Pensacola family digging out from medical bills gets $45,000 home makeover

Pensacola's Waylon Tyree is a full-of-life 5-year-old who loves green beans, the color blue and anything with Spiderman printed on it. He shoots up from the carpet to make a beeline for his beloved Hot Wheels track and enthusiastically shouts out "Sunny!" in response to his mom Miriah's cue when singing the weather song.

What one would never know about Waylon is his long history with surgeries, sickness and more sit-downs with his pediatrician than his mother would like to admit.

When Pensacola siding company Aegis Exteriors learned of the family's time in hospital rooms and the more than $500,000 stacked up in medical fees, they decided to find a way to use their company to give back.

The project they personalized for the Tyree family came to an estimated $45,000 in materials and labor that they gifted to help them create their dream home.

"It was such a burden taken off our shoulders," Miriah said.

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Waylon's rocky beginning

Waylon was born premature with a twin, Jackson, who died only a week after birth. The day Jackson died was the first day Waylon was stable enough to be held by his mom and dad, Matthew, when his frail little body weighed not much more than a pineapple.

Two congenital heart defects scarred his organs and an opening gaped between his aorta and pulmonary artery, leading him to undergo surgery at only six months old.

Waylon spent 75 days in the NICU, a place Miriah hopes no other parent will ever have to experience. When she and her husband were not at the hospital, they were chained to their cellphones in fear of getting the dreaded call that Waylon would not have much time left to live, which is exactly what happened to them with Jackson.

Though Waylon continued to fight through the NICU, there were several times he lost signs of life and coded, once while in Miriah's arms, she recalled. She remembers the nurse's voice pleading to get help, as Miriah tried not to show panic and alarm the other perpetually fearful NICU parents.

Matthew repeatedly assured Miriah "it will be OK" when he knew full-well he did not have that assurance.

"It was the most trying time of our lives," Miriah said. "It was very, very overwhelming."

Once Waylon was cleared to head home, life for the Tyree's was from easy.

In between hospital visits and paying off medical bills, Matt and Miriah continued to work on an old, fixer-upper home purchased while they were staying with Miriah's parents.  As they worked on their home, the three of them had one bedroom to themselves and shared a queen-sized bed.

"Everything is paycheck to paycheck," Miriah said. "We've been working on this house for five years. We weren't in any hurry because we knew we couldn't afford it."

Matthew recalled how their focus was not on making the house look pretty, but making it livable, so they could just have a place of their own.

Home makeover: Pensacola edition

After a week's worth of bringing down old wood and installing a modern board and batten siding, Aegis Exteriors hosted a "home reveal" Wednesday for everyone who participated in the project. They also had the opportunity to meet Waylon, who was delighted to see the dark blue siding.

Aegis Exteriors Project Manager Chris Hogrebe said when the team heard about the project, everyone on the staff was immediately all-hands on deck.

"It's a really close-knit group of guys," Hogrebe said of his team. "We wanted to be able to help with the same skills that made us successful."

Over the course of the week, the team conducted a demo on portions of the home with old siding, and replaced it with brand new paneling, shutters and a $10,000 porch ceiling. With the company's labor-dollar amount combined with the material-dollar amount, the project came to an estimated $45,000, Hogrebe said.

Hogrebe also recruited the help of the company's partners to donate their time and resources, like James Hardie, ABC Supply Co. Inc. and Westlake Royal Building Products.

Now that the hard work is finished, the outside of the home is well-secured to keep moisture out of the inside. The materials will prevent any flexing or expanding of the home, and the exterior should also need very little maintenance in the years to come,  Hogrebe said.

The Pensacola project brought the Aegis staff closer together and inspired the company to develop more projects for their other locations across the region.

"We were able to get the materials we needed from our local suppliers, and we were able to complete the work to help the Tyree family get their life back," he said.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Pensacola family gifted $45,000 home makeover from Aegis Exteriors