News 12 at 6, June 9, 2008

MARTINEZ--A Martinez house once filled with tons of bees is now just filled with a family and that includes dad who was away in Iraq during all the excitement. Now, the house is fixed and the family whole.

It's the story of a home that became a hive only to return to a home again.

Jack Manning missed all of the festivities when several million bees were removed from his house.

It's excusable; he was serving his country overseas. Now he's coming home. He thought he was coming back to a huge mess. News 12 and his family fooled him.

Some paint here, a little elbow grease there. It's all in the name of saying thanks to a family that's given a lot. Let's go back in time a little to explain.

Just a few weeks ago, the Manning family's basement looked like a complete disaster. There were holes in the wall, honey-soaked carpet and honeycomb spread all over the place. The culprits were more bees than you can imagine.

Loads of bees took up residence in the Manning's ceiling, a sight that even surprised Big Bear Trapping Service's Jason Rehr.

"This is the mamma-jamma here. The biggest one I've ever seen." Jason said.

"The bees were coming from here." homeowner Teresa Manning said while pointing to a ceiling fan.

The unwanted house guests made life very tough for Teresa and her family.

Teresa was essentially a single mother of 3 during all of this. Her husband, Jack, was thousands of miles away in Iraq serving his country leaving Teresa to deal discovering the problem all on her own. Insurance wouldn't help out, so 12 On Your Side decided to step in and help out this military family. But here's the catch, we're not telling Jack. He still thinks he's got to come home from overseas to a ton of work.

The goal is to fix the ceiling, paint and patch the walls and put in new carpet before Jack gets home. For free.

First step is prepping the room. 4 Leaf Residential Services came in to get everything ready.

And then Big Bear Trapping Service came back out to help out.

They sprayed and scraped the ceiling. It's off with the old popcorn finish and on with a smooth one.

Now back in with 4 Leaf Residential Service. The guys came in to not only paint the ceiling and the walls, but also to erase the memories of bees gone by(e).

Within just a few days, the room will look, well unbee-lieveable, to Jack.

Now it's the moment of truth. After months away from home, Jack is coming home to Teresa and the kids.

"Daddy!!!!" one of the kids yelled as Jack came in view.

"Hey baby! I missed you." squeaked out as Teresa embraced her husband for the first time in a long time.

And just like that the clamps of loneliness from a long tour overseas are released in a flood of emotion.

Dad's home.

And after a quick grab of the bags, they're off to the house and the big surprise.

Wow! Awesome!!!" Jack said.

Needless to say he was surprised. Here's why. With a ton of help, we turned the Manning's basement from a mess to a success. The ceiling is fixed, the walls repaired and repainted and brand new carpet from hardwood floors and more. That's not all, the front yard got spruced up a bunch thanks to the Evans Home Depot and Big Bear Trapping Service.

All work 12 On Your Side got done for Jack and the Mannings.

"I figured it'd be a month or two before I could relax." Jack said with a look of relief on his face.

"Do you like it?" Teresa asked. "Yeah!!" Jack said back.

Most importantly, the bees and any remnants of them are gone. And after keeping a big secret for weeks, everyone can relax now.

"My kids were gonna spill the beans. I kept saying no, don't spill the beans." Teresa said.

"You don't know how awesome this is." said Jack.

"Thank you 12 On Your Side. I love you all." Teresa said with the biggest smile she might have ever produced.

There are a lot folks to say thank you to for all of this.

Hardy Plumbing fixed the leaks so the project could get started.

Home Depot in Evans for donating the wonderful plants.

Hardwood Floors and more graciously donating a bunch of flooring and the labor to replace all the honey-soaked carpet.

Big Bear Trapping Service and Jason Rehr for getting the bees out, helping with the ceiling and sprucing up that front yard.

4 Leaf Residential Service and Sean Gavin for taking care of the rest of the ceiling, painting, fixing the bathroom up and repairing those walls.

It was a lot of work, but the family couldn't say thanks enough.