Warrior's Wife Adventure

Back in October, I was at a Wounded Warrior Project event for wives of wounded service members in Utah. They were an amazing bunch of wives. I was in my bedroom one night sleepily checking Facebook as I am part of a few closed pages that serve as resources for other caregivers of wounded veterans and wanted to make sure there wasn’t anyone in my own Austin area group needing critical help.

I saw the post from Heroesnightout.org mentioning a Home Depot Foundation project and that you had to log into the ap on Facebook and vote for them. So, like I do for most of their posts as they are an amazing non-profit that is local to me, I forwarded it on publicly and said,”Please vote for Heroes Night Out.” This voting had been going on for a few weeks, and Heroes Night Out was in a close tie off with Amvets. About an hour or two later, I get a call from the Co-founder, Wes Pierce who tells me that if HNO gets picked as the winner, they are nominating Todd and I to get the prize so we can get our home up to code.

I couldn’t believe it. I said, well, all we need is a riding mower for Todd and a shed to store it in as Todd tries to mow with a push mower and he just can’t do it and like most men, he won’t let me do it, nor will he let our fully capable son do it.

The very last night I was in Utah, it was the end of the contest. I could see that Amvets (also a great organization), was leading. I published a thank you concession post to Facebook and thanked all of the people near and far who voted for us to win. It was astonishing at all of the support from people we did not know. It put tears in my eyes to see how much people support their veterans.

I get another call from Wes, telling me that second place winners get $5k and I thought, “Sweet!!! There is the riding mower and the shed!” I was thrilled. At breakfast, one of my new friends, Taryn Esco (also a fun-loving sass like myself) said,”Tara, I think you won.” I did not believe her as she was smiling in a way that looked like she was kidding. It turns out she was right! The voting was so close and furious that the ap crashed and the Home Depot Foundation awarded the prize to both Amvets Ohio and Heroes Night Out! It was incredible as I did not expect that at all.

I called my husband and was so excited I’m sure I spoke in a tone only dogs could hear and in his typical stoic, calm way (sounds like Eeyore due to his brain injury) he said,”Yes, I know we won. Mrs. Gray told me at band practice early this morning.” I was ready to jump through the ceiling at the thought of $25K worth of home improvements! He was going to take a nap. Isn’t that funny!

Heroes Night Out held a big meeting and press conference with staff from the Home Depot Foundation’s office. They met us and shook our hands and it was incredible. They had so many people there ready to help and pick up a hammer. This was in November and our project was scheduled to begin in January, but we did not get rolling until February because the people putting this together are good and were still working other projects around ours. Let me tell you, we have a beautiful, modern kitchen in which I can have a toaster and a coffee maker on at the same time without blowing a fuse! I also have a nice beautiful central AC and heating system thanks to the awesome guys at Allgood Heating and Air.

It took about three months for the project to be completed. During that time, Heroes Night Out parked their RV in front of our home so Todd had somewhere to go and put his legs up when he was getting fatigued from helping with the projects. It also gave me a temporary kitchen to cook from while ours was being remodeled. It was a huge help.

This was a lengthy project as gutting of our home was needed. The roof where it connected to our wall studs had to be reinforced. There were things not so right that the expert eyes of Bill Bratrud caught. Our home is old, had suffered water and mold and did not have any existing central air conditioning. It had yucky paneling on most of the walls that was moldy. This seriously wrecked havoc on our allergies and asthma for my son and I. Allgood had to do the plumbing and a group of terrific electricians who volunteered from Dell Computer’s Facilities group took care of updating the electrical so we could handle the needs of a beautiful AC unit.

I met Michael Reichert, Manager of Home Depot Pflugerville, Jonathon Sprinkle with Integrity Constructive Solutions, LLC, the Contractor who created the plans for the entire remodel, Bill Bratrud, of Home Depot, who became our main project manager and Faeydra Shworm, of Home Depot, Pflugerville (she is the master behind kitchen planning). http://austincustomremodeling.com/

Jonathon called me and said can we come over and show you the plans? I said sure! The drawing he showed me was amazing. It was our old kitchen that had the clothes washing machine next to its 1950’s Imperial gas stove that was very temperamental. It even showed recessed lighting, dry-walled ceilings, walls, and brand new beautiful cupboards. It looked like the kitchen of a grown-up as everything matched. The people who put our initial kitchen together used whatever scrap cupboards they have so it was a hodgepodge of yuck. We had a roof leak years back while Todd was deployed and I couldn’t repair the asbestos ceiling tiles and they had turned colors and molded during the years. All of that is gone! Jonathon even installed granite counter tops, which was beyond my expectations.

I have beautiful new, reliable and well-insulated appliances. It is amazing how well my new GE Oven works! It is gas, but has the convection in it. It is amazing not having to take hours to bake something as this is new and works like a dream!

More than 2 people can be in my kitchen now, vs before where there was no floor space, certainly no counter space for more than one person to work in there at a time. Now my son can do his chores while I prepare meals. Yay! We even have brand new, energy-efficient windows. No more using a can or a ruler to hold the open windows open like we did with our old windows! These are beautiful. Todd can walk in with his cane and have room to stand in front of the fridge or in front of the counter to grab something to eat and not have any problems.

The Home Depot team put a new shed together in two days! It is really nice and they painted it and put a ramp on it so Todd could drive his riding mower into the shed after he mows the lawn. It was really amazing how fast they put that together.

Home Depot provided most of the volunteer labor and most products needed for all of the projects. Todd, Liam and I are eternally grateful to all of you who contributed to the renovation of our home. It is such an improvement to our daily quality of life. To all of the people who helped with the new shed and the home labor, we can not thank you enough. Our remodel is beautiful and we are amazed that this newly redesigned home is ours.

If you are a veteran in need of repairs to your home, contact your local veterans service organization as they have to contact the Home Depot Foundation on your behalf.