Extreme Coverage, Home Makeover Edition

We don’t reap the benefits of being a two-newspaper town only when it comes to the MBTA cutting bus trips or when a convicted murderer is upset her sex change hormones have been withheld. It also matters on stories that should be puff pieces.

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition is in Maynard this week, building a handicapped-accessible home for a man who nearly died in a car accident and has been unable to live in his home since. The Globe tells us that everything is moving along swimmingly, while the Herald digs up some dirt on one of the project’s volunteers.

The Globe began trumpeting the good news in Saturday’s Names column.

For the next seven days, 500 folks, including Acton’s Fenton Contracting, will be completely rebuilding the Giuntas’ home, repairing floors, widening doorways, and renovating pipes and electrical systems. “It’s going to be a good old-fashioned barn-raising,” said the show’s interior designer extraordinaire Michael Moloney.

The daily continued singing the show’s praises today.

The gang from ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” took a break the other day to host a barbecue in Maynard for everyone helping to rebuild Paul and Renee Giunta‘s house. More than 500 friends, family, and community volunteers are working on the house while the couple is in Florida.

Isn’t your heart just so warm? Doesn’t it make you feel like a community can still manage rally around a family in need in this isolated modern age? All is right in the world.

. . . Until you read the Herald.

Two contractors rebuilding a Maynard house as part of ABC’s reality show “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” have a checkered history when it comes to some past construction projects in other towns.

It seems the two men in charge of Fenton Contracting have a habit of trying to hide excess profits after they building affordable housing. They also settled a case out of court after a well was contaminated with perchlorate as the company worked on a project nearby.

Thank you, Herald, for restoring our cynicism.