A rejected offer.
A family in a camper.
A spring that waited.
We were newlyweds at the height of the COVID housing market — outbid on property after property, watching houses go for $50,000 over asking. Then one morning, a listing in Rome stopped us cold. The house was a wreck. The land was breathtaking. It was going to silent auction that day — cash only.
We made calls, begged, and got a family yes. We put in an offer $50,000 above the competition — and they rejected us anyway. Ten days later, the phone rang. The other offer had fallen through. We paid $106,000.
We had $40,000 from the sale of Chris's previous home and not much else. Personal loans. Every dollar of Laura's income. Money borrowed from the trucks, from the camper, from everywhere it could be found. Chris came home from his day job each evening, changed his clothes, and rebuilt the house until long after dark — for seven months — while we lived on the property with six-year-old Sam watching every nail go in.
"There was always something more to do. I just kept going." — Chris
When the house was finished we refinanced, rolled every debt into a mortgage, and turned our attention to the property itself. The cottage was the plan to fund it all — a small structure, maybe a few guests a month. For the build, we used 0% introductory APR business credit strategically alongside everything else — the same approach Laura now teaches through Credit Dusters.
What actually happened was something we didn't write. Strangers started arriving and calling it magical. A couple said the sound of the water healed something in them they didn't know needed healing. The vision expanded. What began as survival became a calling — a place where couples step away from the grind and let the water do its work.
Hidden Springs was never supposed to be this. That's exactly why it is.
