# Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 22, 2004, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049 "2004-11-22T04:58:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/1 "2004-11-22T04:58:37Z")
I checked the other threads on this show and didn’t see this asked or answered. (Wonderful show, by the way – sort of a mega-Queen-for-a-Day.) Do the families have to pay taxes on their new homes (and the other stuff)? I realize they have property taxes like the rest of us, but is there a gift tax? (Like what happened with Oprah’s Pontiacs). I have sort of a side question about tonight’s show (the new widow with two children in Bakersfield). Can someone make a living on 20 acres of alfalfa? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/2 "2004-11-22T05:05:47Z")
I wondered the alfalfa question, too, but you saw their house. With the Bakersfield climate plus that fancy new irrigation system and knowing nothing about alfalfa except that it grows pretty quickly I’m thinking they might be able to get in maybe five crops a year. It looked like folks in Virginia harvested three times a year and we had a proper winter. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/3 "2004-11-22T05:17:12Z")
_Extreme Makeover: Home Edition_ is a type of game show, and game show winners have to pay taxes on all their prizes, whether cash or merchandise. The “gifts” are really given for the family’s on-camera participation in the show. So it does have a contractual nature — each party is exchanging something of value with the other. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/4 "2004-11-22T05:34:31Z")
Newsweek had an [article](http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4933223/) about this a few months ago. Essentially, they lease the home for ten days at $50,000, and rentals of less than fifteen days are tax-free. Also, they consider the improvements free under a tax code loophole. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/5 "2004-11-22T06:15:41Z")
Key paragraph from that _Newsweek_ article: > [@](#): > > But NEWSWEEK ran that logic by a half-dozen outside tax professionals. While some called it clever—even “elegant”—most scoffed at the show’s approach, saying the IRS would be highly unlikely to agree with all aspects of it. “When you look at the big picture, these provisions were not meant for this,” says Jim Seidel of RIA. The result: if audited, the “Extreme” families could be hit with huge tax bills. ---
**Author:** ![grayhairedmomma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/47e85d/32.png) [@grayhairedmomma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grayhairedmomma)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/6 "2004-11-22T07:15:40Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > I have sort of a side question about tonight’s show (the new widow with two children in Bakersfield). Can someone make a living on 20 acres of alfalfa? My question about this episode is: will she be able to sell the hay they provided her with? How long before it starts to mold/rot? And how will she harvest the alfalfa? Did they give her the equipment? It didn’t look like they had harvesters. How did the dad die? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/7 "2004-11-22T07:46:19Z")
According to ABC’s _Extreme Makeover: Home Edition_ website: > [@](#): > > Then, one fateful day, Glen [Elcano] was driving home from making a delivery to another local farm when a car pulled out in front of him. He was killed instantly in the accident. This occurred June 3, 2004; he was 32 years old. As for hay, the [University of Minnesota Extension](http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/cropsystems/DC7404.html) says, > [@](#): > > Hay harvested late in the season and consumed during the winter months is stored for a relatively short time at relatively low temperatures and should have minimal losses. Hay harvested early in the season and stored into winter will be subject to some warm temperatures before winter arrives and is likely to have greater losses. The greatest losses can be expected for hay that is stored through winter into the following spring and summer. . . You can expect losses after 12 to 18 months of storage to be twice as great as losses after nine months of storage. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/8 "2004-11-22T19:45:08Z")
> [@mornea](#): > > And how will she harvest the alfalfa? Did they give her the equipment? It didn’t look like they had harvesters. They seemed to have two new tractors, one small and one medium sized. For twenty acres I suppose they’d pay somebody to come in with a baler. It wouldn’t pay to own something that expensive that they’d only use a few half-days a year. While researching for the game my family plays while watching this show, “Which Ones are Gay?”\* I noticed that all of these people are actually quite qualified to be doing this. Especially, surprisingly, Paige, who helped found a company that buys “handyman specials” and refurbishes them for low-income folks to buy in a rent-to-own program. And, even more than the others, [she’s an insane overachiever.](http://abc.go.com/primetime/xtremehome/bios/paige_hemmis.html)\*\* And Paul is highly qualified, but you can tell that. I like how so many of them come to this with a set-building background. That’s what you need, both for creative use of materials and for the attitude needed to work 72 hours straight before opening night. This show isn’t as much fun, though, now that Ford and Sears and everybody else are competing to give away the most money. Making do with a low budget is more fun. And where are the hissy fits of yesterday? Preston HUGGED Constance, for crying out loud! This show used to reflect large chunks of my career but now it’s just, like **AuntiePam** called it, “a mega-Queen-for-a-Day.” And, as a tough, macho guy, I don’t appreciate all the crying, especially when Paul does it because I start up, too, and my wife laughs at me. And since Paul is crying most of the time this season I’ve been getting laughed at just a little too much. - - Or, with this show, “Are ANY of Those Guys straight?” Yes, Paul probably is, being married to a woman and his boot fixation. And if Ty really came up with the idea of tractor-pull tractors tearing the house down, well, that indicates something that having been a male model and a design student would normally argue against. 😃 And Michael, having twelve children and being on his third wife–no, I made that up. He was the easy and obvious one. Preston, though, getting into arguments with those hot, HOT! women and never once saying, “You know what she needs?” or “I got something that’ll shut her up?” I think it’s _pretty obvious._ :dubious: \*\* - She’s a carpenter who is also an EMT and a wedding planner and a sales manager with degrees in theology and psychology while still managing to look fabulous, all thanks to amphetamines. ---
**Author:** ![Papermache\_Prince](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f05b48/32.png) [@Papermache\_Prince](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Papermache_Prince)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/9 "2004-11-22T20:05:55Z")
[_Queen for a Day_](http://timstvshowcase.com/queenfor.html), for those too young to remember, was an actual radio, then tv show. Four women contestants described their sad stories; audience applause choosing the most deserving of the title “Queen For A Day.” At the end of the show, the Queen sat on a throne, wore an ermine robe, and was awarded several prizes: a washing machine, a sewing machine, etc. It last aired in 1964, although according to the link above, it also appeared in 1969 in syndication. I can’t imagine the feeling you’d have after going public with your sad story, then losing because you just weren’t miserable enough. ---
**Author:** ![Cowgirl\_Jules](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Cowgirl\_Jules](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cowgirl_Jules)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/10 "2004-11-22T20:21:06Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > I wondered the alfalfa question, too, but you saw their house. With the Bakersfield climate plus that fancy new irrigation system and knowing nothing about alfalfa except that it grows pretty quickly I’m thinking they might be able to get in maybe five crops a year. It looked like folks in Virginia harvested three times a year and we had a proper winter. I was counting alfalfa cuttings here in the Valley this year for some inane reason (I’m in the same valley as Bakersfield, but 3 hours north), and I lost track at 7 or 8. Cowboy says he thinks they got nine cuttings this year, but it was an exceptionally good year. He doesn’t think anyone could make a living on 20 acres of alfalfa - I think it would be a hard living to make with a truck (assorted veggies) farm in better soil than Bakersfield’s got. Did they have a dairy? Because dairy cows go through alfalfa like it’s nobody’s business. That one piece of equipment (the swather) that they got is part of the haying process, but not all of it. I think most people that have fields that small don’t own their own equipment - we’ve got 20 acres which will be pasture next year, and we’ll hire out the plowing. It’s probably been dealt with in other threads, but do they _really_ only take a week to build these houses? Some of them are knocked down and rebuilt from scratch, and that sure isn’t much cure time for a concrete foundation. Poor people to have their houses rebuilt only to fall apart later. ---
**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/11 "2004-11-22T20:28:46Z")
A bit off topic, but… Is it just me, or does anyone else wish this show wasn’t such a tragedy-fest? I think it’s great that they pick people who could use a bit of an uplift in their life. But at the same time, I kinda think, damn, there’s \*tons \* of people out there who go day to day, making ends meet by just scraping by who would love to be part of this. But because their great aunt Tillie didn’t die of infected lice bites while cooking, thereby causing a massive fire to sweep through the home and -flash-roasting poor Rover which traumatized their toddler who hasn’t spoken since, they’re totally written off. I’d like to see a regular Joe or Jane get a chance without having to be miserable first. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/12 "2004-11-22T21:45:11Z")
> [@mornea](#): > > My question about this episode is: will she be able to sell the hay they provided her with? How long before it starts to mold/rot? And how will she harvest the alfalfa? Did they give her the equipment? It didn’t look like they had harvesters. Yeah, that too. If area farmers had 15,000 bales to donate, it means they’ve had bumper crops or there’s not much of a market for it. I didn’t see anything to indicate that she had animals to feed the alfalfa to. Maybe the pet shop in the boy’s bedroom isn’t a bad way for them to go. 🙂 The tax situation doesn’t sound so good. They can hardly call a totally new house a “renovation”. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/13 "2004-11-22T21:58:14Z")
