Family, neighbors had idea that 'Extreme Makeover' may come

Posted: Thursday, October 22, 2009 8:40 pm | Updated: 10:07 am, Fri Oct 23, 2009.

By Peter Adelsen Perspective staff writer padelsen@kokomoperspective.com | 1 comment

BUNKER HILL - Relatives and neighbors of the Cowan-Brown family had some idea that their country road was about to change.

Twelve-year-old Kori Brown did her part by raising thousands of dollars to the American Cancer Society, but the home she lived in was over-run by mold and it was making her sick, not to mention, the rest of her family.

Thursday marked the end of a barn-turned-home decades ago.

"Hopefully, it's a whole lot healthier for them," said Phil Cowan, the father of homeowner Andy Cowan. "They bought the house about seven years ago. In the next year, or so, they discovered mold in it."

The mold got Kori sicker and sicker, he said.

"We began taking walls out, taking flooring out, rebuilding putting all new studs in and new sub-floor in and a couple years later the mold would be back," he said. "We worked on the outside of it and took the siding and stone off of it and put in all new siding, and still a couple years after we'd repaired it, mold would come back."

Phil Cowan said the family built a new south addition onto the house about three years ago and it included a kitchen and two bedrooms.

"That's basically where they lived because of the mold in the rest of the house," he said.

For a house that had so much mold, it was not likely that the family could have sold it, he said.

Then yesterday came with "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" arriving.

"At 2:00, I came down and I was able to say 15 words to (Andy) before they wisked him off to do interviews and I wont see or hear from him until Tuesday," he said.

Andy Cowan's brother is also watching the construction of the custom-built home from Hallmark Homes.

"This is absolutely incredible," Todd Cowan said. "This proves that there are still good people out there who want to help."

Linda Hall is a neighbor who lives just down the road.

"They kind of told us it was in the works, but they really couldn't tell us much," she said. "We knew yesterday was to be the big day. I got up a little before 8 and I saw some cop cars running down here and I saw a guy down the road just a little ways with a camera. And, I thought, 'oh, it is going to this house then.'"

Last summer Hall was involved in an accident and the Cowan-Brown family cheered her up by fixing her food, she said. Mason also made her a card and put all the family members on it and brought it down, she said.

"I just think it's all great," she said. "I think it's wonderful what they are getting done for them and they are deserving of it. I don't even mind the noise at all. It's just going to be awful boring after they all leave."

Danny Feller lives directly next door to the Cowan-Brown family, so he is right in the middle of it all.

"I thought (the noise) may have bothered me last night, but it wasn't bad," he said. "I usually run a fan anyway."

Feller's grandchildren came to watch the demolition of the home Thursday.

"They were really excited when the house came down, of course," he said. "And now, they're bored."

Feller said that the Cowan-Brown family parked a travel trailer in their back yard this summer because the mold had gotten so bad in the house.

"They slept in the camper so they could have the air on, because they couldn't run the heating and cooling in the house because it was full of mold."

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