By Michelle Kim
GOFFSTOWN – For the Herod family, there truly is no place like home.
A year and a half after being driven out of their Danis Park home in the Mother’s Day floods, the Herods were finally able to move back home, into a brand-new modular house donated by an organization called No Place Like Home and built in part with the efforts of Sommersworth and Pinkerton vocational school students.
“It’s so nice to be home,” said Kelly Herod. “We’re just so thrilled. We feel very blessed and lucky to be picked by this group.”
Like so many area families struck by the floods, the Herods had been struggling to pay the mortgage on a house that was no longer livable, fighting with the insurance company for flood damage coverage, and attempting to carry on a somewhat normal life commuting to work and Bartlett Elementary School for their daughter, Elizabeth, 9. Gary worked for a uniform selling and leasing company and Kelly raised Elizabeth. They were living with Kelly’s mother in Manchester but wondering what to do next.
And then, “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” came to town.
No Place Like Home, a Rochester-based nonprofit organization and ministry of Grace Community Church, which began by building homes for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita victims and shifted focus to New Hampshire, originally meant to give the house to the Voisine family of Manchester. But after the Voisines were chosen by “Extreme Makeover,” NPLH gave the house to the Herods instead.
The Herods even found themselves caught up in a bit of the “Makeover” excitement as the show sent a camera crew to capture the first day of building, which was a surprise for the family.
“We were just in shock,” said Gary Herod, describing the sight of 250 people coming down the road with their house behind them. Working well into the nights, the NPLH crew were able to build the house in about a week.
The Herods were fortunate they hadn’t lost too many of the rest of their belongings in the flooding, except for the bedroom furniture, said Kelly, and were able to move in around Thanksgiving weekend.
The new house is slightly bigger than the old house, 1,100 square feet instead of 800 square feet, and much higher up. Kelly said she appreciates the abundance of closet space and kitchen upper cabinets, which she did not have in the old house. Since the new house has two bathrooms instead of one, Elizabeth now has her own bathroom, which she swathed in pink Hello Kitty decor. Gary pointed out that all the machines and gauges, such as water and heating, were on the upper level and not in the basement.
They still need to install a lift that will make it easier for Kelly to get into the house, which should be covered by insurance, the said. Kelly was in a car accident in 1993 and uses a cane to walk.
They watched the show at the Verizon Center on Jan. 27 and even got on the stage to say a few words of thanks.
The next day, Kelly couldn’t help but jump in on a blog discussion to defend their new home when a viewer questioned why the Voisines got a much nicer house than the Herods. Besides, she quipped, she didn’t have as much to clean as the Voisines did.
The Herods said they know they are fortunate and that many families in the community are still struggling with the situation they were in.
“Sometimes,” said Gary, “I look around and still can’t believe this is our house.
“It’s good to be back home,” he said.