JEFF: Having my own cabin has been my dream for 13 years.
SHERON: You don't realize until you start how much there is to do.
[ Chain saw starts ]
You guys ready? CHAD: Yep.
JEFF: When I do something, I am all in or all-out.
Watch out, it's starting to jump.
Whoa! Ugh.
If someone got their arm stuck, it would rip it out.
SHERON: It's not gonna work. He's gonna be so upset.
JEFF: We've got a problem!
It's panic mode.
If they slip, they could come back down and hit us.
JEFF: Ahh!
JEFF: We got a rattlesnake!
Come here!
Oh! He's coming close.
If this comes down, you get killed.
SHERON: That just doesn't look right.
NARRATOR: Are you ready to go off the grid?
♪♪
JEFF: So, I think right in through here,
we're looking for a spot where I can easily access water.
Having my own property, my own cabin,
has been my dream for about 13 years.
A flat spot will work really good in through here,
and it's got a really good view of the mountains
right there in front. SHERON: Ooh, great view, yeah.
Jeff has always been the type of person
that if he falls in the water, he doesn't get wet.
Everything he tries, he's very successful at.
But I think this one would be a really good area,
right in here. Maybe.
I'm in charge, mostly, but I do allow his opinion
to be, you know, used from time to time.
You allow my opinion sometimes? I do. I do.
Say "thank you" to your mother.
Thank you, mother. Okay.
JEFF: This land, it's not a vacation home.
It's not somewhere I just come and visit.
It's not my mountain property. No, this is my home.
When I get my cabin built, this will be mine.
SHERON: Oh, my gosh, yeah.
That is a nice view from your front porch.
This is perfect. I want to build it here. Okay.
I'm Jeff. I'm Sheron.
And we're building a cabin off the grid.
♪♪
The mountain range that I chose to build in,
it's about two hours south of Salt Lake City
and about four hours north of Las Vegas.
I was a gymnastics coach in the NCAA for 16 years,
and I loved coaching,
but I started getting burnt out a little bit,
and I wanted to get more back to how I grew up and my roots.
I actually started saving up money then
to be able to purchase the property,
purchase all the materials, the equipment that I would need,
so I've been preparing for this for a long time.
I designed this cabin with the specifications
that he gave me that were important to him.
I'm not a creative person whatsoever.
She's very creative,
so I kind of told all the different things
that I needed to have, and then she drew it up for me.
That's why we make a good team.
I'm building a rustic cabin
that will be 16 feet wide and 24 feet long.
My porch is 10 feet wide by 12 feet long.
As you walk into the cabin,
on the right-hand side will be my basic kitchen,
and on the left side will be the living room
that is heated by a wood stove.
In front of the wood stove,
there's a ladder that leads up to the loft,
where my sleeping area will be.
When I come up to visit him,
I want a comfortable place to stay.
I'm not real fond of living in a tent.
I'm going to have an outhouse.
I have a spring that's above my property
that I'm gonna pipe down into it.
All I have is a generator right now,
but in the next few years,
as everything starts to progress,
I'm gonna get solar and batteries.
When I do something, I am all in or all-out,
and so that's why I live here and I'm building here.
I have four horses up here, also have two dogs.
Now that I've picked a spot for my cabin,
I've been hard at work bringing up materials
for the past three or four weeks.
♪♪
So, I'm using this pole for part of my foundation.
This log probably weighs about 300 pounds.
We're picking up this log up off the ground
just a little bit, so he can pull it.
SHERON: The horses are very important on a build like this,
because we're bordering a national forest --
So with horses, you can go into the national forest,
where you can't take heavy equipment,
to bring in some of these logs.
JEFF: My grandpa, he taught us
how to do all of these different things.
I've been driving since before I could walk,
and they can go anywhere.
SHERON: Good boy!
Good job, Mack. You did good pulling up that hill.
Good boy. Let's get this log off of you. Good boy.
I wanted to try and get my cabin done as soon as possible
before the cold weather comes in and hits.
