Long Beach Family Returns to HGTV-Revamped Home

Story and Photos by Joley Welkowitz

Dozens of volunteers, friends, and family gathered on Michigan Street in the West End welcome the Enright family back home Saturday.

 Follow Long Beach Patch on Facebook.  

Thanks to “Spontaneous Construction,” a new show on HGTV, John and Lori Enright and their six children have a newly remodeled, all-expenses-paid home after it suffered heavy damages in Hurricane Sandy. The Long Beach family remained in disbelief, more than a week after the cable show announced that the family’s videos was chosen among thousands of submission. 

Lori’s longtime friend, Wendy Etrog, submitted photos of the Enright’s home and video testimonials on why they were a deserving family. 

“They are a great family and their house was basically trashed by Sandy,” said Etrog. “They really needed this, and no one deserves it more.”

For the past four months, the eleven members of the Enright family — which includes their two dogs and a ferret — lived in three upstairs rooms of their three-story home. Sandy rendered the lower floors unlivable. They were using a microwave and a toaster oven in the bathroom to cook meals.

“It has been one struggle and one heart break after the next,” Lori told Patch. “Then Sandy came and took every penny we had with it.”

John said the kitchen and dining room tables are his favorite features of their new home, and Lori said was excited to cook their first meal there Sunday night.

“This blows me away,” said John, looking around with tears in his eyes. “It has been so long since we sat down at table together as a family just to have something to eat.”

Many people from Long Beach pitched in to help the “Spontaneous Construction” team finish the Enright’s house in just a matter of days last week, while the family stayed at the Allegria Hotel on West Broadway.

“It was the greatest feeling to have them all come to help and do this for us,” said 22-year-old Sarra Enright.

Emma Fisher, a friend of the Enright’s other daughter, Bekah, was among those who helped do everything from paint to decorate to move furniture. She said her own home in the Canals burned down during the hurricane.

“Everyone in our town was affected by Sandy, but it is nice to help out people who deserve it,” said the twenty-year-old Fisher.

U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand was on hand Saturday to welcome the Enrights back home. She and members of her Long Island staff were invited and pitched in with painting and other tasks to help HGTV complete the reconstruction.

“This is really a story about the community, because they came together and worked so hard to make sure that this family could begin to rebuild their lives,” she said.

The weeklong filming will culminate in an episode on HGTV sometime in mid-April. Around that time Ricky Paul Goldin, host of “Spontaneous Construction,” will appear with the Enright family on The View on ABC.

“This is really a story about the community, because they came together and worked so hard to make sure that this family could begin to rebuild their lives,” he said.

Goldin said that this project in Long Beach wasn’t an ordinary episode, at least not for him. He has a strong connection to the area. He grew up in Atlantic Beach and spends his summers on the barrier island.

“I understand that people are still struggling to put their lives back together since Superstorm Sandy,” he said.

Also, unlike past episodes of the show, Goldin and his crew of volunteers had to start from scratch with the Enright home. The first level was an empty box with only sheetrock and a subfloor. They started with the plumbing and electrical.

In addition to a full first floor remodeling, the house also includes new kitchen appliances and living and dining room furniture. Cablevision equipped the living room and each bedroom with flat screen televisions. Goldin noted how humble and gracious the Enrights were, and he was more than happy to work this project.

“This family is about love and I feel lucky to have met them in the first place,” he said. “We took their house and gave them back a home.”

MORE NEWS
Used Needles Found on Long Beach Street
Police Seek Shore Road Burglar
Schumer Calls for Barrier Island Beach Rebuilding by 2014