By Margaret Maccoll
After losing their Cooroibah home in bushfires seven months ago David and Holly Kemp and daughter Ruby, 3, this week began rebuilding their dream home thanks to the kindness of a 16-year old girl and her father.
Being under-insured the couple had to refinance and re-mortgage to rebuild.
They demolished their damaged home before Christmas then were at a loss as to how to proceed, having to deal with a cracked concrete pool, cracked concrete water tank, new septic tank requirements and the dilemmas of designing and building a new house.
“We never wanted to build. We bought this as a forever home,” Holly said.
“We were going from builder to builder. We were getting all sorts of advice. We didn’t know what was right. We got different quotes, the costs kept going up, we never understood why.”
While the couple were trying to deal with the challenges of building they received an email from a complete stranger.
“I am Sophie, the 16-year-old founder of Properties for Promise. Our goal is to promise hope to those who need it most and right now it’s those affected by the bushfires. I was reading an article of the story of you and your family outlining the horrific event that occurred when your house was destroyed. This story deeply saddened me and I could not imagine the toll it took on you. That is why we would like to help rebuild your home.”
The couple met the Brisbane-based Sophie and her father, a builder of 35 years, Scott Clements, on the site of their proposed home.
“We had a bit of a design in our heads,” Holly said. “They put it on paper and worked out the engineering.”
Holly said Scott, a designer and planner, was able to put together their plans, deal with government approvals and had called on help from work colleagues to lend a hand at reasonable cost.
“Together they put an offer to us that we couldn’t refuse but most importantly from the moment that we met this father and his young daughter we felt that we could trust them, they showed true empathy and compassion to our situation,” Holly said.
“Without Scott and Sophie coming along I don’t know where we’d be.”
Holly and David have been told their new home will be completed on 11 December.
