By Larry Kline/Havre Daily News/lkline@havredailynews.com
Jim Johnson isn't sure he will be on television this weekend, but he knows his work will be. Johnson, a Montana State University-Northern graduate and husband of a former Havreite, designed a prefabricated floor for a house to be featured on Sunday's episode of ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
Johnson works as a design technician for Boise, Idaho-based Truss Joist, a company that was tapped to design and fabricate the second floor of a new, larger home for a California family who adopted five children and needed more living space.
He and other Truss Joist workers traveled to Santa Fe Springs, Calif., in mid-February to be on-site for the taping. Johnson isn't sure if he made the final cut, but said the opportunity to be around the project was enough for him.
"I don't know if I will make it," he said in a telephone interview Thursday. "Overall, the experience was great. Just being there to see how the guys explained everything for the cameras was amazing. The whole experience, the way they had it all set up, TV doesn't do it justice."
It took workers only seven days to completely rebuild the family's home once it was torn down to the footings, but the project took three months to plan.
Johnson received the blueprint for the house and went about designing the second floor. He had to interpret where the plumbing hookups would come through and where I-beams would be used as supports. Workers at Truss Joist then followed the plans to fabricate sections of the floor,
which were shipped to the site and lifted into place with a crane.
"It's like putting a big puzzle together," Johnson said.
No such work was needed for the first floor, which was a concrete slab.
Johnson received a design drafting degree from MSU-N and married Crystal Heggen of Havre. The couple moved to Great Falls before moving to Boise when Johnson got the job with Truss Joist. They have one son, Kaden James. Crystal's parents, Dale and Julie Heggen, live in Havre.
"Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" airs on ABC on Sunday at 7 p.m.
