Excited family awaits home

Members of the Cirillo family of Thomas Township are experiencing an "extreme makeover," Saginaw-style.

Mick H. Dycewicz, owner of Wallace King Construction in Freeland, has donated a corner lot on Wild Pine Drive off Hospital Road in Saginaw Township and is building the family a handicap-accessible house there. Craig J. Schneider, 45, computer aided drafting director with TSSF Architects of Saginaw designed the house for their needs.

Crews have poured the foundation and are framing walls this week. Dycewicz said he hopes to get the family into the new house by Christmas.

For years, siblings Nissa R. Cirillo, 27, and Mike C. Cirillo, 23, have struggled to move their wheelchairs around the family's ranch-style house. They've left gouges along the narrow hallway leading to their bedrooms.

Both have Friedreich's ataxia, a rare neurological disorder that affects their speech, balance and coordination. Doctors diagnosed Nissa Cirillo at 9, when she could no longer walk; Mike Cirillo also started using a wheelchair at 9.

Parents Jodie J., 50, and Paul D. Cirillo, 53, moved out of their bedroom and into the family room to give their children more space, but the challenges grew as they reached adulthood.

Getting into the bathroom is the biggest problem. The tub and toilet are too low for easy transfers from their chairs, and the narrow room barely accommodates them.

"Nissa just got an electric-powered standing wheelchair like Mike's, and she is so excited about it. But she can't get in or out of the bathroom without pinching her hands," Jodie Cirillo said.

In July, she called on her builder friend Dycewicz for help with the house.

"He said, 'You need to move, and I'm going to give you a lot and build a house.' It's been an adventure since then."

Dycewicz said he's owned the lot for a few years but never had a project for it. His wife, Dorris, went to school with Jodie Cirillo, and he saw the family needed help.

"I just felt like being Santa Claus," he said. "They were all amazed, even my wife.

"I've never built this kind of house before, but I've done a lot of research. I'd like to do more projects like this. There is a need out there for people with disabilities and seniors."

The siblings secured a mortgage out of their Supplemental Security Income to pay for construction, but they will pay only about a third of the value of the completed house, Dycewicz said. Donations and deals from several contractors and suppliers are bringing down the price.

"It is unbelievable," Jodie Cirillo said. "Every day, we just stare at those plans. We are so excited."

The new house will have living space for the parents in the basement level and bedrooms, bathrooms and open living area for the siblings upstairs on the main floor, Schneider said.

The family will continue living together, as the siblings need help with daily chores. There also is a room in the house for guests or a future caregiver.

Nissa Cirillo takes marketing and design classes at Delta College. That's where she met Schneider, who worked on an accessible housing project and even sent a video about the family to ABC television's "Extreme Makeover Home Edition."

Marketing students at Delta had a benefit in March to help pay for bathroom renovations in the Cirillos' current house. About $2,000 of the money raised helped pay for permits on the new house, Jodie Cirillo said.

"We're doing our own local version of 'Extreme Makeover'," Schneider said. "They'll each have their own accessible bathroom and roll-in closet. The floor plan upstairs is open, with no hallways."

A covered porch in the back will give wheelchair access to the outside through two French doors. Schneider will help pick out special fixtures, including roll-in showers, grab bars and lowered cabinets.

"Their mom wants them to be able to look outside, but the windows in their house are too high. We designed the doors so they can see out from their bedrooms."

Jill Armentrout is a health writer and Neighbors coordinator at The Saginaw News. You may reach her at 776-9681.