For awhile there, it looked like Randy and Desiree Calamari were going to have a pretty sad holiday season.

But thanks to friends and family, the couple and Desiree’s mother may have a merry Christmas after all.

Just before Thanksgiving, the Calamaris were getting ready to rent out a storm damaged home to renters. The house on Wesley Road is owned by Desiree’s mother, and they were waiting for the building inspector to come give the final OK to the massive renovation. It had taken three years of finding the funding and hard work to get to this point.

Mike Calamari carefully peels away a broken and twisted window frame, to be replaced by a new one. (Staff Photo by Erik Sanzenbach)

However, the Calamaris dream of renting out the house was dashed when a vandal, or group of vandals broke into the house and did so much damage to the interior, the building was left inhabitable. Every window was broken, every wall had huge holes in it. Light fixtures and fans were torn out of the ceilings. All the cabinets and appliances in the kitchen were destroyed, and the vandals had torn apart the central air conditioning system. The vandals had even torn the toilet out of the bathroom floor and broken it into several pieces.

The Calamaris were left with the only option of selling the house, since they had no more money to repair the extensive damage. However, Randy’s brothers decided that they had to do something.

Friday morning, the Calamari brothers, Mike, Ronnie and Henry, Uncle Daniel, cousin Josh and six friends descended on the damaged house and began to repair it for free.

“Can’t be a better Christmas gift than this,” Mike Calamari said as he watched the others prepare sheetrock, fix windows and doors.

“When I heard about this, I definitely had to volunteer to help,” said friend Steve Wicks as he ripped out a bent aluminum window frame.

Desiree said that when her mother heard about the free labor, she told the workers that she would buy the necessary supplies. On Friday, a new stove and kitchen cabinets sat in the front yard waiting to be installed.

“There are no words to describe this,” Desiree said. “It’s amazing they are doing this. It is good to know there are so many warm-hearted people. It makes up for what happened.”

She said her brothers-in-law had talked about doing the repairs, but she wasn’t sure they were really going to do it. While she was talking, she got a phone call from friends Norman and Diane Pizza, who said they would donate $1,000 to the project.

Mike Calamari said it would take about two weekends to finish the house.

Desiree said she doesn’t know how the house could have been restored without the help.

“Labor costs are a major expense,” she said.

She said that once repairs were finished, they would continue their plan to rent out the house. She said her husband Randy would be working with his brothers.

“We really appreciate this,” Desiree said. “It’s a great Christmas present and it makes me want to cry.”