Vardon Family’s Extreme Makeover House at Risk of Foreclosure

Lee: You’re right. I corrected this mistake.

I just sent an email to ABCs Bill Spencer, “Call Bill for Action” I will post it here.

Hi Bill, I hope you can help! I am not asking you to help me, I’m asking you to help the Varden family in Oak Park. The name probably sounds familiar to you because, they were chosen by ABCs Extreme Home Makeover team. I am a laid off coworker of Larry Varden, and he doesn’t know me personally by name, but would probably recognize me if he saw me in person. I had a hard time falling asleep last night after hearing about there home going into foreclosure! I can’t afford to help financially, so, I hope you can help in some way. Lance, the youngest son, is autistic and blind. The house as you probably know, was designed to help the family cope with Lance’s disabilities along with both parents disabilities of being deaf! I just saw Ty Pennington say this is one of his favorite makeovers, maybe you will know how to contact him, I’m sure he would want to help!!

Thank you for ANY help you can give them!!

Sell the house, and use the proceeds to care for your son and pay the rent.

Not everyone can afford to live in a house, there’s no shame in renting.

ABC needs to put a lien or trust deed restriction on these “Extreme Makeover” homes that would prevent the homeowners from taking out home equity loans. Habitat for Humanity found out decades ago that this was the only solution to keep these equity rich people in their homes and not in foreclosure.

DebtFree: It’s very easy for you to say it than in action. Can you imagine what it’s like to have a child who is autisic/blind and that requires 24/7 supervision? I suppose you don’t.

I work at a group home where all of my mentally challenged individuals that need supervision 24 hours, 7 days a week. If they were my own children, I would never, ever give up the house that is designed for their safety and well-being. Renting an apartment or even buying a condo and getting on with your life with a severely disabled child is not how you should handle the situation. Dave had made a lot of valid point about Lance’s safety and living evironment in his previous comment.

You need to open your eyes and put yourself in Larry’s shoe.

jvd, I sent you an email.

Lee from bostin, Thank you!!!! I was about to give up on this subject with this board!! I was just trying to get help for Larry and his family. I also have a child who suffers from a form of autisim. My child is not as severe as lance by far, but I understand what is going on. When I did a search on google, I saw this board and someone was asking a question, so I answered that question and all H**l has broken loose. That was not my intention. You have put some faith back in me with your coments. Thank you so much for your support. God bless you and everyone!! We all need his blessings!! Even those of you that had negative comments. Not all the comments are ment to be negative, especially when you are ignorant on the subject!!

Lee, if the home was important to them, and worth keeping as you state, then putting it at risk with a Home Equity Loan wasn’t the best move.

They should have rented out the garage, taken in a tenant, etc. Things to increase income, rather than increase debt they could not sustain.

Either they can afford to keep the house, or not. If not, then time to sell and move on. More handouts will only delay the inevitable.

Guaranteed there are countless disabled children out there who will never enjoy the luxury of a free million dollar house.

I just don’t buy all the lame excuses put forward here and elsewhere.

There will be many more foreclosures in Michigan in the coming years. It’s a dying state.

Here is the latest:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQnUZlqpqkE

Does anybody know if they have a donation fund that could help the Vardon family with their housing and medical needs. I personally would like to contribute but have no ideal were to start. This family has touched my heart in so many ways. God Bless!

Cody, God Bless you and your family!!! You have a kind heart like many of us.

Have a Happy Holiday, and a wonderful new year!!

Dave

I teach deaf students, autistic students and other children with special needs and have been doing so for the past 25 years. I also teach hearing students American Sign Language. We have followed the Vardon family over the years and are heart-broken to hear of their plight. Being familiar with all of the disabilities that are involved in this family I can not begin to tell you how amazing this family truly is (despite the obstacles they deal with on a daily basis)!

Debt-free has no clue! — one minute he says “sell the house and move on” — “use the money to take care of your autistic son”. The reason they got into this financial mess in the first place was because they needed money to “take care of their autistic son”. Walk a day in their shoes and then tell me you would walk away from a home created especially to meet the needs of the deaf, blind, autistic and hearing members of your family.

Isn’t this country a wonderful place to live and this a wonderful time to live in? Granted, there are disagreements and some will never see the other side of the issue, but we agree to disagree. It’s good to see there is still brotherly love in this tired old world.

Happiest of holidays and a love-filled new year.

The reason for the mortgage is, the medical costs forced them to refinance the house.

Hi everyone
I live in the UK and by sheer chance I just saw the Extreme Makeover program on UKTV featuring the Vardons – my husband and I were in tears nearly all the way through! What a magnificent home was created for them and how much they all deserved it. Their son Simon is such a beautiful human being – I hope he is still going to be able to go to College with the funds donated for that purpose. I just Googled the name and came across this blog – so horrifying to discover what has recently happened in their lives and to see they have become victims of the dreadful financial crisis – something they couldn’t avoid and certainly not their fault.
Surely it must be possible for some local organisation to set up a professionally-run secured fund for the Vardons to cover the medical and extra social expenses for their blind son Lance? I know for sure that I would contribute on a monthly basis and I cannot believe I’m the only one!
Maybe there is a caring person who could afford to pay off what the Vardons currently owe so that they can start over with a clean slate? I just cannot imagine the pain they are suffering after the joy of the makeover – the worst imaginable nightmare. Let’s try to make 2009 a Happy New Year for them. Good wishes to all from friends in England.

Its very sad every time I hear about a family forced into a situation where they have to refi to pay medical debt, and are now facing foreclosure.

I just watched a rerun of the Vardon’s Extreme Home Makeover on cable TV today, and I cried almost all the way through it because it touched me so much. The Vardons seemed like such good, decent people and such a wonderful thing was done for them. They appreciated it so much, as evidenced by the letter and box they sent to the work crew while they were “on vacation” while the house was being remodeled, and by the expressions on their faces as they were given a tour of their new home. I defy ANYONE to be unmoved by viewing this episode. I thought it was wonderful that they were the recipients of this makeover and everyone connected with the project was so obviously moved, too. I don’t know why I was so surprised that the episode was six years old but it made me jot down their name and town and look them up on the internet tonight because I wondered what had happened with them in the meantime. I’m not a very sympathetic person but I ended up caring what happened to them. I found this site and read all the posts and I never read blogs, much less post my own comments but this time I had to. “DebtFree” clearly hadn’t seen the show and didn’t understand how the new house was completely custom-made to accommodate their very specific handicaps. He/she was just wrong with his/her advice. Dave and Lee, on this blog, were spot-on from the beginning (and bless the Brit couple who commented last year, too – their heart is in the right place. It’s perfectly true that not every family with handicaps gets a gift like this handed to them, but what I think moved me and everyone else who worked on the project and saw the episode, is that the Vardons were completely DESERVING of their good fortune. That’s pretty rare, and it’s why we care about them.

The programme just aired in Israel and we sat weeping like everyone else, it appears. What a wonderful family, an inspiration! I am sure such a hardworking man like Larry is now employed again and also certain that their lovely community helped out though no doubt many of them were also being laid off work and feeling the bite of the new economic reality. Can anybody update us as to how they stand now?

Nice post! its interesting and informative, i personally would like to contribute but have no ideal were to start. this family has touched my heart. God Bless!