Structure was built in 38 days

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The family spent Saturday night in their new home.

By LAURE CIOFFI

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

CANFIELD — Rebecka Bailing could only look in disbelief at the newly constructed four-bedroom home that stands where her previous home had been just five weeks ago.

"I don't know how long it's going to take me to realize this is mine," Bailing said after touring the home Saturday afternoon.

Bailing's previous home was fraught with problems that ranged from a leaking roof to mold and exposed electrical wiring.

The effort to give the single mother a new place to live became a community project that moved with lightning speed as it was headed by six Canfield men who dubbed it "Extreme Makeover: My Hometown Mahoning Valley." Bailing's new home was built in just 38 days.

Bailing, sons, John, 13, and Carter, 7, and daughter, Haley, 10, were expected to sleep in their new home last night after spending the last five weeks living with friends.

"This is more than I ever thought it would be," Bailing said with tears in her eyes.

Bailing said she always dreamed of contacting ABC's "Extreme Home Makeover" program about a new home.

"My mother would say, 'You're just not sad enough,' for the program," she said.

Bailing is a single mother who works as a jailer at the Mahoning County Sheriff's Department, works with the mentally handicapped, and is a senior at Youngstown State University majoring in psychology.

When she bought the Shields Road home in 2004, it was a dream come true that quickly turned into a nightmare.

On her first day in the house, she found it infested with hundreds of flying ants. After the ants, the mice came. Then it turned into poorly installed windows, a severely damaged roof, water in the house, septic backup, mold on the walls and the house moving off its foundation.

Her living situation came to light when Andrea Murphy took her children to the Bailings for a party and noticed tarps covering holes in the roof.

Murphy asked her husband, Don, general manager of Donnell Ford, if there was a way to pay for a new roof on the home.

Don Murphy called some of his friends, including home builder Sam Pitzulo, to look at putting on a new roof.

But when Pitzulo saw the Bailing home, he knew it needed more than a new roof.

"When I walked in the other house, it just had too many other problems. There was mold and live wires. I said, 'It doesn't need a roof; it needs a bulldozer,'" Pitzulo said.

A group of six men with extensive community contacts — Murphy; Pitzulo; along with John Morvay, who works in the finance industry; Steve Bott, manager of Donnell Ford Lincoln Mercury in Salem; Jim Rach, owner of Praxair in Canfield; and Joe Reinthaler, owner of Reinthaler's Auto Village — called just about everyone they knew in search of donations and help.

Businesses and individuals by the dozens came forward.

Pitzulo said the response was overwhelming, especially from those in the building trades, where he was able to line up at least two or three crews from each specialty to work on the house.

And they all worked under the tightest construction table Pitzulo ever put together — 38 days. They wanted the home ready for Canfield's Lighting of the Green held Saturday night.

The custom-designed, four-bedroom home is 2,100 square feet. Reinthaler estimated about 400 people had a hand in the construction.

"The compassion was just overwhelming," he said.

Don Murphy said the whole process has been an "emotional roller coaster."

"It was satisfying, gratifying and extremely stressful," he said. But he noted that nobody complained and all appeared to be thankful just to be part of the project.

When the Bailings arrived Saturday afternoon for their first look, a swing set and basketball hoop were outside, and inside they found the house fully furnished and decorated for Christmas. New bicycles awaited the children in the two-car garage.

"Cool" was how John and Haley described their rooms. John's deep-blue room was decorated with a Fender electric guitar and a football signed by the Canfield High School team. Haley's room was pink decorated with cheerleading memorabilia and even photographs of her family and her favorite star, Miley Cyrus from the Disney show "Hannah Montana," framed and placed next to her bed.

Carter had a football-themed room with Ohio State and Pittsburgh Steelers memorabilia.

Bailing said she couldn't walk through her luxuriously decorated bedroom without tears in her eyes.

Pitzulo wouldn't even venture to guess the cost for the construction and furnishings.

"What we were paid was more than enough. The food and the drinks donated during construction and the look on their faces today" was worth the effort, he said.

cioffi@vindy.com

Sunday, December 2, 2007