My name is Gina Centauro, and I run a charity called Rescuing Families with my husband, Vinny.

And my brother, Michael.

We rebuild homes for families in need to make them safe and handicapped accessible.

Our charity helps underprivileged families get back in their homes and live like normal human beings again.

That's the main goal of our charity.

Because everybody deserves to live in a home that's safe, comfortable and functional for their needs.

We don't want these people to feel forgotten.

We want them to know that there are people that want to help them have a better life.

That's how it's done, folks.

CARINA: We cannot see the end of the tunnel that Kelly will be home in any time.

Someone introduced us to Gina and Vinny, and we met them, and, you know, we talked to them about our situation and, they promise the very same day that we talked to them, they promise that they will help us.

And I was so happy.

hes so happy.

We are so happy.

But then it's like kind of a little skeptical.

It was like, no, there was nobody that does this.

We are here to bring Kelly home.

She has been out of her family's home for over two a half years.

A long time.

It's a very long time to be away from her family.

Our charity, is one of the only organizations, here on Long Island that would be able to do this for her family.

And we're so happy that people reached out to us on behalf of the family.

to do the renovations needed to get her home.

This song is not finished yet, and I orginally made the first, stanza back in the sixth grade.

As I look out my open window out into the world below, wondering where the old me has gone.

Unfortunately, something happened like this to Kelly.

2019, we just went to vacation to, you know, on North Carolina.

We go back home, she gets sick.

Shed been in the hospital that... they said shes not gonna make it.

So its the, hardest part of our life.

She was in comatose for almost a week, and they said they can't do anything anymore, they said Kellys case is very rare, GINA: They don't know what happened?

Like how she contracted this CARINA: They don't know what's the cause, what virus.

GINA: Most kids her age, especially,I know as an adult, we would be like, I don't want to live, Yeah.

why did why did this happen to me?

She just seems like so positive and, you know, full of life Yeah, the first time.

The first time they said that, they cannot discharge Kelly when the house is not accessible.

Look out my open window out into the world below wondering where the old me has gone.

Where did I go wrong?

I gotta stay strong.

The house is actually kind of forward on the property.

the door is very high off of even the steps, the front steps.

So it's approximate.

What do we say, 36 inches , three feet, - three feet from the ground.

Yeah.

So in order to put a ramp in the front, it would wind up being a 36ft ramp.

Now, people wonder why a 36ft ramp.

Well, So we have three feet.

That means for every inch that's 36 inches we have to go out a foot.

So that's a 36ft ramp.

Impossible.

My dad had the exact same situation here.

So the ramp would be zigzagging all across to try to make up that.

Yep.

And your dad's was.

Yeah.

And very unsightly.

And we don't want to do that here.

Thankfully this double gate opens up because this wouldn't be an option either.

All right, so front of the house.

No good side of the house.

No good.

Here we are on the other side of the house, which is plenty of room.

Plenty of room.

Double gate.

So she can get out.

That works.

But before we even get to accessibility, this structure right here, you know, in front of us has to come down.

Okay.

Better location we can find here.

GINA: You have plenty of room here.

VINNY: Plenty of room.

This opening right here even.

- Is okay?

Right on target.

Perfect 36.

Perfect.

So now this seems like the best option.

Well, this is it.

Here.

When we have.

We have so much space to work back here.

It's a no brainer.

This was the, Look how small that gate was.

And that was a that was the other side of the house.

That would have never work.

Never worked.

What do you have a 24 inch gate there.

That was no good.

She doesn't even have a turn radius there.

So looking at this right here, we have Kelly's bedroom.

Is that window right there.

- Yup.

Which that's good.

- Yeah.

Because I, I'm starting to believe that only way exit for Kelly is going to be the backyard.

- Yeah, it is.

- The backyard And exiting around.

- We put a French door there.

The french door, But it has to, remember, it has to open out.

- Outward.

So we would be opening up this side of the house pretty much removing the siding window out of here.

Yeah.

French doors going in.

Yeah.

But now how are we getting her from the French doors out?

So we have a deck that we're building.

What is it?

Approximately ten by 12, I believe.

Yeah.

