He Went Away to Serve and Came Back to New Home

In today's edition of the "Good Stuff," a Marine asks a friend to watch his house. Unbeknownst to him, the community takes on a project to change the man's life. CNN's Chris Cuomo reports.

A retiring 21-year U.S. Marine Corps veteran,  Master Sgt. Jacinto Bernardo, recently bought a house.

It was a fixer-upper to be sure,  but it was all he could afford.  And then, he had to ship out to Japan for his final assignment, so he asked his buddy Jeremy Epperson, a fellow Marine, to watch the house for him while he was gone.

And watch it he did.

He watched it all the way to some $70,000 dollars worth of renovations!

Epperson, his friends, fellow soldiers and volunteers came together to rehab the house from the inside out: new floors, new kitchen, new bathrooms, new everything.

"We did it for you brother, alright?" Epperson said. "We did it for you."

When Sgt. Bernardo arrived at the airport, he was greeted by a stretch limo that drove him to his new home.

"We're proud of our service," Sgt. Bernardo said. "And you know, those guys who didn't make it back, and those guys that didn't make it back in one piece, they deserve this - not me."

After a lifetime moving around in military housing, Sgt. Bernardo finally gets to retire in style.

See the full story at CNN affiliate KGO, and if you have #GoodStuff news, let us know.

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