I enjoy living in the tent, and I enjoy camping,
but I don't want to camp anymore.
I actually want to live in a cabin,
so we are going to get this done before the snow comes.
I'm hopefully gonna get it done in two months.
And my budget -- I'm trying to keep it
right between $20,000 and $25,000.
♪♪
Today, we're gonna start the foundation
and clearing the land, squaring everything up,
getting everything ready and prepared to set some posts.
[ Engine starts ]
I'm using a skid steer to clear my land.
Some of the challenges with that --
The oak brush is really dense and difficult to push.
I've actually blown two tires off of it
going over the top of that stuff.
The road to get to my property is pretty awful.
When he bought the place, when we drove up here, I said,
"Oh my goodness, Jeff, nobody is gonna come up here to see you,
because they won't be able to get up here."
And I'm not fixing it, 'cause I don't want
a lot of people coming up and visiting me.
♪♪
Right, good enough. It's all cleared.
♪♪
I don't have a ton of building experience.
I've framed some walls. I've framed some sheds.
Now we're gonna put in all the pillars for the foundation.
There are gonna be numerous people helping me with this.
Primarily my mother,
and then one of my really good friends, Chad --
He is a concrete master.
We'll just put the auger straight over the top of
the little sticks, so that way we get in the center.
SHERON: Gotcha. Okay.
I completely hate shoes.
You will never see me wearing shoes
unless I have to go into a store.
Their foot prisons. They're awful.
They're so constricting, and everyone's like,
"Well, aren't you going to get cut up or anything?"
Like, yeah, but you just keep going.
It doesn't hurt that bad.
I have augur for my skid steer...
[ Engine starts ]
You guys ready? Okay.
...and that's what I'm using to dig the holes for my foundation.
Alright, watch out! Drilling!
♪♪
CHAD: Yeah, how deep are you going?
I think I'm gonna go 3 feet, so we get past the frost line.
I have 12 holes I need to dig with the auger,
and then Chad's up here helping fill them with concrete.
We'll be able to fill those in,
and that's gonna take about a week to set up.
[ Thud ] Careful!
You do not want that thing to hit you!
♪♪
Uh-oh.
I want you to get out and come and look at this.
There's a tree right there.
There's gonna be some big roots coming off of this one.
When I start to dig,
you guys just kind of back up a little bit,
and I'll just have to go a little bit slower.
Okay. 'Cause it's gonna bounce around,
and I don't want it to bounce out when it hits that stump --
So just be careful.
Alright, let's get 'er done.
[ Engine starts ]
♪♪
See, it's already having trouble cutting.
There's the root.
See how it's not going anywhere?
Come on, cut.
Is it pulling at all?
I've got it full, all the way down right now.
Is it?
♪♪
[ Groans ]
JEFF: Watch out! It's starting to jump.
♪♪
JEFF: There's the root!
See how it's not going anywhere?
Come on, cut!
Watch out! It's starting to jump.
[ Clunk ] Wat-- [ Groans ]
That blade's spinning, and it's powerful.
It grinds up roots. It breaks up rock.
And if someone got their arm stuck, it would rip it out.
If I got into an accident,
I wouldn't be able to get an ambulance up here.
Oh, you hit a rock!
I thought it was a root, but it's not.
There we go!
Woo-woo!
See, it just ripped right through here.
Let's get the concrete mix in and ready to go for the pillars.
Right now, I'm just filling up buckets
to pour in the hole for the concrete.
This is actually my horse trough.
This hose, I actually ran out of a spring.
It's about a mile up north.
I'm gonna pipe the spring down into my house,
into a holding tank,
and that'll be used for a shower or for washing dishes.
♪♪
Okay.
Ugh!
♪♪
It's about centered. We just have to level it.
We're using a laser level to check the height of each pole.
It'll make sure that the foundation is even
from corner to corner and to the middle.
[ Beeping ]
Alright. Fill it up!
♪♪
For the corners, the telephone poles won't be enough.
My plan is, I'm going to use concrete.
Normally, you use cardboard tubing,
but I don't want to do that.
