For Brian Pearce, the glare from the paint on the interior walls of his Mechanicsville home was crippling.

That wasn't the only problem he faced getting around his home. The house's incandescent light bulbs, which cast a harsh, glaring light, weren't helping him see, either.

So volunteers from the community and the Rebuilding Together Richmond program gathered at Pearce's home this month to help. They were joined by volunteers from EDC General Contractors, Countrywide Financial Corp. and Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm based in McLean.

Together, the 40 volunteers painted the interior walls with flat paint, enlarged a deck, set up a home office and improved the house's lighting.

The volunteers were driven by a simple fact: Pearce is one of many severely injured veterans returning to civilian life with a need for home modifications. The program that made the improvements possible, Serving Those Who Serve, was created specifically for veterans like him.

"We could have stayed in the house as it was, but it would have been really slow-going," Pearce said. "The work they did made it a lot easier for me to move through the house."

Two years ago, Pearce was an Army staff sergeant on his way to arrest an Iraqi police officer for corruption when his Humvee hit an IED, or improvised explosive device. A large piece of shrapnel hit Pearce in the back of the head, smashing his skull and penetrating into his brain.

Doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, where Pearce spent 50 days in the intensive-care unit, warned his wife that he would be confined to a bed for the rest of his life.

Despite the odds, he is able to walk now, but he still has problems. Because the shrapnel damaged nerves responsible for seeing, tasting and smelling, Pearce wears hearing aids, and he is legally blind.

"My left eye is like looking through a coffee stirrer, and my right eye is like looking through a straw," he said.

"But at least I have enough vision to see my wife and kids," he said of wife Angela and children Logan, 9, and Jordan, 10.

Pearce is the 32nd severely injured veteran from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to be helped with home modifications and repairs through the Serving Those Who Serve program. Rebuilding Together, a nonprofit that offers free home repair and modification to low-income homeowners, formed the veterans assistance program in 2005.

"They have to be homeowners, although in some cases, we've done some work on family members' houses if the veteran plans to live there for an extended period of time," said T.J. Cantwell, director of veterans housing for Rebuilding Together.

Pearce is the third veteran in Virginia to receive help from the Serving Those Who Serve program. The other two live in Montclair and Manassas Park.

Rebuilding Together Richmond, the national organization's local affiliate, received a $10,000 grant from Countrywide and Booz Allen Hamilton to work on Pearce's house.

The improvements would have cost $25,000 without the donated labor and materials, said Amy King, the affiliate's executive director.

That cost is on the lower end for a modification in an older house, said Teri Morgan, a sponsored-programs manager at the Virginia Board for People with Disabilities.

"If it's done in new construction, the cost is nominal," Morgan said. "If it's an older home, though, the cost could be $25,000 to $75,000, depending on how much work they need to do. It can get pricey."

Modifying houses to allow severely injured and disabled individuals to stay in their homes is a growing trend.

"People used to live in nursing homes because of disabilities," Morgan said. "But there's a shift in how we approach long-term care."

In the Pearces' house, a volunteer electrician ran new wiring for more light fixtures throughout the house -- two in the stairway, one in the living room, one in the pantry and one in the kitchen, along with new lighting under the kitchen cabinets.

Volunteers replaced the house's incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs, whose light is strong but more diffuse.

They painted the entire interior of the house with flat paint to reduce the glare.

A spare bedroom was converted into a home office for Pearce. The new office will house specialized computer equipment Pearce received from the Veteran Administration's Blind Rehabilitation Center in West Haven, Conn.

"The computer has programs that will magnify text so I can read it easier," Pearce said. "And it comes with a scanner that will read the text to me out loud."

And since he spends most of his time at home, the volunteers doubled the size of the Pearces' deck to 900 square feet so Pearce can cook on an outdoor grill and entertain in a safe environment.

"I like to cook on the gas grill," Pearce said. "That's one thing I'm still able to do. Now I don't have to worry about being crowded and falling."

The Pearce project cast a wide net, bringing the local community together with commercial and nonprofit organizations.

"It helps us connect our volunteers with our community and with the Department of Defense community in particular," said Herbert MacArthur, vice president for Booz Allen Hamilton.

In the meantime, Pearce and his family are enjoying their renovated home.

"Without Countrywide and Booz Allen Hamilton and all the volunteers, none of this would have been possible," Pearce said. "It's amazing they were able to come out and do this. I'm still speechless."