Rebuilt Taylorsville home elicits tears

TAYLORSVILLE — Mandalina Groves' jaw dropped as she stepped inside her new home.

Her eyes moved over the walls, the vaulted ceilings — the pictures of her family — and then the tears started to come.

Gone were the mold and reminders of her children's struggling health. Instead, the Groves' home is filled with new floors, new bedrooms, new carpet, new furniture, new kitchen appliances — even new food — and plenty of finishing touches that bear the unforgettable mark of many strangers.

"This is beautiful," Mandalina Groves said among gasps and quiet exclamations. "Thank you so much. This is beautiful. Oh my gosh."

Not much from the Groves' old home was saved for the new one — except two framed murals with pictures of the Groves children hanging in the living room. Many other family heirlooms were lost due to contamination.

As Mandalina Groves, her husband Kevin, and their three children, Gabriel, Gavin and Michael, moved through the home, awestruck, the silence of anticipation eventually broke way into applause.

It was the kind of moment that makes the hair on your neck stand up, said Heart 2 Home president Greg Adamson. It was payment for the hundreds of hours donated by neighbors, plumbers, contractors, electricians and myriad other volunteers.

Heart 2 Home oversaw and organized the home makeover and, from the cultured marble shower to the custom stainless steel kitchen counter, completed the project entirely from donations. It wouldn't have been possible to rebuild the home in nine days if so many people in the community didn't pitch in, Adamson said, but that's the whole point.

"We say this is the 'Groves Makeover,' but the truth of it is that this is a community thing," Adamson said. "It's obviously the Groves' home, but it will always be a community home. Everyone in this community has a vested interest in this home and it's a part of them."

Foote Homes knocked down the Groves' old home less than two weeks ago because it was uninhabitable and contaminated with black mold. The family hadn't lived there for six months because extensive efforts to clean the mold — Mandalina Groves scrubbed it three times a week with hospital sterilizer — were unsuccessful. The Groves children already suffer from rare medical conditions, and the mold in the home exacerbated the problem.