Houston, TX

Last night’s “Extreme Home Makeover” show had a unique Houston connection.

Marynoel Kilgallon is the sister of Natalie Fitzgerald, a local celebrity that occasionally makes an appearance on Sam Malone’s morning radio show on 96.5 - KHMX. In addition to being on-air with the “Mix Morning Crew“, Natalie also hosts her own radio show on Mix 96.5 and recently announced that her sister would be appearing on the popular reality television show.

After her divorce, Natalie’s sister, Marynoel Kilgallon and her four boys moved into a “fixer upper” house in Levittown, Pennsylvania. While pulling up the carpet, she noticed severe terminite damage that had infested the walls and ceiling. A structural engineer said that the house was uninhabitable and Mary and the Kilgallon boys moved into her parents’ dining room while she saved up enough money to repair her house.

Fortunately, Ty Pennington and ABC stepped in to help that process along. While Marynoel and the four boys vacationed in Walt Disney Wolrd, McGrath Homes’ employees and volunteers demolished Kilgallon’s condemed, one-story home at 71 Cobalt Ridge Drive East and built an elegant, white-sided, black-shuttered three-story Colonial.

Although the house appears to be leaning sharply to the right in the picture above, Marynoel assured the Houston listeners of 96.5 in an on-air interview this morning that her house is “absolutely gorgeous in every way”. Sam teased Marynoel and told her that she should sell her Taj Mahal of a house and make a tidy little profit, but Marynoel said: “With my luck, I would end up buying another house that had termite damage. I’m going to stick with this one.”

While watching the show last night, Ty Pennington got visibly upset while describing his childhood and being raised by a single Mom. As someone that moved into my parents’ house while 4 months pregnant, the show moved me deeply as well. I’m just waiting for the ABC crew to show up.

I’d love a nice little colonial.

It seems like there is just something magically about the beauties from Texas. Many of the Bachelor hopefuls come from the Lonestar State, including the reigning diva from Season 7, Erica Rose. The 23 year-old socialite is the daughter of the well-known Houston-based plastic surgeon, Dr. Franklin Rose and mother, Cindi Harwood Rose, who is active in the non-profit community in Southeast Texas.

One of the top contenders in Season 8, Amber Alchalabi, also comes from this area and is trying to win the heart of Lt. Andrew James Baldwin. According to reality tv gossip sites, Andy was instantly smitten by the attractive brunette. He reportedly said, “Wow,” when he first saw Amber, who quickly told him, “I’ll probably be the sweetest one here,” in reference to her hometown of Sugarland, Texas.

Unfortunately, Sugarland isn’t sweet on the Bachelor. Amber teaches fourth grade at Colony Bend Elementary School, where she told the other teachers and students that she was taking a month off from school to take care of her sick Aunt. Buddy TV explains: “The bachelorettes are always instructed to give their friends and family a cover story, as part of a confidentiality agreement to keep the winner a secret until the finale of The Bachelor airs.”

Two parents complained that they felt “lied to” and were upset by the inappropriate content of the show for 9 and 10 year-olds. Although the producers of the show were unable to show any of the children on camera, the camera crew for the Bachelor did shoot some scenes of the outside of the school for the “home visit” shots. The principal of Colony Bend Elementary was aware of her participation in the show, and gave the producers permission to shoot the scenes and allowed Amber to leave during the TAKS testing of her 4th grade students.

On May 1st, KHOU-TV confirmed that the principal, Tammy Carpenter, will be reassigned to another school in the district as a result of the controversy.