[April] We are building a cabin
in the beautiful North Georgia mountains.
[whoops]
[Daniel] This is gonna be the biggest build we've had yet.
Daniel! Move!
We're gonna need a lot of manpower.
There's just no telling how big this thing is.
[April whoops]
Man, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
[April] We're dealing with a lot of unknowns
and a lot of things we've never dealt with before.
-Whoa! -[April] What is it?
-What is it? -[all exclaiming]
-[Daniel] Yeah, John! -[April] Okay, John!
[Daniel] The heat is really getting to us.
[April] Get it. Oh, God! Oh, God!
The other way. Nope.
[screams]
-[Daniel] Whoa, whoa, whoa! -[April] Greg!
This is nerve-racking.
We're gonna need some help.
[narrator] Are you ready to go Off The Grid?
[soulful instrumental music playing]
Golly, look at all this rock.
-So much rock! -Wow.
[April] This is like gold.
It's awesome.
[April whoops]
[April] We have been married seven years.
We have two kiddos, Selah and Shiloh,
plus our sweet golden doodle, Duke.
Whoo! Go, Sey!
We've been so lucky to call this property home for the last five years,
but it has been a never ending project since we got it.
We started off building a tiny house together,
we lived in it for four years.
Then, we built a tree house.
A greenhouse,
A lookout tower.
And now, this cavern is gonna be the biggest build we've had yet.
[April] So, we've got this pretty epic part of the property
that has a huge rock face on it.
We've never known exactly what to do on it.
But this idea of a cavern build came to mind,
and it was the perfect spot.
So, we're so excited to actually use it.
- I'm April. -[Daniel] I'm Daniel.
[April] And we are building a cavern in the beautiful North Georgia mountains.
[birds chirping]
[April] Our build is located in Ringgold, Georgia,
which is just an hour and a half north of Atlanta.
So, if we put the cavern in here,
-then we have this whole view of the sunset... -[Daniel] It's gorgeous.
-[April] ...which would be beautiful. -[Daniel] Yep.
[April] That's perfect.
The motivation for building out the cavern
is really just to have a place of restoration
to host family and friends,
people that just seem to get away and escape.
We are building an inn or a cavern,
it's going to be covered in Earth and sod on the roof.
As you approach the inside,
there's an epic waterfall with a kitchenette to your left
and a living area.
And down the hall is a beautiful bedroom
that really invites the nature to come indoors.
It's got a huge round window
and just down the hall from that is the bathroom with super large ceilings.
As you come outside,
there is a relaxing infrared sauna
with a fire pit for perfect s'more enjoyment.
The main reason to have this build off the grid
is 'cause accessibility to electric and power is just really tough.
And so, it's gonna have to be.
[Daniel] Our off grid features include
solar for electricity,
geothermal for heating and air,
a septic system,
and then, a well for water.
This cavern is gonna be 730 square feet,
we're looking at around an $88,000 budget,
and the timeframe is about eight months.
This is certainly gonna be our most challenging build yet.
We're dealing with a lot of unknowns
and a lot of things we've never dealt with before.
So, we're gonna need a lot of manpower.
[Daniel] Golly, we're gonna be getting in a lot of rock.
-That's a good thing. -It's gonna be tricky.
That's a good thing.
[Daniel] A lot of the challenges that we're gonna be running into
is literally digging into a mountain
to clear out for the build.
So, we've got a lot of leveling out today.
You're gonna use all these muscles, baby.
Let's do it.
We'll see how it goes.
We're all set, man.
[exhilarating instrumental music playing]
[April] So, today is day one and we are clearing the land.
And so, we get to get a clean slate
of what we have to work with for this build.
And it should be a fun day.
[Daniel] We're really excited.
We got Greg on the skid steer and Todd on the excavator.
Two great guys, glad to have 'em on board.
[April] It's already a huge transformation
and they've only been working, like, five minutes,
so it will be really cool to see the end of the day progress
and see this whole thing ready and primed for building.
[Daniel] So, in this build, we're gonna be trying to use
as much from the actual build site as possible.
[April] There are these awesome, ginormous rocks,
but the problem is they're buried.
So, in order to use them, we've got to take all of those up
because we need a lot for this build.
We're excited to see what's under there.
Whoo! Look at this one!
[chuckles]
I named this one, "Rocky."
[laughs]
-Where did you come up with that one? -[whoops]
[Daniel] Hey, Todd.
How's that tree looking?
[on radio] You think it's gotta go?
