Petaluma's not-so-extreme makeovers help community

One morning last April, a swarm of work-gloved volunteers descended upon the Petaluma mobile home of a couple in their late 70s.

By the time the sun set, the senior citizens had new, efficient double-pane windows, an evaporative cooler, new paint inside and out and a renovated bathroom fit for their physical needs.

Mini versions of TV's “Extreme Makeover” like this happen in Petaluma dozens of times each year at the hands of the nonprofit group Rebuilding Together Petaluma.

“We're looking forward to a warmer house this winter,” said Dottie, of her revamped home. She and her husband, George, asked to be identified only by their first names because the program is for low-income Petaluma residents.

Rebuilding Together Petaluma morphed from Petaluma's Christmas in April program in 1996 with seed money from the city and now helps dozens of low-income, disabled or elderly homeowners complete much-needed repairs and major renovations throughout the year.

In the past 13 years, volunteers have helped more than 400 homeowners with projects from replacing toilets and water heaters to replacing rotted-out floors and updating entire plumbing or electrical systems.

Dottie, 78, and George, 76, sought help with repairs and updates to their eastside mobile home. They have lived in Petaluma for 40 years.

“We couldn't have done it ourselves and we couldn't have afforded it anyway,” she said. “They're just the most wonderful outfit. I still can't believe that I had all this work done. And they were so nice.”

Rebuilding Together Petaluma currently is accepting applications for projects volunteers can tackle this April.

But help is needed year round with smaller or emergency repairs, said the group's executive director, Jane Hamilton.

This week, several volunteers replaced the broken doors on Ernie Small's house. Small, a retired musician and music teacher in his 80s, had recently been released from the hospital and needed assistance with the doors, his front porch and other safety measures in his westside home.

“It's just not a safe situation. The front steps aren't safe,” Hamilton said. “He's such a giver, we needed to help him.”

The group recruits local contractors and skilled tradesman to act as “house captains” on each of the major work sites, which are still done mostly in April. Dozens more worker bees pitch in with the manual labor.

About two-thirds of the group's $300,000 budget comes from the city's redevelopment fund, meant to assist with affordable housing stock and address accessibility issues. The rest comes from donations from local contractors and other businesses who give food, time and volunteers.

Rebuilding Together Petaluma recently spearheaded another large-scale project at Petaluma City Hall, replacing its water-sucking landscape into a model of water savings. Hundreds of volunteers spent a day last month installing a rain catchment system, new landscaping and community gardens at the entry of the civic center.

The project will save the city 3.5 million gallons of water a year, Hamilton said, and $25,000 in maintenance costs.

When Wilhelmina Curtis asked for help at her river-area home, she was just hoping to get a broken drain on her washing machine fixed, and the leak in the wall behind it.

“And then they painted the living room and dining room,” she said. “Then they said, ‘How about the floors?' There is all new carpeting in the front room. They redid my kitchen, the living room ... and my bathroom in all the same linoleum. They repainted the back porch.”

One of the workers fixed an overhead light fixture that hadn't worked for years, even though two repairmen had worked on it.

“It makes my house so nice,” Curtis said. “It makes me feel so good that somebody cares enough to come out, and all these people helped.

“They're just out to give something back to the community, and I think they did a wonderful job.”