Three years after the anniversary week of Knoxville’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition building project, the Watson family & The Restoration House has laid a new foundation for The Village right next door.
Three years ago Knoxville volunteers partnered with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (EMHE) to lay a new foundation and build a new home for the Watson family and a duplex for The Restoration House. On January 10, 2012, "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" surprised Knoxville's Watson family with the door knock that changes lives.
Mandy and Daniel Watson were both raised by single mothers. In 2005 they left their jobs and established The Restoration House of East Tennessee, a non-profit organization that provides single mothers with housing at a local apartment complex as well as the tools needed (mentoring, advocacy) to be confident, self-sufficient, and productive members of their community.
The Restoration House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that helps restore single mothers and their children back to God’s good intent for their lives. Through supportive transitional housing, team mentoring, and family advocacy, TRH walks alongside low-income single-mother families, helping them break harmful cycles and regain hope and a future. The
Restoration House, along with its founders Daniel and Mandy Watson were the recipients of the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in January of 2012. Over 4500 volunteers from the Knoxville community built a new home for the Watsons and a duplex for single mother families in The Restoration House.
The foundation Knoxville helped to lay in 2012 served to help lay another important foundation last week at The Village. Mandy Watson, cofounder of The Restoration House stated, "We feel like if Knoxville had not stepped up to the plate and accepted the challenge brought to them by Extreme Makeover three years ago, we would not have made the progress we have in advancing toward our dream of building The Village for our city's low income single mother families. Our experience with Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in many ways launched a gift that will keep on giving for generations to come."
Van Tyler Excavating (also an EMHE participating company), recently completed all the site work and infrastructure on The Village, a new 24 unit transitional community in west Knoxville for low-income single mother families; located just across the driveway from the Watson's Extreme Makeover home.
For this next phase of construction, Hickory Construction won the competitive bid to complete the first 2 buildings on the site, including the Community Center and the first 6- unit residential building for The Restoration House Village project. Foundations for The Village are being poured this anniversary week of EMHE. When asked about Hickory Construction’s involvement in the project, Burke Pinnell, president of the company, stated, “The success of The Restoration House is very important to the community. Hickory Construction is very fortunate to have played a significant role in its earlier Extreme Makeover build and now being selected to continue in the expanded construction of the facility.”
Daniel Watson, the Executive Director of The Restoration House shared, “This is a tremendous opportunity for the single mother families of our community. We are incredibly grateful to all of our amazing supporters who have given over $2.2 million to-date. The generous people of Knoxville are a continual support to the mission and work of TRH!”
In order to continue construction of The Village, The Restoration House has partnered with Home Federal Bank to do a short loan to bridge its outstanding pledges. Using Community Investment Tax Credits through THDA for the first time, Home Federal was able to offer 4% below prime on the interest rate. Dale Keasling shared, “Home Federal Bank is pleased to be a financial partner with The Restoration House. And we are blessed to be able to play a small role in this ministry that touches the lives of so many single mothers with children in such a positive way.”
To complete this first phase of construction, The Restoration House is looking to raise the final $225,000 by mid-June. If you would like to learn more about the project or how you can get involved please visit TheRestorationHouse.net.
Over 10 years The Village will impact 140-160 single-mother families with 280-320 children saving $2,751,175 in government services.
Hear the families of The Restoration House share what they envision The Village will mean for their families: www.youtube.com.
Project Team:
● Owner Representative: Construction Project Solutions
● General Contractor: Hickory Construction
● Architect: Studio 4 Design
● Civil Engineer: Fulghum MacIndoe & Associates
● Landscape Architect: Hedstrom Design
● Grading Contractor: Van Tyler Excavating