Yeah, you better get out of the way, it's a good one.
[April] So, we're trucking right along,
but there's this pine tree in the way and it's huge.
So, we really need to take it out.
Send him down, boy!
[Todd] All right, here we go.
I'm pretty sure that tree is coming this way.
Does he know that? Daniel! Daniel!
Move!
[Daniel] Nice!
Thank God, you're fast.
-[chuckles] -Real fast.
We can't lose him on day one.
I mean, that would be a travesty.
Maybe later, but I need him for the rest of this build.
[Todd]
[April] Yeah.
Daniel, right here at the front is where I'm at right now.
We've come over this far.
I'm pretty sure this is a big rock.
The surface area right here is almost 80 feet.
[April] So, we've almost got the entire build site cleared.
And then, Greg finds this massive rock
right smack dab in the middle of where we need to lay our foundation.
Man, I don't know what I'm gonna do.
I know you want it gone.
We wanna use it.
Let me see what I can do.
[machine whirring]
I'm anxious to see how big this one really is?
I don't know, Daniel.
You might have to order that jackhammer.
That's the biggest rock yet, Daniel.
Well, there's only one way to find out.
Let's keep digging around it.
[Todd] I'll try.
[April] All right now!
[Daniel] We've obviously hit a massive rock.
The hope is to get it out with the excavator.
If we have to get a jackhammer,
it's just gonna take a lot longer.
We gotta go rent it, bring it to site,
and then breaking it up to a whole bunch of pieces.
No telling how long that would take,
so we're really hoping we can get it out.
[April whoops]
It's no longer a rock, this is a boulder.
[Daniel] There's just no telling how big this thing is.
-[Daniel] That's a big rock. -[Greg] That's a big one, there.
[April] There's something.
That's massive.
[metal clanks]
Hey, Greg.
Can I get you to come over here, we're gonna need some help.
This thing is way too big.
[Greg] Okay, I'm gonna try to lift it up from the bottom,
and then I'll hold it while you get another bite
and pull it into that gap up there.
[April] Come on, boys! It's moving time!
[April whoops]
Victory!
That's a good one.
It's a good looking rock.
-Ah. -[Daniel] All right, guys.
-[April] Thank you! -[Daniel] I say we call it a wrap.
[April] With these big old machines out there,
we've accomplished a lot in day one, that's for sure.
Next step is a lot more digging and leveling,
which is gonna be a slow process.
[Daniel] So, today is kind of a big day.
We're gonna be stacking the walls with our earthbags.
For this build, we're looking at about 60 of the large bags,
but then with the small bags combined
we're up into the thousand range.
-A thousand? -A thousand.
Thousand, how many thousand?
At least 1,001.
Sey-sey loves movies about snow,
which she's never actually seen before since we're in Georgia.
And so, I'm letting her to live out her wildest snow dreams
in this huge pile of white sand
and she is loving every minute of it.
I'm gonna hit you, Mommy.
-[Daniel] Uh-oh. -No! You got me!
[laughing] She's building snow balls,
and she's chucking 'em everywhere,
so we're all getting hit.
-Oh! Oh, no! -[all laughing]
it's time to get to work, girl.
We got a house to build.
[whoops]
[Greg] Watch your fingers.
[Daniel] So, right now we're mixing the dirt and the lime together.
Looks like we're making a big cake.
[Daniel] This is gonna create that hardened texture and mixture
that over time, compacting it down,
it's going to create a hardened earthbag.
You ready to start filling?
-[Todd] Sure. -All right, let's do it.
We're choosing to use these big bags
because we've got a really big back retaining wall,
where we won't be able to hold all that dirt in.
Typically, these earthbag homes are built with much smaller bags,
sometimes a tubular bag.
Watch the money maker, Todd.
[Todd] I got you, April.
[Daniel] No one's ever done this size bag before,
and so we're gonna try to get them in place and go from there.
We're pioneers in the bag industry.
It could be way worse.
We could be literally shoveling this stuff.
Like, look, this moves a lot faster at least.
You can be good at Christmas wrapping this year.
-[Daniel laughs] -[April] Maybe you can wrap a few presents.
All right, Greg. You're gonna follow me over to the corner.
[April] Now, Greg is gonna gently place the earthbag
on top of the rebars and secure it in place.
Good.
Yep, perfect.
[April] So, this is our cornerstone bag.
-All right, Greg -[Greg] Hey!
Back on out.
Good job, baby.
All right.
