Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
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Shelley Osterloh ReportingImagine watching wrecking crews bash apart the home where you had lived for nearly 30 years.
It would be difficult. But the Sandy family whose house is being demolished will soon move back to a new house.
Shelley Osterloh introduced us the Smeltzer family on Friday, and she was there today when their old house turned to rubble.
David and Vickie Smeltzer raised eight children in a small Sandy home. But now David's health is failing and the house is falling apart. So volunteers from an organization called Heart 2 Home will demolish the old house and build a new one.
David Smeltzer: "They say close to two thousand volunteers are building my home. What kind of price tag can you put on that kind of heartfelt caring? It will be a home for our family for a lifetime."
David has a degenerative, neurological disease similar to MS, but it is genetic. He needs a wheelchair, but can't even get it in the door.
His 14-year-old daughter Breann has the same disease. So does an adult son. The new home will go a long way to ease their many physical problems.
Bart Brockbank and Sean Foote have lined up scores of subcontractors and skilled workers to volunteer.
Shelley Osterloh: "What's the biggest challenge as you look at this project and the next two weeks?"
Bart Brockbank: "Getting it back up in time."
Sean Foote: "Good weather. We need good weather."
The family learns they will vacation at the Zermat Resort in Heber and Disneyland.
Then the house bashing begins, thanks to some help from ReAL soccer players.
Nikolas Besagno, ReAL Salt Lake Player: "I requested we use a sledge hammer on a couple of things because of course I'm still a kid and I love to break things."
Jake Besagno, ReAL Salt Lake Player: "This is an amazing project to be able to give a family a new beginning, a new start. It's just unreal to be able to give back to them."
The big machines move in to finish it off. Though it's been a house filled with love, it will be replaced by a house built with love... for a family who did not ask for help, but is grateful for it.
Vicki Smeltzer: "I'll never be able to thank them enough for caring that much about my family."
Demolition is going fast and by tomorrow the rubble will be cleared away and the building begins. They expect it to be completed in just two weeks. Then the Smeltzers move back into a brand new, handicap accessible home.
You can watch the Heart 2 Home volunteers build the house on a real time web-cam at the links in the box above.
