Three months ago, Linda Eggert's "Dreamhouse Disasters" hit a nerve. Viewers sent in a stack of e-mails, and other comments -- much of them detailing new home headaches, including how one Platteville couple slipped through the cracks of Wisconsin's home building system.

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At the Madison cosmetology college at Westgate Mall, Elisha Reynolds, 22, takes her schooling seriously. She has to.

In Wisconsin, anyone who wants to cut and style hair for a living has to study 1,800 hours or nearly a year -- and pass a state test.

"It's about $10,000 to do the program here and then you have to pay, I think, maybe $200 for actual state boards test," Reynolds said.

Cosmetologists are just one of many professionals regulated and licensed by the state.

Home builders are not one of them, Eggert reports. In fact, in Wisconsin, all you need to build somebody a house is $40 and proof you have liability insurance. Sometimes, you don't even need that.

"Unfortunately, new home construction is something the state does not regulate," said Bill Oemichen, former chief of state Consumer Protection. "In fact, no one really regulates new home construction."

A new subdivision south of Platteville, Rolling Oaks, in the village of Benton, is full of construction, but at one house you can hear a pin drop.

"It's been the worst year of our lives," said Donna Reed, who is renting and paying on a house they can't live in.

Six months ago, Donna and Steve's Platteville builder stopped working on the house. Inside, there's sheetrock, but no light fixtures, outlets, flooring or cabinets. There's no bathroom or kitchen -- just a neighbor's joking note, asking the Reeds when they'll move in.

The Reeds now say probably never.

"It's just been a nightmare -- the whole thing ... and it's -- I don't know, it's like you don't want to trust anybody, anymore."

The Reeds say the builder told them he'd built 65 homes, but their friend, who manages a local building supply store, says he's never seen any home like this.

"I've seen a lot of mistakes," said Tom Butson, UBC building Supply store manager. "I've never seen anything this bad -- never -- in that 15 years."

Butson points to things like the wrong kind of nail and too few nails in the supports of the front porch, and a main support beam that doesn't appear wide enough, or supported on one end. It just ends at the wall.

"My hand is actually behind a 2-by-12 and there are some nails in behind that are going to the end of this beam here, but that's all that's holding it in the air," Butson said.

The Reeds say they were in the process of buying a manufactured house when their builder approached them.

"He came and said, 'I can build you a stick home for as much or less, and it'll be just what you want,'" Donna said. "We just fell for it. We just thought, you know, he was going be nice, ha, to us ... and he wasn't."

Work on the house stopped shortly after the third bank draw. In all, the builder got $107,000 -- just under the contract price of $110,000.

The Reeds say thousands more came out of their own pocket. They tried numerous state officials and three lawyers, all said they couldn't help.

"I don't think there's anybody that really cares," Donna said.

In December, the builder wrote his subcontractors, saying, I have "no liability for further construction of the home ... the original contract is null and void because of unforeseen circumstances ... the last payment due from the homeowners... was not received."

The builder says the Reeds owe him $10,000 to $15,000 for "extras" they OKed, but the Reeds dispute that.

They say they're being charged for contract items, or things they didn't want, such as a patio sidewalk that's broken.

"I didn't know them at all before this, but I think this is a travesty," Butson said.

The builder told News 3 his attorney wouldn't let him comment. Then he claimed he wasn't even the Reed's general contractor.

He told News 3 he " ... was a sub .... " for another company that has the same address as his Platteville home.

Documents also clearly show his signature as owner and general contractor.

As for state-mandated liability insurance, state records show he has none that's been certified -- building without it violates state law.

"This just isn't right," Donna said.

The Reeds hope their story saves someone else from learning the same hard lesson -- that the state of Wisconsin offers little to no protection for those building homes.

They say one big problem is a lack of building inspectors in some places, but the state's largest builders' group has a plan to fix that.

Read Part II of Eggert's special report to learn more.