MEET PAST H.E.L.P CLIENTS
The Fisher Family
Sheila’s grandparents purchased the farmstead in the 1960’s and moved a house onto the farmstead from Harper, IA. During this time the grandparents had put an addition onto the home. Sheila’s grandparents lived in this house until 1998 when they moved to the town of Keota, IA. Sheila’s parents, along with Sheila and her two younger siblings moved into the home shortly after that.Sheila and Pat Fisher got married in 2013 and moved to a smaller home on the farmstead. In 2014, they had their first child. In 2016, they were expecting their second child and knew that they would soon be outgrowing their smaller home. Sheila’s parents had decided they no longer needed the larger of the two homes, they moved into the smaller home on the farmstead giving their daughter’s growing family the larger home. On October 16, 2016, Pat and Sheila Fisher moved in to the house that has been in their family for over 50 years.The Fisher’s had a vision of renovating the house for several years, but it wasn’t until the spring of 2019 that they decided that we were going to completely change the floor plan and do an entire house remodel. The kitchen and living room were located in the basement. The bedrooms were all located on the main floor. Bringing the main functions of the home to the main floor made the most sense for functionality and natural light. I received the following letter from the Fishers:“In April, Pat took charge and began to contact contractors. We had three different contractors come take a look at the house. Out of those three, there was one that really stood out to us and who we thought had everything that we were looking for. The contractor we chose was very enthusiastic and excited about taking on our project. He acted like he could do everything we wanted done. It was agreed upon that his crew would start on June 1st and that the project would be completed within several months.Our house project began the second week of June. Demo and framing were estimated to take about three weeks total. The project began falling behind and the crew started showing up less and less. Each time we asked how soon something would be done, we were usually told that it would be completed within two working days, in which no one would even show up. We began to become frustrated and concerned but decided that we would continue to work our way through it because everyone warned us that remodeling our house would be stressful and we knew that it was not uncommon for projects to get behind.As framing was started and we began to take family members, friends, our HVAC contractor and our electrician through the house, we continued to become more worried. We were concerned with the lack of support in multiple different areas of the house, but each person we brought through would ask questions and express their concerns in areas that we had not yet noticed. Everywhere we looked, there was something we saw that was not constructed correctly or that was lacking support. We were worried about headers above doorways and windows not holding up, walls not being straight and lack of support for headers that were holding our house up, among various other things. On three separate occasions, we brought in our contractor to express our concerns. Each time, he acted like none of it was a big deal, but agreed to “fix” it since that is what we were wanting. Six weeks after first expressing our concerns, there were several areas that were attempted to be fixed, but still way too many other areas that had not even been touched. Obviously, we were frustrated. This is our house and it is our future. We want it to be right and want it to stand for many years to come. We should not have to worry about our roof falling in if we get 12 inches of snow or our drywall starting to crack within a year because there is so much pressure being placed on areas that should have been better supported.Finally, we decided to try to find another contractor who would be willing to fix the concerns we had and finish a project that someone else had started. We had heard good things about Jason with Homes by Hamilton and was excited when he agreed to come and take a look. When he arrived at our house, he confirmed that our concerns were valid and noticed even more than what we had realized was wrong. We could instantly tell that he was a true professional who did not take any shortcuts and would finish the project to the quality and professionalism that we were expecting. The following day, we received a call from Jason explaining the vision that he had for his new program. We felt so honored and blessed that he wanted to use us to kick it off. Through the entire process, I have just known that in the end, everything would work out and God would take care of us. Thank you so much for agreeing to fix our house and complete our remodel, Jason and crew!”