Finishing the Projects

Hello from sunny FL! We are a dual military family with over 15 years of continuous service.  We have one son in basic training now.  My husband is now in the Reserves.  We used his transition bonus in December 2014 to purchase a fixer upper and place a deposit on flooring and cabinets.  We demolished the kitchen in preparation for the new kitchen installation, and then the ball dropped.  The Veteran's Administration recouped the bonus monies.  We paid back the balance we had left in the bank, and they withheld his monthly disability benefits and drill pay for a year to recoup the full amount.  I am a full time nursing student, working 2 part-time jobs to support my family.  We have 6 boys, 4 of whom still live at home.  The boys range from 26 to 4 years old.  Two of our boys - the oldest and the 8 yr old- have Asperger's syndrome, a form of Autism.    Having no kitchen has been challenging.  We have appliances but no sink counters or storage.  Food prep and storage have had to be creative.  We wash dishes in the bath tub.  We slowly added to our savings to pay off the cabinets, and then our entire AC/Heat unit had to be replaced drawing the last of our savings.  By March 2016 we had put together enough to pay for our cabinets.  We waited, and by June 2016 we still had nothing.  The company realized they had forgotten to order the cabinets (oops).  Then we were told they were on back order.  We finally got our cabinets in September 2016.  When installation finally arrived, we discovered they did not fit.  The company's designer had measured incorrectly.  The company refused to correct the issue.  Our contract stated mediation only, so we have no recourse.  We reached out to Wounded Veteran's Relief Fund in November to try to find someone to finish our work at last.  We understand military communities are resourceful and a great networking tool when needed.  They put us in touch with Shapiro/Pertnoy Companies.   We are blessed that they are going to finish our kitchen free of charge with the donated time and services of their employees and subcontractors.  We are so very grateful for everything!  We can now move forward to the smaller projects to make this house a home.  We can finally prepare a meal and eat together as a family after 25 months without a kitchen! If you find it in your heart to help with these projects we would appreciate your donation.  Thank you very much for your support!