St. Jude Dream Home was just that for Mississippi Coast family. Then the nightmare began
Reality Check is a Sun Herald series holding those in power to account and shining a light on their decisions. Have a suggestion for a future story? Email mynews@sunherald.com.
When Teresa Teague got the call about winning a brand new custom home in Biloxi, she was in shock.
She and her husband had lost two houses to hurricanes, one to Katrina in 2005 in Biloxi and the second to Isaac in 2012 in LaPlace just outside New Orleans.
“We lost everything twice on the exact same day in two different states,” Teague said Thursday. “We won this house three years later. It was like God was evening things out.”
Once the shock wore off, she felt completely blessed to have won the St. Jude Dream Home, valued at $450,000, in 2015. Elliott Homes has donated time and materials to build the houses as an annual fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, with tickets sold to pick a winner.
Today, Teague is pretty steamed over a structural problem that she says builder Elliott doesn’t want to fix.
Architectural shingles were installed on a portion of the roof without the pitch needed to drain off water, several inspectors have concluded. A different roofing material should have been installed.
“This is a major no-no in the industry and any certified roofer or licensed contractor will be able to tell you this,” says an inspection report from Samuel White of New Horizon Roofing. “There’s no workaround to installing shingles on a roof of this pitch . . . “
Teague had hoped Elliott would make the needed repairs, but she can’t even get anyone from the company to come look at the roof, she said. Elliott employees have not returned the Sun Herald’s calls about the house.
Family settles into St. Jude Dream Home
The Teagues moved to LaPlace for work after Hurricane Katrina, but were back in Biloxi after Isaac. They were living only one street over in the same subdivision where Teresa Teague watched the St. Jude Dream home being built. She bought a ticket a few days before the annual drawing after a receiving a letter that some were left.
Many people sell their dream homes, but the Teagues took out a mortgage so they could pay the $180,000 in income taxes it cost.
The couple loved the house. It was filled with custom features: high ceilings, crown molding, granite counter tops and engineered wood flooring. The few problems they found within the first couple of months of moving in, Elliott fixed.
But several months ago, they saw a brown stain on one side of their laundry room ceiling. They thought the air conditioning system was causing the problem, but the air conditioner repairman said not. He discovered crumbling soffit and fascia around the roof.
Rotten roof, termites discovered
What’ more, there were termite holes in fascia board. The Teagues called a roofer. “He said, ‘This whole roof is rotting,’ “ Teresa Teague said.
The flatter part of the roof covers a portion of the home’s rear, including the laundry room, garage, sun room, part of the living room and, possibly, part of the master bedroom.
Teague said Formosan termites are feasting on the rotten wood. In addition to the fascia board, termite activity has been found in the garage ceiling, possibly, in the adjacent laundry room. The termites can’t be treated until the rotten wood is pulled out and the roof replaced, her pest control company told her, because the termites will just come back.
She has no idea how extensive the termite infestation has grown. She and husband Tommy Teague have been told they’ll spend about $15,000 to replace any rotten wood and the roofing material over the flatter roof.
Elliott told her the roof was no longer under warranty, she said. But because the wrong materials were used on the roof, she is upset that the company won’t fix the problem.
“The quality of the house we thought was great,” she said. “We recommended Elliott to everybody. Their houses are beautiful. That’s what’s been most disappointing.”
