Combat Veteran Foundation Repair

My husband, Roy Parker Jr is a disabled combat veteran who has survived so many storms in his life. This particular storm is one we can’t face alone. Here’s just some of his story and our story.

 He was adopted as an infant and his adoptive parents raised him without his knowledge that he was adopted. When he was 10 years old, his adoptive mother died of ovarian cancer. His adoptive father never really recovered from her death and later died of pneumonia when my husband was 14. He and his adopted sister were sent to live with their adoptive aunt and uncle, people who they didn’t really know because their adoptive father and his brother were estranged. While going through his family things in the garage after his adoptive fathers death, my husband found the adoption paperwork and realized he had been lied to by the people he thought were his parents. He had just lost them both in a fairly short time, was sent to live with practical strangers, and as an adolescent already trying to find himself, he no longer knew who he was or what he could trust. He was angry, confused and hurting, and his guardians didn’t know how to help him and they had an often contentious relationship that resulted in him being sent to boarding school, and then to private school, and finally went to live with his adoptive grandmother in his senior year of high school.  He joined the Army as a 19 Delta Cavalry Scout. He was told by a family member that he would never make it through basic training and that he was weak. But weak is never a term that could be ascribed to my husband. He served in Desert Storm, Bosnia, Kuwait, Kosovo and Iraq. He was let go from his first real job since the Army the week of our wedding, after having been moved to Florida for the job and after we had already rented a home there. He struggled to find employment for 3 months until he was hired for $8 an hour at a pawn shop where he dutifully worked for 7 years.  Shortly after we got married I noticed he seemed to be struggling with symptoms of PTSD. He didn’t sleep through the night ever. He had frequent nightmares. He had outbursts of anger. He had to be able to see the exit whenever we were at a restaurant and he became extremely anxious and agitated in crowds or heavy stop and go traffic. And he had lost friends from very violent attacks while in Iraq and served in very up close and personal combat frequently. We got his first appointment for evaluation at the VA, but at that time, they denied he had PTSD despite his textbook symptoms and tried to the pass it off as problems from his childhood. But his nightmares were not from childhood, but from combat. As were all his other symptoms. He went into a tailspin after that evaluation because basically they had told him that his experiences weren’t valid.  This wasn’t uncommon in the early days of PTSD evaluations of Iraq War Veterans because at the time, the VA psychiatrists and psychologists were not well trained on trauma or recognizing the complexities of PTSD. After 7 years, we finally walked into the VA after a particularly bad night of PTSD symptoms and connected with the first doctor who said very plainly that he could not believe my husband had not been diagnosed with PTSD and it was very clear that this was what he was struggling with. We met with the VA evaluator who said the words my husband needed to hear: he indeed had PTSD that was related to his service in combat. His experience was valid. His struggles were not imaginary. Once his PTSD was service connected, he was able to get counseling services. He also enrolled as a 43 year old undergraduate to try and obtain his bachelors degree with his Post 9/11 GI Bill. His first semester was rough. He still hadn’t obtained counseling and he constantly had to struggle to focus while trying to screen out all the other heightened senses that come with combat PTSD. Like having to sit in the back of the class near an exit. Or startling every time the door opened or there was a loud noise. He finally got a therapist with the VA and began to heal during his second year of school. And he started to excel, eventually earning his bachelors in History while also being an instrumental member of a team of students and staff that started the new Military-Affiliated student center. He also started the veteran peer mentor program to help others navigate the struggles as a veteran student acclimating to the civilian world. And in his final semester, we had a traumatic high risk birth and subsequent NICU stay for our daughter.

