Seanie's Battle with Home Repair Costs

I'm Seanie and my Dallas townhouse is an absolute nightmare. A little over two years ago, my wife Arden and I bought a beautiful, unique townhome in Dallas, TX, using a VA home loan (I'm a veteran of the US Army). After 6 years of teaching writing in public universities for pennies, we successfully became homeowners while I was in the early days of a move towards working as a technical writer. Exciting, right?

Before we even moved in, we were hit by a massive water damage event in the form of our washer line leaking and causing water damage across both floors and stairwell. We had savings though and insurance, so too easy, right? Not so much. While work was underway, more and more issues were found that needed addressing and were not covered. As for our HOA? They conveniently have lots of exceptions established to where they haven't had to do a single thing to help us mitigate in external leaks. Those savings went dry pretty quickly. We were in hotels for nearly a full year before everything was mitigated and our house could actually be moved into.

Little things kept popping up here and there, but we managed. Fast forward to a few months ago, we decided to put the home on the market and move to Chicago where opportunity and family awaited. Staying in the home during it being on the market was near impossible with our puppy and two cats making any showings hard to navigate. So, we left the home in the hands of our capable realtor and headed north.

Months later and a whole lot of second choice picks that led to nothing, we were already struggling to keep up with the costs of the mortgage, HOA fees, Chicago area rent, and the various bills that come with maintaining two residences. But, interest was growing with the turn of the seasons and things were starting to look up.

Until they weren't. Water, once again, found it's way in to the home. Our dining room walls and ceilings are full of water damage and mold. Our stairwell also has got some water coming down through the ceiling.

We're past broke. It's gotten to the point where I'm claiming anything and everything I can think of to maybe increase my VA disability to bring in some additional income on top of the additional odd writing jobs I'm picking up. Arden is frantically looking for additional work beyond their current role. We need some help though. The work to address where water is entering, replace wood beams, mitigate the mold, replace insulation, install new sheetrock, paint, replace ruined flooring, catch up on our HOA and mortgage, and continue to maintain the HOA and mortgage is going to be a nightmare in costs and we're already maxed out on what insurance will cover.

Please. Please. Please. Anything will help. These funds will go towards much needed repairs and getting the home back in a position to where it can finally be free of these water issues and go back on the market to hopefully soon no longer be the haunting specter it has been on our livelihood.