RINGGOLD, Ga.-Without the hundreds of volunteers, the television coverage and a precocious child to think of, another extreme home makeover is quietly taking place just off Cherokee Valley Road.
The brick home, vacant for nearly three years after its occupant, Vern L. Caudill, was driven from the residence by a grease fire that roared out of control, is being renovated with the help of a team from Chattanooga’s Silverdale Baptist Church.
“We just want to show him people care, that people love him,” said church member Sherman Smith. “We want to show him the love of Christ.”
The goal for the volunteers, he said, is for the home to be ready in about 60 days.
Although the fire may have driven Caudill from the three-bedroom house his parents built in 1959, it didn’t drive him from the property. Since the blaze, he has lived in an 8-foot by 10-foot metal storage building at the rear of the property.