‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’ Helps CA Man Who Helps Others

COVINA, CA — Jeff and Emily Holtzclaw had big dreams for their Covina home, but their plans crashed with his motorcycle two years ago. He was thrown from the bike in the collison and spent a month in the hospital, coming home with a new reality that further exposed some of the issues the couple wanted to address in the renovation project.

“He was a minute away from dying,” Emily says in Sunday’s episode of HGTV’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” which airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT. “I thought that I was going to lose my husband.”

To save his life, doctors had to amputate his right leg just below the knee. When he got home, his wheelchair wouldn’t fit through the narrow doors of his and Emily’s three daughters’ rooms. Just getting out of bed and staying up was tough because of the home’s limitations, he says.

“It’s amazing the things you take for granted,” he says.

Jeff, a teacher at Margett Pathway Academy, is used to helping people. Many of his students come from gangs, are under probation or live in extreme poverty. The school budget is tight and, like many teachers across the country, reaches into his wallet to make sure his students have the supplies and other items they need to be successful in school.

“I don’t just teach high school math and science,” he says. “I deal with social workers, I deal with their court dates. Very few of them have anyone they can really count on when they need them.”

His generosity to the students already strained the family budget when he was hospitalized. And the home renovation project went by the wayside.

“All that came to a halt,” Jeff says. “All that money we had invested just got sucked up and [the house] is falling down around us.”

The “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” design team of Breegan Jane, Carrie Locklyn and Darren Keefe came up with an open floor plan that will allow him to easily move around the home. They get some help from two-time Grammy Award winner LeAnn Rimes, who works with Keefe to create custom doorway height charts, and HGTV’s “My Lottery Dream House” star David Bromstad, who paints a one-of-a-kind art piece for the dining room.

Tyler Ferguson hosts HGTV’s spin on the iconic home renovation show. The series, which ended its eight-season run on ABC in early 2012, features families enduring some type of ongoing hardship. The producers work with a local contractor on the makeover, completed by a team of local buildings trade workers while the family is away.

Sunday’s episode also features a guest appearance by the Covina High School marching band and other surprises.