Never Again: Building the Dream House

“Never again,” Richard La Plante promised after he and his new wife completed building their family home in East Hampton, New York. But he did not keep his promise. Instead he bought twenty acres of raw land on a mountaintop located three-and-a-half thousand miles away in a small town that he had only visited by Internet ... and the nightmare began.

Richard and his wife were soon dealing with a house in New York to sell, a massive loan to pay off for the newly purchased land, dishonest build...