Extreme Home Makeover in 3 Weeks! Uplift Mission #1 | Clean &Decorate

And remember guys, whatever happens, be grateful. 2020 has been a tough year for a lot of folks. It's been harder for some more than others. We've had our fair share of challenges, but relatively speaking, we've been extremely blessed. So my wife and I sought out an opportunity to share some of those blessings with someone else. And that's when we met the Augustines. The Augustines are a family of nine children. They have a son named Eli who is 12 years old and he is terminal with cancer. Elaine doesn't really get a break from that. And since COVID, all of the kids are homeschooled. Adam has had to work from home as well. The family spends all day every day in their home. There's a lot of people in a small space and not great storage space in the house. So just clutter naturally. There was molding issues going on. The flooring was terrible. There had been just a buildup of things and it was just, to me, kind of representative of how Elaine and Adam must feel. They needed help, you know. So we wanted to make their load a little lighter. And then Lexi called and she said, hey Jack, we want to do a home makeover for that family. I mean, when somebody says home makeover, you're not really sure to what extent they are talking about. So that's all desks. And then we'll do some sort of like shelving above. I think you could use the space better if you had a door like this, a diagonal door. That way you had the shelving against here. So here was our ambitious plan. We needed to move them out, remodel their house, move them back in all in three weeks. And set up Christmas with gifts under the tree. Doable, right? ♪ All we have is nothing, sometimes nothing's all you need ♪ ♪ When you're stripped of all your armor ♪ ♪ You can finally feel the breeze ♪ ♪ Ooh, we're living in the moment ♪ ♪ We ain't got pockets full of money but we're rich in other things ♪ ♪ This highway is our living room, we're swimming in the mystery ♪ ♪ We're living in the moment ♪ ♪ Here inside, gold on the inside ♪ Oh yeah. Gotten quite a bit cleared out. ♪ We want a taste of this world as we're offered ♪ ♪ Unafraid, we were made to want it ♪ ♪ We will never let it go to waste ♪ ♪ No, we're never gonna let it fade ♪ ♪ We want a taste of this world as we're offered ♪ ♪ Sipping on sunshine ♪ So today is demo day and we have quite a few things planned. First thing, we're gonna be knocking out the pillars. Then we're gonna have somebody come and patch up. We're also potentially gonna be ripping out all the cabinets and replacing all the cabinets. We gotta rip out all the tiles and we're gonna be ripping out all the carpets. And we're also going to be ripping out all the baseboards throughout all the house. We have a crew coming in. My brother is the head of the crew to replace and start cutting and putting up new baseboards as we're tearing down the old baseboards. It's gonna be a fun couple weeks and let's get rolling. ♪ Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey ♪ With the house now cleared out, the rebuilding process could now begin. The next thing we need to find is a cabinet that is about anywhere from two feet or less. Because of the time crunch, we had to overlap a number of subcontractors and tradesmen to work simultaneously. First we had Steve, a retired cabinet maker, calculating all the dimensions of cabinets that had been donated by another home that was getting remodeled. And he redesigned a new kitchen layout that would give Elaine more cabinet space and an island for more seating for her large family. Once Steve drew up the plans, Justin, a talented carpenter, then spent two full days working for free, setting cabinets in the kitchen with help from volunteers. And while Justin set cabinets, our do-it-all retired handyman, Bruce, began building a new pantry that would triple the size of their previous pantry. My brother Boston and his crew of volunteers were hard at work slapping on fresh new baseboard and trim, and full-time filmmaker's own Carter Hogan, who doubles as a skilled electrician, was rewiring the entire kitchen. And of course, other volunteers were busy taking hardware off doors, cleaning all the debris, and prepping all the walls to be painted. Meanwhile, outside, a good friend of mine, Dan from Pan Homes, began the framing of Adam's shed outside for his new insulated office to free up a bedroom so the three girls didn't have to cram into one room. And he, like many on this project, did everything at cost. The energy was honestly amazing. Everyone knew what this was for, and there was a tangible feeling of just excitement to help the Augustine family. I think once those people went down and worked on the project, they would tell people about it, and the news just spread. Right on schedule, the painters showed up on day 12 and 13, painted the entire house a fresh new coat of white, and then we had Kenny Honeycutt from KH Painting come volunteer his time and talents to paint all the bathroom cabinets in beautiful new colors. Once paint was all dried, we had just one week before the Augustines would arrive back home as we started installing the flooring. This was probably the single biggest task and single biggest donation. Ogden's flooring and design was generous enough to donate all the flooring and carpet and installation for free. Once cabinets were set, the amazing Flip Hub came in with a huge crew of volunteers and patched up and repainted all of the kitchen cabinets. Everyone that came in that house really felt a lot of love and a lot