Capstone General Contracting Saves Grafton Home From Condemnation

Dec. 18, 2011 - PRLog -- Capstone General Contracting is pleased to announce the revitalization and certificate of occupancy of a single family home that was facing a condemnation order from a previous contractor’s renovation that turned the original one story ranch into a structurally unsound two story residence.

“Capstone first became aware of the Randell’s situation back in October when David Frechette reached out to us from Mackinac Savings Bank,” said Capstone CEO Charbel Najem. “The bank originally wrote the FHA 203k loan on the property and had since sold the note to US Bank. Their interest was purely moral in helping the Randell’s.”

Capstone’s [http://www.gccapstone.com/] review of the property concluded a variety of structural and code violation issues that were further compounded by substantial out-of-pocket expenses by the homeowner to rectify the situation when the balance of the loan reserves were blocked by a mechanics lien of the original contractor. From the exterior walls buckling with the lack of bracing by the new roof, to insufficient nailing and rafter installation, town inspectors gave the Randell’s until the first snowfall to correct the structural issues or they would have no choice but to issue a condemn order.

“This addition project started two years ago with the permit process in town taking eight months. We finally broke ground in September of 2010. This was a happy time for us as our four year old daughter was just finishing up two years of chemotherapy treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. We were heading to Disney in October for her Make-a-Wish trip and breaking ground on an addition that we had dreamed about and talked about for many years,” stated Mike & Amy Randell. “We thought we were about to realize a dream, but it turned very bad, very quickly. The contractor we worked with was extremely unprofessional and negligent with his work. After eight long months of construction, the contractor walked off the job leaving us with a job undone and many cosmetic issues. We called in another contractor for a quote to fix the cosmetic issues who pointed out so much more than just cosmetic problems. He told us that the entire structure was done wrong. We called in some structural engineers who confirmed the findings. Needless to say, we were devastated. After revealing this information to the town building inspector, he informed us that he would have no choice but to condemn our home if the issues were not rectified by the first snowfall. After three long years of emotional and financial devastation, we were soon to be homeless.”

Working with the Randell’s, Mackinac Savings Bank, and the town inspector, Capstone marshaled a crew of eight in partnership with their suppliers and internal resources to right the Randell’s residence as soon as possible.

“We were at the point of complete hopelessness until Dave Frechette stepped up to help us out. Through his contacts, we were able to connect with Charbel Najem of Capstone,” said the Randell’s. “Hard to describe how we feel about this connection other than divine intervention. We were in a place of complete despair and Capstone, through their incredible generosity, helped us out of this mess. We cannot even put into words how thankful we feel for the job they did on our home. In our eyes, it wasn't just a construction project, they truly gave us our lives back. The relief that we feel having our home restored has given us such a sense of peace. It is such a blessing to have this gift right before the holidays. We are truly grateful to the Capstone team for all that they have done for us.”

“From the plans we submitted to the town, to completion of the job was approximately two weeks in total,” said Najem. “We went through the entire property from the basement to the roof to turn the home around for the Randell’s before the holiday season. This was certainly a challenging project but it’s also the type of job we truly enjoy and care about when we can give back to the community.”

This past September, Capstone joined ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition and built a new home for the Walker family of Springfield, MA. Capstone’s over 100 volunteer tradesmen joined forces with other contractors in the region to bring that project in just under a week. The episode aired on December 2.

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With offices in Worcester and Northborough, Capstone General Contracting specializes in fire and water restoration, new additions, remodeling and new home construction.