SANFORD -- Mary and Darin McHenry watched Thursday as demolition workers scooped up debris from what once was their home and piled it into a big truck to haul it away. 

   Their house, which was donated to Habitat for Humanity in 2002, had so much mold in the attic that Habitat officials decided it would be less expensive to have it demolished and a new manufactured home moved in than to fix the problems. Bad breaks and mistakes have left Habitat officials with a big bill and an even bigger disappointment: the gift of a good Samaritan turned into a pile of boards and crumbled drywall. 

 "The thought is a good one: why don't we see if we can do good by this house?" Habitat Executive Director Gary Jones said of the donated home.

    The house was moved from Midland to Sanford on a lot Habitat had purchased. In 2003, construction crews built foundations and a crawl space for the house. But as movers came up the road to drop the house on the new supports, they saw the foundation was four feet too short and it had to be fixed. During the building process, one construction coordinator resigned because of schedule conflicts and another was fired for incompetence, Jones said. He added that the village building inspector signed off on the completed work, indicating it was done correctly. However, the inspector, Edward Gannon, said while he did sign off on the project, he should have been contacted when the repairs to the foundation were made and he wasn't. Only later did he discover the work was done improperly.

    Last year, the McHenrys reported mold in their attic. Habitat paid for a Detroit company to find ways to get rid of the mold, which was caused by moisture that wasn't draining properly from the crawl space. The company suggested treating the rafters with bleach solution and venting the bathroom fan through the roof. Habitat replaced the roof and added insulation in hopes the mold would be gone. But early this year it came back even worse than before.

    "We didn't catch it in time," Jones said.

    Habitat then hired two companies to analyze the mold. The companies found five types of mold and said people whose systems are sensitive to molds would have problems living there. Darin said he saw white, brown and green mold. Mary, who said her whole family suffers from allergies, said she began to feel run down.

    "It was all over the OSB (oriented strand board) and the attic, on the rafters," Darin said.

    Jones said the fixes to the house cost Habitat about $3,000 and the mold analyses $1,500. Moving a house usually costs $10,000, and demolishing this one will end up costing about $4,500. Then there's the cost of a new house, which needed to be moved in quickly so the McHenrys would have as little time as possible without a permanent home. He expects their new house to be ready by June 1.

    "We wanted the family to be able to move back into a fresh house as soon as possible rather than waiting the normal four to six months that it would take to build a Habitat house," Jones said.

    Habitat board President Linda Holder called the situation "a terrible thing to happen," but said "we have a family in need and we believe we needed to do something immediately."

    Integrity Homes, which demolished the old house and will install the new one, was "extremely professional and supportive," Jones said. The owner convinced suppliers to cut their prices for Habitat.

    Jones said he doesn't want to name those who made mistakes because so many people were involved in checking and fixing the house and it would be difficult to know for sure who they might be.

    "I don't know how useful it is to assign blame," he said. "We're taking care of it."

    He wants to assure community members and donors they can continue to trust Habitat. In the past 17 years, the organization has helped 50 families move into homes.

    The McHenrys' home is the second donated home Habitat has accepted. The other one, which also had to be moved, "wasn't as well built as our normal Habitat home," Jones said. "When you move them, you crack things. It wasn't a satisfactory experience.

    "We certainly want to look even harder at accepting older donated homes."