I have been living with my 89 year old Mom for four years as a 24/7 caregiver due to her having a stroke and other medical conditions. I took care of Mom and Dad till 2004 when Dad passed away. Now I am in my mom's home to care for her since 2004 and have not had a chance to live in my own house that my husband and I moved into in 2001. She is not able to walk alone at all and must use a mechanical walker and a human walker when she does try to walk, so she is restricted to her easy chair. My husband lives in our house.

I am sorry that this report is rather long, but trust me, this version is the reader's digest version of what we have been through from March 2007 until now April 2008 and we are still living in this nightmare.

In 2007, my husband and I decided that we needed a handicapped wing added to our house to accommodate Mom so we could live in one house. We planned to ask a construction company in our town for a conventional handicapped wing complete with a bath as a separate wing on our house to give us privacy while Mom has sitters, friends, nurses and aides coming in to care for her.

We also thought it would be cheerful and a great treat for Mom to add part of the wing as a all season sun room to be her living room. So we went to a dealer known for sun rooms in Jonesboro on the bypass area. While we asked about adding a sun room to another addition that must be added first by another contractor, the sales manager told us that he is a professional architect who can do the handicapped wing plus bath plus sun room to the back of our house with a sun porch added to the front.

He came to the house, did measuring, and even checked on the dimensions of Mom's furniture to be sure that we were making our room large enough. The project ideas were started on March 1, 2007 the day before Mom's 88th birthday. The sales manager told us that the worst part would be to add the bathroom since he would go through the wall of our existing bathroom to tap into the plumbing, but later the plumber said that it was a bad idea so he went around the house instead. So the sales manager said the bathroom must be in the middle of the wing to match up with our master bathroom. We had planned for one large room with the bath at one end, but he said it would be less expensive to do it this way. So we agreed to save money.

On March 30. we signed the contract for the wing including brick on the front and labor and materials for the room. The room would not include lighting fixtures nor bathroom fixtures including commode, shower, sink, etc. We also applied for a loan but gave the company $20, 000 of Mom's savings to be sure to get on the list to get started. The wing was to be finished by the end of the summer.

Problems started almost immediately. Nothing was done to start after calling several times to see when they would start on the project. On June 28, 2007, the concrete foundation was finally poured and included a porch as well as foundation for wing. It was the second concrete company that they asked to do it. We were told that one company took money and never did the job. After the foundation was poured, they started the framework of the conventional part of house. WE discovered that the patio was in an unsafe slope at 3 1/4 inch slope for handicapped. They were alerted at that time, but again no response...We never got calls returned nor help when a problem existed... unless it was way too late.

To make the story condensed, subcontractor after subcontractor had to be replaced because they did not complete jobs. Many things had to be done over and over and over again because of inferior labor and inferior materials to include moving a wall for a closet that was too small, replacing outside doors that were too small for a wheel chair, moving the drains over because they were in the wrong places for a handicapped bathroom plus more.

In between each step of construction, we had to wait about a month in between each project. We had a drought for the most part of the summer so weather was not really an excuse. We were told they were working in the big city in Tennessee. When the roof was added only part of the way, we had our first rain ...and of course, it ran into our existing bedroom walls and flooded the wing. My husband had to get a wet vac to keep out the water from going under the walls to our house. He ended up with a torn tendon and had to make trips to the VA hospital over 50 miles away for six weeks in therapy. The company refused to answer our pleas and calls for help with the leaks. The whole end of our wing was open to wait for the sun room part...My husband had to put up a tarp to keep out water. Also the sewer line was left open and did not pass inspection after a rain and had to be redone. All they offered us was a sand bag and basically left us to take care of it...Every time it rained, we had leaks...and to this day, we have leaks.

Finally in October, after all the shoddy work over and over again and still left wide open, I contacted the BBB but their intervention did not help. We had a meeting with the company on October 31 and they said they would get it finished in four weeks. In February 2008, they added some paint to the conventional room and continued working on leaks of the sun room then they stopped ALL work on the contract and we were told to send them a list of all the damages including the ruts in the yard, the fencing and gate and dog kennel that the plumbers knocked down and destroyed, any labor that they should owe us for working on the wing and for all things that have not been completed on this project to close the contract because we contacted the BBB and because we asked them to pay out for the carpet and tile that was allowed in the contract for that. They have refused to finish the room. They have refused to fix the leaks. They have refused to complete the contract. They left us with NOTHING but a painted shell...no plumbing tapped, no electric, no fixtures installed for the bath, no carpet, no tile, no bricks, a railroad tracking to the rooms that a wheelchair can't travel over.. Leaks, leaks, leaks, a broken dog kennel, a broken gate and fencing, and plumbing that needs to be redone again after they attempted it for THREE different times with three different plumbers. They had three different sheet rockers, two different teams to install sun room. Almost everything in that wing still needs to be redone or it was redone...again...the plumbing, the moving of a wall and taking out sheet rock and moving shower unit and adding support to the back, the tracking in the doors, the doors that were too small for the wheel chair, the patio that was built at a slope too steep... We have been left with their trash literally ...my husband made at least four trips with his truck to clean up debris and that only got a big part of it...still more left...the yard is destroyed, as well.

We have been left with one big mess...They left the trash and took our cash...They took $56, 500 and left us with nothing but a shell 14 feet by 39 feet...Much of the expensive part still needs to be done.. We are trying to find out how we can get this done. They have our money and won't do the job...They left us with shoddy work and only part of a room. I am still living with my 89 year old Mom who paid for most of this wing. We are having additional expenses because her house should be on the market, but instead we are still trying to get this wreck finished from March 2007 to now in April 2008. We even contacted the corporate office and we were told to work it out with the franchise since it involves more than just a sun room.

In closing, we have lost all our money and don't have more to finish because they have it. We don't think anyone else should go through this disaster. We would appreciate any help in this matter. My mom is having more problems and we just pray that she lives long enough to finally be in that wing that has her savings as well as our loan.