Rebuilding Sunnyside

Our forever home was completely destroyed inside and out including the entire yard by a shady contractor who used borrowed materials and pieced together something to show progress while taking over $100,000 and leaving us completely devastated. 

I have spent the last six months trying to navigate how to fix this. 

I work two jobs as a single mom and an only parent to my youngest child. I have an adult child with a beautiful husband and three children, and with me, a teenager, and a nine-year-old. 

I am doing my best in my jobs to earn as much as possible to restore our forever home that we call Sunnyside so that each and every person who ever has or will experience our home can enjoy the brighter side of life. 

When I built this home, barely qualifying for it on my own, we buried my late sister’s Bible in our foundation, dedicating it to our forever home Sunnyside.

I have written to countless networks and renovation shows and reached out for help in many ways. 

We were featured on the local news, but the story did not do us justice.

We’ve been in a hotel and now a temporary home after spending many stormy nights in my jeep in the garage, and we lived through the horror for almost a year with no heating and AC staying in one room together with our family pets. 

All of this happened through the Texas freeze, two Covid cases, a major surgery with extended recovery, and now the death of a very beloved furbaby. 

My prayers are for normalcy for my children and restoration for our family home, a place I want them to always be able to come back to with their families and stay as long as they want no matter where life takes them. 

This contractor has done this to four families before us. Each and every one of them tried to litigate. He has a family member in the legal field who drives up the cost of litigation to the point that these families must stop so that they can put their funds back into fixing their homes. 

He lives within 10 minutes of our home and shows up at high school football games shaking his head and laughing at us with his girlfriend and friends. 

Most legal departments see this as a civil situation leaving the only resolution to spend a lot of money to get a piece of paper that says he owes us money that we can never collect because he has nothing in his name. 

I tried to pursue a homeowners insurance claim which has left me another $10,000 in the hole due to mitigation and expenses.

I have a mortgage, and I’m still having to pay the renovation loans over the course of the next decade with nothing to show for it but devastation. 

I’ve started to clean up the yard with the help of some friends while I’m paying labor, but will still need to have the entire yard re-graded. We have filled in the giant hole that was to be our swimming pool, and we will need to repair the sprinklers and sod the yard at the end of all house repairs.

Next, I need to focus on the HVAC before winter hits. I’ve been quoted $12,000 to $23,000 for the cost on that alone. 

From there, I need to focus on brick or siding for the exposed exterior totaling 600 to 700 ft.² 

Following that, I will need to address the structural issues as the flooring system he built between the two floors is insufficient as is the upper deck he put on top of the patio in addition to a large steel I-beam running through the center of our home over the family room. 

The interior of the home needs sheet rock, texture, paint, and the flooring needs to be pulled up and reinstalled correctly hopefully being able to save enough of the pieces to not have to purchase more. There is a concrete issue in the lower bathroom around the toilet where he did the plumbing for the upstairs bathroom. We have an incomplete laundry room, wet bar, two showers, and all of the upstairs windows were installed incorrectly. The electrical and plumbing is questionable as well. 

Yes, it’s a huge undertaking, but I must focus one project at a time and do everything I can to have the funds to keep moving forward. 

Our time is limited in this temporary home, and we will have to move back in to Sunnyside soon. 

I have an album with over 1000 pictures and videos because I was so excited about starting this endeavor. It’s private but I can give access to anyone who asks. 

I look forward to blessing others as I move forward as I get contacted quite often from people who have been through similar situations not near as devastating as ours. I look forward to having the resources and the good people who can help them, now and in the future, as I move forward in fixing our home.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Passing this along to those you know, inquiries to me in the careers in which I work (Weight loss and health, insurance, and skin care/make-up), reading my most recent post and sending messages to that renovation show, nominating us in any charitable situations, helping me with daily tasks by running a raffle/auction group that I’m trying to put together, and definitely sending good people our way who can help with the repairs.

I’ve always taught my children to dream big and never give up. Each and every year, we make our wish lists which can include anything and everything in life, and it’s actually closer to a Vision Board on paper to keep our dreamers alive within us. 

I’m going to do my best to fulfill a normal Christmas via Amazon for them coupled with more experiences at home in lieu of actual presents.

Please keep us in your prayers and help us as you can, as we will always pay it forward eternally.

I have grown a lot through the struggles and continue to, and I believe in overcoming the overwhelm and blessing others with everything I learn. God has a purpose. He has a purpose in all of us.

If you read this all the way through, would you kindly let us know so we feel we are being heard? 

Thank you, and God bless each and every one of you and all of your loved ones, furbabies, and families.