The team that helped bring Trevor Hausmann home includes (back row from left) Teresa Duerst of Tri-North Builders Inc., Gerise LaSpisa of Variety-The Children’s Charity of Wisconsin Inc., and Tom Thayer and Gary Berkley of Tri-North. In the foreground, Jen and Mark Wood pose behind their son, Trevor, daughter, Hannah, and friend Isabella LaSpisa. Photos by Dustin Safranek

The improved exterior of the family’s house in West Allis includes a wider front door, taller front porch railings and new steps.

Choosing to help the Wood family was easy for Tom Thayer. Helping the Woods was difficult.

“It turned out to be a lot more work than anticipated,” said Thayer, president and CEO of Tri-North Builders Inc., Fitchburg. “But once we were going, we had to finish it. And we wanted to do it right.”

Jen and Mark Wood’s son, Trevor Hausmann, 17, suffered a traumatic brain injury last spring when he was playing on a banister at school and fell 25 feet to a concrete floor. Though Trevor’s family was told on three occasions he would not survive, he pulled through and, by the end of August, hospital staff members began talking about moving him home.

But the design of his family’s 1920s bungalow in West Allis made it impossible for Trevor to live at home.

Realizing significant work was needed to make their house handicap-accessible, Jen and Mark Wood began calling contractors for estimates, which ranged from $30,000 to more than $50,000. That was beyond the family’s budget given Trevor’s medical bills, Jen Wood said.

“I had contractors ask me if we’d thought about just buying a new house,” she said.

But the state of the housing market and the family’s love of the bungalow, Jen Wood said, left renovation as the best option.

“We were getting so discouraged,” she said. “The thought of trying to sell the house and move was so stressful.”

But one of the hospital’s social workers called Variety-The Children’s Charity of Wisconsin Inc., Milwaukee, to see if the organization could help.

“When I spoke with Jen Wood,” said Gerise LaSpisa, Variety’s executive director, “I could tell she was very overwhelmed. She was pretty emotional about it.”

LaSpisa reached out to one of the organization’s supporters in the construction industry, Gary Berkley, senior project manager at Tri-North’s Waukesha office, for advice. To her surprise, Tri-North committed to the project within a couple of hours of the call.

Trevor’s expanded lower-level accommodations include a handicap-accessible bathroom. Tri-North Builders gutted about half of the West Allis home’s lower level to provide living space better suited to Trevor’s needs.

“I was absolutely floored,” LaSpisa said. “That was not what I expected at all.”

The decision was easy, Thayer said.

“The whole story really tugged at our heartstrings,” he said.

When LaSpisa called Jen Wood back to tell her the good news, both women wound up crying with joy, LaSpisa said.

Within days, Tri-North Project Manager Teresa Duerst was at the house drawing up plans. The good feelings of taking on the project soon gave way to the daunting reality of the many changes needed to make the house handicap-accessible.

“We thought we could widen a few doors,” Duerst said. “But once you start thinking about all the little things, it adds up to a lot of work.”

The home’s new wheelchair ramp is bordered by a wood railing. Because of a lack of space in front of the house, the ramp had to be built so that it winds around the house from the rear.

The first-floor bathroom could not be expanded, so the construction team had to convert a downstairs bedroom into a bathroom, she said.

To accommodate the changes, Tri-North gutted half of the first floor, converting two small bedrooms and a bathroom to one large bedroom with a handicap-accessible bathroom, Duerst said. The builder also widened doorways to accommodate Trevor’s wheelchair, put in a new front door, expanded the foyer and added a ramp outside the house.

The construction process was worrisome at times, Jen Wood said, as it became clear more work than anticipated was going to be needed.

“Part of it is pride. You just start to feel bad,” she said. “I was worried they weren’t going to be able to do everything they said they would.”

Initial estimates of $50,000 were not far off. Contributing companies spent $55,000 remodeling the house, Thayer said. Of that, Tri-North spent $13,000 out of pocket, he said.

“We called in a lot of favors,” Duerst said. “We got a lot of suppliers and vendors to donate things, and employees volunteered labor.”

LaSpisa also called on friends to help, organizing a meeting with the West Allis development department and the mayor. She knew the officials through her former role as president of the West Allis-West Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce.

“I wanted to ensure that bureaucracy didn’t get in the way of this boy coming home,” she said.

All permits were fast-tracked to get construction done as soon as possible, LaSpisa said.

“It was very comforting that everyone got behind the effort,” she said.

Aiding the Wood family is Variety’s largest project to date, LaSpisa said. And though Tri-North is involved in various charitable organizations, Thayer said, this was its largest effort by far.

“It’s not something we would do every day,” LaSpisa said. “Everybody has a story, so we have to be very careful.”

Everyone’s hard work paid off, Jen Wood said, and even aided in Trevor’s recovery.

He returned home just before Thanksgiving and, shortly thereafter, he began talking and moving his arms and legs, she said. He can now laugh, smile and say simple phrases such as “yes,” “no” and “I love you.”

“I really think him being home had a lot to do with it,” Jen Wood said. “Before, he maybe had the ability, but he didn’t have the desire. Once we were able to bring him home, he just bloomed.”

The family always will be grateful, she said, to the builders, suppliers and volunteers who donated so much of their time, money and effort.

“‘Thank you,’” she said, “is not even sufficient for the gratitude we feel.”

Want to keep up with Trevor’s progress?

Visit www.caringbridge.org/visit/trevorchronicles for the latest news and photos

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