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By APRIL MIDDLETON

Salina Journal

CHAPMAN -- As the limo pulled in front of their new home and they removed the blindfolds from their eyes, the first thing the Tutwilers saw was Ty Pennington.

Immediately after, they saw thousands of people from Chapman and nearby towns cheering and waving signs.

As they piled out of the limo Tuesday afternoon, Crystal and Patrick Tutwiler, their four children and their nephew were beaming. They appeared anxious as they chatted for several minutes with Pennington, the star and host of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

The family, surprised by "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" last Tuesday, were whisked away to the Bahamas on a vacation paid for by "Extreme Makeover" while the show's designers and thousands of volunteers built their new home.

The revealing of the house originally was scheduled for about 2 p.m. Tuesday. It was then moved to 11:30 a.m. After hours of shooting (and reshooting) the crowd and the bus for the express purpose of television, it was about 2:25 p.m. when family members finally yelled "Move that bus!" and saw their home for the first time.

From behind -- the only vantage point anyone but those behind ABC's cameras had -- the family appeared excited, but their overall reaction seemed a bit calmer than what fans of the show have seen from other families.

Crystal Tutwiler was tearful as she exchanged hugs with members of the show's design team and the coalition of local builders who headed up the construction work.

Michael Moloney, one the show's designers, said the last few years have been "an emotional roller-coaster" for the family.

The Tutwilers' Chapman home was among about 60 destroyed in a June 11 tornado. Since then, the family has been living in military housing at Fort Riley. Within a matter of months, though, the family would have been forced to leave, as Spc. Patrick Tutwiler will be medically discharged from the Army.

Tutwiler, who enlisted in the Army after the attacks on the World Trade Center, was shot in the neck by a sniper about a year before the tornado struck. He has since been recovering from a traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Things are going to be happier for them now," Moloney said. "Inside is a happy house. They are a young, young family and there's room for everyone."

Cameras are not allowed inside the two-story, five-bedroom home until after the episode airs in January.

Those who have worked on it said the family and the public will be wowed by what they see.

"Every room has a little surprise and a little detail and something special in it," said Jeffrey Burton, of American Dream Development of Junction City. "More than anything, each of these rooms are very appropriate for those people that will be living in them. They will be stoked."

Gina Dalton, of Abilene, spent several hours overnight Monday helping to clean the inside of the house.

"It's incredible. The rooms are incredible," she said. "This family will need nothing. They need to find a needy family and give everything they have to them, because they are stocked."

Once the family made their way inside their new home, the throngs of people watching from the street and nearby roofs thinned out quickly. Several hours of filming was planned for Tuesday night, while the family toured the house.

A free, community concert by Gavin Rossdale, the former front man for the band Bush, was planned later in the evening.

Television crews and cameras will film the "after" shots of the house today and are expected to leave Chapman by evening.

After finishing touches were made to the home on Tuesday morning, Burton, who was among the coalition of builders for the Chapman Extreme Makeover project, said he was both exhilarated and tired.

"A lot has happened in this town this week," Burton said. "We had a meeting with the design and production staff, and they said, honestly, this is the best and biggest build they've ever done, in terms of the number of projects."

The "Extreme Makeover" team and local volunteers built the Tutwiler home and a new community center and remodeled a park, as well as helping complete work on several other damaged homes throughout town.

Compared to other projects, the Chapman one was "huge," said designer Rib Hillis.

"I think everyone was a little overwhelmed," he said.

In the end, all the projects were completed ahead of schedule. Hillis said the thousands of volunteers, builders and the show's crew deserved credit for that.

"Everyone was very giving and happy we were here," he said. "All week, wherever you looked, people were working. We didn't have as large of a spectator crowd here because everyone was working. This town has been incredible."

While he understands there is still a lot of work to do, Hillis said he is confident the town will come back.

"And it probably will be stronger because of what happened to them," he said.

nReporter April Middleton can be reached at 822-1409 or by e-mail at amiddleton@salina.com.

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