SAN ANTONIO – Home Improvement projects can be costly and stressful, but when things go well, the end results are often worth it. That’s not been the case for one FOX SA viewer. She’s on her second contractor and has spent tens of thousands of dollars on renovations. Nearly two years later, her home still is not finished.
FOX SA’s Investigative Problem Solver Darian Trotter lays out what’s been an emotional timeline for the homeowner.
Trotter asked, “How would you describe this whole ordeal? Horrible, it’s a mess,” Garza replied.
A homeowner’s remodeling nightmare.
Trotter asked, “How do you feel? Violated and abused, you know,” Garza said.
It began as a project with clear focus and a reasonable plan. The plan was to restore a home that’s been in Mary Alice Garza’s family for generations.
“This house is 100, maybe three or four years,” Garza said. “I grew up here. This was my grandmother’s house.”
“So that’s why we want to keep it in the family,” Garza said.
Mary Alice’s vision for 629 Carolina Street would require extensive remodeling.
In August of 2024, she hired Albert Olveda Junior with A & A Remodeling. This guy.
“It took way long than expected due to waiting for other trades to finish,” Garza said.
We’ll hear more from him in a moment.
“He was supposed to open it up, you know, knock the walls down and open it up,” Garza explained. “Open concept and you know remodel everything.”
Plans included adding a bathroom in the bedroom, reconfiguring the home’s wiring, outlets, and electrical panels to handle modern power demand all while passing current building codes.
Mary Alice wanted updated appliances, because why not.
Says she agreed to pay Albert $9,000 a week for the estimated 9-week project.
Things started off great, she says, or so she thought.
“I was trusting him, that he was telling me the truth and he says, I’m almost ready and it’s going to be finished, and it’s going to be finished on time and it never was,” Garza said.
She says 9-weeks turned into more than 9-months full of delays and excuses.
“His grandmother was sick, he was taking care of his grandmother,” Garza explained. “All these people were dying. You know, it was excuse after excuse.”
She got the city involved to pressure albert to redo some areas; bringing them up to code — which caused even further delays.
“And the city would tell him, that needs to be corrected,” Garza said.
But she says pressure from the city didn’t seem to work.
Mary Alice was so frustrated, she fired Albert, even though she says he didn’t finish work she’d already paid for.
A claim Albert Olveda Jr. denies.
Trotter asked, “Has she paid for work that you did not complete? Albert Olveda Jr. replied. “She paid for the work that we did complete.”
He answered the question, but didn’t answer the question. So, I rephrased it.
Trotter asked, “So in your mind, you don’t owe her anything? You know what I do owe her… I owe her to help her move into her home and that’ why we’re doing it for free,” Olveda Jr. replied.
Albert agreed to meet with us to clear his name and protect his reputation.
We checked. A & A Remodeling is not accredited with the Better Business Bureau and has a C-rating.
Complaints include “unfinished work and mistakes., various no call/ no shows, and always had an excuse for not showing up.” “We had to hire another crew to finish the job.”
Another person writes, “He did not apply for necessary permits and our project was red tagged. He quit responding and disappeared after the project was locked out by the city.”
“You know, lately we fell off and our main goal now is just to move forward and get our reputation back where it needs to be at 100 percent,” Olveda Jr. said.
Even though Mary Alice had long hired another contractor, Albert agreed after meeting with us to provide free labor using several members of his crew to help finish the home.
Trotter asked, “You want to help her get into her dream home?” Olveda Jr. replied, “Correct.”
We met last October, a year after Mary Alice says she hired him.
Albert said he would compile a list of things he’d complete free of charge, and he agreed to provide a timeline of when he and his crew would start and finish the work.
October 7th, he explained in a text he was delayed sending us the plan because his grandmother was in ICU.
A week later he promised to have an update October 16th, but it wasn’t ready. We got the list a week later.
Albert gave us a start date of Wednesday, November 26th. The day before Thanksgiving with an estimated completion date of Sunday, November 30th.
By December it was clear he hadn’t started the work.
He didn’t respond to my texts asking for the status of the project. No response December 3rd, nor December 9th. Ghosted.
“I want the house finished,” Garza said.
Mary Alice eventually hired a second contractor to complete renovations, she says Frank Castilla with Castilla’s Construction hasn’t been much better.
“Sad, you know, it’s like so horrible,” Garza said. “Because this is a man that told my husband, oh we got your back, we’re gong to help you get this house finished.”
She says Frank has done much of the work you see here, but a year after hiring him she says she’s still waiting for him to finish.
Frank told the Problem Solver during a phone call, the electrical and HVAC work were quote “Not his deal, but he’d be finished his portion in about two weeks.”
That was back in October of last year.
Since then, Frank Castilla never responded to our follow up texts.
But he has been explaining countless delays to Mary Alice via text.
She shared the long list of things Frank still needs to finish at 629 Carolina Street.
Trotter asked, “Where do you go from here? Garza replied, “Well, that’s why I called you all to see if you all could help.”
Two contractors and countless delays, still the work is not completed two years later.
We’re pressing the City for answers about accountability.
We asked, if the City should hold contractors accountable to complete work they’ve been paid for.
We’re told it becomes a civil matter. But in a statement the city says, “Development services has multiple safeguards in place to help protect residents from unqualified or unethical contractors.”
Here’s a list of contractors who are in good standing with the City of San Antonio.
Here’s a list of contractors who’ve violated multiple sanctions but later reinstated.
As for Mary Alice, she says Frank is still on the job but the project is barely moving forward, And after spending $200-thousand, she’s financially taped out and hopes a contractor steps up to help get her into her dream home.
If you’re out there, and interested, give us a call.