We've got a whole little system here
and it's moving and grooving pretty well.
We're trying to be economical.
We have dirt on site, why not use it?
It's a heck of a lot cheaper than bringing in concrete.
All right, back up.
[machine beeps]
[April] So far, Daniel's idea is working well.
Fingers crossed.
Coming in hot.
[laughs]
[Daniel] I don't know if I can be surprised
by my wife's antics...
Hello!
...but they are always surprising.
[Daniel] Ladies and gentlemen, I like to introduce
Miss Dirtbag Of America.
[all laughing]
[April whoops]
Continue.
[Daniel] All right, come this way.
Things are going great which is a great thing,
but we saw something.
Whoa! Oh, my God!
[April] What is it? What is it?
-[all exclaiming] -What is it?
What is it?
Whoa! Oh, my God!
[April] What is it? What is it?
-[all exclaiming] -What is it?
What is it? You're making me nervous!
What is it?
Nothing.
John and I pretended that we saw something.
I don't even know what we pretended that we saw,
but we freaked out and her reaction was priceless,
exactly what I wanted.
He made me nervous.
[laughs]
They got it coming. Don't worry.
Got the first bag done.
Only thousand more bags to go,
but who's counting? Good job.
Bag number 83.
A lot of bags.
So, we've been stacking and packing
and stacking and packing these bags
over and over and over.
[exclaims] Ooh, it's happening?
It has been a mundane process,
so we're really glad to be over that hill and moving on.
It's a busy day for the build.
We've got trucks going back.
Concrete guys.
[Daniel] First truckload,
got two more to go.
We have the whole slab done,
and then it'd be the time to do walls.
[April] For our walls, we're gonna use cement blocks.
We chose cement blocks because they'll withstand the weather.
They're strong, they're durable,
they'll withstand the test of time.
And if the Big Bad Wolf shows up,
he won't be able to blow our house down.
[thunderclap]
Here we are at the build site.
Just start laying block.
Got it covered up now.
Two lightning strikes later, and the bottom opens up.
Look at all this block right now.
Trying to see when we're actually gonna get
a clear day to lay it all.
[April] The walls are going up.
It's really taking shape in here.
I'm so excited.
We are putting in a really awesome window.
It'd be huge, so this is just one half of it.
Good day for the build, for sure.
[birds chirping]
[April] We've definitely come a long way.
You can see the structure starting to take shape,
which is always exciting.
It's just been a ton of tedious labor,
a ton of blocks and bags,
and so we're excited to get past that
and start to move on to the fun part.
Today, we're gonna start with the ridge beam,
and then, we're gonna put on the roof joists.
And we're gonna get to see this super tall 16 foot roof come to life.
I'm excited about that part.
[Daniel] The deal is we're gonna pick this up.
Just gotta be careful.
This is pretty heavy.
I'll be there to catch anything if it falls.
-Awesome. -I'll be your eyes on the ground, folks.
[Daniel] We got a small crew.
John is here, he's awesome, he's helping out.
-And of course, the fabulous... -The manpower.
...Manpower April.
We're gonna bring it up the ladder
and set it in place.
Don't drop it on my head, but I'm here to help...
...-ish.
[Daniel] One, two, three.
[April] We've got a lot of things that don't mix well together.
Hot, heavy and heights.
Steady, steady.
All right.
-John, you all right? -[John] Yep.
[April] Okay. Oh, God.
Come on, Johnny Boy. Come on, Johnny Boy.
-[grunts] -[Daniel] Yeah, John!
[April] Okay, John!
-[John grunts] -John!
-He needs to go forward. -[Daniel] You got it, bud.
[John] Got it, yeah!
-[April] It's in! -[April] It's in.
Holy guacamole.
[April] Good job, good job.
So, now that we have the ridge beam in place,
we're gonna put up the roof joists.
Prrr, that's how they're gonna go.
-Yep. -According to Daniel.
-Yep, technical term. -We'll see.
-How's it do? -I don't want to get...
-too confused. -Do it one more time.
Prrr.
Oh, wow. That's a player.
-Yep. -I like it.
-[Daniel] That will look good? -[John] Mm-hmm.
[Daniel] Okay.
[April whoops] I got 32 different joists here put on.
But we will have a 16 foot roof before we know it,
so we're excited.
[Daniel] Processes for ladder.
Throw a two by ten in between,
walk in between with the ladder down.
Boom, boom, boom with nail gun.
He acts like it's boom, boom, boom,
but it is sketch city up there.
