Extreme Makeover Home Edition in Charlotte...Episode Airs this Sunday at 8:00 PM on ABC 45

If you weren’t looking for Sudbury Road, you’d probably drive right past it. I was looking for it and still drove past. It’s a small, unremarkable street in a quiet suburb east of Charlotte. However, something happened there just a few months ago that would forever change this working-class neighborhood.

The now famous brown and white RV containing the Extreme Makeover Home Edition Design Team turned down Sudbury Street on a Monday morning in late July and came to a stop in front of the little “L-Shaped” ranch home belonging to Curtis and Alisha King. The King family got a life-changing wake-up call that morning, delivered by a mega-phone wielding Ty Pennington.

Every Extreme Makeover Family has a story; a series of trials and troubles that has left them with a desperate need for a new home. These families are always so deserving that the rest of America says, “I’d love a home make-over, but I sure wouldn’t want to endure what this family has in order to get one”.

This is the story of the King family from Sudbury Street. Alisha King, mother and wife, had her first child, Justin, when she was just 15 years old. Unfortunately, in today’s world, being a single, teen mother is not all that uncommon. What is uncommon about Alisha, however, is that she did not let one bad decision multiply into many. She allowed friends and family to help her with the baby while she worked and attended college.

Eventually, Alisha met and married Curtis King. They bought the little house at 4214 Sudbury Street and started a family. Alisha never forgot the support network that helped her through her years as a young parent and dreamed of helping parents in similar situations some day. This dream is what led her to open “Step by Step Daycare”. She was running the daycare from her home where, in addition to her own 3 children, she cares for 11 others on most days, more than that as need arises. She keeps some of these kids free of charge and after hours for moms in a tight spot.
As her daycare grew, the space in her house became less and less adequate. To make matters much worse, the family discovered that toxic mold was growing within the walls of their home, threatening the health of their own children as well as the children in their care. Their daughter, Laila, even had a couple of asthma attacks so severe she had to go to the hospital.

Something had to change.

And, now, thanks to the Extreme Makeover Design Team, change was on the way.

The old, moldy home was to be demolished that Wednesday and just one week later the King Family would have the opportunity to shout with anticipation those five wonderful words, “Bus Driver, Move That Bus”!