Lucy Ali’s home improvement dreams were to expand her tiny one-bedroom home so that both of her growing boys could have their own rooms. After hard work and struggle, Lucy got a home improvement loan that she thought would make her dreams come true. What it became was a living nightmare.

A contractor took her $72,000, ripped off the roof off the South Ozone Park home, and started work. Then, he fled with the money, leaving the home uninhabitable—exposed to the ravages of weather, rodents, and insects. For two years, the Alis were literally homeless homeowners, living on caring family members' couches, moving from hotel to hotel, and even staying at a homeless shelter. All the while, they continued paying the mortgage on a home they couldn’t live in.

Desperate, Lucy and her attorneys from a St. John’s University legal aid project reached out to ABC TV's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The show contacted Alure, and everything changed forever.

There wasn’t a question about whether Alure would take on the challenge of a 5 day makeover. Sal Ferro, Alure’s President, said, "The biggest outrage for me is that someone in my business took advantage of this hard-working family, stole their money, and left them homeless. When Extreme Makeover asked us to step in and undo the damage this contractor did, we threw ourselves into the job, body and soul."

Alure’s team worked non-stop for 5 days, pulling all-nighters, revising plans when unexpected structural problems in the home were discovered, and working with the area’s best suppliers and national manufacturers to install top products, including Quantum windows, UltraShield siding, and the revolutionary Owens Corning Basement Finishing System.

Everyone at Alure, whether working at the Ali job site or in our showrooms keeping all our other jobs on schedule, was part of our successful "Alure Extreme Team." Sal Ferro (President), Carl Hyman (Chairman), and Bob Hyman (Vice President) led the team effort. Doug Cornwell oversaw all the Team Leaders and the entire production. The Alure Extreme Team Leaders were:

In addition, the following Alure managers kept our operations running normally during the Extreme Makeover experience:

Bob Amundsen (Production)
Ron Benkin (Showroom)
Lisa DiFilippi (Administration)

Our manufacturing and production partners played a huge role in the Ali Family Extreme Makeover. Alure thanks the following companies for their extraordinary dedication to this project: