Submitted photo Volunteers (blue shirts) and workers from TJB Homes, Inc. (red shirts) descend upon the Swenson-Lee home, which was recently selected to appear on Extreme Home Makeover.

In January, Vicki Swenson described the "amazing village" that surrounds her family, which aside from her husband Erik and their three children, also includes the four children of her late sister, Teri Lee.

Swenson recalled the school bus driver willing to wait a few extra minutes to make sure all the kids end up at school, the boys' hockey coach who picks them up before-school for early-morning practices and the volleyball players she coaches who meal every week for the family and also watch the children.

After this week, she'll be able to add a few thousand people to that village as the Swenson-Lee family was selected to appear on Extreme Home Makeover. Construction crews are currently building the family a new home in Minnetonka, where the Swensons live. The home is set to be completed on Tuesday and the program is tentatively scheduled to air Sunday, Nov. 5.

Lee and her boyfriend Tim Hawkinson Sr. were murdered by her ex-boyfriend Steven Van Keuren last September at Lee's West Lakeland Township home. The Swenson's assumed custody of Lee's four children: Taylor, 12, Tyler, 10, Trevor, 8, Tara, 6, which brought the total of children in the family to seven, soon to be eight. The Swenson's three children include Samantha, 10, 18-month-old twins Stella and Olivia and baby on the way Eva "Lynn."

The family is currently in Disneyland while the makeover takes place.

Builder Thomas J. Budzynski of TJB Homes, Inc. has donated his company's services to the project, and has been met by about 500 volunteers total. Serving as design team leader/carpenter is Ty Pennington, formerly of Trading Spaces.

Budzynski called the event "the Super Bowl of housing," - it also commemorates the 100th episode of Extreme Home Makeover. Instead of six months to build a home, his crew will have about six days.

While recording the beginning "Braveheart" scene, when all the volunteers run down the hill to the home, Budzynski said the crew's four backhoes were set up in an arch for the construction workers to race through.

"It was so cool ... it was so full of energy, you could see in (people's faces) that they felt that energy," he said.

The former home was 2,300 square feet, with three bedrooms. Swenson said daughters Taylor, Tara and Samantha shared a room packed with one queen bed and two twin beds - literally a BED room. The new structure will offer 5,600 square feet of living space and seven bedrooms.

When meeting the family, one of the Lee children told Budzynski he missed his mother's hugs the most of all.

"We can't replace that ... but I can make his life a little better," he said. "They're experiencing a dream, but they lived a nightmare. You can't wish that on anybody. We cant change what happened, we cant bring his mom back, but we can make their life a little bit better."

In finding volunteers, people have walked the neighborhood asking for help, only to find locals ready to give what they can, Budzynski said.

"It's like the state fair here with all the stuff going on. we've got the whole city out here," he said. "It's beyond imagination, you never would have thought in your life that you would get involved in something of that. ... It's a labor of love."

For more information about this event visit www.tjbhomes.com