[screams]
[Daniel] Working in the humid South Georgia heat
has its own difficulties.
It's hot, sweaty, makes things slippery.
But we're gonna make it happen.
[April] We're dealing with some major heat issues.
It's not the best conditions.
We gotta make light of it somehow.
Drop that beat, boy.
[singing] Hammer in that roof joist,
saying "Hallelujah,"
we got a 16 foot roof,
everybody knows it's true.
I can look up
and say, "Look what you did, boo."
-Ah. Yeah. -[beatboxing]
[laughs]
[Daniel] We finally got all the joists up,
and that's a lot of good progress.
It looks good, boys.
Let's work on a waterfall.
[Daniel whoops]
[April] So, it's so hot, we all needed a break.
We decided to work on the waterfall,
it seemed like a great idea.
Let the water flow!
[Daniel] We found this ginormous rock.
It's relatively flat.
It just had the texture of a waterfall.
Fast forward, we got this rock up,
but we haven't seen any water go down it,
so we wanted to see what it would look like.
I think if we put the rocks here
and the tarp is moved...
Right now, all I'm hearing is that tarp,
- and I hate it. -[Daniel] Oh, sure.
So... but I think we're also gonna need two entry points.
[Daniel] We're just troubleshooting.
I think, maybe, one pump would do it.
And put a couple more rocks in there,
create that sound that's gonna be really relaxing.
-Jazz it up a little. -Yeah.
-Awesome. -I love it, I love it.
-Hey, now! All right! -[Daniel laughs]
Okay!
Break time is over,
and now, it's heat of the day.
What a perfect time
to put up the heaviest LVL beam we've got.
Here we go.
-[Daniel] Swing your booty. -[April] Swing, baby.
[Daniel] The beam is close to about 200 pounds.
The position of it getting in place,
it's gonna be a little tricky
and I'm not gonna lie,
the heat is really getting to us.
Okay, here we go. We're gonna go up.
-You good? -Yep.
All right, here we go.
[April] You okay? Oh, he's getting a lot of weight.
I'm worried about you, John.
-[John grunts] -[April] John.
-Hold on. -Wait, wait, wait, guys.
Don't hurt yourself. Please, please.
You got it, John?
[John grunts]
-[John grunts] -[April] John.
Baby.
I'm scared, I'm scared! Oh, God!
Here goes! [screams]
-[John grunts] -[April] John.
[John grunts]
[April] Carrying the beam in,
John has got a lot of the weight in the back.
Oh, God! Here goes! [screams]
-John, you're okay? -[Daniel] You're okay?
-[April] You're okay? -[Daniel] You're okay?
-Yeah. -[April] Ah.
[John] We're good.
[April] Somehow, we were all out of the way.
I'm really glad, actually, we had less help today
because it was a small space
and any more people in there, somebody was bound to get hurt.
[Daniel] Dude, we just need to take a rest.
We'll tackle it tomorrow, it's pretty hot.
-[April] Yeah. -All right.
Awesome.
[April] We crushed some block.
I'd rather crush block than heads.
So, we've gotten a lot accomplished.
We finally got that LVL beam up.
That was a booger.
[Daniel] Good job.
[April] We've got a lot finished.
[Daniel] We've got a roof on.
[April] We've got the plumbing, electrical, spray foam.
[Daniel] We've been busy.
-It's a lot. -We're rocking and rolling.
[machine whirring]
[Daniel] All right, she's up.
One, two, three.
[April] Today is the day that all my dreams come true.
I can see the window that, basically,
this entire build was built around.
So, I can see it in all its glory.
Okay.
It's gonna be two big half circles
that are eight feet tall, four feet wide,
way over 300 pounds each.
So, we've got to make sure that it fits,
and hopefully, we don't drop 'em and break 'em.
-[April] Oh, God. Here, somebody-- -[Daniel] I can move it, wait.
[April] I am really nervous about it.
It took weeks to get here, so if we shatter it,
we're waiting weeks again.
We don't need to wait weeks.
[Daniel grunts]
Okay.
We're not fitting.
What?
[Daniel] Way too tight.
We're realizing it's not gonna fit.
Guys, obviously, this is not fitting.
We're gonna have to take her out
and trim her down.
Trim who down, the boards?
[Daniel] The boards, yeah, of the window.
We got to take the window down,
set to the side,
and we've got to trim out a large section,
so that I can put it up there without scratching the window itself.
