AURORA, Colo. — Cat and Felicia Kirk have had to get creative with their space, or lack of it in their temporary extended-stay hotel suite. Their brand new custom-built home was one of the thousands that had formaldehyde coated floor joists. They tell Denver 7 unclear move-in timelines and having to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for rentals and hotels has made the experience a nightmare.
Their cupboards are stuffed to the brim with food, and so is every corner of their two room suite that for now, is housing most of their eleven person family.
Their family, including 6 foster kids, is living at the Staybridge Suites near Stapleton after their move-in date for their Aurora area dream-home has been continuously pushed back by the builder.
This past summer, they were about to move into their eight-bedroom, 4,000 square foot customized dream home, built by Richmond American Homes.
“From the flooring to the countertops, to the sink, to the faucet...to the cabinets to the backsplash,” said Felicia.
But there was an issue, when it was discovered that their home was one of thousands built with formaldehyde covered floor joists.
“...elected to remove and replace all of the affected joists in all the homes,” said Cat as she read the letter from the builder aloud.
The builder agreed to pay for their rent and utilities while they waited for the fix.
“Not ok, ‘We are gonna try to work on getting you a temporary house because there is 11 of you.’ That would’ve been nice if they said that,” said Felicia.
What’s worse is they told Denver7, they haven’t seen any of that money. They say they’re out close to $9,000. Part of the issue they say is they couldn't get a solid answer about a move-in timeline.
“When we got to the I don’t know, the fourth time to extend, the landlord had found a new tenant. So we had a week to get out of our home, put everything in storage,” said Cat.
So for now, it’s week to week it seems at the extended stay hotel. And while it’s nice, it seems to get smaller and smaller as the bills rack up.
“I don’t know how many people have nine or 10 grand just lying around, especially when you have kids,” said Cat.
A spokesperson for Richmond American Homes told Denver 7, it was working to resolve the reimbursement issue immediately.
