Cara Brookins was emotionally damaged after the end of her second abusive marriage. She got back on her feet by building a home for herself, a skill she learned from online tutorials.

When she was evicted from the house she lived with her soon-to-be ex in Bryant, Arkansas, the single mother of four began looking for a new place to live in 2007.

The analyst programmer’s existing budget only allowed for a computer that was too little.

Brookins felt obliged to act in order to restore peace to her own family. She goes on to explain, “However, I had no idea what that should be.”

As a result, Brookins conceived a plan to build her own home.

“No one else viewed it this way, and in retrospect, it sounds absurd.”

Brookins paid $20,000 for one acre of property and borrowed $150,000 for development.

She also began studying YouTube tutorials to learn how to construct a concrete slab, frame a wall, connect a gas line, and install a plumbing system.

Her children, ages 2 to 17, stepped in to help her build the 3,500 square foot home for nine months.

Drew, at the age of 15, assisted Brookins in the planning process.

Because there was no running water on the property, Jada, then 11 years old, used buckets to transport water from a neighbor’s pond, which she then mixed with 80-pound sacks of concrete to create the foundation mortar.

“It seemed impossible the whole way through,” Brookins, who worked while the kids were at school, recalls.

After school, Brookins and her family drove the five miles to the building site, where they toiled until far into the night.

Back in the day, YouTube videos were pixelated and there were always multiple ways to accomplish the same goal.

To assist with the more challenging chores, Brookins paid $25 per hour to a part-time firefighter with construction experience. He was more knowledgeable than the rest of us, she reflects.

At midnight on March 31, 2009, Brookins and her children settled into their new five-bedroom home. She dubbed it Inkwell Manor to reflect her ambitions as a writer.

Several novels for young adults and middle-grade readers by Brookins, as well as her memoir Rise: How a House Built a Family, will be released on January 24.

By working on the house, Brookins was able to pull herself out of her funk. Brookins continues, “We were horrified that constructing our own shelter was our only option.”

“It wasn’t anything we were really proud of. It ended up being the best thing I could have done for myself.”

“If I can build a complete house as a 110-pound computer programmer,” she says, “you can achieve anything you set your mind to.”

“Set a single goal and stick to it. Find that big thing you want to do, take baby steps toward it, and bring people who need to heal along for the ride. That holds a lot of power.”

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