of energy for the good that was taking place. With paint now dried, we were ready to start moving them back in and refurnishing the home. There was also a lot of hiccups. Well, I think we're good this way. No, it's not high. We can try and muscle it down. Let's muscle it down. Nice, Scooter. Sorry. Yeah, just squish it a little. We can patch the ceiling, though. Oh my gosh, I'm gonna cry. This was only half the battle. We don't know once we get it here if we can even turn it. Now we can't get it back up the stairs. I'm honestly thinking we cut off the arm right here. Anybody have a sawzall here? I don't know. Do you want to do this here or get it back out here? Call the angels again. Is it possible to collapse it on itself? Like if I took this middle piece out here? It's like giving birth. Okay, we're here at our favorite store doing our favorite part of shopping. Oh, that's so cute. Is that you if we do it with the blues? Uh-huh. We found a perfect couch. With just three days to go until the big reveal, we had teams frantically shopping for furniture, rugs, pillows, decor, and light fixtures, while other teams back at the house were assembling and hanging everything as soon as it arrived. Big shout out here to Capri Chaney and Lighting Design for hooking us up with some beautiful new light fixtures. Also to Melinda Foulkes and Gardner Village for donating a beautiful kitchen table and bedroom furniture and bedding for all the beds. To Uinta and Les Olsen for donating brand new mattresses, pads, and covers for every room. To Sherlock for discounting all the kitchen, bathroom, and door hardware. To Woven Nook for donating new pillows and poofs throughout all the house. And to The Piano Place for donating a beautiful piano. And to Safe & Sound for moving their old piano out and moving in the new one. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Rock Tops Utah gave us half off a beautiful new slab of granite and Modern Tile donated some beautiful new tile that Tim Ingle quickly installed for a beautiful new backsplash in the kitchen and tiling throughout all the bathrooms as well. We basically started moving in as well as soon as we could. So as soon as carpet day was done, we were moving furniture back into the house and we started moving all of the Augustine's belongings back in as well. So all of our volunteers were incredible. They had long days and late nights to make that happen. I gained a lot of just lifelong friends from this because they'd stay there till 11 at night, you know, just making projects work and making things happen that completely changed the outcome of this project. The thing that people don't realize when there's a family that has a child with cancer or any kind of illness, that child that is sick. Yes, they suffer physically, but the other children suffer emotionally and spiritually. Riley said to me toward his last days, he said, Mom, I need to know that you're going to be OK. I'm going to be fine. I'm going to heaven. You guys are you guys are the ones that are going to be left here to suffer. Mom, be happy. Smile. It's going to be OK. I'm going to heaven. I'm going to live with Grandpa, Heavenly Father, Jesus. I'm going to the best place that people dream of. I need you to be happy. And so the idea of doing something just for the person that's going to die, you realize that it's almost more important to look out for and reach out to the siblings and the family of the person that's going to die. I hope that Eli's brothers and sisters and family, I hope that they will in that feel his love for them and the love that the community has for them and have a peaceful, beautiful place for them to heal. And remember, guys, whatever happens, OK, be grateful. Parker's waiting for us to go. OK, party time. I was overly excited when I woke up that day, just overwhelmed with gratitude. And so much excitement for the Augustine's to see their home. And then I will guide you to the next room, OK? Sound good? Here we go. Oh, oh, my goodness. I was just completely overwhelmed today as I saw a change in them. I've been with them a few times and the energy of them has already shifted. There's a calm and there's peace. They just all look so light and peaceful and happy. Oh, look at this! ♪ Your love is lifting me high ♪ ♪ You chase the darkness away ♪ ♪ Every day is a battleground, knock me down ♪ What happened with this project was actually impossible. We saw miracles happen every single day and it felt like time got stretched for us to fit in all we needed to fit in. I just wanted to let you guys know how much work went into that. Lex and I were kind of over our heads wanting to come and do something special for you guys and what we would have been able to do would have been so much less than this. But we just had so many people come together, complete strangers that just wanted to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Probably hundreds of people that came and went and took off work so that they could be a part of this awesome project. I felt fundamentally changed as a person throughout this project. The love that I gained for the Augustines and for our team of volunteers grew so exponentially and I didn't understand that I had capacities to feel so strongly about strangers in such a short amount of time. It was the best Christmas of my life. I love you so much and keep on looking up because I'm looking right down at you, sitting down there with my arm around you, just making sure you know how much I love you. If you don't feel me, try harder because I'm there with you. I love you.