Kara Brookins was emotionally broken when her second abusive marriage ended. He became an expert at building his own house after watching YouTube videos on how to build a house.
The mother of four began looking for a new home in 2007 after being forced to sell her previous home in Bryant, Arkansas. But at the time, a computer programmer analyst could only handle so many things. Brookins also had to act to keep her family together. “But I didn’t know what it was,” he admitted.
So Brookins came up with the idea of building his own house from scratch. “If someone was in our position, they wouldn’t do this,” says Brookins, 45. “No one saw it that way, but now that I think about it, I realize it seems crazy.”
An acre of land cost Brookins $20,000, and he took out a construction loan of about $150,000. Then he started watching YouTube tutorials to learn how to run gas lines, build walls, lay foundations and install pipes.
Her children, ages 2 to 17, helped her build the 3,500-square-foot home over nine months. Drew, then 15, helped Brookins get ready. Jada, then 11 years old, had no water at home, so she used a bucket to fetch water from a neighbor’s pond.
He then created a foundation solution by combining water and an 80-pound bag of concrete. Brookins, who worked while her children were in school, said it always seemed impossible. After school, Brookins took his family to a construction site five miles away, where he worked late into the night building a new house. The YouTube video was vague and provided numerous solutions for this task.
Brookins hired part-time firefighters with construction experience at $25 an hour to handle more complex tasks. She recalls: “He was one step ahead of us in education.”
On March 31, 2009, Brookins and her children moved into a five-bedroom house. He named it Inkwell Manor because he wanted to become a writer.
Since then, Brookins has written many books for middle grades and young adults. He also wrote an autobiography, “Rising: How House Build a Family,” which will be published on January 24. Building a house helped Brookins overcome depression. Brookins added that he was perplexed that building our own shelter was the best option. “We weren’t proud of it.” In the end, it was the best thing I ever did for myself.
He says, “If I, a 110-pound computer programmer, can build an entire house, you can build anything you can imagine.” Pick a goal and stick to it. Find the big things you want, slowly go in the same direction and get those who treat you. Has a lot of influence.