I mean, it was ten by 12.

Ten by 15?

Yeah, something like that which we might be able to make.

All right, so, not a huge deck.

It's a more like a deck slash landing area.

Yeah I know, Coming down to another actually another platform here, another landing in this area and then out that way.

And then it's going to head right out to the driveway.

Before we start any demo inside, we have to demo the carport.

Since it's an unsafe structure and the town will not allow this and it's not safe for us to begin any work until this is removed.

One thing we also have to mention is that this carport is extremely heavy.

It's attached to the house.

We have to work very carefully to remove this structure.

Without doing damage to the home and not getting injured ourselves.

What we're doing right now, Roger, is going to be scoring the ceiling with the blade in order to make sure that just the wall comes down and not the ceiling.

this sheetrock is saturated with water Not much holding this at all Today we're ripping out a basically a brand new bathroom.

We're ripping out.

Sadly - GINA: So, this is a necessary thing.

It is exciting because we're making everything bigger.

You know how I like taking down walls.

- So we're knocking down the, part of the wall in the bedroom.

- Correct.

it's going to be much better for the entire family.

Truthfully.

Oh.

I'll take this side Maybe from the front.

and get it We've done regular shower doors, you know, with the track on top, the regular, the normal.

I love these, but we've never taken these apart, Let's see what we got.

So we don't want to damage all the ceiling.

We don't want to have to replace all the sheetrock in this room.

So we're going to cut two feet of the ceiling.

Take that down.

Because this wall that you see right here is going to be shifting over the two feet.

We see people, they put wood inside the interior so their they're window casing is all wood here.

getting water behind the window here and going down in the wall.

Hopefully when we take these tiles off and we take remove the sheetrock, we don't see a lot of damage here underneath this window.

We see so much stuff when we're renovating.

And, you know, it never surprises us.

so what we have here at the Arcillas bathroom is something very interesting.

They did their green board in the bathroom, which, you know, that's that's somewhat appropriate.

And then over the green board they did this Masonite, they ship that up, I don't know, for a reason a quarter inch of Masonite over this and then over the masonite is when they did their thinset and adhere their tiles to So this is a bathroom that was somewhat new.

I think we are about eight months into it.

But, over 3 to 5 years This bathroom would have failed So this house right here we're taking off the first, first course of siding, which on a lot of houses, they got multiple, multiple layers.

It's just more cost effective just to go over, existing siding, which that is not the proper way.

And you don't want to do that.

underneath the vinyl, they have the old, this cement slash, asbestos siding, which we will after we get the vinyl off, will actually bring people in here.

And just to remove that for us You don't want to get the dust particles in the air.

So we'll bring in a company that will remove this part of it.

For right now we're just going to remove the vinyl for them.

So what we have right here, this is a replacement window.

if you're changing your windows in your home, try to do a new construction window.

It has, nail flange all the way around it, which is 100% waterproof when you have replacement windows like this.

They're just sitting in in between your cutout.

All this rot here, what happens is the replacement window is sitting in this opening here.

And then there's metal capping.

That finishes off all the wood.

you know, all they do is caulk all these edges here.

And over time, water gets in there.

In the opening you see the outside from the inside of the house.

The water was probably just pouring in here.

We'll get a better idea when we move that sheet rock now.

One of the main reasons why we are putting the french doors in here is, Kellys wheelchair is very large, so we need a full 36in be able to get her in and out of this home safely.

One of the things that's required for the deck in our township at least, are the footings.

So the footings are solid concrete.

They go approximately, 3.5ft down and they're 14in wide.

Here in the northeast.

Because of the weather conditions, especially in the winter.

You have to dig below three feet.

Because of the freeze line.

If the ground were to get frozen, it could force the footing up and down.

So the size and the depth is actually very, very important.

And it's a very important part of keeping this deck and ramp stable during any condition.

We've made a tremendous amount of, progress.

Kellys room is a huge hole.

Yeah, well, Kelly's room is finally gaining accessibility.

this is her only means of egress from the home.

Without this improvement right here, Kelly is not even able to come home.

No.

this right here is enabling Kelly to come home again to see her family again, - It brings her family back together - Which is why we're here.

