ESCONDIDO: Remodeling for a good cause

The noise started in Taylor Church's room early Friday morning, tucked away in an otherwise quiet northeast Escondido neighborhood.

It was the welcome sounds of hammers and pry bars, men demolishing the shower and carrying the old toilet from her bathroom to the Dumpster.

In a week's time, dozens of volunteers will have finished their work to make life a little easier for the young mother, who lost parts of all four limbs during a months-long battle with sepsis this summer.

The project represents the third year in a row that the National Association of the Remodeling Industry has rallied its members to volunteer for a good cause in North County.

"It's extremely rewarding," said Sheen Fischer, an Escondido resident and president of the association's San Diego chapter. "As challenging as the economy has been the last four or five years, sometimes we get wrapped up in what we're doing, trying to survive, and a project like this gives us an opportunity to use our skills for something bigger than just paying the bills."

Church, 22, was admitted into the hospital in mid-May. She wouldn't be released until July 27, and in that time, doctors administered a regimen of drugs that prevented the blood infection from killing her, but cut off circulation to her hands and feet.

On Friday morning, she rolled her wheelchair into the hallway of her parents' house, around the corner from where the crew was beginning its renovation. Aiden, her 22-month-old son, sat calmly in her lap, waving at three television cameras pointed at him.

"I didn't know anything about it until it was set in stone ---- my dad was like, 'Hey, guess what they're doing for you?' I'm so excited," she said. "I'm letting them have free rein. They can do whatever they want."

That free rein includes improvements such as widening doorways and retrofitting the bathroom with an $8,000 toilet.

When it's all done next weekend, said Chris Church, Taylor's father, a large measure of his daughter's dignity will have been restored.

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ESCONDIDO: Remodeling for a good cause