DIY Network’s yearly lawn makeover TV special, “America’s Most Desperate Landscape,” has finished its transformation of a yard right off of downtown Dexter's main drag.

Local couple Mike and Erin Penn won the show’s nationwide contest to have their lot made over on DIY’s annual one-hour special of “Desperate Landscapes” with host Jason Cameron, which will air on July 13.

The Penns are quite the do-it-yourselfers. They renovated the the inside and some of the exterior of their home, which they converted from a duplex into a single-family home. The couple met their deadline for interior renovations: Erin’s due date with their new baby boy, Trey. However, when it came to taming their challenging, weed- and mosquito-infested landscape, the couple decided to call in the experts.

“We’re much more inside people than outside when it comes to being able to do-it-yourself,” Erin said.

Watch the Penns' video submission to "Desperate Landscapes" to see how the yard looked before the makeover:

Host Jason Cameron said the couple got chosen for the $25,000 project for a couple of different reasons. “Number one, they are a really great couple with great personalities, which is important because it is a TV show at the end of the day.”

Mike and Erin are both sports coaches. After moving back and forth across the county 13 times to pursue Mike’s career in minor league baseball, he got a coaching job with the University of Michigan’s baseball team. Erin coaches volleyball at Dexter High School. Upon settling down in the area, the couple decided to buy a house in Dexter, Erin’s hometown, on Broad Street.

“They also have a really great space to make over... The uniqueness of the layout is something we haven’t quite done before,” Cameron said midway through the renovation. “It almost feels like a corner lot even though it isn’t. Once we cleaned it up and did a lot of demo, you could really see the space. After it’s transformed, it’s going to be an amazing turn-around.”

Before the landscape renovation, the steep slope at the Penns' front door was covered in weeds and poison ivy, and low-hanging trees made the front of the house “claustrophobic,” according to Erin. On top of that, the front staircase went straight down a treacherously steep hill, which the couple agreed was a potential tripping hazard. “So, it was a part of our house that we never really used.” she explains.

There were also plenty of problems to tackle on their large side yard. Overgrown plants and weeds, and more “claustrophobic” trees plagued the house. To make matters worse, the property attracted a lot of hungry mosquitoes.

The Penns were planning to solve some of these problems by tearing up the weeds and laying down mulch. “We wanted to make it livable, but we didn’t know where to start. We never could have imagined doing all of this.” Erin said.

Watch a slideshow of the "Desperate Landscapes" crew at work during the makeover.

The crew of “America’s Most Desperate Landscape” made over the Penns' front and side yards and gave the exterior of the house a fresh coat of paint. In the spirit of DIY, the cast and crew did it with hands-on help from the homeowners, their family and friends, neighbors, and members from the U-M baseball and Dexter High School volleyball teams.

They got rid of weeds, removed a few trees that were impeding the home’s livability, and took out the steep front staircase. Ground on their side yard was leveled and fitted with a brand new stone porch that wraps around the house to the front porch. In place of weeds, the Penns now have new gardens full of plants covering the steep hill in the front and large portions of their side yard. The crew also added a few special touches to the property, such as a fountain and a couple of large planters.

Watch a slideshow of the finished yard makeover:

“One of the first things we’ve noticed is gone are the mosquitoes. Everything was enclosed and now there’s a breeze through here, and we don’t have the mosquitoes any more,” said Mike, who also loves the new Japanese maple tree they planted.

The couple “learned a lot” from working side-by-side with landscaping experts from the show. Mike said, “Jason’s not just the host. He was in there and he was rocking it. All of the people who put it all together, they were incredible. I learned a lot. They have a lot of good tips and tricks. Any question we asked, they answered.”

Even though the couple helped with every part of the transformation, the final product still remained “a surprise” in some ways, Erin explained midway through the makeover. Their "reveal" happened gradually, but “it’s still hard to envision how it’s all going to come together. We know it’s going to be spectacular, but I don’t think we can fully imagine how much we are going to enjoy it. That’s the big thing I’m looking forward to. To have such a big patio and a place where we can go outside is great,” she said.

Erin immediately started to enjoy having a place to “sit and watch the people go by” in the front of the house, whereas, “we didn’t really have a front yard before.”