While Rib is new to the show, he is not entirely new to television. He has appeared in various TV shows, including Model Citizen, Get a Grip, Ugly Betty, CSI and CSI: Miami. He will also appear in a starring role in the feature film Propiedad Ajena, which is due out in November.

Rib Hillis talks with one of the production crew at the Extreme Makeover site in Holt last Friday

Rib is very much at ease with the camera, talking with the media and interacting with his fans this past week. At the same time, he didn’t look or act famous at all. He was very simple and humble. If I didn’t know who he was (and if not for the fact that he’s very tall), it would have been very easy to pass him by in the crowd.

Rib has worked as a model for publications like Uomo Vogue, GQ, Esquire and Men’s Health. He has also appeared in countless national and international commercials. Rib lends his time and skills to several charities, including the Los Angeles Childrens Hospital, Habitat For Humanity, The Jimmy Johnson Foundation and The Hendrick Marrow Program. This past week, he took part in a local blood drive.

Being a part of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition team brings together Rib’s handyman skills and his desire to help others. “This show changes peoples’ lives. It brings so much good and happiness to people who are so deserving. I am humbled and honored to be a part of it.”

Rib is the proud father of boy/girl twins, Dane and Hannah Rose. He enjoys chasing the twins around in Southern California. His other interests include bull riding, rock climbing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, cooking, motorcycles, and studying classical Greek history.

Rib’s bio provided by ABC. Image from personal collection, M.Macalincag, ©2008. Do not use without permission.

Post from: Keeping the Castle

This week, at the Nickless family home in Holt, Michigan, the design team was composed of host Ty Pennington, Paige Hemmis, Michael Moloney, Ed Sanders and Rib Hillis. They are the team who worked with Mayberry Homes and teams from Michigan State University to make the home modern, comfortable and beautifully decorated.

Here are some photos of the team as they prepared for the “Move the Bus” reveal last Friday:

From left: Michael Moloney, Ed Sanders, Rib Hillis and Paige Hemmis

As they worked on the Nickless home, the design team also got involved in the Lansing community (Rib Hillis led a local blood donation drive), and interacted with fans and viewers of the show. 

Image from personal collection, ©2008 M.Macalincag. Do not use without permission.

Post from: Keeping the Castle

The new home of the Nickless family as it looked on Wednesday morning:

Volunteers lay asphalt on the driveway:

images from personal collection

Post from: Keeping the Castle

Karen Schroeder of Mayberry Homes in front of the house being built by ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in Holt, Michigan

Viewers of the TV show ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition see Ty Pennington and the design team seem to do the impossible: put together a state-of-the-art house in 5 days, completely furnish it, professionally design the interiors, and present it to the family.

To accomplish this, magic happens behind the scenes. For every show, hundreds of volunteers donate their time, resources and skills to give a special family their dream home.

For the Nickless family in Holt, almost 1,500 volunteers signed in. It could have been utter chaos organizing such a huge crowd. But thanks to a dedicated group of seven people from Lansing-based Mayberry Homes, things run smoothly from the get-go.

Mayberry Homes is known for the quality of their homes and communities. They have also been recognized nationally for their commitment to customer satisfaction. As a company with a track record for volunteering in the local community, they are a perfect fit for the Extreme Makeover project.

At the site of the build this week, I had a chance to talk with Karen Schroeder, who co-owns Mayberry Homes with her husband Robert. We stood across the street from the house. The site was buzzing with activity, and Karen was happy to share with me the role of Mayberry Homes in the entire process.

Our chat started with the very beginning of the story. The Nickless family only learned that they had been chosen for the show last Friday, September 26, 2008. It turns out that even Mayberry Homes didn’t get a big headstart to prepare for the project. The producers of Extreme Makeover contacted them just under a month ago.

“We didn’t have a lot of notice”, said Karen. “We hadn’t applied for it. They just called out of the blue and asked us if we would do it.”

The weeks leading up to the build couldn’t have been busier for the Schroeder family. Robert (right, in red shirt) and Karen’s daughter got married on Friday, the day of the wake-up call. I think you’ll all agree with me that preparing for a wedding and a marathon home-building project at the same time is no small feat!

As the builder, Mayberry Homes drew up the custom plan for the house, incorporating input from the show’s design team. Though they didn’t know the location immediately, they were given enough information to be able to plan the lay-out of the site. The Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s design team gave them certain parameters to follow, such as a particular look from the front door.

Alongside designing the house, it was also Mayberry’s job as the lead company to coordinate everything that happens on the Lansing side of the endeavor:

“We had to secure all of the vendors and the contractors, and get them to do it, for free. All of our team is on. Then we had to get the volunteers. Then we had to organize and get food vendors to come and provide food for a thousand people a day.”

Though most of the materials for the house are donated by local groups, the appliances and some of the fixtures are not. The designers from the show choose what goes into the house as far as amenities are concerned. Electronics like refrigerators and TVs and fixtures like cabinets are brought in from the show’s national suppliers. Skilled volunteers then go in to install them.

The interior design is also provided by the show. For this home, the design team is comprised of Ty Pennington, Paige Hemmis, Michael Moloney, Ed Sanders and Rib Hillis. Mayberry Homes works with the team and helps implement their concepts.

For Robert and Karen Schroeder and the rest of the Mayberry Homes team, this whirlwind week is not something that will be easily forgotten. When I asked Karen to describe how the process has been for her and Robert, it seemed that there is no single word that can describe the experience:

“Awesome. Awesome. Overwhelming. An incredible journey.

“There’s been a lot of things happening in our lives. And, all good, all positive. This has been an amazing journey that I couldn’t be happier with. You know, this has been overwhelming…. It touches my soul.”

Thanks to Karen Schroeder for this interview and to Robert Kolt of Kolt Communications for facilitating access to the site.

images from personal collection, 2008

Post from: Keeping the Castle

The demolition starts the clock ticking. The crew and volunteers have until Friday to build an entirely new house on this same spot. It was fascinating to see these huge monsters picking up and loading debris into trucks:

Since the choice of the Nickless family was announced last Friday, spectators have congregated at the site. Though security is tight, the public is very much welcome to give their support. A lot of them, of course, are fans of the show.

The organizers tried their best to give everyone who signed-up to volunteer a chance to help out. Jobs range from skill-specific tasks to more general chores like packing and cleaning up. Volunteers arrive about 1 hour before their shift is scheduled to start. Some of them will work way into the night and early morning, since the construction is done 24/7. The volunteers are easy to spot; they’re the ones with the blue EH:ME shirts.

Tonight, the debris should all be cleared, the old foundation dug out and concrete for the new foundation poured.

(10-01-08 Update) Schedules: Spectators are welcome to visit the site. Shuttles will be available on Thursday, from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., from the K-Mart parking lot on South Cedar St. On Friday, the shuttles will run from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. ‘Move the Bus’ is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. on Friday. Spectators are urged to get to the site hours before the 2 p.m. reveal. “Up to 6,000 people are expected” according to this LSJ article.

images from personal collection

Post from: Keeping the Castle