Between 20, Colonie police filed four incident reports at the house for complaints of vandalism a dispute between the divorced couple after Gaitan came to pick up their son a disturbance involving her oldest adopted son and harassment of Oatman. The turbulence apparently did not cease after she divorced Joe Gaitan several years ago.
TEKKEN 4 KUMA TV
She added that the TV show's producers conducted a thorough background check on her and that she has no convictions on her record. "I don't have to defend myself to anyone and I'm not trying to vindicate myself because I haven't done anything wrong," Oatman told the Times Union in 2007. Officers filed 18 incident reports between 19 ranging from marijuana possession to domestic disputes, but she was never convicted. The tension was further roiled by his mother's mood swings and things the boys did, such as not picking up dirty clothes or leaving food wrappers around, that earned his mother's "death look" and a flaring of her temper.Ĭolonie police are familiar with 23 Fairway Lane. Kevin Oatman described a volatile household in which physical scuffles and verbal abuse from his mother was not uncommon, he said. She continued to lobby until the producers contacted her a few months before the construction began and set in motion the family's extreme reversal of fortunes.īut some things apparently didn't change in the new home. As early as 2004, she began pursuing the show's producers by sending in a home video that begged them to pick her family because of her sons' special needs and their house had drainage problems and had developed mold. Oatman told Stopera that she rued the day that the show had made her "a local celebrity" and everything her family did thereafter "was looked at under a microscope."Īlthough she painted herself as something of a victim, the whole thing was of Oatman's making. The house construction and the show became one of the biggest entertainment events of the Capital Region in 2007.
Oatman lamented that the privacy she had maintained for her sons was shattered by the TV show's notoriety and they were picked on at school and faced other social challenges as a result. Oatman was "crying hysterically" as she recounted what happened after TV's bright lights went dark, the cameras were packed up and the work crews went home. "Debbie is not ungrateful and she's appreciative of everyone's help, but this has caused her family so much heartache," Stopera said. The "Extreme Makeover" home featured high-end amenities such as an ornate grand staircase, a large custom kitchen with granite countertops, top-of-the-line appliances, designer furnishings, large-screen plasma TVs, a deluxe audio-video system, an in-ground pool and extensive landscaping. The school and property taxes tripled, to about $10,500 in 2009, on the Extreme Makeover house, which had a market value of $433,000 in 2009, compared to the $136,000 bungalow they tore down for the show. Stopera is a trustee of a fund into which donors large and small pumped enough cash to allow Oatman to pay off a $104,000 mortgage left on the property and to cover the higher annual tax burden. Oatman declined to be interviewed for this story, but offered her perspective through Stopera. "Debbie said had she ever known what it would be like, she'd give that house back in a minute," said Paula Stopera, president and CEO of Capital Communications Federal Credit Union.
"She was happy and excited for maybe the first week, and then it was back to the same old garbage." "I honestly thought things would change after we moved into the house and it would make everything better," said Oatman's estranged son, Kevin, 20. Oatman hit the lottery with the house, but it did not solve underlying problems and carried unanticipated consequences. The bus inched forward for the big "reveal," and tears flowed freely for Oatman and a platoon of workers who toiled tirelessly to provide a dream come true for the single parent of four boys, three of whom are adopted - including two diagnosed with HIV and who also have special needs.īut the actual outcome, as often happens, diverged from the neat and tidy version presented on reality TV.Īnecdotes of a woman with a volatile temper prone to emotional outbursts did not fade away in the luxurious home. The cameras rolled to help star Ty Pennington shout the show's trademark phrase: "Move that bus!" But behind the scenes of the happily-ever-after story line of the reality TV show, Oatman's mercurial temperament and past problems soon resurfaced.įour years ago this month, hundreds of local volunteers labored continuously for four days to build the dream house crowded into a cul-de-sac on Fairway Lane.
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