Margie Smith’s flower-lined porch gives her a front-row seat for the house makeover going on cater-corner across the street.
Her view is limited to the exterior, but she’s impressed by what she can see of the renovation that’s being spearheaded by the LeBron James Family Foundation in conjunction with the HGTV and DIY Network show Rehab Addict.
“I think it’s great,” she said. “I think LeBron is doing a great thing.”
The eight-day project has disrupted life on Rhodes Avenue, where the street is clogged with vehicles and the scream of power tools pierces the summer air. Shirley Durett, who lives next door to the house, said the equipment noise from workers laboring through the night has been annoying, “but I just turn my fans on.”
Durett, watching from her front porch Wednesday afternoon, said she’s pleased that her neighbor Melanie English is benefiting from the project. English’s daughter, Mariah Riley, won the makeover in a drawing involving sixth-graders who had met certain academic and behavioral criteria in James’ Wheels for Education mentoring program.
“She deserves it,” Durett said of English. “… She does right by her kids.”
Still, Durett was miffed that James didn’t acknowledge the children who had gathered to watch him shoot a segment for the TV show earlier this week. They tried to get his attention, but “he didn’t flinch. He didn’t move. He didn’t turn,” she said.
“I like LeBron,” she said, “but I didn’t like when he did that.”
Durett and Smith could see one of the most visible transformations to the house: the reconstruction of the front porch and front yard.
By Wednesday afternoon, workers had stripped the porch down to its basic structure, jacked it up and installed footers where none had existed, said Rollin Gedney, general superintendent for Metis Construction Services, the general contractor.
Along the sidewalk and driveway, workers were putting up a block retaining wall with a drainage system. Gravel and a plastic mesh called Geogrid were installed behind the wall to provide more stability for the sloped front yard than the old landscaping timbers, said Darren Rowland, facilities manager for Rice’s Nursery.
Inside the house, cosmetic upgrades continued. Workers were starting to paint the third floor, while others were sanding some of the pine floors and finishing others. Drywall work was happening in the bathroom and second-floor bedrooms, and bathroom tiling was about to start.
The work is expected to be completed Sunday.
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com. You can also become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MBBreckABJ, follow her on Twitter @MBBreckABJ and read her blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/mary-beth.