In 1947, the author's parents, aided by friends and relatives, purchase land and commence a project to build by hand and working part-time, not only a house but a home, for their six young children over a period of a year. Having successfully completed this seemingly Herculean task and reaffirming the author's parents as members of the "Greatest Generation", the ensuing years will bring many painful and difficult challenges, ultimately causing the home, built out of both need and love, to regress from a home to only a house. Each member of that home finds themselves having to deal with the trauma that this transformational process brings to both childhood and adult years.