By B.C. MANION, The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - She’s standing near the spot where she stood June 12, when she watched in horror through her living room window as a small airplane headed straight for her.

The room is a dining room now. It has a custom-built wooden table, hardwood floor and new, super-long couch. But Cynthia Tate still clearly sees the past.

It was raining hard and she was watching Doppler radar on TV when she heard a strange sound.

“It sounded like a missile. It was gone for a split second and then it was twice as loud.

“All of a sudden, in my window, in my view, was the airplane. It was coming right at me.”

The plane, which had been trying to land at nearby Peter O. Knight Airport, clipped a tree and veered.. It crashed into the yellow wood-frame house, between the sunroom and a bedroom.

It exploded in a blast of fire.

“You could smell and taste the fuel,” Cynthia remembers. “It was really hot. I felt like the air was on fire.”

She was home alone that day. Her husband, Tom, was working at Tate Brothers Pizza, a family business owned by his father and managed by Tom and his brother David.

The kids were gone, too. Ryan, 21, was at the Marines’ Camp Lejeune, having returned from military service in Iraq. Fifteen-year-old Tommy was at lacrosse camp at Johns Hopkins University. And Loren, 11, was down the street at a friend’s house.

Cynthia’s first thought was for whoever was in that plane.

“I thought, ‘I’ve got to show them how to get out of my house,’ but nobody was coming,” she says. As the heat grew more intense, she realized she had to save herself. “I started yelling, ‘I can’t help you. I can’t help you.’

“That’s when an angel came into the room and said, ‘Time to go.’”

When she emerged outside, she realized she’d left behind Vinny, Jack, Klia and Onyx, the family’s two dogs and two cats. It was too hot to go back for them.

A House Destroyed

A couple of days passed before the plane wreckage was removed and the family allowed to look inside.

Mold was already creeping up the walls and along the furniture. Every room had a burned-out ceiling and a hole in the roof above. Most of the family’s belongings were either ash, melted or soaked in jet fuel or water.

Cynthia’s cell phone, keys and driver’s license had melted onto the kitchen’s Corian countertop.

Tommy’s TV set had survived - but was stolen. So was the steering wheel from the family’s burned-out van. The Tates caught someone trying to take aluminum from the window frames.

Family photos, little gifts the children had made when they were younger, and the Legos and Beanie Babies that Cynthia and Tom were saving for future grandchildren - all destroyed.

The animals had all perished.

As overwhelming as their losses seemed, the Tates faced yet another. Their home was not insured. They might never have the money to rebuild in Davis Islands, the community where they’d lived and worked for 14 years. A community they love.

“Our coverage was lapsed,” Tom Tate says. “There are some questions as to why.”

It happened after the mortgage was refinanced.

Things began to take a turn for the better when a family friend nominated the Tates for ABC’s “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.”

On the morning of Jan. 7, a film crew rolled up to the house in Ballast Point where the Tates were staying with friends.

“Good morning, Tate family,” celebrity designer Ty Pennington called through a megaphone.

The family knew what the show’s signature line meant: They were going on vacation, and when they returned a week later, they’d have a new house.

While the Tates zip-lined over the rain forest of Costa Rica, painted gourds with tribespeople and visited a pineapple plantation, WCI Communities Inc. and an army of subcontractors went to work.

And the cameras rolled.

By Jan. 14, a 3,400-square-foot home filled with furniture and accessories sat at 629 E. Davis Blvd. The “Extreme Makeover” episode detailing the project aired Sunday night.

Designers Thought Of Everything

Some of the most special things in the house are not new.

Two chairs in the great room were rebuilt from four damaged in the fire. The original set of six once belonged to Tom’s parents.

A brass chest in the front room was cleaned and repaired, though it still bears reminders of the past. Open its drawers and the scent of smoke escapes.

Upstairs, in the couple’s bedroom, there’s a new copy of Cynthia’s 1979 Charlotte High School yearbook. There are restored wedding photos and a portrait of Ryan in his dress uniform.

There’s also an album of photographs taken of the Tates through the years. The “Extreme Makeover” folks collected them during a pizza party at the family shop: Bring a picture, get pizza.

And there’s an album of some of the family’s new memories, a collection of photos from their Costa Rica vacation.

In front of the house, a stone memorializes pilot Steve Huisman, who died in the crash, and co-pilot Sean Launder, who was burned but survived.

Those weren’t the only extreme details. The kitchen cupboards were stocked with pots and pans, Fiesta Ware, glasses, silverware. The pantry, refrigerator and freezer were loaded with food.

“They did basic things. Pasta. Butter. Lots of bread. Peanut butter and jelly. Yogurt.,” Cynthia says.

“The funniest thing was the frozen pizzas. That cracked us up.”

And, Of Course, The Big Stuff

The house itself is a marvel as well in its attention to detail.

Faux cypress beams grace the ceilings in the dining room, kitchen and great room.

Archways lead to the kitchen, which has black granite countertops, a bricked arch over the stove and an island where people can draw up a stool for a quick bite. One of Cynthia’s favorite features is the kitchen drawers. They don’t slam; they glide.

The great room is set up to host a crowd for movie- or game-watching on the big-screen, high-definition TV. A laundry room sports luxurious granite countertops, and the downstairs half-bath has sparkling blue glass mosaic tiles.

Tommy’s room, also downstairs, offers a cool hangout. Fourteen skateboards deck the walls, and a drum set invites visitors to try their hand.

In Loren’s room, she’s a star. Large black-and-white photographs of her decorate one wall. There’s a large, lighted makeup mirror, a stage with a microphone and a drop-down projector, too.

And both kids get their own bathrooms.

A wooden staircase with distinctive imported tile risers leads to the second floor and Tom and Cynthia’s bedroom. Cynthia loves the second-story balcony overlooking the home’s courtyard and offering a glimpse of cruise ships passing by.

A king-sized bed with an upholstered headboard, elegant side lights and massive bathroom with a sunken tub and walk-in shower are other highlights of the master bed and bath.

Outside, Tom likes the porch that wraps the house from front to back. An outdoor fireplace and small courtyard pool - good either for a dip or a fountain feature - are other surprises.

Across the courtyard from the house is the pool house, where Ryan lives when he’s home from school at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville. Honorably discharged from the Marines, he hopes to enter the University of Florida in the fall.

He has a kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Designed by Pennington, the bedroom salutes Ryan’s stint in Iraq and plays on his passion for the Gators.

There are gators painted in camouflage colors, orange dressers and a framed Gator jersey signed by Coach Urban Meyer.

A New Beginning

Despite everything that’s happened, Cynthia says she often thinks of the events of June 12.

“I have to remember that. It just shows me how blessed I am - not because of all this [but because] I’m here. I could have lost my life that day.

“You don’t realize how blessed you are, until something like this has happened,” she says. “You look at the people who care about you and you know it’s all going to be OK.”

She’s still getting used to the fact that she has a new home and that she can put things away in their permanent places.

Tom remembers the feeling he got when he first walked through the new front door. He was struck by its heft and strength.

“You don’t think about a front door, but it sets the whole tone,” he says. “You open the door, you walk in, it’s like a whole new beginning.”

Reporter B.C. Manion can be reached at (813) 259-7150 or bmanion@tampatrib.com.

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