Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Part 3

Well, the home makover is complete! We only went to watch it once, but it was fun getting to see the progress every time we drove by. As the home was revealed to the Hughes family, Patrick was presented a 3-D model of it so he could tell what it looked like.

Here's the Hughes' original home:

Here's the Hughes' new home:

The Louisville Courier Journal has many articles about the makeover, including this one, but here are a few highlights:

•The family — which packed for both a warm- and a cold-weather vacation — was surprised and flown to London for the duration of the makeover. Their house was demolished Nov. 9.

•Construction began later that day and continued through the weekend until, 105 hours later, a new house stood in place of the other.

•Their above-ground pool has been replaced with a handicapped-accessible ground-level pool, complete with a wheelchair ramp coming from Hughes' new, apartment-like portion of the home.

•One of the most amazing aspects of the house is a verbal-command automation system that has been installed in Patrick's portion of the 3,200-square-foot home.

•The home is equipped with technology that is able to respond to 350 verbal commands, from opening doors to changing the channel on the flat-screen television to telling the time or outside temperature.

•"The coolest thing is that Patrick can say, "Computer goodnight" and the system prepares the home for bedtime. It shuts off or dims lights, makes sure the doors are locked and will even play mellow nighttime music.