All Donna Williams wanted was for her backyard to be her own little slice of heaven. She even skipped out on a vacation so she could invest in her backyard.

Continue reading

To get the job done, she went to the D.C. Home and Garden Show back in March and hired a contractor. That’s where the trouble began.

She gave James Lucas a $3,000 deposit and they wrote up an agreement, estimating the work would take three weeks. Lucas' landscapers pulled weeds and dug out a section for the patio, but they didn't finish the job.

They even left a pile of sand that neighborhood cats used as a litter box.

Williams asked ABC7’s 7 On Your Side team to help her take back her yard., and after we got involved, a crew braved the summer heat to finish the job.

"Once it was (7 On Your Side) involved, I told her I'd go ahead and do it,” Lucas says.

Lucas admits he stopped communicating with Williams but blames the delay on a disagreement over the cost of removing her existing concrete patio.

He did most of the $6,000 job they agreed to for the $3,000 deposit he received several months ago.