I'm going to use 5-gallon buckets, cut the bottoms off,
and fill them with concrete.
It's more cost-effective, and they're easier to handle.
[ Level beeping ]
JEFF: That high?
That's how high it has to be? CHAD: Yeah.
Is that gonna -- do we have enough bucket?
We just poured, and it's too short.
Our buckets aren't tall enough.
Unfortunately, my corners, on the high side,
are 4 feet above the ground,
so the 5-gallon buckets are too short.
The bucket is too low, and we can't bring it up high enough
to be able to get a good foundation.
Can you go down into town and grab cardboard tubing?
The bucket idea is just not gonna work.
From my cabin site to town is about 45 minutes' drive
with everything going smooth and good.
If something goes wrong, it could be up to two hours.
Jeez, Jeff, I don't -- can I make it into town in time?
The store closes pretty early down here, so...
It's still 4:00, so you might be able to make it
by 6:00 or 7:00, by the time it closes.
Well, yeah, I think it closes at 6:00.
Well, if you get going now, you can probably make it.
We have to set the tubes in there
before the concrete sets up.
Well, I'll run down, then. I just hope I make it in time.
Hurry! Hurry! Okay, okay! I'm hurrying.
[ Level beeping ]
JEFF: That high?
Do we have enough bucket?
We just poured, and it's too short.
The bucket is too low, and we can't bring it up high enough
to be able to get a good foundation.
Since it's way up here in the mountains,
I tried to get everything up,
but sometimes things go missing or we run out of supplies,
and then you have to make that long trek
back into town to get anything.
Can you go down into town and grab cardboard tubing?
Okay, I just hope I make it in time.
♪♪
We resolved the situation.
Here you go!
The buckets, they were too short,
so my mom went down into town and got some concrete tubing.
We were able to build it up
and actually make the foundation perfect.
Like you've done this before.
[ Grunting ]
Who needs to go to the gym when you can handle concrete bags?
CHAD: Exactly.
Then we have all of the telephone poles to put in...
It feels so nice on my toes.
...and then we're finished with the foundation
and ready to move on to the next step.
♪♪
The past couple weeks,
we've actually got a lot of really good work done.
The concrete sealed up perfectly, got all the poles in,
and we got the floor down.
I was very excited about that.
I even slept on it that night,
just because I was so jazzed up about it.
Come on, guys! Let's get some boards over here.
SHERON: The plan today is to put the walls up,
and we're gonna put the windows in and the door today, too.
Yeah.
DAVE: Two on top, one on bottom.
And we have Brian coming up, and Jeff's friend Dave.
Brian's one of my really, really good friends.
He's always there for me with anything I ever need.
Dave has the background in framing.
We kind of need a little expertise,
since Jeff isn't real good at this stuff.
I'm great at framing.
DAVE: So, we've got to make sure we space this out
just enough to put this in.
So if the bottom of the window --
Say, 4 1/2 half feet, so it'd be about there.
The bottom?
No, let's make it up about here.
That's too high.
You want the bottom of the window that high? Yeah.
If it's only this high, then you can't look out the window.
You want to see the middle of the window at your eye level.
No, I don't. [ Sighs ]
Because I'm thinking at my eye level.
She's short.
Well, I'm not short. I'm just not as tall as you.
BRIAN: Well, how high is your counter gonna be?
I don't know. Like, this high?
That's, like, old-lady counter height.
Well, I've got long arms. [ Laughing ]
You're gonna have a sore back doing dishes.
No, I'm not.
There's a lot of bosses and no workers right now.
Everyone wants to be a boss.
It's not gonna work.
He's going to be so upset
when he gets the whole house built
and his window hits him right there.
Just so you guys know, this is my cabin,
and this is where I want it.
Go ahead, Dave. When he's not looking, we'll change it.
DAVE: I have never done it that way.
Well, you learned something new today,
didn't you, old man?
[ Chuckles ] No.
♪♪
Let's drop that window down a little bit.
It's too high.