We're in for a much bigger job than what we thought we were in for...
[machine whirring]
[April] ...which is usually the case.
[Daniel] Mm-hmm.
[whoops]
Baby, you're blonde.
-I'm gonna go dust off. -[April] Yeah.
Hey, I got an idea. Where's the blower?
Never fear, April is here!
Oh, wait, that's turtle mode. Let's go rabbit.
-[machine whirring] -[exclaims] Whoa!
-[April] Yeah. -Thank you, babe.
-All in a day's work. -I love you.
-That's what I do best. -[sighs wearily]
All right, boys, take two!
See if this fits.
[Daniel] Push on that corner.
[grunts]
Okay.
[machine whirring]
Let's do it again.
[Daniel exclaims] Whoo!
[April] So, now that the first half circle is in,
time to do the other one.
-[Daniel] Perfect, perfect, perfect, okay. -[April] Oh.
[Daniel] Oh! Okay.
That was a little scary.
It's a good feeling.
Just to finally get that thing in place.
I'm just anxious to take off that bag paneling,
so we can see what it looks like from the outside.
All right!
-[April] Is it tiny? -[John] Oh, wow!
[exclaims] Oh!
It is beautiful!
I love it so much!
[Daniel] All the work and all the frustration was totally worth it.
It was a really cool sight to see.
[kisses]
Little saw-dusty.
So, we have a several different windows we've got to install,
and we have one leftover from an old project,
so I decided that maybe we could repurpose it.
It looks like it will fit this space,
and then we don't have to order $300 $400 window
-because that's a specialty size. -Okay.
Yep.
I watched you install a window many times.
I think I can do this.
Let's see.
I believe in you.
Let's just see if it fits.
[April grunts]
[Daniel] Ah, it's a little short, but that's okay.
-But I think we can-- -[Daniel] We'll close it in.
Turn it if you can 'cause it's upside down.
Turn it, your clockwise.
Now the other way.
The other way. Nope, the other way.
[screams]
[glass breaking]
[April] Oh.
[Daniel] Turn it the other way.
Nope, the other way.
[April screams]
[glass breaking]
[April] Oh.
What a mess.
I don't think we're using that one.
That booger broke.
You gotta crack a few windows to build a house.
I don't know who said that.
Doesn't sound like wisdom, but I'm sorry.
My plan didn't work out.
We'll have to get some windows.
We have to special order them,
and we know who the better installer is in the fam.
-So, you can continue to do so my friend. -Thank you.
[machine whirring]
[Daniel] So, today is a big transition.
We're gonna see the actual building
get a stucco job.
So, the entire outside is gonna change.
[April] Oh. Uh...
We got a little--
That doesn't look very good.
You know what? There's first time for everything.
[April] So, we're gonna attempt to do some plastering.
We've never done it before,
but sometimes I'm rather good at things I've never done before.
Daniel, I think that you're missing a very vital part to this.
-Oh, the-- -I'm just gonna show you.
You're gonna go... prrr.
Like that, it helps.
-Ah, the noise. -[April] Prrr!
The noise, huh?
[April] See how much better.
Yeah, night and day difference.
Yeah, it truly is.
-Prrr! -[April] No.
-See how that one just-- -See, it wasn't, the noise was off.
Try it again.
-Okay. -Try it again.
Prrr!
No, Daniel, it needs to go up a little.
Prrr!
Daniel is terri-blay.
-Pretty terrible. -It's French.
Prrr!
Oh, it's the high pitch. It's the high pitch.
I just couldn't get the sound right.
Yeah, it was either too low or too high.
-The pitch wasn't there. -You wouldn't go up,
but we'll keep working on it.
-You'll get it, you'll get it. -Yeah.
Prrr!
Ah, prrr!
You know what, I just need to leave it to a professional.
Here you go.
[April] Amateurs.
Prrr!
Wow. All right.
All right, all right.
Okay!
Got a little cocky.
Prrr!
My beginning plastering skills are great.
-Once you really get the-- -She came out of the gate strong.
It was finishing that...
-I'm not great at. -Yep.
So, I had to call in the pros.
Gracias, gracias.
Good job, Caesar. Good job.
Luckily, we've got some workers on site to help out.
The good news is the guys are absolutely flying on the stucco exterior.
It looks amazing.
And of course, it was way quicker than Daniel or I could have done.
It's shaping up to be exactly what we envisioned.
We have the sauna.
[Daniel] It came in this kit and we put it all together.
[April] It is amazing. It smells just of cider.
