When our now-former builder went belly-up, he had more than our house in the works. He had multiple projects or different sizes all across the area. And, so, there are a lot of angry people out there now.

This weekend we received a letter from a family who had contracted this builder to build a workshop for them. Same story for them as us: he took a lot of money, didn't do the work, left sub-contractors unpaid and then scurried into bankruptcy, leaving everyone else high and dry. So, this family is doing what I didn't think we had the option of doing: they're starting a criminal case against the builder. They're trying to figure out where all the money went, so they're contacting people that the builder listed as creditors on his bankruptcy filings. And they're asking us for a timeline of payments that we made to him. They have sheriffs and detectives and district attorneys on board.

This makes me smile.

I know we're not going to get any money from him, but I'd be very happy to see him in jail. At the very least, that reduces the chances that I'd run into him (ahem) at the grocery store.

Still no progress on the new house. The new builder is still trying to figure out what was done, and most importantly, if we can avoid having to tear it apart to so that inspectors can do the inspections that the former builder skipped. Little things like: the foundation, the insulation in the walls (now covered by drywall).

No steps forward, five steps back.