By JOE CHAPMAN
joe.chapman@amarillo.com
Publication Date: 12/07/04

In 24 years as an Amarillo firefighter, Brad Propst has seen the best and worst that can happen in life.

But what he's seen in recent weeks since his wife was diagnosed with cancer has shown him just how deep goodwill can run.

Like something from a scripted reality show, at least 80 members of Amarillo Fire Department have taken it upon themselves to give Brad's wife, Diane Propst, the house makeover of her dreams.

In just one week, they've lifted the sunken living room floor back to ground level, laid sheetrock, added windows and a patio deck, and relocated the entrance to the kitchen.

They hope to have every last bit of the house in place by Christmas.

"I tell you what, it's hard to believe how much they've done in a week," Diane Propst said Monday as she surveyed the progress.

"It's kind of strange walking in where there used to be a wall," she said.

In the 12 years the Propsts have lived at the house in the 6500 block of Garwood Road, they let their five teenagers treat the house more like a baseball mitt than a sanctuary. It was the neighborhood hangout for their friends, and it was even turned into a makeshift hockey arena a time or two.

"We absolutely enjoyed our house immensely," Brad Propst said. "I always told her, when we get the kids raised ... then you can have all the pretties and all that stuff."

But when his wife was diagnosed in August with an advanced stage of cancer in her lungs, bones and adrenal gland, the "rest of their life" was suddenly thrust to the present.

"She will be an extremely, extremely lucky person to be alive in two years," Brad Propst said.

Seeking to keep his promise to her, he asked two firefighter friends - drivers Chad Higgins and Frank Wray - who did contract work on the side to give them an estimate on remodeling the kitchen. During the next week, while the Propsts waited for the estimate, the firefighters schemed a mission of near-miraculous proportions.

"I was looking at their circumstances, and the only way I saw to get it done in that time frame was to do it like we're doing now," Higgins said.

Pitching the mission in the spirit of the movie "Pay It Forward," District Chief Mike Campbell, a longtime friend of the Propsts, spread the word throughout the fire department.

The first day they began moving the house's contents into storage, there wasn't a place to park up and down the block for all the firefighters' pickups and vehicles on the side of the street. From the newest rookies to retired firefighters and the chief himself, the firefighters have worked to remodel the house according to Diane's dreams.

"Except for the reason we're doing it, it would be one of the most enjoyable projects I've ever worked on in my life," said Campbell.

The firefighters are matching the house's interior walls to the colors in a plate Diane bought a couple of Christmases ago. And now the kitchen will be big enough for all their children, their children's spouses and their children's children to gather around the dining table, she said.

Her husband has funded most of the materials costs, although many businesses, upon hearing of the cause, either donated or discounted the products.