[Daniel] Now, the challenge is getting it to site.
-[April] Right there. -Right... right there.
All right, you gotta hook it right here.
[Greg] A little nervous about moving the sauna.
It's a little bit delicate because there's so much glass.
The worst part is I can't see.
So, when I pick it up,
I want that somebody talk to me all the way out there
'cause I can't see where I'm going.
So, that makes you a little nervous.
I don't know how we're gonna make it happen,
but I'm hoping Greg can come through for us.
[Daniel] All right, we're ready, Greg.
[Greg] All right, here we go.
[April] Tension is high.
Nerves are rocky.
All right, go straight.
[April] Duke, come here.
Come back this way.
[Daniel] Your left, turn to your left.
There you go. Good job.
The road that we have to go down,
it's got a couple of dips in it
that we were a little bit worried about,
especially with the skids here.
It's made for moving big heavy things,
but not necessarily delicate things.
And so, will it be able to transport the sauna safely
is yet to be determined.
[April] Halfway there.
[Greg] I'm a blind man driving.
I know, you got it.
[Greg] Watch your foot.
[Daniel] This is the last bit of the slope
before we get to the sketchy section.
Feel like I'm just gonna catch it.
If it falls, would you catch it?
I promise you I'll be under it,
like the Wicked Witch of the West.
[laughs]
So far, so good.
He's going literally, like, two miles an hour.
So, we may make it there tomorrow,
but I'm just glad so far it's intact.
This is the steepest section, so--
[Greg] There might be a drop off.
It's a drop off.
Just go real slow.
[Daniel] Turn to your right.
And straight down.
Straight down.
[April] We can make it past this part.
I think we're golden-ish.
-[Daniel] Keep coming, Greg. -[April] Come on, Greg.
[April whoops]
-All right, all right. -Greg.
Pick her up if you can.
You're in a little close to the ground.
All right. Wait, wait.
-[Daniel] Whoa, whoa, whoa. -[April] Whoa, whoa, whoa.
[Daniel] All right, I'm gonna hit the ground right there.
-Rise up. -[Daniel] You're gonna raise it up,
raise the whole thing up.
All right, keep going, just straight.
All right, take her down.
-Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! -[April screams]
-[April] Greg! -Oh, Lord, have mercy.
All right, take her down.
-Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! -[April screams]
-Greg! -Oh, Lord, have mercy.
[exclaims] Ooh!
[Daniel] That was scary.
[Greg] Tell me about it.
I was not expecting that.
[Daniel] Things are going well,
until, like, the very last minute.
We're just expecting the glass to break.
Thankfully, It doesn't.
That's a strong sauna.
You came a long way, my friend.
[Daniel] Bring her down.
[April] Scared, we were gonna lose our sauna,
but we did it, It's here!
[Daniel] Wow, look at that!
Good job, boys.
Yeah, let's don't do that again.
-So... -[all laughing]
That's my vote.
That's the perfect spot.
[April] Let's never do that again!
We have a bunch of huge rocks that are pretty far away
that we need to move to site for our waterfall feature.
I guess.
We've had to kind of come up with the new solution.
Our excavator guy couldn't make it,
and so we're being creative.
So, we have jerry rigged a crane system
on the front of our side-by-side.
-Never looked better. -Yep.
[April] Daniel has really ingenuitive ideas.
Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.
And if that idea doesn't work, he's got a new one.
He's got ideas for days.
[Daniel] Bring it down.
For the crane, we have a couple of support arms,
some ratchet straps,
anchoring it into the top,
and then the winch just goes up to a come along
and down to the rock.
[April] First you're gonna try a smaller rock and see if it works.
And then we will go from there and try to get some larger ones.
[engine whirring]
[Daniel] Oh, she's doing good.
Steady as she goes.
So, we have the first rock to site.
It worked great.
Now, we're hoping that it holds for something larger
because we're gonna need some bigger rocks.
[John] That looks promising right there.
All right. Let's get the winch on it.
I'm hoping that this crane is gonna do the job.
Watch it, watch it.
-Whoa, whoa. -[whoops]
It was a pop in.
We're hardly off the ground.
-It's a lot of weight. -You're gonna have to drag it.
Yeah.
I'm gladly ready to get out of the driver's seat.
[Daniel] Watch out for your feet.
It's just so heavy.
It's just pulling us to the ground.
I think we're gonna have to wait for the excavator.
[April] Feels like a little bit of wasted time today,
which we didn't really have.
