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'Tia Sandy' gets a new house Day care provider on St. Paul's West Side gets a dream wake-up call from reality show

Posted: 2009-10-14

When Lisa Griebel first saw Sandy Morris’ home on St. Paul’s West Side, she thought it was a drug house. The 1896 two-story yellow house with a sagging roof, crumbling foundation and sinking porch at 226 Prescott St. isn’t exactly what she imagined a day care center would look like.

“The place is so small and rundown, you just wonder, how does she run this?” said Griebel, a former West Side resident.

While the outside isn’t what she expected, Griebel is now a devoted fan of Morris, who has provided low-cost day care in District del Sol for more than a decade. Even after moving out of the neighborhood, Griebel still makes the trek from Mendota Heights so her 5-year-old daughter, Adelita, can continue to be “safe” with Morris, who is affectionately nicknamed “Tia Sandy.” Griebel isn’t the only believer. Morris is so beloved by the children she cares for and their parents that this summer they nominated her and her family daughter, Catricia, 15, and son, Mychal, 12, both students at St. Paul Academy for a makeover.

On Friday, the Morris clan got a dream wake-up call when they heard ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” host Ty Pennington shout, “Good morning, Morris family!”

While the Morrises knew they had one of five potential homes in St. Paul vying for a makeover, the family said they didn’t know for sure it was happening to them until Friday morning.

“It’s so surreal, we’re still in shock,” said Morris, who has cared for more than 60 kids in the past 14 years. “Right now everything in our house is day care. I’m excited for the fact that I will still be able to do day care and have a home separate from day care.”

(An airdate has not yet been announced for the Morris family episode.)

In just a week, the Morrises will have a new home courtesy of TJB Homes the local company running the project, around 5,000 volunteers and the “Extreme Makeover” crew.

According to Tom Budzynski, owner of TJB Homes, the crew will demolish the 1,300-square-foot house on Sunday, spend the week building, and then on Friday, the family will see their brand-new 2,800-square-foot home that will have three bedrooms, three baths and a separate area for the day care center.

“There will even be a mini-children’s toilet in the day care’s bathroom,” said Budzynski. (The current value of the 1,300-square-foot home is $150,200, while the new one is estimated to be $450,000, according to city and county records.)

“Extreme Makeover” designer Paul DiMeo said after the design team found out about the family, he knew they had to do something special.

“Anyone who has that kind of patience to do what she does should be rewarded,” said DiMeo as he tossed a football with some kids outside the house. “We want to do something for her so she can continue doing that.”

Since they’re stuffing six months of work into 96 hours, Budzynski says the house will be worked on around the clock. Budzynski, who also spearheaded the construction of the Swenson-Lee family home in Minnetonka for “Extreme Makeover” two years ago, said planning and scheduling are vital to completing the home in such a short time span.

The round-the-clock work will likely cause some disruption for neighbors, but no one watching the proceedings Friday seemed worried about the noise.

“I actually have a friend who has a houseboat I can stay at for the week,” said Sydney Olson, who lives down the block from the Morrises. “But I want to stay here and see all the activity.”

Sandy Morris’ cousin Michelle Rosario, who lives two houses down, described Morris as a “loving and caring” woman.

“Words can’t express how much she deserves this,” said Rosario, who admitted to yelling, “I love you” at Pennington from her back yard while he was outside the Morris house. “It’s great to see something positive on the West Side. We get a bad rap sometimes. I’m just so happy this is happening and that’s its my family and my block.”

Morris, 40, who has lived in the house her entire life, says she has sentimental feelings about the place, but she knows it needs to be rebuilt. The one thing she wants to make sure the show keeps is a stained glass window that has been there “forever.”

The Morris kids Catricia and Mychal were excited about their new home.

“I want to have a place where the three of us can be together and sit down and watch movies,” said Mychal.

“I love the day care and I love having it at our house,” Catricia said. “But it will be nice to have a space of our own.”

The family will be spending the week on a Disney cruise to Cozumel, Mexico, while the work is being done. The show arranged for day care children to be cared for at other locations.

At the house on Friday, camera crews filmed various shots lots of Ty Pennington running around and trucks lined the roads. Neighbor Maria Silva said she was happy for the family and gave permission for trucks to park in her driveway, although she did have to get someone to move a large van so she could pull her car out.

Across the street from the Morris home, Scott Morgan was having fun watching all the excitement from his front yard.

“It’s nice that Hollyweird is taking care of our residents,” he smiled.

Amy Carlson Gustafson can be reached at 651-228-5561. Briana Bierschbach contributed to this report.