My place got renovation rescued!

[MRK25T]

This week channel nine's Renovation Rescue were doing thier thing at my parent's place.

After a lot of secret planning over a preiod of about 6 weeks it finaly happened on Tuesday morning this week at 6:30am.

The crew of presenters, audio, and camera crew hid down the road until 7am and then rang the doorbell to the disbelief of my Mum, Dad, Brother, and sister.

The reason my family was selected was due to the work my Mum and Sister do with Sunnyfield (aka The Spastic Centre).

My sister was involved in a head-on on the Harbour Bridge back in 1999 (the day of the City to Surf) in her tiny Toyota Starlet. She was in a coma for 6 weeks, couldnt walk, talk, etc. for months afterwards. During her hospital stay we were asked if we'd like to turn off life support as the outlook was grim. The specialists said it would be a miricle if she was ever able to walk down the corridor or even say "thank you".

Before the accident in Mum's spare time she would take out the disabled people through Sunnyfield to give respite to the parents. It was just a coincidence that my sister would end up disabled too.

In 2003 and again in 2004 Mum and my sister completed the 14km city to surf.

Together they have have been the top fund raiser for Sunnyfield.

Anyway, Renovation Rescue took Mum and my sister to a mistery location after they had to quickly pack on tuesday morning. They were taken via a stretch statesman limo to the air port where along with the presenter, camera men, and my sister's carer where flown to Port Douglas for 2 nights.

While they were there they were pampered, had $5k to spend at Myers, were told that they were getting a free trip to Canada + $2k spending money.

They arrived back in Sydney at 4:30pm on Thursday afternoon and should have arrived back at the house at 6pm to view the renovations. Unfortunately things wernt running like clockwork back at my parent's place as they were no where near finished. It wasn't until 8pm that the show got on the road and my parents and sister were taken through the house with all the cameras etc. etc.

To top it off, Kate Cebrano and her band came to Sydney especially for us from Melbourne to sing 2 songs in our garage. It was a special effort as they were due to play in Brisbane the next day.

The place now looks a milion dollars, the colour selection, design, backyard are a true reflection of who my family are which is great.

Some final touches are being done over the next few days to finish things off such as the arrival of speakers for the tv (we dont have sound from it at the moment), and a new security system.

The clutter that was in the rooms that had the make-over were either hidden in other rooms or taken away to storage for a month. from storage we can toss the stuff we want to get rid of and take home the stuff we would like to keep.

I am told that the new season of Renovation Rescue starts up again next year in February and that we will be one of the first 6 shows.

Channel 9 did a great job!

[Jimbo2000]

sounds like it couldnt have happened for a more deserving family mate

great stuff

[ferni]

Good stuff, sounds like your family deserves it!!

[Blitz]

We are going to need pics Mark

Very well deserved - im sure your sister especially would have be delighted

[carlo]

Thats pritty cool stuff dude!!!!

yeah pics.. goss on Tv stars.. etc etc

[Doctor]

That is absolutely fantastic mate. Congrats.

Ben

[MRK25T]

Thanks Ben, Nick & Carlo.

you've been to my place Nick, you may recognise the structural differences - they built a wall where previously there was none, and they relocated the back door and windows.

I'll post up some pics tommorow arvo after work.

[Silver-Arrowz]

Warm and fuzzy feeling story of the day. Thanks for the smile and congrats!

[Blitz]

Sounds good Mark, will be interested to see how it scrubbed up

[go_nuts]

Congrats mate, congrats. Sometimes I wonder do these families deserve to get their house renovated but this time I don't have this doubt. Well done and this thread is nothing without piccies

[Astroboy]

Sounds awesome, sounds like your family really deserves it too!

Congratulations

[shonen]

very nice read.....and well deserved....i dont watch that show but ill look out for it next season.....who would we know its your house though ?? any hints with out giving too much away ?

congratulations anyhow !!!

[MRK25T]

I've added some pics to the story. My old room that also got done-up is locked so I cant take any pics of it.

[GTR R35]

Well done Mark,

I am trying to get backyard blitz to do my place.......:spcartman

[Shell]

OMG!! that's awesome - I love that show!! :headbang:

Were you there when they revealed it? will you be on teli?

Sounds like your mum and sister had a great holiday (and well deserved). Did Rebecca Harris go with them like she usually does?

[dacow]

wow good work channel 9 and congrats mark

[Blitz]

Mark that looks tops, congrats

[Beer Baron]

nice mate. Well done.

Enjoy the new look

Richard

[MRK25T]

OMG!! that's awesome - I love that show!!  :headbang:  

Were you there when they revealed it? will you be on teli?

Sounds like your mum and sister had a great holiday (and well deserved). Did Rebecca Harris go with them like she usually does?

I tried to hide from camera so probably not. I was there when it was revealed as part of the gathering at the back of the house.

Rebecca went with them. She lives across the road from us. I trained with her husband a couple of years ago for premier league.

The guy that does the landscaping also lives a stones throw away from my parent's place.