Normally, I go to Home Depot to buy something for myself – a gallon or two of paint, 2x4s for a project or wooden curtain rods for my bedroom.  It’s seldom that I visit my favorite store to buy something for someone else.

But last Wednesday, my family and I did just that.  We visited the Home Depot to buy $500 worth of holiday decorations for my nominee for the Home Depot Gift of Good, the Porter Family from Killeen, Texas.  We certainly had a great time spending that gift card!

In our basket, we placed tons of white indoor and outdoor lights, pre-lit Christmas trees for the Porter’s front porch, a fresh evergreen wreath, a beautiful fresh rosemary tree, ornaments and tree decorations galore.  You are welcome to join us on our shopping trip – and see the last item that Zack thought the Porter children just *HAD* to have.

I opted for a red, silver and baby blue color scheme – perfectly patriotic for our deserving military family.  I also left enough money on the gift card for the Porters to select their own Christmas tree.  The choice between real and artificial is an inherently personal decision, and I wanted to make sure that they could make the best decision for their family.

We loaded the decorations into the back of my SUV and made our way to Killeen.  When we arrived on the Porter’s street, we saw some of the children playing in their front yard.  In order to surprise them, we parked around the corner so they wouldn’t see us coming.

We piled the decorations into a wagon that we brought along, carried some things in our arms, donned Santa hats and started walking up the street.  Suddenly, the kids saw us and started saying, “Wow!  What is that?”

“Are you the Porter family?” I yelled (and totally felt like Ty Pennington a la Extreme Makeover: Home Edition).  “Yes!” they exclaimed.  “Go inside and get your Mom!  We’ve got a surprise for you!” I called out.

I’ve never seen a group of children move so quickly.  Within seconds, mom Tina and all of her children were standing in their front yard.  The kids were cheering and Tina was almost speechless.  I wish I could have gotten photos and video of their faces, but there was so much excitement that we were just living in the moment.

We rolled the decorations into their home and the kids immediately began decorating, putting the decorations in different spots around the house.  It was a really neat sight, and their excitement was energizing.  Zack helped them rip into the Santa Express so that it could be set up.

Tina said they had just picked up a few modest Christmas decorations and figured they’d just leave it at that this year.  Not if I can help it!  The Porters now have more holiday decor than they probably know what to do with.

I love this shot of the family, with the younger kids holding some of the decorations.  They are so stinking cute!

Now, it’s YOUR turn to give the Porters a Christmas of a lifetime.  By simply visiting the Home Depot Facebook page and voting for them, you will be putting them one step closer to winning the $20,000 home makeover.  There are only 9 families in the running, so the Porters have a great chance of winning the grand prize!

You can vote each day, and I encourage you to do so.  I want nothing more than for them to be able to live comfortably in their home.  Click HERE to visit the Home Depot Facebook page, click the GIFT OF GOOD tab on the left hand side of the page, and vote for the Porters!  Voting for the Porter Family is the simplest thing you can do this holiday season, and you don’t have to enter a store or even change out of your pajamas to do so. 

Can we count on your vote?

On Veteran’s Day, the Home Depot surprised myself and 8 other bloggers with the opportunity to change a local military family’s life.  Each blogger was asked to solicit nominations for a family in our local metro area who a) had a member that was either a veteran or was actively serving in the military, b) owned their home, and c) could greatly benefit from winning a $20,000 home makeover.

As you can imagine, the nominations just poured in.  I was honored and humbled that families and friends of families where sharing their stories with me.  During the selection process, I laughed and I cried.  There are so many deserving families in my area, and I had a great deal of difficulty deciding which family would benefit the most from the grand prize.  Although each of the 9 families ultimately selected by the DIY and military life bloggers would receive $500 in holiday decor from the Home Depot, I knew that the $20,000 home makeover could improve a family’s life tenfold.

Friends, I’d like to introduce you to the beautiful Porter Family from Killeen, Texas.

The Porter Family has served our country through five tours of duty, living separately from dad Tony due to housing issues.  Not only are they living far apart, but they are in a very small house from which they are busting from the seams.  In her first email to me, mom Tina described their living situation very well:

My husband, SFC William Porter aka Tony, has been serving in the Army as an Active Duty soldier since Feb. 1996. He has been deployed to Kuwait before the war, to Iraq twice after 9/11 and is currently deployed to Afghanistan. He has also done a tour in Korea. He received a Purple Heart during his first deployment to Iraq and a Bronze Star during his second along with other various medals over the years. My husband’s current unit is at Joint Base Lewis McChord in Washington state.  However, we own a home in Killeen, and that is where myself and six of our seven children are living.

SFC William Porter, before deployment to Iraq in 1996
Our home in Killeen is a small little starter home we bought while my husband was stationed here from 1999-2008. It is a three bedroom, 1434sq ft. single family home. Over the years we have lived in this home off and on and also rented it out a couple times. Last year while we were stationed at Fort Knox KY, we even put it on the market thinking it would be better to sell than to keep up with it as well as whatever home we were living in away from here. After a year of it setting empty and putting every extra penny we could find in to updating per our Realtor’s suggestions we made the decision to just move myself and the children back in since my husband was deploying again anyway.

So why am I asking for us to be the family you choose for the Home Depot Gift of Good? We still have a list of things we need to do to this house in order to live in it comfortably. Our main issue at this time is our foundation. The house had had issues before buying it and was re-leveled sometime after it was built but before we purchased it. Upon returning to the home we found one whole corner of the home up and out of the dirt!  It seems as though since we live beside a ditch our yard has been eroding away from this side of the house. One way we were told we could fix this would be to put a retaining wall along side the home, ditch side, and refill the yard with fill dirt. I called around and did get a quote for about $7,000 to do this. Without this fixed our foundation is highly likely to end up having more issues which will end up costing more.

Another issue we are having is rooms in the house. At this time I have three boys, ages 13, 11 and 5 in one room, my two youngest girls 9 and 7 in our smallest room and then my 16 year old shares the master bedroom with me. This is working now but at some point we are hoping my husband will return to the area and it is really going to make things tighter trying to accommodate. Since our garage has never really been large enough to fit our vehicles in we figured if we could ever afford to we would convert it into another room. That one extra room would allow us so much more comfort for our children!

Lastly, out of everything we’ve had repaired, replaced or updated in the house our AC unit is still the original from when it was built. Having our ducts replaced and cleaned has helped with our bills and keeping the air flow adequate through the home but it seems each year we are paying for repairs to keep the old unit going. Replacing it would be a great benefit to us and allow us to put money elsewhere.

My family would be grateful to receive help with any of these home issues. We have been trying our best to keep up with updates and repairs, but it would be awesome to just sit back and relax a bit in our home without worrying about how we are going to get these things completed without taking away from other things our family needs.

The voting kicks off in the Home Depot Gift of Good contest on Tuesday.  For two weeks, you will be able to visit Home Depot’s Facebook page and vote on the family you most want to receive the $20,000 home makeover.  I desperately want it to be the Porter family, so I will be harassing you for your vote (you’ve been warned!).  This family has given so much to our country, and I know the Glue Gun Army will give a few mouse clicks to them.  If you haven’t already, go ahead and “like” the Home Depot on Facebook so you’ll be ready when it’s time to vote!

Tomorrow, I will share with you my family’s surprise visit with the Porters.  Their wonderful spirit was just one of the things we had to be thankful for over the weekend.  I hope you had a great holiday, too.

P.S. – My One Project Closer giveaway for a $50 gift card to Home Depot runs through tomorrow.  If you haven’t already entered, go and do so now!  Lots of great tips have been shared for saving money during the holidays.