'Extreme' home now on the market

CYNTHIANA, Ky. — It was the true story of how small-town people really do know their neighbors and really will do anything for them. And it played beautifully on TV on a Sunday night in spring of 2006.

Three years later, it's a test of the meaning of generosity and, maybe, its limits.

In 2006, ABC's Emmy-winning feel-good show, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," challenged a Cincinnati homebuilder, a handful of Cynthiana, Ky., contractors and every one of that town's subcontractors, churches, painters, drywallers, carpenters, restaurateurs and good-hearted others to donate tons of materials, labor and time to help build a house for the Hassall family of Sunrise, Ohio.

The Hassalls were mighty deserving. Brian, a Cynthiana police officer, had been shot when he served as a college police officer and had continuing trouble with migraines, significantly aggravated by light.

His wife, Michelle, was a much-beloved high-school music teacher who had a long battle with cancer as well as a blood disorder. They had two young adopted children, one with special needs.

No wonder ABC was on board.

Unfortunately, the build for the Hassalls' home occurred during some of the most relentlessly nasty and thoroughly soaking 105 hours that spring could manage.

Nevertheless, 300 volunteers a day came trudging up the slippery roads toward the house to mop or nail, or to serve hot food to the dozens of other volunteers who were slogging to get the house ready for when the Hassalls were set to return from Disney World.

And, sure enough, when the Hassalls' then-6-year-old daughter, Alex, appeared fresh from Florida in her Disney princess gown, the 3,298-square-foot house was more than ready.

With all the accompanying fanfare that ABC and an excited town of 6,272 and the Harrison County High School choir could manage, the family was given the keys to their brand-new home. The tears shed that day were real. The camaraderie of that day has lingered.

That is, until recently, when the Hassall family announced that they have put the house up for sale.

They have tried explaining themselves. Many of Michelle's medical problems, she says, are exacerbated by stress, which will be eased when their household debt is erased.

They would also like to be closer to the center of downtown Cynthiana, to their families and a little closer to Lexington and to their medical providers.

They are not leaving the area. They are downsizing. Their goal is to become debt-free, they say. It is a goal they began to embrace only six months after the house was built, when they attended syndicated talk-radio-show host Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University workshop at their church.

Before the announcement, the Hassalls said, they prayed extensively about the decision and did not make it lightly. They then notified the production company, their church and the construction companies that handled the load back in 2006.

The asking price for the home on 5.17 acres on Kentucky Hwy. 1284 was initially $349,900, but has since dropped to $339,900.

The small town that built the house out of a genuine desire to provide a safe haven for this particular family is reeling from the news of the proposed sale.

Most have accepted the decision and understand it. Others are not so sympathetic.

People say they came away from the 2006 experience sincerely changed. Contractor Steve Eads said he had the feeling he had "been training my whole life to do this [one thing]." He'd sat in church the week before the build began as Michelle Hassall read Scripture and had been overcome "knowing" that the whole thing had been ordained by God.

Told by the Hassalls as early as January of their decision, he said he has no problem with it.

"It is like, if you had a flat tire on the side of the road and I pulled over and fixed it. It is their house. They can do what they want with it. I have received more blessings from it than I ever put into it."

But, yes, he says, all along the Hassalls have been concerned that some people would be upset by their choice.

Builders Jimmy and Trudy Sosbe, who barely slept during the seven-day building ordeal, came away from the experience swelled with pride for the community they had helped bring together and personally glad they could live their values out loud for their children to witness.

Trudy Sosbe said recently that she has almost become afraid of leaving her house because she is so tired of people asking her how she and her husband feel about the new situation.

"We, well, ultimately, we wish the best for them. They are our friends.

"In these days and times, we are all doing what is best for our families," Trudy Sosbe said.

"But, that said, I am concerned about what others feel. A lot of people gave time, product and services. Some are very angry. Some I've run into have asked, 'Why do they deserve it?' "

Trudy Sosbe says she and her husband both say they were grateful that they were able to do this for their friends.

"Still, a tiny part of me is sad about it. One day [recently], I just sat down and bawled. You know, we do this thing for them, and they're not going to keep it. It was for them. Then I decided they got to keep it for three years ...

"The end result was I didn't do it to benefit me. We did it to benefit them."

Gayle Velat, who commandeered her daughters and granddaughters into wrangling every volunteer, said she "is not that excited about it, but we understand where they're at."

George, Gayle's husband, was one of the main subcontractors on the job. There was never a time when a member of his family was not on the site.

The Velats, too, have been bombarded by a community that wants some answers.

"Everybody's a little bitter," Velat said. "We keep hearing, 'After all you did, aren't you ticked off?' We are sad, not upset. But not everybody can be convinced to be generous."

The Hassalls' home is not the first "Extreme Makeover" home to prove itself a complicated gift for the recipients to manage.

In 2005, a Georgia family used their home as collateral on a $450,000 business loan and lost it all.

In 2008 in Florida, the new owner of a 7,000-square-foot home and office found herself overwhelmed by code violations that resulted in a $29,000 lien on her property, which she found difficult to pay. A pro bono lawyer came to her rescue.

Also in 2008, in Oak Park, Mich., a deaf couple, weighted down with their new larger mortgage payment and medical bills, had to struggle to refinance and did so only after the media publicized their impending foreclosure.

And just this February in Idaho, a family who could no longer make the payments on the house took out a loan using the house as collateral. When they could no longer make the payments on the loan, the home was foreclosed upon.