MyFixitUpLife here in the fabulous award-winning no less…
Theresa: It is an award winning Formica booth.
Mark: This place is a knock out. And I think we can share that opinion with two veteran designers from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition who join us right now — Tracy Hutson, say hello.
Tracy: Thank you, it is beautiful…hello, hello.
Paul: Morning Mark, morning Theresa, thank you for having us.
Theresa: Oh, we love having you guys. It’s just like a big old cup of coffee, a pot of coffee to brighten our days.
Tracy: Aw that’s sweet. It’s just been so much fun. I was trying to think about the first time I first met you guys I think it was two years ago at one of these builders’ shows. I believe it was in Las Vegas.
Paul: Pennsylvania I think right?
Tracy: And then you came to Pennsylvania after.
Theresa: Yeah we met you in Pennsylvania at a project last year.
Paul: Yeah.
Tracy: We started our friendship earlier.
Mark: And that’s Tracy speaking and that’s Paul DiMeo, who we haven’t introduced. Paul we’ll introduce you in about an hour.
Paul: No problem.
Mark: After the show is over.
Theresa: We’ll let everyone know we talked to you. You know that guy, yeah that was Paul. You can follow him on Twitter @Paul_DiMeo too. And Tracy Hutson, @TracyHutson. We do, yeah we totally do.
Tracy: We appreciate that.
Theresa: So we want to follow you into whatever is next for you guys. Have you guys like taken a nap yet, or like been able to relax because I mean oh my goodness what a long success you guys have had with Extreme Makeover. I mean have you even rested up yet?
Paul: You’re really making me feel bad.
Theresa: Seriously.
Mark: We were supposed to ask that question at the end of the interview.
Paul: What are you gonna do with your life? You sound like my parents.
Theresa: It’s just we’ve been to like four or five of the builds and seen you guys work, and seen the schedules, and seen that it’s just insane.
Tracy: It’s intense.
Theresa: And the coordination and the amount of dedication that you have, and putting it all out there it’s like medical school or something like that ya know?
Tracy: We have a PhD in reality TV. Yeah I mean the fact that our show, you know shooting the pilot more than nine years ago — it was longer than nine years ago when we finally, you know here we are, almost a decade later and it is, I think that I haven’t truthfully processed it quite yet. I went home, I snuggled with my boys and then we’ve had a couple other things such as this builders show — you know we’ve kept in the loop with all of our friends because it really is our family. We do keep in touch; we do hang out with one another, so it will be interesting in a month from now. I’ll get really antsy. I’m excited to see what the next chapter is. I can’t help but not be optimistic because I was so blessed to be on a show for this long and such a wonderful show at that, so I’m just hoping and praying that something wonderful happens.
Theresa: Well I’m sure it will, I mean you guys are just so beloved, I mean seriously, and all of the fans and everybody are just coming out and trying to petition ABC and trying to get them to just change their minds.
Paul: If you could only read my lips right now.
Theresa: But that’s a high five to you guys, that’s such a huge compliment.
Paul: It is, it is. We are in 167 countries; we are all over the world. We had people stopping by the booth yesterday talking that are from Africa that watch our show, people from Israel, people from Iraq, Afghanistan…we are in 167 countries so it is. I hope the future holds where I am able to continue working with Tracy — of all the people that I have had the opportunity to work with over the nine years.
Theresa: I would pick her too.
Paul: Yeah, you know what I mean.
Theresa: And then I would want to borrow her clothes, but you probably don’t.
Paul: Ha Ha don’t need to do that so much. Gonna miss the swag. Gonna miss speaking of clothing, you know.
Tracy: All your fireman tee-shirts Paul. I mean hundreds and hundreds of your fireman’s tee-shirts.
Theresa: All the gear too. All the beautiful like Carhartt jackets and stuff that you guys did as mementos.
Paul: Yeah they were just in Knoxville. You guys were in Knoxville with us…Mark was out there working.
Theresa: Which is going to be the Thanksgiving probably special this year?
Paul: Yes, it’s the Thanksgiving special. It’ll air what 8 months from now.
Mark: Thanksgiving-ish.
Paul: Yeah, which makes sense.
Theresa: So you have to go and check it out and follow Extreme Makeover still on Facebook and on Twitter @ExtremeHome to find out when that special and the other three specials are going to air in December-ish?
Tracy: Yes.
Paul: Or do the complete opposite and don’t watch them at all and let them know how bummed everyone is that they took it off the air. So there are two ways…..no?
Mark: No, no that’s opposite and Paul actually has a Shepard’s hook right now pulling him offstage like a Bugs Bunny cartoon.
Paul: Wasn’t sure which way to do with that one you know what I mean?
Tracy: Ha Ha guys you’re too much, geeze.
Mark: You know one of the things that fascinates me about watching you guys on TV and seeing you work on set is all, and I don’t want to make this a talent show, but is all the other talents that you have, that you bring as a composite to your humanity on that show. You with perhaps missed opportunity, Tracy, as a country music star…not missed opportunity but…
Tracy: Ahhh, well thank you. I do, Paul and I are in a band together. And we practice…a lot because we’re on the road a lot.
Paul: All the time.
Theresa: Seriously? Where can we hear the music?
Tracy: On the bus, and the bus is now retired.
Paul: No from Power Ball — you know the eleven year old who sings the show? It’s very cute, it’s just guitar. So we’re very Zooey Deschanel and uhh…
Theresa: I kind of love her.
Tracy: Yeah.
Paul: So we try to embrace, we try to copy everything they do.
Theresa: Well that’s really a good thing.
Mark: So you’re a cover band?
Paul: Totally a cover band.
Tracy: We are a cover band.
