Cara Brookins is a mother of four from Arkansas. After leaving her husband in 2008 due to domestic violence, she knew that life must go on. She had to give her children a fresh new start if they ever had a chance of leaving the trauma behind them.
But the problem was, the family needed a place to live. She was short of funds and the family couldn't afford a new home. Brookins that was determined to give each of her children their own room, thought of building a house themselves.
"Because we'd already failed so big. What had I got left to lose?"
Without any knowledge or any prior construction experience and many trials and errors, she relied on information gained in YouTube tutorial videos.
"With just a little bit at a time, we figured out how to lay a foundation block. There was a lot of asking people at Home Depot for help too," said Brookins.
It all started not long after her depart from her husband. At that time YouTube was comparatively more basic and none of the family members owned a smartphone. Each night, Brookins and her children watched YouTube for hours and hours to learn to construct everything. They learn about certain tasks to then remember what they could before applying it on the house project the next day.
"We could afford all the supplies so we just put it together ourselves," she said. "I didn't know yet how to frame a window or a door, how to snake pipes and wires through a wall or how to draw up blueprints and obtain permits. But I knew my kids, and I knew we needed this."
Her oldest son Drew helped her draw the blueprint of the house, and get it approved by the city. Jada and Hope, her daughters, hauled water from a local pond to hand mix the concrete while cooking meals for the whole family, as well as looking after their youngest brother, Roman.
"Building a house was the most difficult challenge we ever faced," she said, "and so was rebuilding our family amid the trauma of abuse."
The family spent nine months to build the five-bedroom house they've since named "Inkwell Manor." The property also has a library, three-car garage and a workshop. It also has a two-story tree house in the backyard.
The house that is located at Hickory Drive, Bryant in Arkansas, cost the family $130,000 to build and has been appraised at over $500,000. The house passed the city building code inspection without issue.
Cara Brookins detailed her struggles of building a house from the foundation up in her book, "Rise: How a House Built a Family."
Through the book, Brookins described how she married her highschool sweetheart at the age of 18. The marriage didn't last and he joined the military. Her next marriage was to a man named Adam, who was a schizophrenia sufferer that "stalked and terrorized." After divorcing her second husband, she married another man to realize that he was just another violent and controlling partner.
Her daughter Hope, she wrote, became angry, occasionally lashing with "stinging words." Hope said that the hardest part of living with her violent step-fathers was the feeling of helplessness at seeing her mother hurt.
But building a house together had made them all stronger.
Brookins is also a motivational speaker and has written fiction novels for young adults, middle grades, and adults. She is also the host of the weekly Raise My Roof podcast through Macmillan Audio.
But her new book about her struggles, is her first memoir.
