'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' Renovations Are All About "Moving That Bus" in Record Time

Rome wasn't built in a day, but apparently Extreme Makeover: Home Edition homes can be. Well, not really. But the entire process appears to take no more than a week. And if this is your first time getting into the show and what it offers its participants, you might be wondering how, exactly, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition works.

There was once a time when "move that bus" was a household phrase thanks to the excitement of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Ty Pennington and his infectious enthusiasm. So if you're just not getting into the series, which gives a family a brand new home or fully renovated house that they already lived in, you might be wondering how it all works.

Although Ty is no longer the host of the series, it still holds onto its basic core values that it had when it started back in 2004. The idea is that a family which has faced some kind of hardship is given the chance to start over with a new home that is up to code and affordable for the participants to live in. But one huge aspect of the show that viewers still can't quite get around is how a house can be built in so little time and be ready for the family in question.

The family at the center of each episode of the Extreme Makeover spinoff explains what issues led them to where they are now. Then, they're given a week-long vacation far from their home as the design team and contractors get to work. Then, they return home to shout "move that bus" and see their new home, ready for them to live in.

While it seems next to impossible for a house to be built from the ground up in just one week, that's the premise of the series. And it's why there is such a large team of contractors present to work on getting the house ready by working seemingly around the clock.

People who claim to have seen the show film or even taken part in its filming shared their experiences on a Reddit thread about Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. According to one user who claims to have volunteered to help with the renovations, there is a sheet for the builders that mentions a timeline for "real day vs. show day."

Another user in the same thread commented that they used to work for Habitat for Humanity and that, according to them, the builders for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition apply the same standards of building homes. According to the user, they have large sections of the home arrive at the location so that putting it all together is a little easier than it would be from literally the ground up.