THE renovation team from the hit show “Extreme Make over: Home Edition” descended on a tiny house on Long Island yesterday – surprising the shattered family of a young Suffolk County cop.
John Vitale’s three boys – Jack, 4, Adrian, 2, and 18-month-old Luke – were left motherless when his wife, Anne-Marie, 28, died last August shortly after she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia.
Catastrophe struck the family soon after they moved out of their North Shore home while the tiny house was renovated to make room for their rapidly growing family, and temporarily set up living quarters with Anne-Marie’s parents.
The wife was diagnosed soon after and all of John’s savings went to her medical treatment.
“This was one we couldn’t resist,” “Makeover” executive producer Tom Forman told The Post yesterday. “Here’s a man who lost his wife, is raising three kids and has been living with his in-laws basically in a converted garage.”
Forman says the show’s producers are crossing their fingers that spring comes a bit early this week.
“I think the weather is probably wrong to try and build a house, and there are a lot of things that make this sort of a silly idea but the guy needs the house now, so here we are,” he says.
Most of the tiny home will be demolished tomorrow. It was a rare trip to the East Coast for the makeover show.
The episode is set to air later this year.