When Patricia and Milton Harper came home to their new, custom-built, 5,300-square-foot mansion in Clayton County, they received far more than just the keys. The "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" winners are also getting more than $200,000 to help make extreme improvements in their lives.

Johnny Crawford / jcrawford@ajc.com (ENLARGE)

Patricia and Milton Harper's move from New York to Clayton County landed them in a house with a faulty septic tank that exhausted their savings.

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The home, which was featured on the popular ABC reality show, also comes with new furniture, funds to help with household expenses and home warranties. Not to mention a scholarship fund and a new car.

The house itself has four fireplaces, a solarium, a music room and a covered porte-cochere that connects it to Milton Harper's new office.

"It's still very numbing,"says Patricia Harper. "When I wash dishes, I pray. When I do laundry, I pray. I say 'thank you, thank you, thank you' so much that it doesn't even sound good enough anymore."

ABC chose the Harpers for a home makeover from 15,000 applicants after learning about the family's defective septic tank. Every time it rained, the tank would spew raw sewage into the home. The couple, married for 24 years, exhausted their savings trying to repair the tank. Patricia Harper is a homemaker. Milton Harper has his own home-security business.

In an intense six days in January, Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA and "Extreme Makeover" razed the Harpers' old home and built a showpiece in its place. It's the largest house ever built by an "Extreme" team. Materials and labor were donated, but the home would have cost about $450,000 to construct.

Each of the five family members has a room created especially for them:

• Besides an office, there's a music room for dad with recessed lighting, a shelf that holds eight turntables and a separate room for his extensive album collection.

• Patricia Harper has a green thumb, so the design team created a solarium off the spacious kitchen for her plants.

• The parents also have a spacious master suite with a separate sitting room and fireplace, a luxury bathroom with garden tub and an enormous walk-in closet with custom shelving and a second washer and dryer.

• Each of the couple's three sons has a room that reflects his interests or personality. (An adult son lives on his own.) For example, 15-year-old LaVaughn likes water, so his room has a nautical theme.

The great room has vaulted ceilings accented with antique hickory wood beams obtained from a 135-year-old dairy farm in Pennsylvania.

While all "Extreme Makeover" homes are fully furnished by the network's vendors, families typically don't receive all the perks given to the Harpers.

"We help in one way or another. Some of it depends on the family's need," explains Tom Forman, the show's executive producer.

"The Harpers have had extreme and dire circumstances," adds Leslie Kratcoski, vice president of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications for Beazer. "The fund allows them to deal with the increased cost of the home and so their children can go to [college]."

There are no stipulations about how long the family has to live in the home, only that the housing fund be used for their primary residence.

Income tax and property tax liabilities for the family are unclear. "Based on my general understanding of the tax law, prizes and awards from radio and television giveaways and contests are taxable income," says Joel Pascaner, chairman of the Georgia Society of CPAs tax section. However, "there may be extenuating circumstances or additional facts that we're not aware of."

Eric Erickson, a spokesperson for the Internal Revenue Service, declined to comment on the matter.

For now, the main thing on the family's mind is enjoying the new home. "I would have been happy with a new septic tank," says Milton Harper, adding, "I think the house is beautiful. Now I can go to sleep at night when it rains."