We're gonna find something else to do.
[Daniel] I'm working on something I'm pretty excited about.
I am standing on a universal rock panel.
The whole thing looks like one big giant rock
and this is gonna be what we're gonna use as our backdrop
for the waterfall.
We've been busy.
We have plastered the inside.
We did do a new window install.
We had to custom order a new window
since I broke the last one.
But it does turn out, he's the better window installer...
-Yeah. -so I'll give credit where credit is due.
[Daniel] All right, first load dirt going on right now.
So, we decided to bury the house
with earth inside
because it adds to the geothermal capacity of the house.
Inches and inches of earth
will actually heat and cool this to a steady 65 degrees.
We're just about done laying sod on the roof.
It's been a doozy of a day,
but it is looking so good!
-Let's do it. -[April exclaims] Whoo!
All right, you ready for this?
-[April 2] I'm ready. -Okay.
All right, this is gonna be our bedroom.
The bed is gonna be here facing out through the window.
So, this is basically the luscious headboard.
Okay?
So, I've got April helping me today
on this plant wall,
and we're ready to rock and roll.
We've got a vision and I hope it just comes out to be exactly what we think.
So, we've got the rabbit wire on the wall.
We're ready to put up these plants and zip tie 'em in
and I really feel like it's just gonna bring the outside in.
We've got that beautiful epic big window there
and I needed an extra pop.
That's how I do my hair.
-[April laughs] -[April 2] Fluff it.
[April] All right, the base layer is looking really good.
Once we get it all up here, then we can plug and play the pretty stuff
and it will look realer than ever.
Plenty more of those, so that's good.
We're working!
My gurney is like, "We're cooking with grease."
[all laughing]
[April] It's looking more and more natural as we speak.
And I just love all of these varieties.
I'm so grateful to have the team of girls here with me today
'cause I could not have done this by myself.
And it looks awesome.
It definitely makes the whole room.
[Daniel] You got 'em?
A couple of weeks ago, we tried to move the rocks
by building this crane.
Didn't work, we only got so far.
We got the heavy machinery coming in.
Hopefully, we're gonna be able to get some of those big rocks.
Then we'll load them all in the loader,
and see if we can get that right up to the house.
So, these rocks are gonna be for the inside waterfall.
We just got the rocks up.
It works so much better with some heavy equipment.
Be careful, be careful, be careful.
This is what we should have been doing the whole time,
but you live and you learn.
Come on.
[Daniel] Wow.
[exclaims] Hey, hey!
Now, it's just time to set the filter system for the waterfall up,
and get it rocking and rolling.
It looks really good.
[Daniel] Coming together.
[birds chirping]
[April] We've got a lot of work to do.
We've got a lot of long days, long nights ahead of us.
But this is really the fun part.
It's time to beautify this place.
Looks good!
Right in there.
[April] First little plant!
[Daniel] It's gonna look really nice.
[April] Got a lot more where that came from, so.
[Daniel] Got some difficult projects that we got wrapped up,
so we're really strapped down.
Got it?
-Two, three... -[kid exclaims]
[Daniel] Looking forward to just settling in
and having guests over to come enjoy.
[April] We are finished with the build
and it feels pretty surreal.
You've been waiting to see the finished product the whole time.
Every day is preparing for today,
and it just feels awesome.
[Daniel] To do it with friends and family
for your blood, heart, sweat and tears into this.
Being able to sit back and see the whole thing come together,
couldn't be happier.
[April] So, our original budget was 88,000.
We wound up coming in 20,000 less at 68.
And so, that never happens.
And we're excited about that.
[Daniel] We modified a little bit of the design
which allowed us to come under budget.
And then, our timeline was eight months,
-and we stuck to it. -Yep.
So, good for us.
Our friends Matt and Colleen are coming to see the house today.
They're some of our best friends.
So, we're excited to see 'em.
-Wow! -Oh, my gosh, guys!
-[Daniel] How are you, guys? -Look at this place.
This is great, man!
[Daniel] Great seeing you, brother.
[Matt] It's good to see you.
-How are you? -[April] I'm glad you're here.
-Good to be here. -This is awesome, guys!
-Welcome! -Look at this.
You have grass on the roof.
-[all chuckling] -[Daniel] Yeah.
Same sod that we're standing on is on the roof.
We plan to hire goats to mow it.
[Matt laughs]
Look at the sauna.
-Yeah, sauna-- -Oh, that was a booger to get up here.
