<div><strong>Our story continues! We're starting the second phase of our renovation.</strong>
</div>
<div>To understand why we're doing what we're doing, read the rest of this story.
</div>
<div>To know what we're doing now, and how you can help us make it through this phase, <em>read the update from December 15, 2024.</em>
</div>
<div>_____________
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<div>My name is Erin, and machines keep me alive.
</div>
<div>Good, I have your attention.
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<div><br />
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<div>I’m attached to machines 24/7, including a ventilator and feeding tube, that have kept me alive for the last decade.
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<div><br />
</div>
<ul>
<li><strong>But this isn’t a story about machine-assisted life.</strong>
</li>
<li><strong>This is a story about living: about building a life worth the effort of being alive. </strong>
</li>
</ul>
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</div><img alt="" media_type="3" src="https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.net/77444209_1705797999877079_r.jpeg" width="100%" />
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<div><strong>THE DIAGNOSIS THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING </strong>
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<div><br />
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<div>When I was 25 years old, I was a Ph.D. student at the University of Alberta, and I spent more than half of that year hospitalized in intensive care. After years of worsening health, I finally received a diagnosis: Myasthenia Gravis (MG).
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<div><br />
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<div>This neuromuscular disease aggressively attacks the muscles, and the muscles that allowed me to breathe were already alarmingly weak.
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<div><br />
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<div>I flew back to BC to meet a neurologist who specialized in MG.  
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<div><br />
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<div>I was in the hospital for outpatient treatment when I  collapsed, coded, and put into a medically induced coma. 
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<div>I was only supposed to be in BC for a weekend, but after three months on life support in the ICU, I knew I wouldn’t return to Edmonton.
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<div><br />
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<div>Three hundred and sixty days after I coded, I left the hospital paralyzed, needing a ventilator, a wheelchair , and 24-hour medical care to make sure I didn’t die.
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<div><br />
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<div><strong style="font-family:inherit;font-size:1rem;">CREATING A HOME TO FIT ME</strong>
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<div><br />
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<div>While I was in the hospital, my parents, Tim and Janet, completely renovated the main floor of our home to accommodate the wheelchair, hospital bed, ceiling lift, and supplies my new life needed. This renovation went perfectly and allowed me to move back home instead of into a care facility. Over the years, we continued to adapt the house to meet our changing needs.
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<div><br />
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<div>A person standing can turn around on the spot, and someone using a manual wheelchair can turn in three- or four-square feet. I need six square feet to turn. For perspective, I can’t turn in the hallway of a “regular” residential house..
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<div><br />
</div>
<div>After months of discouraging searches for a new home to meet our family’s needs, we found an older house with good bones and the perfect location. Despite meeting many of our needs, <strong>the new house needed extensive renovations to become fully accessible for me.</strong>
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<div><br />
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<div><strong style="font-family:inherit;font-size:1rem;">WE COULDN’T DO IT ALONE</strong>
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<div><br />
</div>
<div>Mom and Dad didn’t feel they could manage such a challenging renovation without help this time, and we began searching for a contractor.
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<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>NEW TEAM PLAYER… OR IS HE?</strong>
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>We desperately needed someone to oversee the construction; because the effort of keeping me alive was straining everyone to their limit, and we thought we’d found the person we needed. We could never have imagined how wrong we would be.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>MISREPRESENTATION AND MISAPPROPRIATION</strong>
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong><em>The contractor we hired took advantage of our situation.</em></strong> 
</div>
<div>We did our due diligence, getting references from past clients and coworkers, but never imagined we had met a professional liar. It’s true that “hindsight is 20/20.” 
</div>
<div>Despite warning signs, we couldn’t see the extent of the problems until it became too late.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<ul>
<li><strong>The money set aside to renovate our home and make it accessible is gone.</strong>
</li>
</ul>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>The contractor misrepresented his skills and credentials. 
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<div>He procrastinated and delayed the project for almost two years. 
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<div>When we started  looking into where our money had gone, the contractor stopped responding to any of our calls or messages, liquidated his assets and disappeared.
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<div><br />
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<div><strong style="font-family:inherit;font-size:1rem;">THE PROBLEM</strong>
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<div>The contractor over-billed us hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
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<div><br />
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<div>The contractor left us with an unfinished foundation and piles of rubble, dirt, and garbage. 
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<div><br />
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<div>He took the money we saved to   transform our house into a home. 
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<div><strong><em>We need your help to finish this project.</em></strong>
</div>
<div><br />
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<div><strong><em>________________________________</em></strong>
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<div><br />
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<div><strong>THE DETAILS</strong>
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<div><br />
</div>
<div>We spoke to a trusted friend who referred us to a new, honest contractor helping us raise the money to complete our renovation. Our new contractor, who isn't criminally underselling us, gave us a new quote.
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<div><br />
</div>
<div>The first contractor told us that the renovation would cost $200,000, but we’ve now learned that we will need closer to $500,000.
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<div><br />
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<div>We are completing the renovation in two phases, which will take longer and cost slightly more than if we could move out of the house during the renovation and complete the work all at once. However, that is not possible, and to work around me, we need to work on only half the house at a time.
</div>
<div>Our most pressing need is to build the addition that will accommodate my accessible bedroom and bathroom, which is part of the new construction at the back of the house. We are calling this “Phase One”.
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<div><br />
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<div><strong>PHASE</strong> <strong>ONE</strong> (<strong>Almost</strong> <strong>Completed</strong>)
</div>
<ul>
<li>Building my bathroom, the living room, and the laundry room.
</li>
<li>Building the deck at the back of the house.
</li>
</ul>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>Phase One will cost $210,000. We will begin phase two as soon as we finish Phase One and raise the money we need.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>PHASE</strong> <strong>TWO</strong>
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<ul>
<li>Move a wall to widen the main hallway
</li>
<li>Add a small extension at the front of the house to enlarge the foyer (I can’t turn in the current foyer)
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<li>Install new electrical in my bedroom and the caregiver’s workspace.
</li>
<li>Install storage and closet space in my bedroom and the caregiver’s workspace.
</li>
<li>Phase two will cost $200,000-$300,000.
</li>
</ul>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>WE NEED YOUR HELP</strong>
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<ul>
<li>If you are a supplier, we need materials.
</li>
<li>If you are a tradesperson, we need your expertise, skills, and labour.
</li>
<li>If you can donate money, no amount is too small.
</li>
</ul>
<div><br />
</div>
<div>You’re likely reading this story because you’re connected to me or my family.
</div>
<div>You worked with Mom, Dad, or Elizabeth; cared for me at home as a caregiver or medical provider; were my doctor or nurse; went to church with any or all of us. But you may not know us. You might have clicked on our story somewhere on Facebook. Or a friend shared it with you.
</div>
<div>Regardless, you read our story, proving that sharing this will get it to people who can help.
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong>﻿<em>Please share our story.</em></strong>
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong><em>Whoever you are, thank you for letting us share our story with you.</em></strong>
</div>
<div><br />
</div>
<div><strong><em>Thank you for anything you can do to help us rebuild our lives.</em></strong>
</div>

Michelle Renaud

Anonymous

Jayleen Griffiths

Shanna Wang

Michael van der Gaag

John Woollard

William Sikkema

Chantel Gibbs

Isabel Ferreras

Holly Nelson

Help Erin (re)Build a Life Worth Living

Support urgent earthquake relief and past recovery in Venezuela.

Apoya la ayuda urgente tras el terremoto y los esfuerzos de recuperación en Venezuela.

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Help Erin (re)Build a Life Worth Living

Still $182,455 to go. Help us build momentum.