In The Mood For A Makeover?

In August 2009, a Hyattsville landscaping company completed what’s normally a three-week project in one night on ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

All materials and manpower for the house were donated.

Kurt Denchfield and his wife Heather, who own and manage ave also completed charity projects at local schools in addition to their work throughout the entire Washington, D.C. area.

“It’s about giving back to the people who have made our business what it is and giving back to our communities where we’ve grown up,” said Heather Denchfield.

In 2008, the company installed a “w” shaped pathway for an athletic field at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, where Kurt and Heather met. The company also installed about 18 trees to buffer Thomas W. Pyle Middle School in Bethesda from Wilson Lane, which has grown increasingly busy over the years.

“If the schools have really nice looking grounds, I think it makes everybody feel better about their school, and it just enhances the whole community,” said Kurt Denchfield, who started the business at 16 when he was first able to drive. Getting his license allowed him to mow lawns after school.

“For me, it’s my way of trying to give back to all those educators who had to put up with me,” he said.

“Extreme Makeover” approached Denchfield just three weeks before the project. The landscapers designed all the landscape and installed sod, a retaining wall and outdoor lighting. The crew worked from 8 p.m. on a Friday night until 5 a.m. that Saturday to complete the project. Saturday afternoon, a second Denchfield crew drove to The Fishing School in D.C. and worked about 18 hours to complete another project for the show.

The couple’s oldest son Taylor, 18, an employee at Denchfield who volunteered to help at the house, described working through the night as “exhausting but rewarding.” His cousin Paul Denchfield, who manages the Denchfield nursery, worked a full day before committing himself at night.

“It was a lot of fun for the guys who were involved because you had to beat the clock,” said Chris McCulloug, a childhood friend of Denchfield’s who began working for the company in 2004. 

The business was originally located in Rockville, but in 2005, a property in Hyattsville offered 10 times more space and a plant nursery, and Denchfield made the move.

The Denchfields have six children, all of whom they hope will eventually work for the business in some capacity.