For the second time in the last two years, Kaley Petersen is trying to save her late father's home from foreclosure.
The southeast Mesa home is more than just a piece of property for the 24-year-old mother of four. She said it's one of the last tangible pieces of her father she has left since his unexpected death in December 2024.
Petersen found her father collapsed on the kitchen floor. An autopsy would later reveal Peterson's father died from diabetic ketoacidosis, which went undiagnosed because her father couldn't afford health insurance, she said.
Petersen launched a baking business in May 2025, and with the help of some viral social media posts, was able to raise enough money to stop a foreclosure sale.
She named her business Wooji's Bakery
after the pet name her father, Scott Wick, used to call her.
Petersen and her husband then took out a $350,000 hard money loan in January to pay off the existing mortgage and renovate the home, which she said was unlivable at the time.
The couple planned to refinance the loan ahead of the February 2027 due date.
Petersen said she believed several payments from the hard money loan would be rolled into a new loan through the refinancing process. Instead, she and her husband got a notice on Sept. 8 saying they would need to pay roughly $30,000 by Oct. 8 to prevent foreclosure proceedings.
According to the notice, the couple stopped making payments on July 1, which meant the loan was technically in default.
The notice initially gave the Petersens till Oct. 8 to pay the roughly $30,000 owed. However, Kaley's husband, Kaden, said in a text message that their loan servicer gave them until Nov. 8 to pay back the money, because of their earnest attempts to pay back the loan.
The couple launched an online fundraising campaign on Oct 1., but so far have only raised a little more than $3,400 of the nearly $30,000 goal.
Petersen said her father was her best friend. He wasn't well off financially, but was always willing to lend a helping hand, change the oil in her car, or just listen when she needed to vent about her problems, Petersen said.
"When I lost him, it was like I lost my entire world," she said.
After her father died, Petersen worked to save the home by opening her baking business and selling cookies out of a horse trailer on an empty lot on the corner of South Sossaman Road and East Pecos Road.
Sales were initially slow, but they picked up steam as people were moved by her story of trying to save her father's house.
Public records show her father's loan servicer scheduled a foreclosure sale for September 10, 2025, but Petersen was able to raise enough money to get the sale cancelled roughly a week before the deadline.
After taking out the loan in January, Petersen said she and her husband spent all their free time renovating the house.
She said the home had mold, broken windows, and other maintenance issues that made it hard to get a traditional home loan.
Everything of her father's was pretty much destroyed, Petersen said, meaning she was forced to throw most of his possessions away.
The couple had to hire tractors to clear parts of the lot and filled up at least two large dumpsters removing trash and debris.
What remains of the house is all Petersen said she has left of her father.
"I didn't say goodbye to him, and it was the most traumatic experience I've ever had," she said.
Petersen said she's thought about selling the house, but said she's not ready to let go of her father.
Reporter Harrison Mantas, who covers Mesa, Gilbert, Queen Creek and San Tan Valley, can be reached at hmantas@azcentral.com. Follow him on X @HarrisonMantas or Instagram @harrisonmantas
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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mesa mom fighting — again — to save childhood home