> [@Cowgirl Jules](#): > > It’s probably been dealt with in other threads, but do they _really_ only take a week to build these houses? Some of them are knocked down and rebuilt from scratch, and that sure isn’t much cure time for a concrete foundation. Poor people to have their houses rebuilt only to fall apart later. In the _Newsweek_ article I quoted, one recipient complained of the poor quality of the construction. And Norm Abram (of _This Old House_) mentioned in the article that it’s not possible to do high-quality work in a week. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/14 "2004-11-22T22:37:02Z")
> [@belladonna](#): > > Is it just me, or does anyone else wish this show wasn’t such a tragedy-fest? I did at first, but then when I thought about it, I sort of agree with it. If they choose a family that’s REALLY down on their luck, no one can bitch that they didn’t deserve it. I mean really, autistic kids, blind kids with deaf parents, family members living on the street for 30 years, people killed in all sorts of horrible circumstances. I think most would be hard pressed to begrudge any of the receipents their good fortune. Regarding the construction - it seems like a lot of times they raze the whole house, but build on the existing foundation which would help out with time a bit. Also, this season it seems like they’re getting bigger, comercial contractors for the building, so perhaps the short time frame is easier to accomplish without losing quality. ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/15 "2004-11-22T22:45:56Z")
**Dewey Finn.** With respect to Norm Abrahms, I’ve never seen hundreds of laborers tackle one of the Old Houses, including teams of painters, electricians, construction workers, landscapers, etc., using hundreds of thusands of dollars in materials, working in 24 hour shifts. The Wolsun family home cited in the _Newsweek_ article was the second show broadcast last season and may have been among the first few houses the design team ever did, back when it was essentially the design team tackling the household projects and far fewer contractors involved. The construction problems in that particular home may have had more to do with the new format of the show and the limits of the design teams skills. Now with the show hitting its stride, getting round the clock shifts of contractors and skilled volunteers is the norm, plus they now have established relationships with more quality contractors; I imagine they have far fewer problems with the completed homes now. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/16 "2004-11-22T22:53:19Z")
That may be true. I know that Habitat for Humanity sometimes build houses in a week, so the time frame may not be the problem. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/17 "2004-11-22T23:23:54Z")
Getting back to the tax issues of the show, what if the production company, Ford and Sears treated the stuff given as gifts? I’m not a tax professional, but my understanding is that tax on contest winnings or prizes are paid by the recipient, but the taxes on gifts are paid by the giver. That sounds more legitimate than the tax dodge mentioned in the _Newsweek_ article. ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/18 "2004-11-22T23:28:05Z")
> [@belladonna](#): > > A bit off topic, but… > > Is it just me, or does anyone else wish this show wasn’t such a tragedy-fest? It’s not just you. I’ve only watched a couple of episodes, and that is one of the reasons why. One of the episodes I saw featured an apartment in New York City they were redoing for two firefighters who were incredibly deserving. I mean, what could be better? Patriotism, firefighters, NYC, Post-911, etc. I got SO tired of hearing what great guys, heros, etc. they were. It seemed like everytime either guy was mentioned it was in the context of how deserving they were and how unfortunate it was that two such wonderful guys had to live in this scruffy little apartment, that didn’t even have two proper bedrooms. I have nothing against them selecting especially deserving families as opposed to average people. But if they point out how deserving the families are everytime they talk about them, I’m not going to make a habit of watching the show. (I might not anyway, but that bugged me). ---
**Author:** ![Askia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/96bed5/32.png) [@Askia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askia)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/19 "2004-11-22T23:38:48Z")
The show is not a tragedy fest – the show celebrates people who persevere despite sometimes overwhelming personal tragedies, handicaps and losses, and whose lives would improve immensely with home improvements they cannot afford. The firefighters, strictly speaking, were among the LEAST deserving peope on these shows so far although as post 9-11 representatives of the NYC Fire Department, they were certainly deserving for that group – which may explain the speedboat all the firefighters got to share at the end. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2004, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049/20 "2004-11-22T23:40:11Z")
> [@Askia](#): > > The construction problems in that particular home may have had more to do with the new format of the show and the limits of the design teams skills. And that is the downside of letting set designers build your house. :eek: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-makeover-home-edition-question/276049.md?page=2)