About

Why a Blog?

For 18 months I carried a bucket of tools around in my car. I fixed things in exchange for family members letting me crash at their houses while I attended grad school and job hunted after a layoff. With that bucket of largely basic tools, I was able to correct nuisances my loved ones were dealing with daily. Things they thought they would have to tear walls open to fix or hire someone to deal with. I came to realize that I have a slightly uncommon skill set and that I want to share my knowledge to empower your dream projects.

My Goals

Who I Am

My name is Cara. I hail from all over in addition to Hailing to the Victors. This current chapter of my life finds me in Pennsylvania. My life has been one ongoing saga of twists and turns but I am lucky in the fact that I have family that stands with me and supports me on my journey no matter how far away I lived. As a kid I remember making things, most engineers talk about taking things apart, but I remember creating things. I also had the opportunity to help my Dad with projects around the house growing up which exposed me to the world of fixing and improving things. Apparently the result was a crafty girl who could throw a pot as well as she could wield a drill. Instead of art school I became an engineer and most recently a project manager.

Acknowledging Diversity

You usually hear the phrase “overcoming adversity” but in my experience I have had to come to terms with the fact that the life plan I had in my young college mind was idealistic and not my reality. When I was 24 I thought I would never work past the age of 25. That I would have to sell the house I had watched being built and move north to live with my parents. All because of a thing called fibromyalgia. A fun mess of extreme fatigue, pain, and mind fog that at that time in my life was debilitating. Since then I have worked and rested hard to get things done in spite of my medical ridiculousness. My mantra is “I’ll Survive” because I know that even if I need to modify what I do to accommodate my fibro, I have handled worse, so I can get through.

I share this for three reasons:

Single But Not Alone

Which brings me to my next point. As a result of my health and living in the boonies for way too much of my adult career, I have always been a independent, single, woman. I have owned three consecutive homes across three states around the country. I have done countless projects at all of them. With my fibro there are times I know I need to ask for help. I also know I should probably ask for it more often than I do, but what can I say, I’m stubborn. Having stated that, I do value the people in my life whether they are family, neighbors, coworkers who have made it clear that it is not only ok but appreciated if I reach out when I could use a second pair of hands on something. Asking for help when we need it doesn’t make us less independent, I think it makes us wiser.