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24 >> OUR HOUSE Spring 2017 Dominion LenDing CentreS (ALL pHotoS) CoUrteSY oF CArA BrooKinS Building a foundation instead of buying a small home or an apartment in her town of Bryant, a suburb of Little rock, she got the idea to build the home she wanted—herself. "At the time, it seemed like obviously what anybody in my position, who had been through what i had, would do," she tells our House magazine. "in retrospect, i don't think that's what everybody would do. i felt this desperation that i had to do something quick to make [my children] feel more powerful and in control of their lives and give them some courage before they went out into the world. this was an opportunity to do something that would give us the house we needed in the end, but that would also give us some sort of inner strength and family strength." Brookins researched the local building codes, drew up plans and headed straight to the bank for a loan. She got turned down numerous times until a bank finally gave her what she wanted. Brookins was approved for nine-month, $130,000 construction loan. So, in December of 2007, as the cold midwest winter set in, she bought an acre plot of land and started to build. that meant laying down the concrete foundation, installing plumbing and getting electricity to the building. With her older teenaged children, aged 17 and 15, by her side to help, Brookins went to her day job in the mornings and worked on the house in the evenings. "i knew we could build a house. i absolutely knew we could figure out a way to put this together," says Brookins, noting her days were often 19 hours long. "once we started, i doubted it many times." But Brookins and her young family persevered, finishing the 3,500-square-foot house in the nine-month timeline, getting all the FOUNDATION ROOM FOR FIVE Together with her two older teenaged children, Brookins used her own two hands—and a little help from YouTube—to build the 3,500-square-foot home in less than nine months, funded by a $130,000 loan from a bank. " i knew we could build a house. I aBSOlUTElY knEw we could figure out a way to put this together. " —Cara Brookins