When Jennifer O’Donnell and her husband, Michael moved to Missouri, they purchased a home they had planned on being their retirement home.
It was their first home — a place where they could raise their two children, Michael Jr. and Rileigh — and a place they could grow old in.
But if you asked them today if their dream home was still a “dream” home, the answer — “No”— would come quietly and be accompanied by tears.
The O’Donnell’s story really begins with the move from California nearly four years ago.
Michael, who serves in the Marines, would be stationed at Fort Leonard Wood, and while here, the couple decided to purchase a home so that Jennifer could continue with the work she loved — providing in-home childcare to families.
It’s something that has kept her going through many difficulties, including papillary thyroid cancer and a husband that has been gone a total of three years and four months since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11.
To make Jennifer’s dream of a child care facility a reality, the couple spent their life savings and borrowed some funds — almost $60,000 — to renovate the basement and add an addition onto their home.
It seemed like a no-brainer. They went out for bids, hired a contractor and work began in August 2006.
Nearly seven months into the project, after the basement had been finished, the contractor simply walked out. It was then they realized that the dream had become a nightmare.
A licensed building inspector has found the addition uninhabitable, even though it is currently 80 percent complete.
“This whole entire new addition has been a stress on our family,” Jennifer O’Donnell said quietly, tears coming to her eyes.
“I just feel like our family can’t move forward. We’ll be stuck.” 
Several problems exist in the addition, including electrical issues, a leaking roof that has caused mold to grow on walls, a single steel beam to support an entire upstairs floor above the garage, pieced together four-by-fours and shimmys where those boards weren’t long enough to reach their destination make up the framing of the home.
The floors upstairs sag because of the lack of support, and downstairs the floors have cracked because the ground beneath it has literally washed down the slope in their backyard.
Cracks in the walls send the air right through the house when the wind blows and walls that are supposed to be straight just quite simply, aren’t, angling toward an unknown point.
As O’Donnell walks through the home, pointing out the construction issues, she shares that the family has contacted several other people for help, including an attorney.
She said the military can’t offer assistance in a formal manner because their home is not on-post housing, other contractors won’t even attempt to correct the problems because of liability concerns. Tearing down and starting fresh is something the O’Donnell’s simply can’t afford.
“I put off calling him for the longest time because I couldn’t stand to be turned down again,” Jennifer said, explaining she contacted homebuilder Randy King as one last wing and a prayer.
King turned out to be her godsend, and has agreed to take on the project without charging the couple labor.
But initial estimates place the cost of materials needed to correct the problems between $20,000 and $30,000, and even then the number could grow. King will have to tear out the walls and study the framing to see it can even support what’s being built.
Meanwhile, Michael O’Donnell is away, serving yet another tour of duty for his country. Following a two-year unaccompanied tour to Japan after being promoted to first sergeant, Michael is in Afghanistan, doing his fourth tour of the Middle East.
Jennifer continues to wage through the problems that she literally sleeps next to. Every extra dollar goes to the couple’s building fund, and still, she knows, that without support and help from the community, her home will most likely remain as it is.
“We just need help,” she said, explaining that donations of materials, time, and if people are willing, finances, are things the couple is looking for.
They’ve done everything they can think of. Legal action is too costly, and while their attorney suggested filing for bankruptcy, that’s an option the O’Donnell’s are not willing to take.
Jennifer explains, saying they’ve worked too hard for what they have to lose it all, and that the bankruptcy would destroy her business, which she still operates in the finished basement with the support of the parents of the children she watches and teaches behind her.
“All of our day care parents know about it and they’ve all been very supportive,” she said, noting the basement is habitable.
Parents have even begun collecting cans to help raise money for a  required fence to be put in the backyard for the day care children’s play area.
The O’Donnell’s have applied to Extreme Home Makeover, but while the show seemed to present initial interest, they haven’t heard from them in months.
“I know there’s people out there who need it more than we do,” Jennifer said, trailing off. “This is supposed to be the house we retire in.” 
She has a goal of having the house completed before Michael returns from his tour overseas. That date is tentatively in early 2010, leaving her little more than a year to fix what has taken a year to make and a moment to destroy.

To donate, send a check payable to the Jennifer O’Donnell Housing Fund at Security Bank of Pulaski Co., PO Box S, Waynesville, MO 65583.
For material or labor donations, contact Randy King at 573-774-2208.