Mark: You’re gonna burn out some Zeppelin right now?
Tracy: We have the Eagles, Desperado in the mix.
Paul: The Eagles, we’re gonna learn Friend of the Devil. Now with the show over, you know we’re gonna move to the darker side.
Mark: That’s the first song I knew by heart.
Theresa: So for your new show, you guys are gonna be together and you can write the music and sing and the whole thing.
Paul: The writing of the music is where we stop.
Theresa: You can perform the music.
Paul: We can perform the music.
Theresa: Yeah, it can be a singing makeover show. You could do a musical makeover.
Tracy: Totally.
Theresa: There you go, booked!
Tracy: Yeah I’m feeling it now. It’s gonna be a huge hit.
Theresa: There isn’t one out there. There isn’t like a strolling guitarist going through and designing at the same time.
Tracy: Right that’s how we could surprise them.
Paul: And you know what, that is what we’re looking for. We are looking for something kind of like that. Extreme was huge — you guys have seen it, you’ve been there.
Theresa: It’s like a movie set, it’s incredible.
Paul: There are thousands of people…we take over blocks. We would really like to kind of pull it back a little bit, we certainly know — as you guys do, we know that this world is going to smaller square footage, we’re not spreading out the way we were the economy just doesn’t allow us to do that. So we’re trying to do something that does bring it a little simpler, you know?
Tracy: Yes pitching design shows you know what that concept in mind, and keep it light and fun. You guys were in Joplin, and the fact that that was our series finale — not knowing it at the time, we all said how are we going to continue on as a show after something this big? I thought it was fitting but that was our series finale and it was just such an incredible experience.
Mark: Joplin had — now that we’ve been on four or five of these — Joplin had an effect on us that I couldn’t see, even though we went back and we were like ‘wow that was incredible and it was magic in a bottle’, while we were there the guys working on our team were like ‘When’s the next one? When can we do this again?’ And they hadn’t slept in 20 hours.
Tracy: I know, it’s contagious.
Mark: And then we got back and I helped out on the Knoxville build and the feeling there was different and it sort of occurred to me that Joplin, the thing that happened, happened to everyone. And everyone was there and game on in a way that I don’t think anyone is going to see again. So what a fitting end to a show that’s left a place in the world better than it found it.
Paul: Right, and for us it was. That was a great way to put it, Mark. I mean you were there at Cunningham Park, kids are playing in the park, people are taking walks, they are strolling at sunset in that park. Folks just stopped by again from Joplin that talked about Cunningham Park specifically and how people are really starting to gather there and come in. So for us, for two people who do not watch what airs on Sunday night, we never did because it is just a very small part of the week — you guys are there so you understand that you’re taking all these hours of a week and trying to put it in 43 minutes. There are so many stories that go untold but are still part of our hearts, part of our souls.
Mark: Is there one…and I don’t mean this in a good, better, best context, but is there one or two that have just stayed with you? One or two families, one or two kids that occur to you and they are in your daily life that you think about more than others?
Tracy: I definitely have one and unfortunately Paul wasn’t on that show with me, he was shooting another show. But there was a little girl who passed away, Bowie, and she was fighting cancer at the time and her family really needed a new house and this eight year old little girl was fundraising for the other kid from the cancer ward, at the hospital. It was in Corvallis, Oregon. And I still stay in touch with her parents. She passed away a couple months after we left. But she was just so brave and so wonderful — so I think about her a lot. She was a cutie. It’s as if you have this very large photo album And you guys are part of it, the families that we surprise and get to build these homes for they’re a part of it, but it’s every volunteer who helps, the design team, our crew, our camera crew. It’s every single person that lends a hand in making these shows happen. They are all a part of it. It’s good stuff.
Mark: Paul’s changing the subject by hand signaling to our producer George.
Paul: Yeah George is saying we have three minutes left.
Mark: So Paul do three minutes of something awesome.
Theresa: Three minutes of the most amazing three minutes of your life.
Paul: It’s funny, I got to meet the family. When we did the build — Tracy was not on that build she was in Connecticut when we were building back in Oregon, and the family came and visited so I got to meet them and I got to hear their story and those are the stories that stay with you. There’s a place in Purdy, Missouri called Camp Barnabas, which is a camp for disabled kids. When you do those jobs, as in Joplin, you’re not just affecting the life of one family, but so many families. Because long after I’m gone kids are going to be going to Purdy, Missouri, so the work you do there is kind of…
Theresa: It touches generations.
Paul: Yeah, it goes a long way.
Theresa: Before we ever stepped foot on an Extreme Makeover job site I thought you guys had one of the most amazing jobs ever in this kind of industry. And then going there I got so jealous of what you guys were able to do. Be able to dream big and make dreams come true for people that really need it. And then everyone behind the scenes, and everyone that works on the show that you don’t see on camera, and how well you guys all work together, and it was a family — hugely jealous, way more jealous than you could ever imagine.
Paul: Well think of nine years, what nine years is. That is two college degrees, some marriages don’t even last that long you know what I mean? So it is, it’s a long time. And we have to be careful because we can — you find humor in everything we see. Whether it’s a little girl or whatever it is because we are around it all the time, you almost become shell shocked to it. You’re just here we go again, here we go again. In Joplin, we didn’t stop crying. We got there and I don’t remember not crying that entire week.
Mark: And we remember being moved and the emotions being powerful, but what we want to take into our break is a smile. Paul DiMeo, Tracy Hutson from Extreme Makeover Home Edition.
Paul: Smiles that’s right.
Mark: We’ll be back in just a minute from the Formica booth at the International Builders’ Show with more MyFixitUpLife.
Check out the MyFixitUpLife talk show that features this interview with Tracy and Paul.
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