The Ripatti-Pearce Family

Logan, UT. The Pauni family are given an extreme makeover. When Janet and Danny left the island of Tonga in 1991, it was to give their family a better life and a better education. Danny was the strong leader in this family and the glue that held them together. That's why it was as if a bomb had hit when he suddenly died in May of 2004 from a heart attack, leaving Janet a widowed mother of nine (eight children and one nephew living in the home). With no life insurance policy and the sole provider gone, this tight knit family has been struggling both emotionally and financially. While the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition design team, local builder Kartchner Homes of Logan, Utah, and hundreds of workers and volunteers are transforming the Pauni's house into a dream home, the family will vacation in a private yacht in the British Virgin Islands.