[ Laughing ]
I know. Good thinking.
Do you want to go to 4 feet instead?
Just drop it down a half a foot.
BRIAN: I'm not saying anything about the window.
This is Jeff's cabin. He's made that very clear.
Put it where he wants it.
We're just trying to do our job.
We're just trying to get through this.
Okay.
Down.
JEFF: You remember that one time
when we were building the pig pens at your house,
and you screwed through my finger?
You thought something bit you.
I thought a spider got me!
It wasn't my fault. His directions were off.
I said, "Your right,"
which means your right, not my right.
You apologized more that day
than I think you've ever done in our whole life.
Yeah, that's a possibility. 'Cause I was bleeding.
Yeah.
I don't have any feeling from here up.
Hmm. Yeah. Thank you.
JEFF: We have a new air gun,
and I've never used it before, so I'm hoping that it works.
SHERON: And if you can't work the air gun,
I think I could probably do it.
You are not touching the air gun.
I could do the gun. No, please. No.
[ Thunk ] Okay. Do you want me do the other side?
Nope. I'm gonna have Brian do it.
Let Dave do it.
DAVE: I might be going through your finger on purpose, Jeff.
That's true. Alright, let's stand it up.
[ Grunting ]
Move it on over.
♪♪
He put one screw in here to hold this up. We're gonna nail these --
I think you should put one at that end,
so that it doesn't get bumped and moved around.
Well, once we get the other one put up,
then we're gonna nail it all in.
SHERON: I'm putting one in.
Just one, Jeff. I can take it out again.
You do what you want to do.
Thank you. I will.
Okay. You feel better now?
I feel better. I feel better.
I want them to be stable.
What'd you think I wanted? I want it to fall down?
Well, you wouldn't put the screw in.
But I got my point across,
and he went ahead and did it the way I wanted to.
Alright. Let's get to work on the other side now.
[ Grunting ]
Right... there is level.
My eye -- which is better than a level -- it's perfect.
[ Laughing ]
I was so excited when I got to see those walls finally come up,
'cause I don't have a very good imagination,
and I could actually see my cabin now.
Yeah, and I kept asking him,
"Can you visualize it yet, Jeff?"
And he goes, "No."
When those walls went up, he could visualize it.
This window right here, look --
I can just imagine myself seeing out my beautiful view.
♪♪
We've got a problem!
What did you do, Jeff?
We've got a stuck nail in the compressor now.
Why did it shoot 14 nails?
So, I'm going to nail something with the nail gun,
and one of the nails got bent and jammed in there.
[ Clicking ] Just making sure there's no air in there.
BRIAN: Watch your fingers. I know, right?
SHERON: Yep. That's what you needed.
How many miles did you get stuck in there, Jeff?
At least four.
[ Thunk ]
JEFF: The most important thing are our tools.
If we don't have tools, then we're pretty much
doing it manually.
If I can't use this nail gun,
it's gonna take a lot longer than it should.
Are the nails bent up into the machine?
Yeah, the head got sideways.
BRIAN: Start hammering, Dave.
Yeah.
JEFF: The nails I'm using for my nail gun are really soft,
and when I tried to hammer them in by hand,
they just bent everywhere.
[ Hammering ]
Okay, I might just want to fix it, instead of doing this.
My hopes for today were that I could get
all of my walls put up, but that's just not gonna happen.
The day's not long enough and the tools aren't working for us,
which kind of sucks, because I really want to get this done
so I don't have to live in my tent anymore.
This isn't gonna get fixed right now.
♪♪
[ Thunk ]
JEFF: We've got a problem!
SHERON: What did you do, Jeff?
We've got a stuck nail in the compressor now.
Yep, that's what you needed.
BRIAN: Start hammering, Dave. Yeah.
This isn't gonna get fixed right now.
After trying to nail in the nails manually
and them being soft nails -- It wasn't working,
so we went back to work trying to get that nail gun fixed.
Oh, you damaged that up pretty good, there. I know, right?
I don't even know how that happened.
