A nurse who worked in intensive care during Covid is living in a house with no back wall after builders walked out during a renovation project.
Catherine Lewis, 44, saved up for years to turn her home into a sanctuary from her stressful NHS hospital work, but is now forced to wash up in her bathroom sink and mop up puddles from the floor when it rains.
She says she was quoted £57,000 for the work and told it would take 12 weeks - but has been living in a building site for more than a year.
She said: "I'd saved up for this for a long time - hadn't gone on holiday abroad for 13 years and even re-mortgaged the house. I just wanted to treat myself and have a sanctuary to come home to, especially after working in intensive care during Covid - but instead I got this."
Rhondda Cynon Taf council trading standards officials are now investigating complaints about N&K Kitchens, which initially took on the project but left blaming the plans Catherine supplied for the state of the house and accusing her of not having enough money to complete the work.
Meanwhile, neighbours have put a plea out on Facebook for help to finish the project. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help raise £20,000 towards the remedial work.
Catherine said she first contacted N&K Kitchens in 2021, and asked them to convert her conservatory into a kitchen extension and turn her downstairs area into one big open plan living/dining space. She claimed that a month after builders started work, progress started to slow down.
"My neighbours would call them 'the 20-minute builders' because that was how long they'd be here each time," she said. "They'd be in the van or standing in the garden chatting, rather than doing anything constructive. In the end I got so frustrated I finished breaking up a concrete floor by myself.
"Me and one of my daughters carried all the mess out to the skip - for which they then had the audacity to try charging me the labour costs."
She says the most soul-destroying part of all was discovering months later that the kitchen she'd paid thousands for had not even been ordered. In response the company says the kitchen had been ordered but was on hold.
"I'd wanted the work done in time for one of my daughters' 18th birthday, as well as the day of her A-level results - also for my other daughter's 15th birthday," said Ms Lewis. "But all those landmarks came and went, along with Christmas. And now here we are still."
The mum-of-two, of Tonyrefail in Rhonda Cynon Taf, south-east Wales, and her two teenage daughters have to wash up in a sink in the bathroom, cook and eat meals in the living room and constantly clear up puddles of dirty water. The house has structural cracking, holes in the brickwork and dropped floors.
She told Wales Online that she felt "incredibly humbled" that her neighbours were trying to help her. "There are people out there who are having to decide between putting the heating on or feeding their kids - they need help way more than me. I'm so overwhelmed and grateful."
A call has been put on the village's Facebook page for "bricklayers, carpenters, roofers, tilers, plumbers, electricians, kitchen fitters and decorators etc" to step up and help "fix the devastation left behind". It reads: "Are you able to spare any time and/or materials to help secure and waterproof this lady's home and give her the dream kitchen extension on which she spent every last hard-earned penny?"
Trading Standards are investigating N&K Kitchens, based in Tonypandy. A Rhondda Cynon Taf council trading standards spokesperson said: "We can confirm the council has received complaints about the company, which we are in the process of investigating."
Nicky Middleton, who owns the company with his brother Kyle, admitted they are "accountable for and don't feel proud about the state in which Ms Lewis' property was left".
He said the blame lay with the plans supplied by the customer, which their subcontractors then followed. He said: "Ms Lewis changing her mind about a number of things as the project went on also led to unforeseen costs arising."
Disputing the accusations regarding overcharging and onsite behaviour, he said the reason work stopped was because the customer was "running out of money" and had "six weeks' worth of unpaid invoices still owing".
He said N&K Kitchens would reimburse the £22k she had paid towards the kitchen she'd chosen - which had, in fact, been ordered but placed on hold - "minus the amount currently outstanding". "I hope there's now a chance for Ms Lewis to finally get the great build she wanted," he added.
