It’s 6 p.m. on a Sunday and David Wallace is finishing dinner with his family. On the local news he learns that the hit ABC show Extreme Makeover — Home Edition has taken its road show to Kirkland and the massive project is in need of framers and siders.

Dessert or selflessness? Therein lied the question.

“Go do it,” urged Wallace’s wife, Nadine.

The Admirals Cove resident and part of owner of Coupeville’s Clifton View Homes did not overanalyze the decision. Curiosity and altruism beat out a desire to spend a quiet evening at home.

“I looked online and called the number it gave. The woman said to come down to Totem Lake Mall,” Wallace said. He heard about the project at 6 p.m. and was on the road by 7 p.m.

But the skilled contractor wasn’t the only impetuous soul on the block. Coercing his buddy and coworker, Mike Canfield, to accompany him did not exactly require water torture.

“I said, ‘Hey, let’s go do this.’ He asked me when. I told him now and said, ‘Okay’,” Wallace remembered.

The duo hightailed it to Totem Lake Mall on Sept 30, parked the vehicle and were whisked away by a shuttle to a construction site the likes of which neither man had every experienced. As the unexpected whirlwind night continued, Wallace and Canfield reached the mall at 9 p.m. and were working in Kirkland by 9:30 p.m.

“When we got there, they just said, ‘Jump in’,” Wallace said.

With generators the size of mini-vans humming in neighbors’ driveways and tool trailers lining the streets, throngs of professionals checked their egos at the door and worked cohesively, each man and woman thinking only of Connie Chapin and her four children, the future recipients of the house.

“Everybody knows it’s for a good cause,” Wallace said. “It was fun. There was so much energy.”

A new backyard swimming pool will allow Chapin to continue her home-based business: teaching swimming to children with disabilities.

An estimated 150 people were working when the Coupeville contractors arrived. By 3:30 a.m. when they left, there were still 30 or 40 individuals slaving away.

“According to the driver, it averaged between 400 and 500 people a day,” said Wallace, who coincidentally met two construction workers from Oak Harbor on the shuttle.

The massive project, perhaps the greenest home ever built during the show’s run, was led by Doyle Custom Homes and the Building Industry Association of Washington. Daimon Doyle, BIAW president, called the shots.

“If they had a problem, they asked him and he delegated,” Wallace said. “He was very appreciative of the help people were doing.”

Torrential downpours and ankle-deep mud on the construction site did not dampen spirits, but it, along with asbestos abatement and lead paint removal, tacked on an extra day.

“The building itself took just over five days,” said Erin Shannon, BIAW public relations director.

Enough food to feed the 5,000 kept the workers fueled. Wallace was in awe of the victual spread.

“Dick’s had 200 burgers there at 2 in the morning,” he said. “And there were no less than 30 pizzas on a table. A woman was giving massages. Just the immensity was amazing. It was nuts.”

By the project’s completion, the 100-year-old, approximately 900-square-foot Chapin home was converted into a stunning 4,000-square-foot domicile, although Wallace and his fellow workers are sworn to secrecy when it comes to revealing more details about the home.

“It was really neat to have helped them,” Wallace said. “They needed it. I’m anxious to see what it looks like.”

The home was turned over to the Chapins on Oct. 4.