A woman’s plan to build her dream home in an Okanagan golf community turned into a legal battle filled with nasty allegations over the final $100,000 owing on the house. She accused tradespeople of trying to blackmail and cheat her, while the contractors called her “the worst person we have ever built for.”

Penticton contractor Ellcar Ventures filed the claim in B.C. Supreme Court against Carol Elizabeth MacLeod, a retired Langara anthropology professor, for about $101,700, the amount owed on the $391,700 contract she signed.

MacLeod countersued, claiming negligence and breach of contract because she said it was a “strict fixed price contract” and Ellcar was to bear the extra costs it had charged her. She also claimed about $12,500 for lost square footage because of the installation of a retainer wall, $25,800 over deficiencies she said she had to fix, as well as expenses for moving, storage and the Airbnb she lived in for the five months she said construction was delayed.

In a recent written judgment, Justice David Crerar ruled in favour of Ellcar, awarding it what it said it was owed, minus some of what MacLeod paid to other workers to correct deficiencies, or about $94,500.

MacLeod represented herself at trial, which stretched over 12 days.

Crerar listed in his judgment examples of frustrations tradespeople faced on the project, including MacLeod’s “hovering, hectoring and melodrama.”

The judge ran entire texts of some of MacLeod’s 183 emails she included as evidence and which only represented a portion of the emails sent to contractors. One showed how a simple question about a colour option “would be met with a convoluted and protracted response.”

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