EHM Tour

**Update** I forgot to mention that there are MANY MORE volunteers than they can actually use for the show. They try to get skilled workers for the job so there are thousands on a volunteer waiting list. Also, many are pre-selected and called ahead of time by the head builder.
Neighbors do NOT get monetary compensation, however EHM does fix/re-landscape anything that they have torn up in the neighbor's yards.
Also, they do change their minds on things just like anyone else. They ordered the siding and didn't like the color. They were going to paint it, and then decided to order another completely different color! It's on now, so no turning back--I guess =).

Beautiful Saturday here and nice weather to get that house finished!! I got the opportunity to go on a tour of the site and such. We walked up the street and were greeted by security. He at first was going to tell us we had to go the other way like everyone else, however we had to ask for "Rick". He is the production manager and led us on our tour thingy. Sadly, Ty is out of town at the moment working on another home, but will be back Monday. We got to go down "production alley". They have neat little names for everything. Another name is "bin city". The interesting thing is that this stuff is sitting in people's front yards etc... I didn't know this before, but there are camera's mounted on the top of some of the neighbor's homes. Of course, now I have seen them.

We couldn't tour the inside as it is dangerous since so much is going on in there. We got to see Michael, Rib, Travis, and the cowboy (don't remember his name at the moment). Rick pointed out different people walking around and what their various roles are with the show. We stayed for a little over an hour and left because the people in our group chose to. Rick was more than gracious and gave us quite a bit of info about how it all works/comes together. The production is based out of LA, however he lives on the East Coast near Boston. He did tell us that the Midwest is the best place to do these projects. We asked him if that's because we have no lives or what?? He said that the people here are much nicer and willing to volunteer and support it. He told us that in many other places, they have trouble getting crowds out for the reveals and such. As he was talking, I saw Michael appear...

He is talking to the head Builder/Contractor. As you can see and will see in the pictures, there is a lot going on constantly. The truck directly in the front is full of pea gravel which was being kind of shot out along the side of the house. This is a 4000 sq ft house, however it only has a one-stall garage! They simply don't have room to put anymore garage than that.

Now you have a bit of an idea of wha the house looks like. They are putting stone on the front, as well as putting finishing touches on roofing/trim. The blue hard hat/yellow shirt people are part of the builder's crew.

This is the night production manager. He is the liaison between the builder and the production team. We asked how cooperative the neighboring families are and he told us that rarely does a neighbor of a house turn them away. If they do not want any part of it, they partition off the house and do not use their yard or anything. He said once they see what is going on with the show and the spirit behind it, they usually change their mind. You can see that their lives get interrupted quite a bit while this happens...check out the next door neighbor's house...

The man in the picture is Rick the production manager--the one who showed us around.

This is Michael again right before he started dancing around for the camera. I think he would qualify for the "whitest teeth" of anyone I have ever seen! Contrary to what people may think, the designers do NOT stay on site 24/7. They usually work 7a-7p and then go to whatever hotel they are staying in. In this case, they are staying in a neighboring city. The trailers that are set up are kind of like offices and such. They have a trailer that is one big food area with stoves and such. They even have an Icee machine sitting right in the middle of the street--LOL.

This is the hair/makeup artist for the show along with the production director behind her.

Stuff we learned about the show:
This particular crew & design team does 12 shows this year and the other crew does 8-10. They do about 22 shows per season. They do shows for 10 1/2 months of the year.
The family's belongings that were emptied from the house goes to offsite storage. They have the option of keeping 100% of their stuff, although many famillies donate a pretty large portion of it to charity.

Rick has been with the show for 4 seasons out of 6 and said he is a veteran because there are not many that have been on longer--people burn out.


Much of the stuff you see on the show is "trade-out". That means the company lets them use the service or item for advertising on the show.

They cannot show websites or telephone numbers on anything on the show--those are all taped over.


Here are some more pics...














They do a lot of editing right on site in one of the many trailers you see in the above pics. The rest is finished up in LA.

Yes, they do have to get permits and have permission from zoning and such just like everyone else. They typically call city officials several weeks in advance to alleviate the red tape that a regular person encounters.



This is quite exciting for an otherwise quiet city! The show usually takes about 1 1/2 months to air so we are looking at Dec. or early January.
People are making the comment that these people will be getting a TON of trick or treaters at Halloween, and I would imagine they would =).
I didn't take photos of everything, but I will follow up later with pics from the reveal (if we have a good spot). This was fun as it was like a backstage pass--no barricades to stand behind and a pass right by security =).