Now that she considers it, she sees that it has indeed been impossible the entire time.
Cara, a computer programmer analyst, came up with the idea to build her family’s new home from the ground up because she couldn’t afford to buy one that would be cozy for all of her kids when she started building it in 2007.

It had the impression that “if anyone were in our shoes, they would do this,” Cara remarked. “No one else saw it this way, and now that I think about it, I realize it sounds crazy.”

She spent $20,000 on a one-acre piece of land and received a building loan for about $150,000.
Her children, the eldest of whom was 17 at the time and the youngest of whom was only 2, participated in the construction of their 3,500-square-foot house.

Since there was no running water on the property, her 11-year-old daughter Jada used buckets to transfer water from the neighbor’s pond. Her son Drew assisted her in the planning process. She then made the foundation mortar by combining it with 80-pound bags of concrete.