‘The house is magic’

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When to watch The two-hour season premiere of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," featuring the Akana family of Kalihi Valley, airs at 6 p.m. today on KITV.

Viewers across the country -- those in love with the mystique of Hawaii and others fascinated by the magic of home remodeling -- will tune in tonight for the season premiere of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," filmed in rain-filled Kalihi Valley. But no one may be more eager to see the show than the first person profiled this season, Theresa "Momi" Akana.

Akana can finally break her vow of silence regarding the building of her new plantation-style home and a community center for her nonprofit agency Keiki O Ka Aina, both located on the same 3-acre property.

"It's just been a truly, truly just incredible story," enthused Akana. "I can't wait for it to be told."

Akana still has the good-wish messages from producers and cast members saved on her cell phone; she's too sentimental to break the link to the TV show that changed her personal and professional life.

Of the cast and crew associated with the ABC show, Akana said: "I wish they would come back. I (didn't) want them to leave."

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Since the taping of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" in June, Theresa "Momi" Akana has waved to people who have stopped to take in the sight of her new home in Kalihi Valley. Rubber-neckers have included everyone from casual Sunday drivers to curious military servicemen.

"Stop. Don't be shy," said Akana. "We don't feel ownership of the house."

But she's had to suppress the urge to literally wave people onto the site for a spontaneous tour of the structures built and furnished by the ABC television show -- her home, plus a community center for the nonprofit group she heads, Keiki O Ka Aina.

Part of Akana's good will comes from a need to share the good fortune -- the other part to dispel any community doubts that the rightful candidate was picked for the makeover.

"When so much is given, so much is expected," she said.

The Hawaii project had the distinction of drawing the largest number of volunteers to serve on a building site for the show. Roughly 3,000 volunteers from across the islands pitched in for the barn-raising. Neighbor islanders were provided transportation and temporary housing courtesy of go! airlines and Outrigger Enterprises. Akana is careful to acknowledge all who played a part in building the community center -- and her house, too.

"The house needs to be shared," she said. "The house is magic."

The new home replaces an old, dilapidated house that Akana lived in for 13 years and worked out of for 11. That building still belongs to her organization, and still stands just down the street, six houses over. "It's the only place the kids remember living," she said. "They never had a place to play."

The show's producers chose to rebuild the center as well as give Akana a new house, placing both structures on the 3-acre community center site.
Akana doesn't know exactly why she was chosen for the show, but said she sees it as a sign of God at work, helping her nonprofit agency. Akana's spiritual beliefs are evident outside her new home's heavy wooden front door, through which few people can pass until after the "grand reveal" on television tonight. Inspirational and devotional quotations on placards line her porch, a personal touch Akana added after the cast and crew left.

Other than that, the house remains as it was when Akana and her family moved in three months ago. "Gosh, no changes. Not a thing. Can't imagine changes."

There has been unwanted attention in the form of questions about whether the rightful family was picked, and whether Akana's $100,000 salary as head of a nonprofit agency is justified.

"My salary is completely within the range of a nonprofit organization," said Akana.

She said she welcomes the chance to address resentment. "I invite anyone to give us a call and talk to us," said Akana, who turned to ABC producers for advice when she was uncertain about how to face the negative publicity.

"I was told by producers that this happened everywhere they go. ... I never want to say a negative thing and dishonor the people who worked on the project by focusing anything negative on the project ... but it's painful when it happens to you."

Calls made to ABC officials were not returned by press time.

FOR THE next year, Akana is under contractual obligation to the show's producers regarding appearances and interviews. Since the project concluded in June, she has had to keep her lips tightly sealed to promote what has become the highlight of the show: the grand reveal in which the homeowner, family in tow, is led back to the new, improved home, amid the cheers of an awaiting neighborhood.

The Akanas vacationed in British Columbia while their new home and the community center were being built. Upon their return, Akana said, volunteers who worked on the project were eager to share their own stories of participation.

In a moment that was not captured on film, the crew left additional sealed and wrapped furniture in the garage as a surprise for the family, said Akana.

Though a family's personal hardships are often the basis for stories told on the show -- and she has struggled in the past as a former single mother who raised three of her four children on welfare -- Akana would be relieved if the focus would be less on the personal and more on the nonprofit agency she runs. The season premiere is the first time a community center has been featured on the show.

