By Logan Braman

It’s Day Seven and everything on the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build is coming together. All the hours that the builders, sponsors and volunteers have put into the Cowan-Brown family’s new home has come down to “Move that bus!” time. Hallmark Homes is almost done with its part of the build and ready to hand the keys off to the Extreme Makeover team.

Derek Wilder, CEO of Hallmark Homes, has been thanking volunteers, sponsors and everyone else involved with the build all morning. The build has been full of challenges, most of which came with the rain late last week, but so far all of them have been overcome. Wilder said the turnaround from being behind to getting back on track was the biggest accomplishment.

“I’ve heard people saying that they’ve never seen anything like that turnaround,” he said. “From that perspective, I’m really proud of the guys for it. Basically, that first morning was one that was very difficult. At 3 a.m. [Friday], I get a phone call and we have a foot of water and the foundation is totally flooded so I had to get on the phone and make a plan for how we’re going to get out of this.”

The plan is working. Volunteers are putting the finishing touches on the inside of the home while others lay sod in the front yard. Eventually, the keys will be handed off to the ABC Extreme Makeover team and Hallmark Homes will be finished with its part of the job. Wilder said most of the work is already out of his hands.

“The designers have taken over,” Wilder said. “They took over last night. You’re seeing some volunteers, but they’re not being told what to do by us. They’re being told what to do by the design team of Extreme Makeover. We’ve got some painters in there doing some touch-up and I’ve got some punch-out guys. We’ve got a backdoor lock [that] we’re trying to get a lock on that we couldn’t find.”

The build wouldn’t be back on track without the effort put in by everyone who has worked on the house the last seven days. Wilder said some of the biggest obstacles came from the constantly changing schedule that occurred as a result of last week’s rain. He said he couldn’t thank the people who came out to work enough.

“The unsung heroes were the people who sat here: framers, plumbers and tradesmen that sat over here and didn’t get in the house,” Wilder said. “They were our ace in the hole in case someone left or got too tired.”

Wilder said his part of the project would be mostly done by the end of the day. Spectators are out in droves because the home will be revealed to the Cowan-Brown family later today. Wilder said it will be time to celebrate when the finishing touches for the house are done.

“We’re going to have a wrap party tonight for all our VIP people, which includes sponsors, vendors and workers,” he said. “I was talking to some of our workers this morning and they’re looking forward to getting back to work [at their regular jobs] because it’s going to be so easy.”