Unhappy Kansas family plans to sell home ‘Extreme Makeover’ built them

Iraq veteran to move out of state

? An Iraq veteran and his wife are selling the house that “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” rebuilt for them after a tornado.

Patrick and Crystal Tutwiler said some residents in their hometown of Chapman have suggested they weren’t worthy recipients of the new home, pickup truck and other gifts including a Disney cruise to the Bahamas.

The Tutwilers plan to leave Kansas. They put their 2,500-square-foot home on the market about a week ago. It’s listed for $298,900.

Patrick Tutwiler, 26, was recovering from being shot in the neck while in Baghdad when an F-4 scale tornado hit Chapman in June 2008, destroying his family’s house and dozens of others. He was turned down for loans to finance a new home.

Then, “Extreme Makeover” came to the family’s aid. Thousands of people spent 120 hours in November 2008 constructing the Tutwiler home. A two-hour show detailing the family’s project aired Jan. 25.

The ABC show’s crew and area volunteers also helped other Chapman residents remodel, repair and landscape their homes, although none of the projects were as extensive as the Tutwilers’. The group also built a tornado shelter in Chapman’s Shamrock Park.

But since the makeover, the Tutwilers, who live with their four children and a nephew, say they have faced scrutiny and ill feelings from some in Chapman.

“There came a moment where we decided we couldn’t be happy here,” Crystal Tutwiler, also 26, told The Salina Journal.

“We absolutely hate to leave the house. I wish we could pack it up and take it with us, but the house isn’t what makes you happy.”

She said the family has enjoyed a few supporters in Chapman, but that “the bad outweighs the good.” It’s not clear where the family will move, and Crystal Tutwiler provided no details.

“We had an opportunity to be happy somewhere else, so we took it,” she said. “We’re asking what I think is a very reasonable price.”

The Tutwilers don’t have a land line and couldn’t immediately be reached for comment by The Associated Press on Saturday.

Their agent, Darcy Ferguson, told the Salina newspaper that one person called before the listing to inquire whether the house was on the market.

“I’ve had some interest in it,” Ferguson said.