Since the show was taped, other changes at the Keiki O Ka Aina community center have been evident. The old one was contaminated with mold and had substantial water damage. Big plans await the new center, said Akana, including building outdoor classrooms, as well as holding a community movie night on the new lawn, freshly seeded two weeks ago.

Akana said Keiki O Ka Aina is dedicated to building family ties within the community through programs such as parenting and Hawaiian language classes; recent grants have come from sources such as the Administration for Native Americans.

In her nonprofit agency, of the 50 employees who work for the company, many have "sad, sad stories of the sick, the homeless ... I'm not the story, pick someone else (for that)," said Akana. "I applied on behalf of the school. I'm excited about what we want to have done."

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Board chairman says city wiped slate for project

The chairman of the Kalihi Valley Neighborhood Board says the city cleared violations and fines for an illegal landfill on the property used by the "Extreme Makeover" television show so that the project could go forward.

The board had been complaining to the city about the illegal landfill and grading for years because it reduces sight lines around a dangerous curve on Kalihi Street, said board Chairman William Woods-Bateman.

The city fined the previous owner of the property $568,500 in nearly three years for adding about 6,180 cubic yards of landfill on the property without grading permits.

Then two weeks before the city issued the permit for the Extreme Makeover build, the fines were reduced to $5,685. In a May 18 letter from Department of Planning and Permitting Director Henry Eng, the city cleared Grace Bible Church of Honolulu, the previous owner, of notices of violations and orders because the city said the illegal landfill was removed.

The letter said the violations were corrected on May 1. The city issued a Conditional Use Permit for the Extreme build May 31. Work started June 6.

But Woods-Bateman says he does not believe all of the illegal landfill was removed and he thinks that the city cleared the violations so the show could go on.

"The letter was created to write it off the books," he said.

Woods-Bateman also said the two-story residence built for Keiki O Ka Aina Executive Director Theresa "Momi" Akana and her family is on ground 10-12 feet higher than it was before. Keiki O Ka Aina bought the property from Grace Bible Church last December.

The city issued Grace Bible Church a grading permit Oct. 18, 2001, to move 60 cubic yards of material. Work was supposed to start Oct. 23, 2001, and end Oct. 22, 2002. City records indicate the permit expired.

Woods-Bateman said the city, along with representatives from the show and contractor Brookfield Homes Hawaii Inc., approached him in April because they needed the neighborhood board's support of a city Conditional Use Permit for the project.

The board approved the permit at a special meeting April 19 because its next regularly scheduled meeting would have been too late for the city to issue the permit in time for the start of the build, Woods-Bateman said.

In exchange for the board's approval, Woods-Bateman said the city, show and contractor agreed to bring the land back down to the original height and that the work would be part of the project.

Akana said she knew about the grading violations when her organization bought the property and that Grace Bible Church put money in escrow to remove the illegal landfill and to pay any fine.

She said a contractor hired by the church started removing fill after Keiki O Ka Aina took possession of the property. When she became concerned that the work would not be completed in time for the "Extreme Makeover" build, she said Keiki O Ka Aina hired its own contractor and completed the job in a week.

Akana said much of the fill came from where the residence now stands and that the contractor removed even more fill during construction.

Brookfield Homes said the residence sits on 37 concrete pylons that were poured in place and reach down to bedrock. The company said it chose that method of construction not out of concern that the home was built on unstable landfill but to preclude installing drainage lines and because of the slope of the ground.

For the construction of the community center, Brookfield said it removed the old, at-grade concrete foundation and poured a new slab in approximately the same footprint as the structure that was torn down.

Keiki O Ka Aina owns the land and the community center. Ownership of the residence is being determined by the state attorney general, Akana said.

About three weeks ago she received a letter from the attorney general inquiring about her family's lease with Keiki O Ka Aina for the land under the residence. She said representatives from the show had suggested to the organization what the lease should be and assured her that her family would not have to claim the new residence as income.

Akana said the show leased the property from the organization for two weeks during the build because according to federal tax law, the property owner does not have to claim capital improvements made by a tenant.

But she said the organization wants whatever is fair and correct and is leaving it up to the attorney general to determine whether the family or Keiki O Ka Aina will own the residence.