Local contractor works in TV’s home makeover

Above volunteers and tradesmen work at the site where ABC’s reality show Extreme Makeover Home Edition built a home in Lewisport for Steve Mattingly’s family. –Photo Furnished

Dempsey Stallins work may not be visible when Extreme Makeover Home Edition’s Lewisport project airs later this fall, though it was crucial for success.
Stallins owns Stallins Concrete Construction between Eddyville and Princeton, and he helped pour the concrete for the foundation of Steve and Melissa Mattingly’s new home built by Extreme Makeover.
Extreme Makeover — the award-winning ABC reality show hosted by Ty Pennington — builds homes for deserving families. The entire home or home renovation is completed in seven days. The show uses local contractors and tradesmen who volunteer their labor to build the homes with donated materials.
The Mattingly home was built the week of Sept.6-12.
Stallins said he worked all day on Labor Day in conjunction with Perry Culberson of Culberson Concrete Service and Tri State Pumping of Sebree. Stallins and Culberson often collaborate on projects.
Thompson Homes Inc. of Owensboro was the general contractor, said a posting by Jamie Rose on the Web site of ABC affiliate News 25 in Evansville, Ind. Rose’s story said more than 2,500 volunteers plus 300 skilled workers “offered their services.”
The Mattinglys and their two daughters, Alana, 12, and Madison, 11, were living in a 700-square-foot, singlewide mobile home, the television station’s Web site said. Steve Mattingly was severely injured two years ago when he was hit by a car as he directed traffic around a neighborhood fire. His wife, an emergency medical technician, witnessed the accident as she drove by.
Mattingly sustained multiple injuries including brain damage and amnesia, said a news release on the Web site.
Culberson’s company was chosen by the show to pump the concrete and sling the rock from a conveyor for the home’s foundation, Stallins said. And Culberson chose Stallins who often works with him. Stallins explained that the rock slingers take the rock from a dump truck and place it without any other equipment.
“The home was approximately 3,000 square feet,” Stallins said. “We set up two pump trucks, and for the first pour we had to pour the concrete into one pump truck and pump it into a second pump truck and then over to the foundation. We couldn’t get the concrete trucks up close to the site because it had rained and the ground was wet and slick.”
Pennington was there, “but he didn’t come up (to the home site) while we were there,” Stallins said, adding that another cast member was there and the cameras were filming.
Stallins was unsure whether the work he was doing was filmed. “I would say there were approximately 60 men and women in that area doing various tasks of placing the electrical lines, plumbing lines and footings,” he said, adding that he helped pour part of the base for a pool installed in the back yard for Mattingly’s therapy. “They brought in a preformed pool.”
Stallins returned to western Kentucky nine years ago and started his concrete business. He was born in Princeton but moved to Michigan as a child because his father was in the construction business.
Of working on the Mattingly home Stallins said: “It was just a great experience to be able to donate my time to help somebody else.”