-[Colleen] I bet. -[April] That's awesome.
It's an infrared sauna and we're...
That's a treat right there.
[Matt] It looks like it's in the mountain.
-[Daniel] It is, quite literally. -[April] Yeah, we dug out.
Yeah, we dug into the mountain, and then we built it there.
[Matt] Have you named it?
We did, yeah. We named it "The Shiloh,"
after our second daughter.
It's Hebrew for peace. Place of peace.
Well, I got a sauna, a fire,
and this is peace to me.
-Let's go. -[all laughing]
[Daniel] You wanna check out the inside?
-[Matt] Let's do it. -[Colleen] Yeah, let's go.
[Daniel] All right, awesome.
Wow, guys.
[Matt] Look at this.
[Colleen] This is amazing.
[Matt] This is awesome.
[Colleen] You have lanterns.
[April] Let's go inside.
[Daniel] Come on in, guys.
-Oh, my goodness. -Oh, my word.
-How about that rock? -[Colleen] This is amazing.
[April laughs]
Wow!
It's a massive rock, that's for sure.
[Colleen] It's huge. I love it.
[Matt] That is phenomenal.
And we found this rock, actually on site,
-and we said, "You know what? Indoor waterfall." -[Colleen] Love it.
[Colleen] That's amazing.
-[Daniel] Yep. -[Colleen] So cool.
[Matt] It looks like this part
is the mountain you just built the house to it?
-Right, yep. -Yes.
-That's what we wanted. -That was the whole idea.
[Matt] That's genius.
Where does the water come from?
[Daniel] So, all the water comes from a well on the property.
And then, the lights, the power all of that solar.
And the temperature in here,
I don't know if you have noticed, is kinda cool.
[Colleen] It's cool.
[Daniel] That's that geothermal earth on top
keeping it cool, 65 degrees.
I love the fans.
We thought about the thermostat all the time.
-[Daniel] Yeah. -So, that is awesome.
You may need grab a blanket or two, but we love it.
[Matt] Well, I love the little kitchenette, too.
[April] Yep, just have a simple vanity.
Just the basics, what you need.
-[Daniel] You wanna see the rest of it? -[Colleen] Yeah.
-[Daniel] Come on. -[Matt] Let's go.
[Daniel] Why don't y'all go ahead and check out the bedroom?
[Matt] Oh wow, look at this.
Welcome to the jungle.
-Let's go. -[Daniel laughs]
[Matt] This is great.
[April] We really wanted it to feel like nature was coming in.
And so, with the huge window,
it feels like a bit of the outdoors is now in your bedroom.
- And so-- -[Colleen] Love it.
-[April] Yeah. -[Colleen] Natural sunlight, sunset.
-[April] Mm-hmm. -Sit and read a book.
The sunset sets right there, so it's beautiful.
-You guys wanna see the rest of it? -Yeah.
-Yeah? Come on. -Let's see it.
Come on in to the bathroom.
[Matt] Oh, wow.
[Colleen] This is pretty.
[April] It's pretty simple, we've got our vanity,
and then our trunk,
and our toilet runs off subject.
I actually, one of the things I love is the ceilings,
like, I'm a tall guy, so you walk into a bathroom
-with big tall ceilings... -Yep.
[Matt] ...is really, like, special.
[April] That's what we wanted.
We wanted it to feel like cavernous,
and so parts are very snug and tight,
and then other parts are very wide open and so...
Best to do that in the bathroom.
[Colleen] It's beautiful.
[Matt] Let's go check out the sunset.
[Daniel] Yeah, absolutely.
[Colleen] It's amazing.
You guys have done an impeccable job
with all the attention to detail.
Being in the mountains in this house
-sitting here with rocks. -Yep.
Even the name is so peaceful out here.
You guys knocked it out of the park.
- Proud of you guys. -[Daniel] Thank you.
Appreciate you guys.
Hey, should we go get our kids to enjoy.
-Let's get 'em down here and do some s'mores. -I want a s'more.
-I don't know about you, but I want a s'more. -Let's do it.
[Matt] Let's go.
[Daniel] I cannot be happier.
One, to run the long marathon and get through it,
but then just to see the end product.
Definitely gonna sleep well tonight.
How's that Graham cracker, girl?
Building off the grid was a challenge,
it always is,
but it's always worth it.
And so, we're excited to sit back,
take it all in,
admire our hard work,
and enjoy it with friends and family.
Cheers!
-Yay! -[all exclaiming]