Luckily, we have Brian, who has a college degree
and is super smart.
And he just thought, "Well, why try to pull it out?
Just tap it back in."
And it worked.
Yay! It works.
♪♪
Since we got so far behind yesterday,
let's get the door in and then frame it,
and then we'll put it in solid
after we get everything all measured.
Sounds good. Cool, man. Let's do it.
SHERON: Oh, my gosh, Jeff! The front door!
I know! I'm so excited!
♪♪
DAVE: Right there. Perfect.
♪♪
Honey, I'm home.
Oh, it's just you two. Dang it.
♪♪
Let's get this done!
♪♪
I have four walls.
Oh, my goodness.
That took so much longer than I wished,
but we're gonna make up some time.
Let's put those windows in quick
and then get the plywood and some wooden slabs on.
♪♪
[ Whirring ]
Beauty. DAVE: Beautiful.
♪♪
I went and got some slabs that look like real logs.
They're just logs that are quartered,
and I'm gonna put those on the outside as siding,
and it's gonna look phenomenal.
It's gonna look like an old, rustic cabin in the mountains.
SHERON: Okay, Jeff.
I picked a nice, thin one for you, like you wanted.
Is it good? Oh, I think so.
Ooh, I like that one. That's nice.
It's got character. Yeah, I like character.
♪♪
That looks so cool.
It's awesome, man.
The reason why I did these log slabs is
it would have been a nightmare
to get those big, huge logs up that mountain.
This, it gives it the same appearance as a log cabin,
but it's framed.
[ Hammering ] So, you know what the best part about this will be?
It's extra insulation.
Just in time, man,
'cause it's gonna get cold here pretty soon.
Yes, it is.
♪♪
Let's call it a day.
We did so much good stuff today,
Yeah. so let's be done.
Looks beautiful.
♪♪
It was a beautiful day. It was in the high 70s...
[ Thunder rumbles ]
Then the next day, a freak storm just rolled in
and dumped snow on my uncovered floor that I had just put in.
The moment of truth...
Walking up to the cabin site,
hoping that the floor isn't too wet or soaked.
And pooling and puddling. That's not great.
♪♪
It was standing water.
That whole, entire day that I had to go in and sweep it out,
pull all the puddles, dry everything out.
I thought my floor was gonna get ruined,
which would have set me back a month or two.
It was a scary moment for a second.
That's one of the reasons why I really want
to accelerate this build faster now.
I want to get a roof on.
It's panic mode, and where you got to move quick
and do what needs to be done.
♪♪
Today, I have helping me one of my best friends, Dave,
and then two of my really good friends, Christa and Rob Bell.
CHRISTA: Hi, guys! DAVE: Hey, how are you?
Looking good!
JEFF: Thanks very much.
You've gotten a lot done.
It's been a lot of work, but looking good.
ROB: What's left?
We're doing trusses today.
JEFF: My trusses, they were custom-made for my cabin
and for this elevation.
I'll get two to three feet of snow in any given storm,
and these trusses aren't the normal two-peaked.
They're here, and then they have a hinge,
and then it goes up to the top.
So really, the only snow load is on this part.
We don't have a crane to pick it up onto the house.
We have to do it by hand.
Those hands. These are my cranes.
CHRISTA: Be really careful, okay?
JEFF: We will be putting up 13 trusses,
and we're swinging them up onto the roof,
and if they slip, they could come back down and hit us.
Do we want to put the boards in now?
DAVE: We definitely need to put the braces on. Okay.
It can be dangerous, if you do it wrong.
You ready? Yep.
Just slide it to the end.
Right up against those 2x4s.
ROB: Okay. Ready?
3, 2, 1, here we go.
[ Grunting ]
♪♪
Alright.
I've got this.
So now we're screwing those into those 2x4s,
so they just hold and stay.
♪♪
[ Tools whirring ]
♪♪
I'll wait till you guys are down off the ladders.
Go ahead. We're good?
Yeah.
Alright, here's the moment of truth.
Oh, it stayed!
