The Johnsons of Medfield

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition
Season 3
The Johnson Family
Recap By J.G. Bird
11-20-05

This will be a recap filed on the “short form.” All the elements you’ve become used to are here. Team Leader, Ty Pennington, and his now nearly interchangeable mix of designers: this time, Daniel, Connie, Michael and Ed. The home builders are a local coalition of builders calling themselves the “Home Team.” Medfield had to be one of those towns which fully invited the community to be part of this family’s bid to get a new home. The original home was a handsome home, but inadequate. Luckily, the sprawling two-story Greek-revival home result retains much of the character that their original pale blue siding farmhouse had. The family is exceptionally upbeat, having both narrowly avoided tragedy and advocating for a cause.

The Johnson family is made up of mom, Heidi, dad, Tripp, and children, Abby, Matthew and William. We get to know far more about the children, never even touching upon any work outside the home for the parents. The show’s attention is on super-smiley William who was diagnosed at 14 months with SMA – Spinal Muscular Atrophy. The Johnsons live in a 100 year old, yet still stately, farmhouse style home. It sits on a rather natural lot, so there’s access issues inside and outside for the youngest, William, who can only get around by being carted. The Johnsons tried improving the home in gutsy Do-It-Yourself fashion in order to provide William a downstairs bedroom. Unfortunately, Tripp and his father had a wall collapse where the project was attempted.

Not only did “Gramps” pitch in daily on completing their “extreme” home, this time, there’s all the coordination of the local contractors and one thousand volunteers. Whereas last week it seemed like there was extra time needed to finish up the gifted home, this family’s home was portrayed as almost a snap. I’m sure that is just an effect of the editing, but, again, it leaves the episode’s home-renovating bare-bones.

Matthew is simply an active seven year old boy. Apparently play equipment keeps him blissfully entertained. The designers will go nuts with pogo sticks for his room design. William’s sister, Abby will get a soccer room not unlike some of the other “sport” themed rooms the designers have done in the past. Abby is a soccer diva, but a caring oldest sister, as well. She explains to Ty how she raised $11,000 last year in an awareness campaign on her brother’s condition. She and brother, Matthew regularly request that money which might be spent on their own birthday presents instead be donated to find a cure for SMA.

We get to see the difficulty William and his family has with his daily needs, but also how equipment assists his capabilities. The stander he gets around in is a brace-like framework that runs like a power wheelchair. There’s a great deal of coverage of William being active around his house and with his family.

Because William shares a bunk bed with his 7 year old brother on the second floor of the house, the youngster has to be carried upstairs. The designers will alleviate this problem by incorporating a one-story lift into the new home.
Touching base with the projects of the designers, we also see the progress on the house. It really is all background, so you just remember they’re constructing the house.

Ed goes inside the big Green Monster on Fenway Park field and takes measurements to construct a scale model for the Johnson yard. Ty raids the Boston dugout for equipment. Ty gets plenty of exercise in this episode, as he also pits himself against women’s soccer Olympian, Mia Hamm in a goal shootout. Michael actually tackles the parents’ Master Bedroom, and for him, that of course requires shopping.

Ty has birthday presents delivered to Abby and Matthew while the family is on vacation at the Hilton Point Resort in Arizona. It’s not their actual birthdays, mind you, just remember they’ve gotten in the habit of having money donated rather than receive gifts. There’s a big hit scored in gifting Abby an MP3 player, which Abby hugs for the entire segment. The game system and other toys her brothers seem to glom onto.

Mom is the focus in most of the reaction shots because she is just so emotional during the reveal. The family is immediately pleased to see and feel how natural the ramped area of their home entry is incorporated. The landscaping and tile/brickwork work together to give the smooth entry to the home they did not have before. Heidi is pleased it’s not just a hospital-style ramp.

Inside, the warm hardwoods and continued farmhouse styling (especially in the kitchen) connect with the family. All the open space is much less a maneuvering nightmare for little William. Not much time is spent on the overall look of the great room, because this family loves the Red Sox, and a special family room has been set up off the main room. Double doors open to a luxury box suite style room containing all their collected Sox paraphernalia. Hidden in the mud room, a Red Sox player even steps in to welcome them home.

Ty’s Secret Room is like an offshoot of this Sox club. He designed and built the furniture for William’s own room. It also is festooned with Red Sox grab, autographed balls studded on his headboard, and other Red Sox symbols and equipment all around. The highlight is revealing the scale Fenway Park, or “Johnson Park” in their backyard. It allows William safe play time in a field designed for him and his family to enjoy together, free from fear of uneven ground when “running” bases.

By the way, I always thought Medfield was one of those fictional college towns from the slew of classic Disney live-action films like The Absent-Minded Professor, Son of Flubber and The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes. This is a town that’s uniquely connected to Hollywood without being on the West Coast!