Help a family build an accessible and safe home

This fundraiser is to help Derek, Bonnie, and the kitties have a safe and accessible home.

Easy to read bullet points for those of us with short attention spans first:

-raising funds for an accessible home for a disabled individual and her family

-goal of home is to be as cost efficient and accessible as possible

-initially there was no plan to raise funds but the HOA has forced our hand

-home will not have any “fancy” elements, just what is needed

-home will have enough space for Bonnie to navigate it with her mobility aide

-home will have a workroom for Bonnie, so she can expand her shop and contribute more financially to the household and be more independent.

-home will have safe outdoor space for Bonnie and her service dog (there has been issues with current neighbor’s dogs attacking Bonnie and her SD because the neighbors refuse to obey leash laws) the new home will have a fence.

-home/ land is in a quiet location, which is an accessibility feature for Bonnie’s disabilities (brain injury/ neuro related).

-we will do as much of the work ourselves to save money, primarily using secondhand materials.

-we are working on earning as much of the money needed, but 40k is a lot, and we don’t have years to do so. Bonnie is making/ working on shop items as much as she can, and we have both picked up side work to try and offset the cost.

As many of you know, we started this process initially back in 2018, but had to put our plans on hold as Bonnie had to have years of life saving brain and spine surgeries, followed by years of rehab and physical therapy. The cost of her medical care and travel completely destroyed our finances, and we still owe roughly 150k on her medical care from that 2 year period (and yes that is the amount WITH us having health insurance). We had to make the tough decision to sell our home, as it was not accessible/ safe for Bonnie and her physical limitations, both currently or in the future. We spent 2 years renting and looking for either land/ an existing home in our price point that we could afford or fix up so that it would suit Bonnie’s needs, but found nothing we could afford. We finally found land in the fall of 2023, and a builder who could help us, within our budget. We purchased the land, knowing that it was in an HOA, but also knowing the rules were very relaxed and the style of home we wanted was permissible according to those rules.

Unbeknownst to us, the original head of the HOA and developer of the land passed power of the HOA over to two residents, AFTER we had closed on the land. We were not notified of this change until December, after we had signed a contract with our builder and paid a 10k deposit, and spent another roughly 20k clearing the land for the house, having plans drawn up, septic plans, surveying, and prepping the land. The new heads of the HOA did not like or approve of our simple home design, and they denied our plans. We consulted a real estate lawyer, which was also costly, and she told us we could sue, and that we had grounds to do so, but we would be hung up in court for potentially 3-4 years. That would mean years of paying high and increasing rent, building and material costs rising, and losing our spot with our contractor. Suing would put off our build by several years, and cost upwards for 40k in court and lawyer fees. Our lawyer advised us to comply with what we could, and see if we could reach some kind of compromise with the HOA (she did say we definitely had a case, and would likely win, but the money and time lost would be a wash).

The HOA was demanding over 50k in unnecessary and mostly cosmetic changes (different garage size and style, a gabled front porch, materials changes, and adding faux stone wainscotting in the front of the home). We were able to have some compromise, and they agreed to our new plans. The new plans added a little over 40k to our build cost, which was out of our budget still. Our home plans were already very bare bones and simple, with us already doing as much of the work ourselves as we could to save money. We had to decide between losing the money and time we had put into the land, plus losing more time and money renting and continuing to look for years to come, or to move forward and make/raise the money.

Neither of us is comfortable with asking for help, but we realize from a safety and quality of life aspect, we need to. We simply cannot earn an additional 40k in such a short amount of time, and since the home plans were already incredibly simple, we couldn’t trim anything to save cost. We know that times are incredibly hard on everyone right now, and we are appreciative of those who can help. If you have any questions feel free to reach out to Bonnie via her social media.