Cindy Lange-Kubick: Donations build a home for Charlie

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Nearly three years ago, Patty Wilson and her son Charlie made a tape and sent it to “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

The hairdresser stood in a vacant lot on the south edge of town.

This is the family room, Patty said, looking into the camera.

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Charlie Wilson is lifted onto his new sofa by caretaker Tony Garcia and his mom, Patty Wilson, at Charlie's new home in south Lincoln. Patty Wilson created the non-profit organization, the Charlie M. Wilson Replacement Care Home Inc., in 2005 to operate a home for young adults with physical handicaps. (Heidi Hoffman)

Charlie Wilson is lifted onto his new sofa by caretaker Tony Garcia and his mom, Patty Wilson, at Charlie's new home in south Lincoln. Patty Wilson created the non-profit organization, the Charlie M. Wilson Replacement Care Home Inc., in 2005 to operate a home for young adults with physical handicaps. (Heidi Hoffman)

Here is the computer room.

Here is the bathroom. You can push the wheelchair right into the shower.

On the tape, she leans in toward her son, the young man who was born too soon and ended up with cerebral palsy.

She and Charlie squint into the sun.

This is our dream, Patty says.

ABC didn’t build the Wilson’s dream house on their Sunday night show.

But Patty started baking, trying to raise $300,000, cherry pie by cherry pie.

Charlie overslept Thursday in his new house with wide hallways and low light switches and tile floors that make it easier to maneuver his chair.

He moved in nearly three weeks ago and soon he’ll have roommates. Other guys with disabilities, in a home equipped with roll-in showers and low cupboards, round-edged walls, rooms for caretakers.

It took more than $12 pies to build this 5,200-square-foot house on Bridle Lane, where the edge of town is no longer.

It took five years of work, Charlie’s mom figures.

There were fundraising Paws Walks, a golf tournament, a benefit showhome.

Nursing homes raised money. Businesses provided discounted countertops, concrete, shingles.

And there is still a $100,000 mortgage.

“We’re not over the top yet. I just didn’t want to wait anymore.”

Patty and Mike Wilson always wanted Charlie to be independent.

And Charlie wanted it, too.

For the longest time, the Lincoln Southeast graduate was cool hanging out with his parents and sisters and aunts.

Then that changed.

No offense, he told his Aunt Julie one day, but would you want to hang out with your parents when you’re 20?

Charlie turned 23 July 7.

A window in his new house is lined with birthday cards.

His videos fill a bookcase in the basement, an elevator ride away.

Bags of chips are stuffed in the pantry for tonight’s open house.

“Come see what you helped build,” the invitation says.

A Web site — www.charlieshouse.org — lists the hundreds who made the house happen.

In the basement, two blank canvases hang on the rec room wall, waiting for guests to sign.

The Wilsons want autographs from everyone who did anything to help.

“We’re calling it the wall of recognition,” Patty says.

Technically, the house built by Barber Homes is a nonprofit residence designed to “provide a quality care, family-like environment” for young people with disabilities.

It fills a need, Patty says, for independent living for young people like Charlie.

She remembers the nights at home baking those hundreds of pies.

She’d started a year before, forming a nonprofit and sending out fundraising letters, and getting nowhere.

Now it’s here.

Patty stands in Charlie’s favorite room: the basement with the flatscreen and surround sound.

The Saturday he moved in was a long day.

The builder still had some work to finish.

It got late. And later.

Finally, Charlie had enough.

I’m dying here, he told his mom.

Let’s go.

Reach Cindy Lange-Kubick at 473-7218 or clangekubick@journalstar.com.