When life hands you lemons, make lemonade, they say. Well, we all realize that this is something better said than done, but the truth is that when we put our minds to something and work very hard to achieve it, nothing is impossible. Cara Brookins found herself in an abusive marriage. Being a mother of five, she knew she had to save her children from the toxic environment in which they were forced to live. So she left her husband, took her children with her and built herself a new house from scratch. How did she do it? Drawing building plans herself and watching YouTube videos that taught her how to lay a foundation, build a wall, run a gas line, and install plumbing, among other construction techniques. Sounds incredible, right? When she thinks about it at this point, she realizes that it seems impossible until the end.
When she started building her family’s new home in 2007, Cara, who worked as a programmer analyst, couldn’t afford a house comfortable enough for all of her children. That’s when she got the idea to build it from scratch. “It felt like if someone was in our situation, they would do that,” Cara said. “No one else saw it like that, and in retrospect I realize it seems insane.” She bought a one-acre lot for $20,000 and got a construction loan for about $150,000. His children, the oldest of whom was then 17 and the youngest only 2, were involved in the construction of their 3,500 square foot house. Her son Drew helped her create the plans, while Jada, 11, used buckets to carry water from the neighbor’s pond, since there was no running water locally. She then mixed it with 80-pound bags of concrete and formed the foundation mortar.
Every day after school, the children would go to the site and help with the process. For the most demanding tasks, this determined mother hired a part-time firefighter with building experience for $25 an hour. “In terms of knowledge, he was a step ahead of us,” she recalls. It was on March 31, 2009 that the family finally moved to Inkwell Manor, named in honor of Cara’s dream of becoming a writer. “We were mortified that building our own shelter was our best option,” Cara said. “It wasn’t something we were really proud of, but it turned out to be the most beneficial thing I could have done for myself. “If I, a 110-pound computer programmer, can build an entire house,” she said, “you can do anything you want.”
She then added: “Decide on just one goal and stick to it. Find that big thing you want to do, take small steps towards it, and bring other people with you who need healing on the journey. There’s a lot of power in that. Isn’t this one of the most incredible stories you’ve heard in a long time? If you’re as impressed as we are with this family’s determination, SHARE their incredible story with your family and friends on Facebook!
