There is a limit to what we can, and should, do for others.

The ABC-TV show Extreme Makeover seems to have crossed that limit in a big way.

In its most ambitious act of benevolence at the time, the big-hearted show, which repairs, remodels and even builds new homes for down-and-out deserving families, created a castle for a suburban Atlanta family in 2005 -- only to see the mansion in foreclosure and up for auction Tuesday at the Clayton County Courthouse.

It seems the Patricia and Milton Harper family used the home as collateral for a $450,000 loan, reportedly for a failed construction business.

The show had sent them to Disneyland while 1,800 volunteers with donated materials spent a week demolishing their old timeworn Lake City house with a faulty septic system and built the mansion in its place.

"The finished product," says the Associated Press, "was a four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage that towered over ranch and split-level homes in their Clayton County neighborhood. The home's door opened into a lobby that featured four fireplaces, a solarium, a music room and a plush new office."

Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA and others also raised $250,000 for the Harpers to cover home maintenance, taxes and scholarships for their three children.

Washington Post writer Hank Stuever says the foreclosure is symbolic of not only the current housing crisis but also of this country's self-indulgent "makeover" craze of the past few years.

In fairness, the Extreme Makeover concept is also a beautiful example of the American spirit of giving and helping.

But as the show's name implies, that spirit can be taken to extremes.

Whether the Harpers' misfortunes were the result of bad luck, bad timing or just horribly bad judgment -- most likely a combination of all those -- this is a morality play about the limits of giving.

"It's aggravating. It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it," Lake City Mayor Willie Oswalt has said.

It doesn't matter how many fish you give a man. At some point, the onus is on him to catch his own.