Oceanside family gets local home makeover
OCEANSIDE -- It's "Extreme Home Makeover," the local edition. After trying unsuccessfully to get on the ABC reality television show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," in which a team of experts build a home for a family in need, the local community is stepping up to make dreams come true for Oceanside residents John and Chris Wehner and their two girls.
Local residents and businesses have been donating their time, money and materials to renovate and expand the Wehners' 1,100-square-foot home to nearly double the size, giving the family the space they desperately need.
"This whole project is a labor of love," said Chris Wehner. "We're just so humbled and grateful that people would do this for us. There are still giving, wonderful people in this world who care about our two little girls."
Wehner's daughters Amy, 9, and Linsey, 11, have spinal muscular atrophy type II, a genetic disease that attacks muscle movement and inhibits basic functions such as walking, crawling, even swallowing and breathing.
Weakness due to the loss of motor neurons of the spinal cord and brainstem has left the girls dependent on power chairs, high-low chairs and a multitude of medical equipment, including respirators, although they do attend Vista public schools and excel at academics.
The only rooms both girls and their chairs can be in together are the kitchen and living room, and even that is tight due to the bulkiness of the 350-pound power chairs, said Chris.
"They have to play tag when they go down the hall," she said. "One has to stop for the other one to go by. They've had many barriers in their own home."
Since the family moved in eight years ago, Chris and her husband have been working on making the house more accessible for their daughters by removing all doors on bedrooms and installing a hardwood floor to avoid allergens that are found in carpets. (For Amy and Linsey, a common cold can be life-threatening and has sent them to the hospital on a number of occasions.)
John Wehner works long hours in the engineering department of the Rancho Bernardo Inn so his wife can stay at home with the girls.
"They're a full-time job, 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Chris, as she smiled at her two girls. "But they're worth it and it's amazing to watch them change the world."
She added that the girls have served as goodwill ambassadors for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
John Wehner said that although the family had always wanted to expand their home to make the girls more comfortable, they never imagined being able to do such extensive renovations.
Dubbed the Amy Linsey Outrageous Home Addition (ALOHA), the Wehner home makeover includes adding a large family room, creating larger bedrooms for the girls, constructing a handicapped-accessible bathroom and expanding the kitchen, so, as Chris put it, the girls "can get in there and bake ... they love it."
"You know how sisters are, they like to hang out together and now they'll be able to," said Chris as she stood in what would become the extended kitchen. "Now, they'll actually be free in their own home and not restricted by their environment."
The makeover process started nearly two years ago after family friend Mickey Keen came over to the house to build Amy a closet and ended up taking on the project. An associate area manager for the Orange County division of developer Standard Pacific, Keen coordinated Richard & Richard Construction to draw up plans for the renovation and asked other local contractors and businesses to donate their services.
"When you look at these little girls, how could you not want to help?" said Keen. "This is how you build their future."
Construction began this January, with Lucas & Mercier Development donating labor and lumber for the framing and Hanson Truss donating trusses and roof tiles. The renovation is slated to be completed this summer.
"He's our little guardian angel on Earth, making a better life for Linsey and Amy," Chris said of Mickey. "This is so amazing."
Teachers at Temple Heights Elementary and Roosevelt Middle School, which Amy and Linsey, respectively, attend, have also donated funds to a benevolent account, to pay for any materials that haven't been donated.
"Eighty-five to 95 percent of the cost has been donated, but we still need a little kick financially to complete it," said Keen.
Denise Netherland, Linsey's former second-grade teacher at Empresa Elementary and a longtime friend of the family, said the project couldn't have happened to a more deserving family.
"Their life is hard, but you never hear them complain, none of them," said Netherland, whose family also donated to the project. "They never say, 'Why me?'"
To donate to the cause, make checks payable to Linsey and Amy Wehner and mail them to Washington Mutual, 1641 S. Melrose Drive, Vista, CA 92081 with account reference No. 0314-0000172380-4.
-- Contact staff writer Noelle Ibrahim at (760) 761-4404 or nibrahim@nctimes.com.