Holmes in New Orleans

Video: Watch Leslie Roberts’ full interview with Mike Holmes.

There was nothing easy about the Big Easy when hero contractor Mike Holmes and his dedicated crew spent three months in intense rainstorms and sweltering heat, rebuilding a home for a deserving New Orleans family who lost their house to Hurricane Katrina three years ago. Airing as a two-part Global Television special on Tuesday, April 7 and Wednesday April 8 at 9pm ET/PT, and a six-part HGTV series beginning Thursday, April 9 at 8pm ET/PT, Holmes in New Orleans follows Holmes as he takes on the biggest challenge of his career.

When Holmes heard that actor Brad Pitt had founded Make It Right New Orleans, he offered his expertise – and his crew – to build one of the first prototype homes for the Lower 9th Ward, the area worst hit by Hurricane Katrina. Holmes also acted as a consultant on several other builds in the neighbourhood.

The two-hour, two-night Holmes in New Orleans special for Global Television is a complete documentation of Holmes’ Make It Right Foundation build. Audiences are introduced to 68-year-old Gloria Guy, whose house Mike is re-building, and are told her amazing story of survival: being trapped by the flood, using a hatchet to free herself from the attic and then climbing onto the roof only to wait ten hours to be rescued. The special features footage of the build from beginning to end, interviews with the crew and locals, as well as a guest appearance by Brad Pitt, who tours the finished home with Mike and explains his passionate commitment to rebuild the Lower 9th Ward.

HGTV’s six-hour, six-week Holmes in New Orleans series offers additional interviews, added footage and a more in-depth look at the build and its dramatic challenges – focusing on the structural elements that make the house impermeable to the elements, as well as the materials used that adhere to the strict LEEDâ„¢-platinum certification. Committed to hand over the keys to Gloria by August 29, 2008 , exactly three years after Katrina struck, Mike and his crew have just 10 weeks to build the home from the foundation up. Each of the six hour-long episodes follows the crew as they struggle to overcome personal challenges, conflicts between the trades people, staff turnover, as well as the stifling heat and blinding rainstorms of a Louisianan summer. Yet with the help of the community, and their unwavering dedication to re-build the Lower 9th Ward, Mike and his crew persevere in their unshaken commitment to Make It Right.