After graduation, he sent out over 130 resumes and struggled to find employment for 16 months. It was one of the most difficult years we had been through. Then in late September 2018, he landed his dream job working for the Army as a civilian helping write documentary film scripts for teaching purposes.  He felt so proud to finally be able to provide for our family and bought our forever home that we thought was the perfect place, out in the woods, on a hill, for Roy to rest, find peace and continue his recovery and for us to raise our family.  Two days after we moved in, we found out we were pregnant with another surprise baby. (It took 8 years to have our daughter, we never thought it would happen again).  Then we dealt with another high risk pregnancy, multiple hospital stays, early birth and another NICU stay for our new son. During that time, our 26 year old was living in Germany and dealing with significant issues, so we moved him to live with us so that he could have support. Also during this time, our home suffered damage from storms and had to have interior repair from water damage as well as a new roof. And the bathtub cracked and dumped water all over an interior wall, and our insurance did not cover the cost of repairs after the deductible, so we just patched it, with water damage still lurking.  In the following year that ensued, we have been dealing with complex ongoing health issues for our youngest son including two surgeries and multiple doctors visits, trying to help our oldest son heal and restart, and tried to find ways to help our daughter adjust to all the changes. And throughout all of this, Roy still was working though PTSD while also working to provide for our family. Then in the last year, we noticed increased blasting and what seemed to be stronger and closer blasts to our home from the nearby quarry. We noticed even more significant structural changes (cracking in every room, floors and door frames moving and even floors peaking like a triangle and sloping either side of the main wall, staircase twisting, stair treads pulling apart, main support beam in the roofline twisting out of position) and finally decided to get a structural engineering evaluation. This confirmed our fears. Our home had literally cracked in half front to back and side to side and would require major foundation repair, and they recommended piers which would cost $1,200 each. We contacted a reputable, local foundation repair company who reviewed the report and evaluated the home thoroughly and the estimate is $48,250 just for the piering and polyjacking alone. The blasting company with the quarry was contacted regarding these issues and they reported that as far as they know, the blasting strength is within federal regulations. The city continues to issue special use permits for them to continue blasting. And yet our home as well as the homes of our neighbors have suffered significant, sudden damage that is above and beyond the usual wear and tear. We have verifiable documentation from the home inspection and photos that when we bought our home, there were no structural issues noted. I have a foundation experts statement that there are no observable reasons that would cause such sudden and significant foundation damage (such as drainage issues or anything else).  And the $48,250 doesn’t include the need to move out of our home and place things in storage while they do the work and it doesn’t include repairing the flooring and concrete that will be destroyed in the process. It also doesn’t include patching all of the cracks in our walls and rehanging all the doors that no longer close right. It doesn’t include fixing our windows that have begun pulling away from their caulk and wall frames. Or the HVAC ducts that are starting to separate/ push air into the floor due to how much the structure has changed.  We even have large earth worms that come in our home now through cracks somewhere in our foundation every time we have heavy rains. 

So we estimated the bottom end of cost would be:

$48,250 for foundation repair

$5,000 for concrete repair

$8,500 for replacement of tile and carpet

$3,000 for drywall repair

$5,000 for move out and storage costs plus temporary housing for a month.

$4,500 for rehanging kitchen cabinets, rehanging doors, stabilizing staircase, support beam and minor contingencies.

Totaling $74,250. Just to put our home back to its original condition when we bought the house. No fancy upgrades, no extra anything. 

Our home, our refuge, our place for peace and rest, is becoming a nightmare. 

The quarry sent out their preferred contractor to evaluate our damage claim and the seismograph data and concluded that their blasting in no way could have caused the damage we have experienced. We believe that repeated blasting over time likely accelerated or at least contributed to the rapid decline. Because we aren’t the only family who noticed increased blasting and sudden damages. Our homeowners insurance denied our claim. Operation Homefront denied assistance because the cost was too great. Fox 4 problem solvers never replied. Magnolia reported they couldn’t help. We have had no replies from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Military Makeover, Holmes on Homes, Jonathan and Drew Scott/Property Brothers, Paul Davis Restoration and several other entities. We have literally tried everything.

We have struggled financially for a while due to a long history of underemployment for Roy during his battle with PTSD and currently the fact that even if  I (Julia) returned to work, we would end up paying 3/4 of my potential salary on childcare and quite frankly, I have my hands full caring for the emotional, mental and physical needs of everyone in the home and their own individual battles. So we have no way to pay for the repairs needed. (If we sold all of our farm things it would barely cover even 1/10th of what we need, and that is still on the table). Litigation options are proving very difficult and not short term and the longer we wait to repair, the worse and ultimately unsafe our home becomes. We are just are a family who has weathered a lot of storms and need a life raft. If there is any way you can help us with the repairs to make our home a safe place and a place of rest and peace again, we desperately need it. Roy needs a break. I need a break.  To have worked so hard and to have come so far only to see our home breaking around us is really just devastating.

We realize the number that we need sounds insane. Because that number has been staggering to us for over a year. But if 750 people donated $100, that would be it. Or 7500 people donated just $10. So please share, share, share.