While anyone who owns a home will probably know that renovating is never an easy task, things can become infinitely more complex if you feel those who were hired to do the job aren’t fulfilling their end of the bargain. A few days ago, it was confirmed that Chip and Joanna Gaines’ newly launched Magnolia Network had cancelled the series Home Work, after hosts / renovation experts Andy and Candis Meredith were accused by several homeowners of damaging their homes for work done for the new show. After that cancellation, we have more information on what allegedly happened while Home Work was filming.
What Aubry Bennion Said Happened After She Hired Andy and Candis Meredith
Everything dealing with Andy and Candis Meredith’s Home Work was quickly scrubbed from Magnolia Network and its website, but if even a bit of what the various homeowners who paid the couple thousands of dollars to fix up their abodes say is accurate, it’s likely that they won’t forget the experience any time soon. While the Merediths have vehemently denied any purposeful wrongdoing (we’ll get to their comments more later), those who hired the Utah couple for Home Work have also had plenty to say about what reportedly went on.
On January 4, Aubry Bennion took to her Instagram to tell her story in 18 posts. After applying to appear on Home Work to have her kitchen renovated, she started discussing the project with the Merediths in August 2019, and noted that she came forward because the series was “the well-edited version of the story” that “will show only their side” while “people, bank accounts, livelihoods, families, our health, sanity… all of us have been left on the cutting room floor.”
Bennion shared numerous text message screenshots, receipts, and more in an attempt to back up her claims, which include several troubling allegations, like saying the Merediths had flooring installed but didn’t properly seal it, so that it’s durability was rendered null and void. Bennion also noted that the amount of money she paid them for the work, simply doesn’t add up to the finished product:
I came across the IKEA receipt that included all of the cabinet boxes, shelves, door fronts, the sink, kitchen table, and chairs. The total was $3,900. The faucet and lighting fixtures she sent me were limited to $100 options available on one-day Amazon Prime to make it in time for the reveal. The knobs were made of wood, painted to match the cabinets and cost 25 cents each. While I never got the breakdown of costs I asked for, they simply don’t add up. A majority of the material cost less than $4,000. I paid for the appliances myself. 2019 lumber cost 1/4th of what it costs today. No matter how I do the math, I can never get to $40,000.
In addition, Bennion said that the flooring company told her they’d been attempting to reach the Merediths for months because of an unpaid bill they had for the flooring used in her home. Seeing as how they couldn’t get in touch with them, the last effort to try and recoup that loss was to put a lien on her house (a common practice), so Bennion ended up paying that bill, which had a balance of $1,872.
Teisha Satterfield Hawley Also Claimed There Were Many Problems With Work Timing, Quality, And Budget
Teisha Satterfield Hawley also noted a number of alleged problems on her social media, with issues over the financial aspects of the work done by Andy and Candis Meredith, along with serious delays in that work for the main living space of her family's home:
Quickly after demo things started to happen that would concern me. I remember one day I walked in and the contractors were getting ready to cut out a door in our family room! A few days later we had a crew member fall through our floor into the basement. I would call Candis and Andy and be told over and over again “this is just how it goes”... We would repeatedly be told contractors would be there a certain day to only then be told there were delays or someone had quit and that we needed to be patient. Sadly our 3-4 week project was well into the 8-10 week range, we would have weeks go by without anyone coming or hearing a thing.
According to Satterfield Hawley, even once work really got going, there were still major concerns, with one being that “after a month of nothing being done” their “excitement quickly turned into horror” when realizing that their “floors were laid wrong 3 times.” Even noting that it was so bad “you could see the entire floor shift when you stepped on it” at one point.
Satterfield Hawley and her husband, Jeff, had a meeting with the Merediths to talk over their concerns, but were quickly shocked by the news that their agreed upon $45,000 budget ($35,000 went directly to the Merediths) was already gone, which was the first time they were presented with any problems with funding:
Jeff and I sat sick in his office as [Candis] told us we would have to give her another $35-$40k to produce the product she had promised and pitched us. THIS WAS DOUBLE OUR BUDGET AND THE FIRST WE HAD HEARD ABOUT IT! This number was with us making sacrifices and doing Ikea cabinets, butcher block counters and lower quality fixtures. Hopeless is the word that comes to mind when I think of that day…We had been living in our basement for months at this point including Thanksgiving, Christmas and birthdays. We were exhausted, we had just been told all of our funds were used and our home was torn apart with bubbling floors laid.
After having several additional conversations with the Merediths about how to proceed, the couple were told they’d have to wire $10,000 immediately to get anything started again. They decided to tell the Merediths not to continue the work, but it wasn’t an easy decision and it still brings up a lot of emotions for Satterfield Hawley:
We were stuck in a demoed house, were limited on funds and were not sure what was next. To say it was awful and emotional would be an understatement. 2 years later talking about it makes me sick and brings tears to my eyes. The lack of communication, the lack of respect for our budget and the lack of respect for realizing my family was living in a basement truly makes me sick.
How Andy and Candis Meredith Responded To The Home Work Claims
As mentioned above, the Merediths deny that there was any wrongdoing on their part. Earlier this week they put a statement on Instagram, and said that “we have always kept the lines of communication open, there have always been ways for people to recover any damages,” and noted that the homeowners taking their grievances public “seems to be the easiest ways to harm us personally.” Just this Wednesday, the couple took to social media again, this time with some videos and what they feel is a full accounting of their side of the story.
Candis Meredith also tearfully detailed how their children are now being bullied at school because of the claims against them, along with the family needing to have police watch their home because of death threats:
All in all, the only thing anyone can really hope for is that no one ends up getting hurt because of the claims against Andy and Candis Meredith and their former Magnolia Network series, and that they can finally come to some solutions with the homeowners who believe they were wronged by them.
