Meet the Kinkle family

About the Kinkles

Nicole Kinkle is a childcare provider in her home, loves scrapbooking and crafts, and has been fortunate enough to stay home with her now 15-year-old daughter, Amber. Nicole stays involved in the schools with PTA, the Boosters and cheer squads.

Amber is a 9th grade student, a cheerleader for the junior varsity high school teams and she has recently enrolled in an advanced academics online high school. She loves art, everything from simple coloring to pastels and charcoal drawings. She paints and sketches as often as she can. Amber has recently started to teach herself how to play the piano and also enjoys her guitar.

Steven Kinkle has been unemployed for a little over a year now, from a security installation job he held for 10 years. He is a gamer at heart, loving to play video games and work on the computer whether he is designing spreadsheets, flyers for his wife or software for a friend.

Though times are on the tougher side lately for the Kinkle family, they have tried their best to work on their home that they purchased in October 2009, just five months before Steven lost his job.

From Nicole

"We are a family of animal lovers; we have two labradors and a miniature long haired dachshund. We like to have our family time. We enjoy playing the Wii together, watching movies and playing games on game night with friends.

"Amber and I are avid readers with eclectic tastes in books; you might find us sitting in the living room together each with books in our hands. We are now trying our hand at gardening in our backyard, where there were fruit trees and grapes established when we moved in. We have added a raised garden and are filling it with herbs and vegetables."

About HomeStretch

"We wanted to participate in HomeStretch because we thought it would be an exciting adventure," says Nicole. "The thought of having a professional designer work with us to create a space that not only fits our family but is able to function with our friends and family that we often have in our home was an opportunity to good to pass up.

"We expected to work in our own home, but the directors thought it would be a great twist to have us swap homes with our friends. To our amazement we got to meet four wonderful designers, camera crews and lighting crews. We had no idea what to expect during the process. We had no clue as to how a show like this works. The behind the scenes process was a process beyond our imagination."