In this week’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, we meet the Alhambra family of Phoenix, a single mom and her five kids crammed into a crumbling 1960s ranch house that looks like it lost a fight with a tumbleweed. And yes, before you ask, there are leaky roofs, questionable wiring, and probably a family of desert critters squatting in the attic. It’s the kind of place where “rustic charm” meets “impending code violation.”
So, enter Clea Shearer and Joanna Teplin, the show’s new hosts, armed with an army of contractors and enough shiplap to build a small ark. Their mission? To transform the Alhambra’s dilapidated digs into something resembling, well, a home. While the press release uses words like “life-changing” and “transformative,” let’s just say it’ll likely be an improvement over sharing a single bathroom with five kids.
But this isn’t just about fresh paint and new appliances. The show aims to address the underlying issues a substandard living environment creates for families like the Alhambras. Sure, there’s the practical stuff — functioning plumbing, safe electrical systems, and maybe even a room for each kid. But there’s also the emotional impact of having a stable, comfortable space to call home. For a single mom juggling five kids, a safe and functional home can be the difference between barely treading water and actually getting ahead.
This week’s episode may not reinvent the wheel, but it’s a solid reminder that sometimes the simplest stories are the most effective. A family gets a much-needed break, viewers get a warm fuzzy feeling, and everyone (except maybe the displaced desert critters) wins.
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition airs Thursday, January 23rd at 8:00 PM ET/PT on ABC.