We’ve all seen the time lapse videos on the internet, turning a two-hour project into a thirty second video, yet a local couple has been mentally documenting the transformation of a plot of land in the Tangipahoa Parish area into their currently standing home over the course of the last 40 years. This has been giving those that were considering starting from scratch, a little bit of a better idea on what it takes to go from nothing, to your own forever home in Tangipahoa Parish.
The couple began the process in 1976 with the purchase of a small plot of land in a development deal that the local bank was offering, and found themselves wondering where to go from there. There wasn’t enough money left over to hire contractors, or architects to assist them, so they started small with building a one-bedroom home, no garage and no driveway. In terms of simple living, you really couldn’t get any simpler. From there though, they knew what they eventually wanted to complete with their plot of land, and how they wanted their dream home to eventually look.
From that point, it was all about tenacity and dedication, an attached room here, a driveway there, clearing more of the land around their home to extend its size and scope. After forty years of this perseverance, you can scarcely tell the home apart from those drafted on a blueprint and built a mere half dozen years ago, going to show that often time and dedication can be just as effective as an initial investment to simply have everything done for you. The couple went from a barren patch of land that even the bank didn’t want, to finally being able to look at it in satisfaction.
There’s something to the the hands-on approach of bringing your own dreams to life that truly attach you to something. It is special when you know that you, and only you know every corner and wall in a building. Much akin to those who buy the shell of a vehicle and build it from the wheels up, there is an unmistakable connection between you and this inanimate object that you created, and when it comes to your house, there truly is no better way to see it as a home than knowing that you are responsible for every nail and screw.
Though this may not be the path of every homeowner in the area, (if it were, the expansion of our community would surely be slow going) it is a testament to the Tangipahoa Parish spirit. It’s the ability to look at something and see the potential locked away inside, and to persevere even when you want to give up on making your dreams a reality. We at Tangi Review salute their determination, and revel with them in their job finally being completed. It may have taken forty years to do, but you certainly can’t fault them when it’s their first and only home.