Published: October 29, 2009 10:58 pm      

Life returning to normal after ‘Makeover’

Remaining crews, neighbors clean up after ABC show leaves town.

BUNKER HILL — The block of road with the Cowan-Brown family’s new home remained closed to the public Thursday as crews from “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” finished cleaning up after the past week’s chaos.

All that remained by midday Thursday in the 11000 block of 100 West in rural Miami County were a few trucks and tents, which sat on muddy farm fields covered in track marks.

Filming for the ABC-TV reality show’s episode, which is scheduled to air in January, ended Wednesday. After filming off-site interviews, Heather and Andy Cowan and their four children — Kori Brown, 12, Ryan Brown, 16, Trevor Brown, 13, and Mason Cowan, 8 — spent the first night in their new home.

Filming for the episode began Oct. 21 when the show’s star, Ty Pennington, and other cast members surprised the family by announcing the show was going to build a new home.

ABC selected the family mainly because of Kori Brown, who has a congenital blood disorder. During her frequent visits to Riley Hospital for Children, she befriended a girl with cancer. Since then, she has raised more than $35,000 for the American Cancer Society.

The family’s previous home began having problems with mold several years ago. The mold has caused medical complications for Kori, as well as her older brother, Ryan. The family expects the new home, which has no carpeting and no longer sits at the bottom of a gradient that collected water, should greatly reduce the frequency of hospital visits.

Cleanup Continues

While the Cowan-Brown family settled into its new home, neighbors began returning to a normal life.

Neighbor Joni Keith, who lives three houses down and across the street from the family, said Wednesday there was still a lot of cleanup to be done.

“Even around my house, there is a ton of trash still,” Keith said. “I mean, all the way down to the stop sign, there’s trash in the ditch.”

Farmer Doug LeMaster, who rents the field across the street from the new home, said he was not expecting too much trouble with rehabilitating his field. The show used the field as a spectator viewing area, a parking lot and other behind-scenes purposes.

“It’s not going to take much to do it,” he said. “... It’s going to be some [work], but it’s not going to be big, big work.”

LeMaster said he had not yet seen his rental property, on which he grows corn, beans and wheat, since the show moved in last week.

Scrub That Bus

Cleanup is also ongoing off site.

James Callane, assistant superintendent for Maconaquah School Corp., said maintenance workers have been busy cleaning mud and straw from the floors of the 10 or 11 buses the corporation loaned to “Extreme Makeover.”

Almost 30 bus drivers from the school corporation, which the Cowan-Brown children attend, spent Friday through Tuesday rotating shifts shuttling volunteers and spectators from Grissom Air Reserve Base to the project site.

“They were worn out, but they had a blast,” Callane said about the drivers. “They were happy to do something for this family. Obviously, it is a family we know quite well. It was heart-warming to see this support from the bus drivers.”

Taylor School Corp. also loaned three of its buses to shuttle people Tuesday. The show filmed its “Move That Bus” scene — the episode’s grand finale — Tuesday. Hundreds of spectators came out to see the moment when the Cowan-Brown family first saw its new home.

Taylor superintendent John Magers said the school corporation helped out because Heather Cowan is a graduate, and her brother is enrolled in the school system.

“There were some good connections, and we first had some bus drivers come and ask if they could [volunteer],” he said. “... That’s typical of the Taylor community, a very giving group.”

Popularity Could Linger

The cast and crews from “Extreme Makeover” have moved on, but a senior producer for the show cautions that life on 100 West will not be exactly like before.

Producer Diane Korman said drive-by traffic usually picks up for a short time after filming and after the episodes air.

Keith asked the curious onlookers to respect the street’s residents when they drive through.

“A lot of us have pets and kids,” she said. “I’m just kind of concerned about all the traffic we’ll get. ... People [need] to have some respect as far as driving fast and throwing out trash and things like that.”

• Daniel Human is a Kokomo Tribune staff writer. He can be reached at 765-454-8570 or at daniel.human@kokomotribune.com.