It took John and Virginia Hickman 9 long months to get back into their home after the flood waters from Hurricane Harvey went down.
The road to recovery after Hurricane Harvey hasn't been easy for many people in Houston.
Nearly 52 inches of rain was recorded north of the city, which broke a rain fall record.
Not far away, in the town of Spring, a lot of people lost everything when the flood waters swept into their homes.
"I call it uncle Harvey, and uncle Harvey wasn't very good to us," John Hickman said with a smile.
He jokes about it, now.
But when six feet of water swallowed up his house, no one was laughing.
"When something tragic like that happens, I think God just caries you through," his wife Virginia added.
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They lived with their kids and grandkids, about twenty minutes away, while they slowly rebuilt their home.
"We would sleep there, then come here to work the next day, all day, every day of the week," John said.
Questionable contractors, combined with a run on building supplies, kept John and Virginia out of their home much longer than they expected.
"We finally got through it," John added. "But it took over nine months to do it."
"I thought we would be back in before we were, and that was kind of the discouraging part," said Virginia. "We'd take two steps forward and three steps back. There was a lot of discouragement along the way."
It was exhausting.
"You seemed like you couldn't accomplish enough everyday," Virginia added. They bought their house back in 1971. They paid just over 30-thousand dollars for it.
"We have spent, I would say, three times that much already, to fix it," John said.
And with no flood insurance, their savings has taken a hit. John and Virginia say they could have never done it without caring people.
"We just don't hear about good people," Virginia said. "There are some wonderful people."
"I didn't know we had that many friends," John joked. "And we made some new ones too."
