Built By Youtube!

Meet the family who made their dream home from scratch – by following how-to videos

- Charlea Sieberhagen

THEY say the internet can teach us to do almost anything. So when a mother of four didn’t have enough money to pay builders to build her dream family home, she decided to do it herself – learning everything she needed to know from videos she found on YouTube.

For nine gruelling months Cara Brookins, a computer analyst from Arkansas in the United States, and her children mixed concrete and hauled bricks.

“Our toes nearly froze off as we mixed concrete in a wheelbarrow, our back muscles ached . . . and we sweated and itched our way through fibre glass insulation,” Cara recalls. “It was incredibly intense. There was nobody going to the movies. There were no dates, no hanging out. It was all hands on deck.”

When the kids returned from school they’d get busy straight away, sometimes working late into the night with only the headlights of their mom’s car to provide light.

It was backbreaking work but it all paid off in the end. They’re now the proud occupants of a comfortable, spacious five­bedroom home with three garages. Their 325 m2 double­storey labour of love also paved the way for a new career for their mom as an author and motivational speaker. With her inspirational book, Rise: How A House Built A Family, which hit the shelves earlier this year, the plucky go­getter has been showing the world just how much can be achieved with grit, determination and elbow grease.