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OREM, Utah (AP) -- John and Cayce Thill just wanted a bigger dining room for their two biological and 14 foster children.
But the family returned from an all-expense-paid vacation at a dude ranch to find their house $200,000 more valuable.
The donors upgraded the electrical system, installed double washers and dryers, a new furnace and central air conditioning, redecorated bedrooms and baths and built a play pen outside.
"We've remade the whole house," said Patrick Perrett, a spokesman for Utah's Heart2Home Foundation. "We started out doing just a dining room, but we're a little bit of overachievers."
John Thill said his family expected a new dining room, and had an idea about new cabinets after workers took measure for replacements. The rest was a surprise.
"It's just beautiful," Thill said Saturday. "I don't have adequate words to describe what has happened here."
The makeover started when Oprah Winfrey's new show, Oprah's Big Give, offered $10,000 for a deserving family. Salt Lake City's KTVX-TV enlisted help from Utah's Heart2Home Foundation and the Utah Foster Care Foundation. They selected the Thill family.
Kohl's Corp. and Pottery Barn donated home decor items. Lowe's Cos. supplied two stackable washers and dryers. Other items came from Costco Wholesale Corp., Salt Lake City-based Internet retailer Overstock.com and Smith's Food & Drug Stores.
Foote Homes Inc. and dozens of volunteers donated labor and time.
"We've had a lot of success with companies stepping up," said Deborah Linder, community relations manager for Utah Foster Care.
The family returned from a week at Rockin R Ranch, a Utah ranch in Antimony, in a limousine with a police escort, to lines of cars and people waving in their Orem neighborhood.
"From the distance we thought they had just painted the house, and I just thought, 'Oh my gosh, they got the right color,"' Thill said.
When they got closer, he said he realized the home had new siding, and once he got to the middle of the lawn, he found new sod. Inside, he found a 20-foot by 12-foot dining room.
Information from: The Daily Herald
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
