Well now, let me tell y’all about them Starkweather folks and what’s been going on with ’em ever since that Extreme Makeover show came through their lives. It’s a mighty sad and strange tale, but I’ll try to make it plain for ya.
So, you know that big ol’ show, ‘Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’? Well, they come to folks’ homes, tear down their old, beat-up houses, and put up somethin’ real fancy, all shiny and new. The Starkweather family, they was one of them lucky ones who got picked. I reckon they had a real hard life before that—havin’ trouble with money and livin’ in a house that needed more work than anyone could afford. They was struggle-bus all the way. But then, this show rolls in, and they got ’em a big ol’ new house! I swear, it was like a dream come true for them folks.
But here’s the thing. It ain’t all sunshine and rainbows, no sir. Just like so many others on that show, the good luck didn’t last long. Now, the family, they had their moment of glory, livin’ in that beautiful new house. But after a few years, things started goin’ downhill again. Y’see, as of 2020, a whole bunch of families that were on that show, including the Starkweathers, ended up givin’ up their homes. Some of ‘em even had to let the bank take it back, what they call a foreclosure. Can you imagine? After all that work, all that help they got, they ended up with nothin’.
It’s a dang shame, it really is. And it ain’t just about the house either. Some of these folks went through real struggles. Take the Kadzis family, for example. They got their new home, but not long after, one of ‘em—Kadzis, he was a dentist, workin’ for the Florida Department of Corrections—well, he got real sick with brain cancer. He never even got to live in the house! He passed away just two days after they moved in. I reckon it broke his family’s heart, and I can’t imagine how tough that musta been.
But it ain’t just the sad stories I’m tellin’ y’all. There’s somethin’ else to consider too. You know, back in the day, that show had folks glued to their TVs. But as time went on, the ratings started droppin’. The show used to be on Sundays, and folks loved it. But when they switched it to Fridays, well, it just wasn’t the same. And that’s when the show got canceled. It just didn’t get enough viewers anymore, and I reckon that’s why ABC pulled the plug on it in 2012. Ain’t it somethin’?
Now, I know some folks might be thinkin’, “Well, what about them houses? They still livin’ in ’em?” And the answer is, for some, nope. In some cases, the folks who got their new homes just couldn’t keep up with the upkeep. I’ve heard that even some folks had to sell their fancy homes, like what happened to the Lucas family. Poor Lucas, he got sent off to the military before he could finish the job on his house. And by the time he was gone, the family had to pack up and find somewhere else to stay, endin’ up in a rental place in Cullen.
So, yeah, things sure have changed. And while them fancy new houses might’ve seemed like a miracle at first, a lot of them didn’t hold up in the long run. I reckon the moral of the story is, no matter how pretty a house looks, it ain’t worth much if you ain’t got the money to keep it up. And I guess that’s somethin’ we all gotta remember, especially when the bills start stackin’ up. I just hope folks learn from this, and maybe they’ll start thinkin’ about what they really need, instead of what looks good for a minute.
But, at the end of the day, the Starkweather family and all them others, they sure did get somethin’ special for a while. Even if it didn’t last forever, at least they had a taste of that happiness. And I reckon that’s somethin’ they’ll remember forever, even if they lost it all in the end.
Tags：[Starkweather Family, Extreme Makeover, Home Edition, Foreclosure, Financial Struggles, ABC TV Show, Home Renovation, Reality TV]
