YOUNGSVILLE, N.C. (WNCN) — A Franklin County family is now back in their newly renovated home thanks to some help from CBS 17 and a Youngsville builder.
Back in January, after a contractor disappeared with thousands of dollars for repairs that were never completed, the Creager family turned to consumer investigator Steve Sbraccia for help.
A local builder saw our story back in March and came to the family’s rescue.
Today was moving day for the Creager’s, returning to their home that was damaged by a fire in August of 2018.
“Before it was a horror house. Now it’s beautiful,” said Katie Creager.
Here’s how the transformation occurred:
Youngsville based-Atlas Custom builders saw our story of the Creager’s plight and rode to their rescue like the Calvary.
“We had to do a whole lot of work to get it livable from where it was,” said Brandon Wiggins of Atlas Custom Builders.
Last August, a fire caused by a malfunctioning dryer, left the Creager home with $97,000 worth of damage.
Then the family got burned a second time when the contractor they hired, CMC Flooring Enterprises, took $34,000 in insurance money and disappeared last January leaving only 25 percent of the home repaired.
“What he did, some of it was salvageable but not much,” said Wiggins. “We had to pull a lot of it out.”
Frustrated with the disappearance of CMC Flooring contractors, the Creager’s reached out to CBS 17.
As we investigated, we found CMC Flooring had abandoned their Durham headquarters.
Complaints were filed with the state contractor’s board which revoked owner Salvador Gutierrez’s contractor’s license.
Youngsville police issued a warrant for Gutierrez’s arrest which is still outstanding.
After seeing our initial story—Atlas Customer builders stepped in because the Creager’s were trying to do the home repairs themselves before the insurance money for alternative housing ran out—leaving them homeless.
“What we initially saw and thought of is—this family has been put in a terrible position they’ve had a horror story by the contractor and we can help make it better,” said Wiggins.
Atlas literally rebuilt the home from the ground up.
“When we saw the finished result of the place, I didn’t know what to think,” said Katie.
Her husband Chris added, “We moved in in January of 1991 and it didn’t look that good when we moved in.”
Atlas took a loss on this renovation while racing the clock to get the Creager’s home finished before time ran out for them.
“We had to go above and beyond to give them something they could be proud of,” said Wiggins.
Meanwhile, the search for the owner of CMC Flooring Enterprises continues and Katie Creager says she’d like to see him found so that justice could be served.
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