Home project complete, ready for family's return

Star Ty Pennington celebrates his 41st birthday today.
By DENISE DICK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- With the house complete, landscaping done and furniture moved in, the only thing left is for the Novak family to see their new home.
That's expected to happen this afternoon. Jeff Novak and his three daughters, Zoey, 6; Harley, 2; and Presley, 6 months, will return from their Florida vacation, which was paid for by "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," and Ty Pennington's catch phrase, "Move that bus," is set for midafternoon.
Today also marks Pennington's 41st birthday.
Volunteers completed much of the landscaping at the Arlene Avenue home, and furniture was to be moved in late Tuesday.
Mount Union volunteers
About 130 of the thousands of volunteers who pitched in throughout the week are students at Mount Union College, Alliance.
John Burkey of Salem, who is studying information systems and business administration at the school, and his mother, Linda Burkey, an education professor at the school, helped organize the volunteers.
Most of the students worked from Friday night through Sunday night, though the Burkeys returned Tuesday for more.
"We're basically just doing whatever they tell us to -- moving block, feeding the crew; we had an assembly line of students moving wood paneling into the house," he said.
Burkey's grandmother is a friend of Dr. Carmella Abraham, an eye doctor in Salem whose husband, Chris, is the co-owner of TC Quality Homes of Canfield, the lead builder on the project.
The doctor mentioned that they needed volunteers, Burkey said.
'Chance of a lifetime'
"I watch the show every Sunday, and it was really the chance of a lifetime to help out," he said.
He also met a few of the show's stars during his work but hadn't yet encountered Pennington.
Ashleigh Lawrence of Struthers is studying psychology at Mount Union and volunteered on the project through the weekend. She and Burkey are members of the college's Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity.
Lawrence said that despite all of the people involved and different tasks accomplished at the same time, the project moved smoothly.
Classes today may prevent Lawrence and Burkey from seeing the Novaks' reaction to their new house.
"We've really seen the majority of the outside and just feel that it's everybody else's turn to see it," Lawrence said.
Jeff Novak's wife, Jackie, then 28, died of a pulmonary embolism on Mother's Day after the couple had watched the ABC show together earlier that evening. Zoey, their oldest daughter, and a friend of Jeff's sent letter to the show nominating the Novak home for an Extreme Makeover.
The show's stars came to the house Oct. 12 to notify the family, and work started last week to demolish their 76-year-old home and build a new house in its place.