-CARINA: Were on the way to Kellys room.

- VINNY: Kelly, We are We are so happy to to be able to see you.

This is the first time.

Finally.

your dad is a fabulous cook.

Yes.

He's been cooking meals for us every day.

It's a secret, right?

We can't tell you anything.

we're getting close.

And then youll be home with your family again.

You guys have been separated for too long Kelly.

We're going to make sure that that comes to an end real soon.

Wasn't our plan to originally to take up all the flooring, we did notice a lot of issues when we came to this house.

The hardwood flooring that was on the top that you see here was doing a lot of cupping, where it was starting to come up.

And we did know we had a lot of problems and we didn't understand why.

But after further investigation, we decided, let's take up all this flooring in this house.

We notice we have the one by four here.

That's the original subfloor, the one by four pine.

Then we have the original oak as the second layer, which back then this house is from the 50s.

You would see that a lot.

They used old flooring.

Then the homeowner, put another layer of three quarter inch oak over this flooring.

So one of the main reasons, we decided to pick the oak flooring is because it could handle a tremendous weight load.

We didn't want to use, vinyl plank flooring.

We wanted something a little bit thicker, a little bit heavier, and most importantly, a lot stronger.

So when Kelly's wheeling with her wheelchair, it's almost 300 pounds.

So we are building up the layer a little bit over here.

We're building it up almost a quarter inch.

- GINA: This door was tight.

- This door was tight to begin with.

And then we have the three quarter inch okay.

So we just want to ensure before we move on here that the door is going to open without any resistance here.

Oh Let's see.

Once that's nailed down, its a whole different ballgame G.

- Okay.

- Great - Okay.

Once it's nailed Okay.

(Gina laughs) GINA: Not so sure about that one - Alrighty So if we have this here which is not really nailed down correctly.

So we are okay with that Can you open that door for me G?

- Certainly.

- We're gonna hit the uh- because Im tight I'm not going to be any tighter than that.

It wont open, right?

BOTH: No.

What if we just cut out the first layer by the door, or start this a little further back - Further back.

- The second layer.

Leave the first layer.

- Okay.

- You know what I'm saying?

- Leave the first layer, shift this layer back, once we figure out where the swing goes.

- Exactly.

VINNY: What we realized after adding the additional underlayment to level the floor was that we were having issues opening the door.

That was an easy fix.

All we had to do was remove one layer of the additional underlayment near the doorway in order to get the door to close properly.

We've enlarged this bathroom greatly.

GINA: We've come in six inches in order to give Kelly more accessibility in her hallway We've had to eliminate the knee wall because it it basically confines the space under the sink The one thing we were able to do by bumping it out this way, though, We eliminated their vanity.

So there is no storage in this bathroom.

So we added a custom closet behind Vinny.

it's as deep as the whole shower.

Yeah.

So this actually becomes the back wall of the shower, were going to do roll out shelves here.

24in so they'll be able to access all this stuff back there We are installing Kelly's window today.

Yep.

This is a four foot window you picked out.

Yes, I did.

So the plans actually called for us to remove the window and not put a window back.

But you know what I say?

We need a window in the bathroom Forget the plans.

Kelly, her vision is, extremely impaired.

She has no vision in one eye and very little in the other.

So light is very, very important for her.

Especially natural light.

That's why we're doing that.

That's why I decided.

Let's get a four foot window, get some light in the bathroom.

So this is our mosaic tile.

The mosaic tiles.

I like to use them as accent walls usually in or around the bathroom.

This particular tile is going to go on this wall.

This wall and the ceiling.

We usually do large format tiles on the ceiling.

We decided to change it up a little bit.

And we wanted to, pull different colors from all the different rooms back into each room.

So it's going to look really pretty when it's finished.

It's also going to be beautiful, easy to clean and maintain for them.

And they're just going to love it.

We make a great team right now.

You don't like sloppy.

And I don't like working over my head.

VINNY: The tiles don't stick and the mosaic falls off, it's the the mixers fault, right?

You want this one?

You're hangin them, yeah, putting them up?

(Both laugh) - You're a jack**s Oh, this is going to be fun.