SHERON: Woo! That's nice.
Let's do 12 more.
That looks so amazing. Oh, my gosh.
I didn't think I'd see this moment.
♪♪
ROB: Got you covered.
Reach down. Lift it up.
Okay, now get that side. I got this side.
Okay.
Right up there. There you go.
CHRISTA: Watch your shoulder.
Jeff, I think you can actually let it down.
I am not gonna let it down yet. Okay.
[ Tools whirring ]
Yes, if this comes down, you get killed.
Can I bring it down? You can bring it down.
Awesome. [ Exhales deeply ]
♪♪
[ Dog yelping ]
SHERON: Ohh!
We were building -- [ Dog barking ]
and all of a sudden I hear this bloodcurdling scream.
My dogs start to bark, and they're
my warning alarm for everything.
And I run down there to see what they were barking at,
and they had a rattlesnake up against a tree.
[ Dogs barking ]
Hey! Get back.
Come here.
Oh, he's coming close!
[ Barking ]
We got a rattlesnake!
♪♪
JEFF: Alright, guys.
We were building -- [ Dog yelping ]
and all of a sudden I hear this bloodcurdling scream,
and they had a rattlesnake up against the tree.
We got a rattlesnake!
[ Leaves rustling ]
So I went on a snake hunt, found the snake.
If I actually got bit by a rattlesnake,
I would have to rush myself down as fast as possible,
but trying to stay calm, down to the local hospital
'cause rattlesnake venom actually
eats away your flesh and it paralyzes you.
I like rattlesnakes,
but I don't like rattlesnakes right next to my house,
and so I have to kill them,
just for the fact that I don't want to get bit
or any of my animals to get bit.
Dinner.
♪♪
SHERON: The trusses were a big worry for me,
because we had no idea how to do it.
And I don't know why, but people kind of scared us, you know?
"Oh, you got to have somebody do this and that,"
and we're really trying to do this on our own.
♪♪
Look at how amazing this view is up here.
It's too bad I need to put, like, a ceiling in.
When we finished the closed part, where the bedroom is,
and we transitioned into the open part of the loft,
we didn't have any boards underneath us
to be able to stand on.
So, seeing as how I was a gymnastics coach
for however many years, my mother had a brilliant idea
of putting me on a balance beam.
You ready?
It actually works really, really well...
Just kind of hang out there for a second.
...but it kind of gets a little bit tricky at times.
♪♪
SHERON: It just looks amazing.
Isn't this so exciting? Yes.
♪♪
The next step for this is
putting the plywood over the top of the trusses.
We're just going to lift them up with the skid steer,
two of us hold them on, tack them in,
and then move down the line, do it again.
JEFF: Okay, lift us up.
My friend Dave and my mother are here helping me today.
Slowly, please.
Okay, go all the way over to the edge.
A few things could go wrong.
Mechanics always fail when you don't want them to.
[ Nail gun thuds ]
Okay, bring us down!
We could drop the plywood, break a couple pieces,
fall off the skid steer, any of those number of things.
Nail through my finger, which -- None of that I really want,
so let's not jinx it too much.
That worked really good.
Right now on the cabin, we're dealing with
an 8-foot wall and 8-foot trusses,
and then in some spots, like on the far corner,
probably a 3 or 4-foot drop from the foundation.
So in places, it's gonna be 20 feet in the air.
Yep, bring us down. Okay.
Other way.
Sorry!
SHERON: I was trying really hard to get the right commands,
but inside the skid steer, you can't hear anything.
What I'm thinking is, why don't we grab our two ladders,
put it in here and here?
'Cause then the bucket stops the ladder from going out,
and the house stops it from coming in.
So we'll see how this goes.
Everybody okay?
Yep, keep going!
He gets up on the top of that roof,
and I'm kind of nervous about if he's gonna slide off
or the ladder's going to fall or ladder's gonna tip.
I like to have things in control,
and I felt totally out of control.
[ Nail gun thuds ]
♪♪
JEFF: Just push it down.
There you go.
Ahh!
