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Finally-The long awaited date has arrived
Posted by Joe Pusateri

It has been 3 months to the day since my last entry to this forum. Everyone who was involved in this project, I think everyone in the whole city has been looking forward to tonight-the airing of the show. The date has arrived. We have invited 1900 people, who assisted in this effort, to watch the show with the Hughes family and our company. When we agreed to take on this project I knew it would be big-but I underestimated just how big. The fact that Patrick Hughes and his family are ... read more

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I just finished shooting 2 hours with the show-reflecting on the past week. It has been so rewarding, so satisfying-it is hard to put into words. This will be my last post, I have to go back to my real job. Last night from 8-midnight we had a party to celebrate the successful completion. The companies that donated workers or materials were all invited. It was at the Muhammed Ali Museum-which in the spirit of the week-was graciously donated for our event. We had approximately 700 people ... read more

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The moment that all of us waited for has arrived. For the thousands out there, it was undescribable to see Patrick jumping up in his chair in pure joy and excitement. The Hughes got a new home, and with the help of 5th 3rd and many other businesses and individuals, we were able to pay off their old mortgage so they own the house mortgage-free. Despite that and some other gifts that will probably come out, I feel the workers, our company and myself were the real beneficiaries from this ... read more

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It is about 8 AM and as you can imagine it is hard to sleep very long. The weather for the most part as been fantastic and the newspaper says 67 degrees with scattered showers. Hopefully they are scattered away from Buechel Bank Road. There are so many questions on the blogs I can not begin to answer them. Here are the basic facts. We expect the reveal to happen around 2. They will actually shoot the crowd yelling Move that bus way before then. So if you are hoping to be in the show you ... read more

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We just finished shooting the segment for the show where we hand over the keys. It was like everything else this week-a phenomenal experience. Everyone says, I guess you will be glad when this is over-quite frankly I am going to miss it. I of course have a business to run, but this has been an unforgettable week. After a rainy start, it is getting quite nice and the crowd continues to grow. We will have at least 7 buses tomorrow for shuttles and are working to put wood chips in the field ... read more

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It is a little after 11 PM. I am done for the day and skipping out an hour early. The A team, (my team) exceeded all expectations. We are about 5 hours ahead on the inside and have almost completed the sod on the outside, ahead of the possible rain, putting us about 8 hours ahead of schedule on the outside. Needless to say, I couldn't be prouder of my team and all the companies that really got after it today knowing there was the possibility of rain. Good night. read more

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We are racing to try and get sod tonite before the rain comes in. I think we will get at least some done assuming it holds off to midnight. We have been very blessed with the weather so far, keep those prayers going for one more good day. That's all I have time for. read more

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It is 4 oclock on Monday. So far no rain. Some good news-we are 2 hours ahead on the inside. We have told the designers we will turn over the keys at noon tomorrow (Tuesday) instead of the scheduled 2:00 time. Charlie Brown, who is on the construction team for the show says this would be only the 2nd time since he has worked for them that this would be done. Makes me very proud of everyone out here. The problem with mentioning specific people is you leave someone out. I do want to thank ... read more

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OK-I have got with my Volunteer coordinator, Dale Mowery, who incidentally has been fantastic. Both he and Robert Tinder, one of our supers, have lost their voices today. We hope we have solved the transportation issues. Monday and Tuesday, the show provides a shuttle bus from 8 AM to 9 PM. We will provide 2 more buses beginning at noon and they will go to 9 also. So we will have 3 buses taking people to the site instead of 1. On Wed, they have 3 buses starting at 8 AM. We will furnish 3 ... read more

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I am back at approx 7:30 to update the progress. We have had long lines at the Showcase for people to get here. I was unaware of this until a little while ago. Elite is going to hire some additional buses for Monday and Wednesday to try and reduce the waiting time for people to get here. The transportation is not supposed to be our area of concern, but the response from the public has surprised and overwhelmed the transportation that the show is furnishing. I apologize for the delays that ... read more

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It is 5:15 pm and I ran to our trailor to put in this post. The most miraculous thing is we were told rain was headed our way. We have been in touch with the weather bureau and they said it was coming-it would be short but intense. I just found out the weather pretty much split-it apparently rained all around us, but missed our site. I have told everyone when they expressed concerns or questions about the weather, that God would bless this project. An issue has come up, I have to go. Will ... read more

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It is 10 PM and my shift is almost over. I am on the noon-midnight shift and my brother will be coming soon for the midnight to noon shift. We are still behind on our schedule, but we have stopped the bleeding. Our framers have completely worn out. Thankfully, other builders have assisted us in getting fresh carpenters out here. Thanks to Richard Miles (Dogwood Homes), Ron West (West and Edelen) and Billy Doelker (Key Homes) for sending out fresh guys. Even though we are all competitors, ... read more

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It is around 2:15 and we are still framing and working on the roof. We are over 3 hours behind of where we had hoped to be, we wanted to have the Plumbers, Heating & Electrical work to be happening by now. We aren't too concerned yet, but lets say it has our attention. We have alloted 6 hours for the Plumbing, Heating rough-ins. 8 hours for Electric and Tele, TV and security. I am going to go out now and give them a pep talk and challenge them to do it in 2 hours less. We are also hopeful ... read more

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What an awesome day! We had what is called the Braveheart march this morning-we had 600 people in the march and many were turned away because the show began to worry about running out of t-shirts. Ty and all the Designers are a lot of fun and interact with the crowd. You can see they genuinely enjoy what they do. We got a little bit of a late start because of the filming and we are probably 2 hours behind our schedule. The framers have said they have more time than they need-I hope that ... read more

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6:00 PM-Thurs. Nov 8th This is the last night I will get home for dinner for awhile. If you are following our construction schedule, everything on the schedule for today got done. Two major items were the new road & cutting down 5 major trees (in what has to be a record 42 minutes). Another major item was all the utility work. LG&E did a phenomenal job. They disconnected the existing house and had to also disconnect a neighbor, got rid of the pole that was in the way, put in a new pole ... read more

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Posted Wed, Nov 8 at 12:00 noon I am finally finding time to add a post. Yesterday was awesome. At approximately 8:15 Ty did his famous, Good Morning Hughes Family. They were surprised and their joy made all of us who were watching emotional. There are obviously a lot of families who could use a new home-I can't imagine any more deserving than the Hughes family. Around noon our company got to meet the family. It was great for our employees to finally meet the family that they have all been ... read more

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6:30 PM-Tues. Nov 6th We are very excited tonight and looking forward to Ty announcing to the world that the Hughes family have been selected for an "Extreme Makeover". It has been awesome to see all the companies who will help in this project come together. Everyone we have asked for help has been more than willing to do whatever is needed. There have been numerous meetings involving our company and various subcontractors and suppliers. In addition, many of these companies have met on ... read more

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