By Logan Braman

Paul Schwinghammer, president of Hallmark Homes Inc., was an integral part of the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build. If you were on the site during the week the house was torn down and rebuilt from the ground up, you were sure to run into Schwinghammer. Schwinghammer said most of his time on the site was spent helping people by answering questions and solving problems when they came up. He was also responsible for making sure people were where they needed to be so the build would get done. All in all, Schwinghammer sums up the project in one sentence.

“[The project was] an intense month of preparation culminating to a fast paced, highly coordinated effort by hundreds during the week of the build,” he said.

The project also endured long days, because Schwinghammer still had the same responsibilities for Hallmark Homes as he does on any other week. The build did help in one aspect that one wouldn’t expect: family.

“It brought us closer together in working toward the common goal both before and during the project,” Schwinghammer said about the effects of the project on his family.

Since the build, Schwinghammer said he has been back to his regular work at Hallmark Homes. He and the company have also been in contact with the Cowan-Brown family to help make sure everything in the house is functioning as it should. He said the buzz about the project has been slowing, but he thinks that will change once the show airs. He said Hallmark Homes has big plans for the air date.

“We have a large event planned in Kokomo for the night of the airing in which the family will be in attendance,” he said.

Looking back, Schwinghammer said the only thing he would change if he could go back would be to move the project back a week. This wouldn’t give Hallmark Homes any extra time to build, but it would have taken care of the rain that caused so many problems. Schwinghammer said the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” build was about more than just Hallmark Homes, however.

“Hallmark was simply the orchestrator of this project and it took the efforts of hundreds of skilled and non-skilled people not affiliated with Hallmark to make it happen,” he said. “We could not have done it without them.”