I got you. I got you.
Dave grabbed my arm and kind of stabilized me
so I didn't fall all the way out,
and then I grabbed one of the rafters up above me
and finished the stabilizing, and then we went back to work.
JEFF: [ Exhales deeply ]
You're shaking the ladder, man.
I am shaking so freaking bad.
I'm getting off this rickety ladder
and getting on this rickety roof.
I'd rather be up here than down there.
I think me too. [ Chuckles ]
[ Nail gun thuds ]
SHERON: There were some stressful moments,
but we worked them out.
I'm kind of glad today's over.
JEFF: My main goal this weekend was dry and in the cabin.
Didn't quite get there, but it'll get done.
We still got a lot of work to do,
but I'm really happy where I am right now.
♪♪
Keep coming! Back straight up!
Nope, straight back.
[ Beeping ]
Been working my tail off the last three weeks.
Hopefully today, if all goes well,
and there's not a lot of wind, we'll get the tin on.
♪♪
JEFF: I want to see how this works.
SHERON: Yeah, I'd kind of like to see how it works also.
♪♪
I had to call my truss guy
that I got my trusses from and my roofing guy.
I'm like, "Hey, all these pieces you sent me --"
What are they for?
I was like, "Can I call you throughout the day
if I need help?"
He's like "Oh, yeah, sure."
Do you want the level? No.
Do you want a chair to sit on?
Where am I gonna put a chair to sit in here at?
♪♪
[ Tool whirring ]
[ Laughing ] Stop. It's not even that bad.
That wasn't meant for you. Uh-huh.
That sigh of relief was not meant for you.
Oh, it was a sigh of relief? Yeah.
It sounded like a sigh of, like, "Ugh, again?" Disgust?
One question. Just one?
Are you supposed to put anything on this side?
Wasn't that supposed to go over it?
Ohh. That goes over this.
No! That just doesn't look right.
So he said the rain drips piece, the 4-inch piece --
Right. then the foam.
Then the bottom piece of tin, then the foam.
Then the second pitch point goes over here.
He said nothing about the corners or the sides.
You're wrong.
If I have to come down off of this freaking ladder
and off this roof and call him,
and then he explains the same thing over again to you --
Okay. then you're getting up on this roof and you're doing it.
♪♪
JEFF: I have been working my tail off the last three weeks.
Hopefully today, if all goes well,
and there's not a lot of wind, we'll get the tin on.
♪♪
One question.
Are you supposed to put anything on this side?
That just doesn't look right.
If I have to come down off of this freaking ladder
and off this roof and call him,
and then he explains the same thing over again to you --
Okay. then you're getting up on this roof and you're doing it.
JEFF: I'm gonna call the roofing guy.
[ Cellphone rings ] Hopefully he answers.
Hello. Hi, Jonathan. This is Jeff again.
Hey.
So, want to explain the process one more time?
We'll start from from bottom to top.
On the edge of the building,
the wood is sticking out about four inches.
There's no pieces that we put over the sides, right?
No, we didn't order any pieces over the side.
That's really good that we called and asked about that.
Alright. I appreciate it, Jonathan. Thank you.
Thank you, Jonathan. Yeah, you bet. Talk to you later.
So you have to get up there and do the rest of the tin,
and then I'll do the ridge cap. Okay.
Have we got, like, a week?
♪♪
Once side down. Progress!
I'm hoping that I'm able to get this roof done today.
I still feel like I'm going to.
It might go pretty close to dawn.
Jeff, did you say "dusk" or "dawn?"
Yes. [ Laughing ] Okay.
Whatever -- Yes, I did.
♪♪
[ Birds chirping ]
This is one of those really tough mornings to get up.
It's been getting about 27, 28 at night now.
Getting a little chillier.
I'm running out of time.
My timeline's getting really, really short.
The cold's moving in.
If there's still stuff out in the elements
and it snows a foot, then that's ruined.
Like, my boards are gonna get messed up.
My furniture would get messed up.
So I need to get this done quickly.