Not.

Mosaics pose a challenge on to a lot of tile saws because - Are they bumpy What's going on?

- There's something going on here.

Your pencil!

(Vinny laughs) Give me that.

I've been looking for that.

Okay so with mosaics, that's why we have this insulation sheet of insulation here.

It does pose a little bit of an issue because as you can see, there's a gully here for the saw to go through.

And the water should go through.

And sometimes these tiny mosaics will tip in and you'll get a crazy cut or shreds of glass will fly.

So it's a safety issue and it's also of precision issue.

We're cutting this because this side of the tile has to sit against the edge that Vinny and I just installed.

And we need a clean, straight line in order to start from the front and work back.

This particular style mosaic has got interlocking sections in it, to give it a seamless effect when it's up so you don't see a line.

So we have to just trim it a little bit in order to make it straight, and then we can continue from there.

One of the most important things to bring Kelly home was to make this deck accessible.

All the railings that you see here and the decking are all composite.

So what that means is this product will never rot.

It won't be a lot for them to do other than just to wash it down.

To make this deck ADA compliant, which is most important.

the radius right here for this lower platform has to be a five foot radius.

So when she's in her wheelchair, she has mobility And as we come up, you'll see the slight decline and incline here.

It's not going to take a lot of effort.

For anyone wheeling that wheelchair behind her and pushing her this is a deck that is accessible and beautiful.

That's going to work for this family, for a lifetime to come.

They're not going to have any issues here.

Very minimal maintenance again here with this products.

And beautiful.

Alright, G, weve got a lot to do here still.

The closet needs to be painted.

The door needs to be painted.

Crown molding is going to be finished up in hopefully another half hour, an hour if they get it done on time.

- I have to touch up paint in here.

But basically it's done, - It looks like it's almost completed, but it's really not.

We have a lot of cleanup to do in here.

We have the the mirror to go on.

We need the cabinets to go on.

it just requires the bed being put together and decorating.

I would say we're pretty good here.

Organizer Kit needs to go in.

this way.

Easy access coming in, easy access coming out.

No issues here.

Okay.

We have to clean up.

Alright.

Three days.

Today's Monday.

- Well get it done.

- We'll get it done by Thursday She's coming home thursday.

(All cheer) GINA: Hey Mama, CARINA: Hi, how are you?

Thank you so much.

(All cheer) JOEL: Oh my God.

VINNY: Welcome home.

Kelly.

Welcome home.

Yeah.

You're a celebrity.

Yeah.

Come on, lets go in.

Lets gooooo.

(All cheer) Hey Kelly... Hey Kelly... - You have your teacher here, Were happy for you.

This is your room Kelly.

(All cheer) - JOEL: Welcome home baby!

- CARINA: Thats your bed.

Woo!

You get the biggest room in the house.

CARINA: When we were in the ambulance my I my feeling is like, told myself that we going home.

We going home.

It didn't sink in until we arrived.

And we saw these people this is happening.

This is really happening.

And as we go up the, the ramp, they, they, the paramedic taking Kelly to the ramp all the way to her room and the- her face made me like, feel like, oh my god, this is a dream come true for for Kelly and dream come true for the family.

And you know how she feels.

It's like ten, ten times more.

I feel the how happy I was I can see a lot of people all over the house like silver ramp.

just going to go up there The ramp I see right now It's just like a bridge of heaven.

I'm still crying I'm so like, wow, this is real.

I was so shocked.

I was not expecting this much.

It's like we ask for a cookie.

And they gave us a whole ten jars of cookies.

Is this our house?

like that.

And we're so happy they made things possible.

Without the help, you guys, especially Family to the Rescue, community, and them together.

and prayers.

I think that's the best answer that all of this and now is going to be like a family.

Before it was not a family.

JOEL: We're not gonna forget this group until CARINA: For the rest of our life The Rescuing Families there that, they gave us hope.

And we know that they not helping only us.

They helping a lot of people.

And it's kind of inspiring also to to like I want to join them.

I want to help others too.

I want to give back to the community because we know how it feels to be the, the one who need it.

And we just want to give back.