Wish Upon A Hero is looking to give away an Extreme Makeover house!

I am going to www.WishUponAHero.org to ask for something...they sent an email to everyone who's had a wish saying that Extreme Makeover Home Edition is looking for families to work with. I will explain my reasons here (so that I can copy & paste) as to why....

Here is a link to my wish page for this wish: I ask if you know (our family) to please leave a comment on if you think we deserve it and why?! Thanks!

Our #1 reason for wanting a home makeover is:
When Harley turns 18 he will lose all of his medical benefits unless he is moved to an out of home placement. His disability benefits will change to adult status at that time, which will make it so that all of the adults' income in the house counts against him. If he qualifies for no financial assistance, he will lose his medical benefits. This would be very bad news for him...his meds alone cost over $1200 for a 30 day supply...not only that but you make a psychotic person function without medications? That would be just disasterous! After the issues we had with his therapist's mistreatement of him a couple of weeks ago -- under our own roof -- we are scared for him to live in out of home placement. The only way he would be able to stay home with us is if we had a mother in law apartment or studio apartment where he could live. The requirement is that it have a private kitchen, bathroom and entrance separate from the family home.

our #2 reason:
Robert...he also has some disabilities that his transition service people are concerned will make it difficult for him to keep a job. I want to be able to let him stay with us. He has qualified for special education services including job assistance through age 25 under the SWAP Program (School to Work Assistance Program). I want to do everything I can to help him as well. I want to be able to support him as his anxiety takes over as he turns into adulthood!

our #3 reason:
my husband's knees...He still does not qualify for a knee replacement on his left knee but with the loss of use of the leg from the knee down...his other leg has been carrying all the weight and he is now having problems with the other leg for overcompensating for all these years (an on the job injury 13 years ago which destroyed his other knee). Seems every day his "good" knee gets worse but there is really nothing that he can do other than surgery. At this point, he won't even go to the doctor to have it looked at because he is afraid that the doctor will suggest surgery .... and he wants me to be able to recuperate from my brain surgery completely and fully before he even considers surgery for himself. He is so afraid (and it would be easier on him really and less painful) for him to use a wheelchair to keep the weight off of his legs. Since we had spent many years working and volunteering with the Paralyzed Veterans of America the only thought of a wheelchair that is a "con" is the thought that our home is not wheelchair accessible. We know that the use of a wheelchair might actually give him the opportunity to participate in sports such as hockey, basketball and softball....which he cannot play right now since he can't run...but he would be able to do if he was using a wheelchair!

Now we will get to the house. We purchased this home in Feb 2007 as a foreclosure. It needed some work, which we have done. It's really come a long way! We brought in dirt to shore up the foundation. We had a ceiling put in the unfinished basement to prevent Harley from cutting the wires (I can't even tell you how many times he has cut the phone wire when you could still see them!). We had a wall put in around the furnace room to keep him from trying to dismantle the furance (he insists it's a robot who will destroy our house!) and had another wall put in to keep him from trying to dismantle our washer and dryer for the same reason! He also has no safety awareness so it was also put up to keep him from getting into chemicals which we can now lock in the laundry room because we now have a door and wall.

The bathroom downstairs was not built correctly and has an illegal drain (and other problems) but it would require time and money we do not have to completely demolish this bathroom and start over. There is no heat in the bathroom downstairs either as it's not hooked up to the furance and it would require pulling out the ceiling. The flooring is peeling up in Kelly's room and the hallway outside the downstairs bathroom due to a water leak from the downstairs bathroom (we have fixed the leak but the damage was already done!). There is a large crack in the foundation from where the people before us hit the house with a backhoe while installing the air conditioner. Although the people who lived here before us tried to finish a portion of the basement, Kelly's bedroom is not a "legal" bedroom as it doesn't have an egress window and there is NO insulation...they simply put up drywall over the concrete and it gets so very cold in her room in the winter. It seems there is very little insulation in this house as our master bedroom has a river of cold air near the window as well. There are still some drainage problems and our back patio is sinking and difficult to get out the back door without the possibility of tripping and falling because the step is unlevel (we were working on building a deck but with Andrew's knee and the snow that came in that is on hold until next spring!). During the winter this step is completely covered in ice and it is just too dangerous to head out that way to use our backyard.

Andrew would love to try to upgrade our home to a 'green' home...renewable energy usage...It has been his dream since he was a teenager in the 1970s...the cost savings would be amazing but again the cost of the renovations needed to convert this home are not within our reach.

Now, I'll explain *other* funny things about our "relationship" with the show...
extreme makeover home edition is one of Harley's favorite shows...he just cannot miss it! he gets upset if the tv schedule changes and it's not on at all...

our son Tyler is named after Ty Pennington LOL...Kelly had a crush on Ty P when I was pregnant with Tyler and the names we had picked out were Taylor or Tyler...She insisted we had to name him Ty!

I know there is more, but alas my brain is still on vacation from the narcotics I'm on from having brain surgery...I don't know if it will let me post anything this long on the Wish Upon A Hero website, but it's worth a shot! The worst they could do is say no...

Hi this is the daughter Kelly I am 16.... I want to ask for soundproof rooms too so I didnt have to listen to Harley with his hallucinations (sp?) and so when he was attacking his legos and jumping around so I wouldn't have to listen to it... And I wouldn't hear Mom and Andrew in bed... LOL. And a feng shui room for Andrew (He loves his plants ;) )