STAMFORD -- Richard Prowse was getting ready for work one day several weeks ago when he saw a heartbreaking story in the newspaper.
In the story, a local family said it lost more than $17,000 to a contractor who had disappeared after they hired him to make their house more accessible for their wheelchair-bound son. They said their home was uninhabitable because a contractor had gutted it before absconding with their money.Prowse, himself a contractor, was upset and began working the phones and printing fliers to assemble volunteers.
Companies donated wallboard, kitchen cabinets, baseboards and other supplies. Contractors started showing up at Hatch and Bailey, the Stamford lumber yard where Prowse is a sales representative, to help.
"I've called a million people. My fingers are tired from dialing," he said.
Prowse told the story yesterday amid the din of construction at a Catoona Lane home, where volunteer contractors were drilling wallboard into place and spackling them in preparation for painting. Prowse re-set the windows last weekend, and plans to order new doors tomorrow. A new plumbing system also will be installed.
"I want them to have all new stuff," Prowse said.
The house should be completely rebuilt in the next few weeks, he said. Donations of materials have poured in, along with uncounted volunteer contractors.
"It's impossible to guess at this point," he said about the number of volunteers. "They come in shifts. They come in waves."
Meanwhile, the Brown family beamed at their good fortune.
"It's what I call a miracle," said Renee Brown, mother of Eric Brown Jr., an 18-year-old Westhill High School student who has cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus, a buildup of fluid in the brain.
The trouble started when the family - using money raised by donors, including through a gospel concert - hired Frank Bontempo, a contractor from East Haven, to renovate the home, Eric Brown Sr. said.
Bontempo took the money, gutted the house and disappeared last fall without finishing the job, according to Stamford police. He was arrested in February on charges of first-degree larceny, first-degree criminal mischief, violation of home improvement contracting laws and violation of solicitation and sales rules.
Bontempo showed them home improvement licenses and insurance papers that seemed legitimate, Brown said. Bontempo could not be located for comment yesterday.
The family has gotten none of the money back. Brown said Bontempo sent them a check for more than $8,000, but it bounced. Prowse said he's put the family in contact with a state fund that compensates victims of fraudulent contractors.
The family had tried without success to restore their house.
"We did what we could until we ran out of money," Brown said.
Since October, the family has been staying at the Stamford Suites hotel for $1,200 a week.
"I don't know how we make it," said Brown, a warehouseman for a moving company who delivers newspapers on the side.
The family longs to leave the hotel and return to the house, where they have lived since 1994.
"I can't wait. It's like a dream come true," Renee Brown said in Eric Jr.'s room yesterday after workers had installed new drywall.
Volunteers were coming and going yesterday; Renee Brown estimated that as many as 100 would show up. Area businesses - including Liz Sue Bagels, Garden Catering and Sergio's Pizza - donated food for the workers.
Prowse estimated the value of the job at $70,000. He said the work could be done in three weeks, but the pace will depend on whether they get enough materials. "It's not a lack of guys," Prowse said.
Noel McNamara, a Stamford drywall contractor, said he got a boost from helping the family.
"There but for the grace of God go you, go I," he said. "It could be any one of us, you know."
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/local/scn-sa-handicap.house1apr01,0,3662285.story?coll=stam-news-local-headlines
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