PEA RIDGE, Ark. — After over three years of waiting, retired sergeant Andrew Butterworth and his family were finally able to move into their brand-new home in Pea Ridge.
"To finally be here and to finally be in the home. It's, I mean, amazing. This is going to do so much for us to be able to move and get around and give the kids room to run and play and just it'll all set in. I'm sorry, in a few more days, but it's just kind of overwhelming right now," Butterworth said.
Andrew and his family could've chosen any place in the country to have their house built but chose Pea Ridge. Why? Because of his love for the area.
"We've always loved the Ozarks. We love the area. We try to figure out where we want to be, and it's always nice, kind of really, being in the middle of the country, just because we love to travel. So we get a place we can go east, we can go west and get to come home right in the middle and plan the next trip. So we love the area, and Arkansas has great benefits for veterans," Butterworth explained.
This home was built for Andrew and his family by Homes for our Troops, an organization that builds homes for veterans across the country, and this home in particular was built with over 40 adaptations to help Andrew and his wife get around easier in a wheelchair.
"We did the whole east coast last summer, and we have done almost everyone in almost every state east of the Mississippi in the past couple years," said Jeff Cato, the project's General Contractor.
And while they were waiting for their house to be done, Butterworth said he spent that time traveling the land he fought to protect.
Cato says he's proud to be able to build this home for an American hero.
"There's just, there's a lot that goes through your mind, you're thinking about how you know that could have been me, it could have been one of my family members, and just hearing the personal way that they're being impacted in such a positive way, just to be a small part of that, it just it gets you," Cato said.
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