With my small early retirement lump sum from my job I left 7 years ago, we were able to begin our dream of building our own home. My husband built the structure very well up to the covered OSB panel sheathing (wood cover). We have the plumbing installed. But then it rained on the OSB sheathing. Afterwards, my husband had back problems and was not able to work on the home for 8 months, then the pandemic hit and everything stopped. Then he was injured again in November. The sheathing is now severely damaged and must be replaced or it will not pass inspection, and we cannot move on to the important step of installing the exterior materials to protect the entire wood structure because the cost is beyond our means.
We built this on our life savings from working, not from any loan. Our property is paid for, but banks don’t lend on land. So it’s only a matter of obtaining an additional $12,880 to get this fixed.
Back then, the price of each osb sheathing was a mere $8.80 cents. The cost is now a staggering $67 per piece. We don’t have any extra money. Without jobs, our credit tanked, we cannot get a construction loan because our future income is still uncertain. We still cannot draw on SSI retirement for several years, it may be too late by then.
When it rains outside, it rains inside through the 1/4′ exposed roof sheathing. I am afraid that if we don’t get it repaired and finished –at the least all of the outside materials, we face our entire home being demolished. We couldn’t earn enough to live and save for “extra” in case of an emergency such as this one. If we can just get the entire outside finished, our home can be saved and we will have a decent safe place to live when we finally retire in 2 years. We will finish the inside as money will allow, but the outside is the most important, to save it all. For now, we are hunkered down in a 1 room shed until we finish our home.
I want to thank everyone for taking the time to read our story. We pray there is a generous, caring individual out there who can help – it will change our lives for the better, our grandkids will be able to finally visit us, and we won’t be homeless.
Donate at: paypal.me/regina101A
Thank you kindly.
