Every once in a while the opportunity to help those less fortunate comes knocking. On this occasion, Estridge home builders and the Extreme Makeover show came knocking...and we were there to answer the door.

Paul Estridge got in touch with us in the Spring of 2009 and asked if we'd be interested in participating in building a home for a needy family in Indianapolis. Although this was a job we knew we would not be paid for, our answer came without hesitation...YES! Over the next few weeks we were given plans on a "nameless", "address-less" home in order to protect the anonymity of the family and to keep the site of the television show secret. "Barthuly" is better known around the state for our irrigation work. However, considering the plans did not call for an irrigation system, Paul asked that we install the landscape lighting. As the date approached we were given a start date and time for our portion of the building process. When we arrived there were more than 100 workers buzzing around the home and annex. You wont be able to tell from looking at the pictures since we didn't get any pictures of the sky. But, 10 minutes into our installation, the heavens opened up and the rains came. It took us about four hours to install the lighting system. It rained (hard) the entire time. With the exception of the occasional lightning flash and ensuing clap of thunder, the smiles never left our faces and the warm feeling of helping our community never left our hearts.

Despite the rain, we were happy with our work and grateful to have participated in this unique process of building a home. From start to finish, the home took less than five days to build. More important than the accomplishment of building a home in less than a week, was a sense of fulfillment it gave all of us to have given a small portion of our good fortune back to those less privileged than us.

We would do it again tomorrow! Click here to view pictures from the event.

Zionsville North Section Feature

When Ty Pennington bellows, "Move that bus" today, one of the things the McFarland family will see at their new Indianapolis home is yard lighting provided by a Zionsville company.

"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" -- a reality TV show that builds a house in a week for a deserving family -- has built a 2,750-square-foot home on Indianapolis' Near Eastside. It is for Bernard McFarland, a computer specialist at Indianapolis Public Schools' Marshall High School. He and his three sons will return today, after the show sent them on a Paris vacation while the work was being done. The McFarland makeover includes a 975-square-foot community resource center on the adjacent property. The center is a surprise for McFarland, a mentor for children in the Martindale-Brightwood neighborhood, where volunteers also improved dozens of homes in the area of 25th Street and Keystone Avenue.

Zionsville's Barthuly Irrigation, which specializes in residential and commercial irrigation and landscape lighting, is among more than 180 area companies and organizations -- and thousands of volunteers -- that have donated time and goods to the "Extreme Makeover" project.

Ken Barthuly, 39, and his brother Larry, 45, both Carmel, started the business 18 years ago. Barthuly Irrigation works closely with Carmel-based home builder Estridge, the TV show's local building partner. "I heard about it on the radio and was about a minute away from making a call for us to be a part of it, and then found out they (Estridge) already called us," Ken Barthuly said.

Ken and Larry Barthuly; their father Roland, Carmel; and the company's production manager Brett Berry, Westfield, installed landscape lighting around the house, through the courtyard and around trees. Ken Barthuly describes himself and his wife as reality show freaks who love being involved with a television program, but he said his involvement came about mostly because he wanted to give back to the community.

"It's a sense of paying it forward, and what better place for it to happen than in Indiana -- the heartland of red, white and blue," he said. His company also contributes to about 20 other charities throughout the state and country.

Barthuly said it's great to see how many volunteers, businesses and organizations have come together. He called the house and outpouring of community support the McFarlands have received pretty impressive.

"The community is in need of some cleanup and it's nice to see the kids and adults watching the process because it's Hollywood in their front yards," he said. "This is something they'll (the community will) cherish for the rest of their lives."

Star reporter Betsy Reason contributed to this story. Call Star reporter Katie Merlie at 317-444-5549. "Extreme" site: Read more and check out photos from this week's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" work at indystar.com/extreme.