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Rosh Sillars/Daily Tribune
Judy Vardon gives her blind and autistic son, Lance, 12, a big hug after getting the news their house will undergo an "extreme makeover."

OAK PARK ? It's not easy to be the only person in your house who can see and hear, so Stefan Vardon, 14, could have played the sympathy card to get a big-screen television, flashy leather furniture, or high-tech recreation room.
Instead, he wrote to "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition," asking the show's designers to make life better for his deaf parents and blind, autistic little brother.

And he got it.

"I didn't want anything for me, just something to make things safer for my parents and my brother," said Stefan Vardon, a Berkley High School football player who serves as the eyes and ears for his family.

Stefan's plea was so touching that the ABC-TV team of star remodelers swooped down Thursday on the Vardons' quiet LaBelle Street neighborhood, just off 11 Mile near Berkley and Huntington Woods. At 7 a.m., designers, carpenters, caterers and the crew arrived in huge buses, and heartthrob carpenter Ty Pennington banged on the front door to give the family the surprise of their lives.

Rosh Sillars/Daily Tribune
"Extreme Makeover" host Ty Pennington helps the Vardons with their new luggage for their trip to Mackinac Island.

The family knew Stefan wrote the letter, but the show kept it under wraps that they were chosen.

"They deserve it," said Karol Gagacki, a Vardon family member. "They're very good parents. They're really great people."

Crying, laughing and hugging, parents Judy and Larry Vardon and sons, Stefan and Lance, 12, had more surprises later when a dozen or so members of their family appeared at the door, invited and assembled by the show.

Then the family was whisked away in a limousine to the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, where ABC will put them up until the "Extreme Makeover" team and builders from Fairway Construction in Southfield finish remaking the home.

The designers expect to do a total renovation of the 980-square-foot white brick ranch by Thursday; the show featuring the Vardons will air in October.

"They are all just darling, we really love this family," said Constance Ramos, show designer. "Every one of them is just amazing. Lance ran right up and gave me a hug."

Ramos and her team could not reveal what exact changes will be wrought on the unassuming house until the show airs, but local builder Adam Helfman said they'll focus on making the house "smart." Fairway will work for free.

"It will be a high-tech home," said Helfman, whose 150 workers volunteered to work 24 hours a day until the home is completed. "We know about this family, and we just can't wait to do this for them. It's beyond exciting. Everybody's pumped."

Helfman said this will be the most extreme renovation his firm has ever been involved in. It will mean four to six months of work compressed into seven days. When the house is done, the neighbors won't believe it, he said.

Rosh Sillars/Daily Tribune
ABC-TV's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" workers begin their project by removing the front of the Vardons' home.

"We're talking outdoor waterfalls, pools; the whole property is involved," Helfman said. "The technology inside the house will be amazing. Their lives are about to get a whole lot easier."

Interior designer Michael Moloney agreed, adding that the Vardons' episode will be unusual because the renovation isn't about cosmetic improvement.

"Just look at this family. This will be about their story, how great we can make life for them," Moloney said. "We're really going to change the way they live."

The way the Vardons live now involves tireless work for the parents. Larry is a welder, always available to help fix neighbors' cars, and Jean teaches sign language as a volunteer with blind and deaf children.

They come home from long days of work to communicate with their son the only way they can.

Jean Vardon has taught young Lance enough words in sign language that she "talks" into his hand, forming words into his palm. He can't see her sign and she can't hear him speak.

She also gets his school work from Oakland County Intermediate School District on the family's computer and translates it herself into Braille ? something Moloney hinted the show will change with new technology.

Lance is a piano prodigy who has been autistic and blind since birth and the Vardons went through a double dose of heartache trying to make their lives together easier.

Both parents became deaf with childhood illness, Jean through Asiatic flu when she was six weeks old and Larry because of rheumatic fever. They signed Lance up for an experimental corneal transplant a decade ago, hoping he could see and the whole family could communicate by sign.

Insurance didn't cover the procedure, so their extended family and friends held fund-raisers to garner enough money. Then the procedure didn't work on Lance.

Unwilling to give up, they went through the procedure a second time ? and again it failed to help their youngest son see.

"She taught him sign language," Jean's sister Mary Ann Olmsted said. "She spends every second with him, working with him, teaching. She doesn't want him to miss out on anything."

The whole family is involved in Lance's care. Grandparents Paul and Rose Manik live just a couple streets away from the Vardons and are regular babysitters.

Grandpa Paul remembers the way he taught Lance to spell, going over and over certain words until, out of the blue, Lance said the word "chocolate" and launched into its spelling.

"He spelled chocolate on the computer," Manik said, shaking his head with incredulity. "All on his own."

Many members of the family said they hope the "Extreme Makeover" team finds a way to bring more music into Lance's life. He loves to play the piano and can replicate almost any tune by ear. He dances and laughs whenever he hears a tune.

"He jumps and has such a great time when music comes on," Rose Manik said.

Rumors abounded about what the makeover team planned, including talk that they might raze the house and rebuild on the lot; and rewire the whole house for sound so Lance can hear his favorite music with the touch of a button

Stefan Vardon said he doesn't care what the team does as long as they make the house more safe and friendly for his family.

"We're a different kind of family ? we need a different kind of house," Stefan said.

Even though professionals will do the work, plenty of volunteers are raring to go if the need arises.

"I could drive a nail if they'd let me," grandpa Paul Manik said. "It might take me 20 times to hit it, but I'd do it."

Contact Christy Strawser at christy.strawser@dailytribune.com or 248-591-2569.