You can still see the bullet holes in front part of the house..
"Rebuilding our home, and rebuilding our hearts."
Many years have passed since the war between Croatia and Serbia, but the effects of war you can still even feel today. If you drive around Croatia there are thousands of completely destroyed or severely damaged houses all around the country. Our house is one of them. From my personal experience, it is save to say nobody ever truly wins in war. Everybody loses. Even until this day, our house has not been properly rebuilt and it has been almost 20 years since the war ended.
During the war, my family had to spend 3 years in exile. We had to pick our stuff up and run away from our home. Not an easy thing to do, but it was necessary to keep us safe. I don't remember much of war, but one thing stuck in my mind. As we were running away the bag full of my favorite toys got too heavy to carry. Everybody already had their hands full, and could not help me carry it. So my mom just took it off my back and chucked it into to the river. They were just toys, but as a kid not really understanding what was happening it was the hardest moment in my life so far. I was mad at her for weeks. Yep, I was spoiled as a kid. lol We spent 3 years living in a Split. In a hotel designated for people refugees who were running away from the territories ravaged by war.
The war started in 1991, and ended in 1995 with a big military movement of Croatian army called Oluja which liberated the city of Knin, and along the way my hometown called Drnis. I remember at the time my brother and I was in Dubrovnik living with our aunts family for the moment. The news came on the TV, and my brother and I were hugging each other, and crying at the same time. It meant sooner than later we will get to go home finally.
The return was home was not an easy thing to do since our father went back first to see what is left of our house. It was severely damaged. The roof was damaged. Had to rebuild it completely. The walls inside were destroyed. All the furniture completely destroyed. Water leaking everywhere.Which in the end meant we would have to wait little way longer so our father could make the house livable again. I am sure it was not a pretty sight for my father since he had been living in this house for all his life.
Our house was damaged, but we actually were lucky since none of the family members were killed, or injured during the war. The only thing our family had to rebuild were material things. There were so many other families who lost much more, and those things can't be rebuilt like our house.
About a year after the war my father finally made our home livable again, and that meant we get to home first time after the war ended. I remember walking inside, but the house inside was still a very sad sight to see. It really did not matter much to us. We were home. It was all it matters. In the picture below you can see my father Milan, mother Ljiljana, my brother Nikola, and me right after our return to Drnis. O yes, let's not forget our extended family dog Sara, and a cat called Balki. We were all sleeping in the living room together until we fix the other rooms in our house.
Years have passed after the war, but our house has not been rebuilt to this day. My father at the beginning was more concerned with putting the food on our table and sending us to school than making the house look pretty again. It was not easy feeding, and raising 3 boys, and saving enough money to invest in rebuilding the house. Especially after the war.
Anyway, every year after I started to play pro-basketball I would come home, and looking at the house not fully rebuilt was a torn in my heart. It was even easy for me, but for my father was a heart full of sorrow looking at his house like this. He was not saying it, but I know what he was thinking. So one year I came back from my season, and sat down with my father, and made a plan.
Every summer I return from my season I will invest in the house, and my dad will invest his expertise in building. He is a kind of guy who knows how to fix and do pretty much anything. We only needed to buy the materials, and get to work. He knows how to do everything, but he is 63 years old now, and he needs some muscle to help him out with the heavy work. So he is the brain of the operation, and my brother and I are the little minions. lol 
So the first year we fixed the balconies on the second floor of our house which was leaking water inside the walls. The result of the leaks was mold all over the walls in our living room and hallway. As soon we put new tiles and fixed the holes on the balconies we started working on our living room. We ended up fixing the walls and giving them a fresh layer of paint. Plus I added some decorations from the gorgeous sea shells I found on the beach in Caorle, Italy. Where I played one of my seasons. It already started to feel more like home. 
This year we decided to work on entry hallway and the walls alongside the stairs leading to the second floor our house. The work started with stripping the walls completely and fixing the parts which had water damage. It took some time to strip it all, and prepare some parts for new gypsum boards. This is how it all looked. It looks terrible, but just like in life, sometimes you have to start all the way from the bottom and work yourself way up.
So after all the preparation was finished, and the water damaged holes were filled with new cement, we started to fit new gypsum boards along the wall of the stairway. The first day we only managed to fit first 3 gypsum boards on the wall, since it takes some planning how to do it right. We have to watch the curves, and keeping everything at the right angle. We can't say we truly rebuilt it with crooked walls. lol Anyways here's how the work is progressing right now. 
It is not easy to get those gypsum boards in correct place since both my dad and me a tall and long. Always running into each other in such a small place we have to work in. Sometimes it feels like we are playing twister. Our legs and hands are everywhere, and sometimes we are tripping each other and bumping heads. O well, as long we get the job done it is all good. lol
For me, this is way more than just rebuilding a house. It is healing of my dad's, and my heart. This is our home, and we are rebuilding it with our own two hands. It truly does not get much better than this. I am sure when it's all set, and done it will look amazing, and we will be proud of what we have accomplished.
There is still plenty of work left as you saw. We have to finish putting gypsum boards on the stairway walls. Put a new layer of cement on the hallway walls, and paint it all. I am looking forward to the challenge ahead.
If you want to keep up with the updates on our progress it will be under this #rebuildingourhome.
"If you truly want to do something you will be grateful for, do it with your own two hands."
Here are some of my other posts. :)
@awakentolife/my-basketball-journey-happiness-hidden-within-the-struggle
@awakentolife/my-life-s-journey-amazing-day-with-my-brother-nikola
ALL THE IMAGES POSTED, AND WORDS WRITTEN IN THIS POST BELONG TO ME. 100% ORIGINAL