Our Home Makeover Journey

A few months back while shopping for craft supplies at the local Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity Resale Shop in Garland, I shop there frequently finding awesome deals on wood, tiles, and even bubble wrap! While shopping one afternoon I saw a sign posted for a Design Duel Interior Design Competition where you could win a $3000 home makeover! WOW! How awesome it would be to win that! I knew this would be a long shot but worth entering. I mean, I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity to win a home makeover. I went home and filled out the short application and sent in a few photos and bio and that was it. Just had to sit and wait to see if we won. I even tried to encourage my mother in law to enter as well. This was a fantastic prize and whoever won would be very lucky.

Then while sitting in my home office a slew of emails came in. I glanced over them and started to delete the spam emails. I came across one email that said "Congratulations, you are a semi-finalist" I thought for sure this was telling me I won the European Lottery or some car or other spam email. I checked the box to delete it. But instead of clicking the box I accidentley clicked the link to open it. Thank goodness I did! It was from the Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity Design Duel and I was a Semi-Finalist! I could not believe it! I was chosen along with 4 other families to compete for 2 spots in the design duel. Our family and friends and the public had one week to then vote for one of the semi-finalists. The top 2 families won.

I was so excited. I never win anything and with the year we had been having, this was a blessing. I ran to tell my husband who was still very skeptical that we would even win or come close to winning. He was a little excited but didn't want to get too excited since there were 4 other families fighting for the same prize. I just knew we had to win this prize. I took to the social media and relied on Facebook to help connect me with all my friends and family. Once it was official and voting began, I asked all my friends to please vote and vote often! The outcome was amazing. I could not believe the amount of people that went above and beyond to help us win this makeover. I had never felt more support and more unity to everyone then I did for that one week during voting. People I didn't know were supporting us and helping us win. I know everyone did all the could to help us in the public vote portion of the contest. I am so grateful for everyone who voted for us.

The few days after voting closed. I was so anxious and patiently awaited the outcome. I was nervous and excited at the same time. I was going over design ideas in my head and wondering what the designer would do to our house! My husband on the other hand was, "Lets just wait and see."

It was around 1:00pm 3 days after voting closed. I received an email and frantically opened it. Did we win??? "Congratulations! You are a finalist!" HOLY COW! We did it! We actually won. We did it and with the help of so many wonderful people. I wanted to cry. This was a once in a lifetime experience and we actually won!!!! Now my husband was really excited!!! All these thoughts began racing through my head. Paint colors, designs, decor! It was so exciting. As I sent in the papers they requested, they sent back times and dates for our first meeting. It was on Monday August 29 at 2:00pm. They also asked us to make time for a news segment on Fox's Good Day on September 21. Really? TV appearances too? The one and only time we have been on TV was during a vaccine segment and they wanted to film Braden getting his shots. That was a few years ago. I am just thrilled beyond belief.

I writing this to share this journey with you. After all, if it wasn't for everyone voting, we would not have won this prize. I am so thankful for everyone and hope you enjoy our journey.