Free Republic

ARLINGTON, Va., Dec. 18, 2007 – Army National Guard Spc. Michael Lucas received an extra-special homecoming during his mid-tour leave from Iraq recently when he and his family discovered they had been selected for a total home renovation, courtesy of the ABC reality television show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.” "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" host Ty Pennington joins the family of Virginia National Guardsman Spc. Michael Lucas in cheering "Move that bus!" allowing the family their first glimpse of their totally renovated home in Rice, Va., Dec. 10, 2007. Lucas is currently deployed to Iraq with Company C, 3rd Battalion,...

NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) -- Don Cruz had always assumed that the only time he would ride in a stretch would be to his own funeral. Instead, his heart was definitely beating, maybe a little too fast, as he and his son Donald, 10, stood like guys at a bachelor party with their heads out of the sunroof of a 30-foot Cadillac on the way to see their new house for the first time. -snip- The biggest problem, though, is that the Cruz family can't afford their new bounty. Don, a stay-at-home dad, and Shelly, an administrative assistant who's gone...

LAKE LURE (AP) — Donald P. Cook, who won HGTV's 5,700-square-foot Dream Home on April 29, plans to sell the house because of the high taxes and maintenance costs. Cook, an auditor for the state of West Virginia who has been disabled since childhood by multiple sclerosis, said the electricity bill is more than 10 times what he now pays. "I don't think there's any possibility I could afford to live there," Cook, of Alum Creek, W.Va., said in an interview posted on the Home & Garden Web site. "What we plan to do is live in the Dream Home...

Man Wins Free Dream Home, Can't Afford Sales Tax Winner Hopes To At Least Spend A Week In Home POSTED: 11:22 a.m. EDT July 5, 2002 SHERWOOD, Md. -- There's no such thing as a free lunch or a free house. That's what Milton O'Bryant is learning. He's won $1 million designer beach house on the Maryland shore, in a promotion for the House and Garden TV cable channel. But while the house hasn't cost him a cent, O'Bryant owes taxes on his lucky break. He said he would have to take out a $500,000 mortgage just to pay...