Today, I'm bringing in a load of furniture.
Right now, I'm just trying to move all these logs.
This is my bed frame.
And so those logs, I want to make sure that
they don't get broken or cracked when I'm going up that road,
[ Ratcheting ] and make sure everything is secure.
I hate bring in big loads up this road. It's just sucky.
We good? SHERON: I think we're good.
[ Engine starts ]
♪♪
It's about 9 miles of just awfulness,
and 5 MPH creeps really, really slow.
Good thing I got four-wheel-drive.
Oh, great, my truck's overheating now.
Get out of here!
I don't want to walk up to the camp, do you?
Well, no, I don't want to,
but I don't want your truck to blow up either.
[ Brakes whine ]
Okay, make sure that you're ready to bail
when this trailer tips over.
I only have one tire on the ground right now.
The other tire's floating in the air.
There, it dropped.
♪♪
Okay. We're good.
♪♪
We didn't even lose a board.
I thought we were gonna lose a board coming up there,
but we did a good job strapping everything down.
Finally made it.
Burned half the day, but I have my furniture up here now.
I hauled it all up in one shot.
Now the real work begins.
I'm really, really excited about today.
I'm getting my kitchen set up, my countertops, my sink put in.
Good? Good.
I didn't think that was gonna be so difficult,
to cut a hole in metal.
My mom's inside, just kind of touching up the kitchen,
trying to get everything situated, putting shelving in.
Hold on.
[ Grunts ]
[ Clattering ] Good catch.
My whole bill, it's got so much, like, different stuff to it.
My roof isn't the same as everybody else's.
My siding doesn't look the same as everybody else's.
Lock the wheels up.
What, like it's gonna leave? Yeah.
I want my place to be me.
I want it to be unique in every single way possible,
and that's what I've been trying to do.
Everything that I do, I want it to be a part of me, [ Beeping ]
and I am so ready to get the rest of it done.
[ Birds chirping ]
♪♪
JEFF: I am so excited that the cabin's finally built.
It's been a long work-in-progress,
not just working on the cabin itself,
just all the dreaming, the planning, the saving.
I'm really happy with what we were able
to accomplish together.
Oh, we had times that I struggled,
but I didn't kill him.
Hopefully he'll still call me for advice,
you know, now that he knows how to do so many things,
My original budget was between $20,000 and $25,000.
I actually came in under budget at about $18,000.
The original goal for the built was eight weeks,
and I got it done, actually, in seven.
We're having a couple of our really good friends,
Kim and Gordon, come up and view it.
Oh, god. Oh.
Bouncing all over the place.
Well, I think we're just about there.
♪♪
That was quite the road. [ Chuckles ]
Terrible.
I like this. It's really good.
Wow, this is pretty. Let's go find Jeff.
Hi! Hi, guys!
Come on up!
Wow, you did great.
It was a lot of work, but it's here.
KIM: This is so cool. Come on up!
This is amazing.
Kind of a nice view up here, isn't it?
GORDON: This is beautiful.
What do you guys think about my logs here? I love them.
And they're just slabs, but it looks like it's a cabin.
I want you guys to go first.
That way you can see the full effect.
Okay. Here we go.
Oh, wow.
Oh, this turned out fantastic. Look at this.
Welcome to my humble abode.
I could do this. We could move off-grid and live in this.
This is so nice.
We chose the stainless steel
'cause we do all the butchery,
so this stuff will clean up really easy.
It's not gonna stain. It just wipes right down.
Running water? Yes.
JEFF: And I fed the spring water into a holding tank.
If you have your water 75 feet above where it comes out,
you can actually get 35 PSI.
Did you guys notice the view from the kitchen window?
I love that. I love that.
The outhouse? [ Laughing ]
I made this. This right here,
because I always wanted plates
that slid in instead of stood up.
What are you guys doing for power?
JEFF: I have a generator just up the hill
on a long extension cord.
I want to someday hook it up for solar.
Oh, nice. But, yeah.
Look at that stove.
Yeah, that came out of a caboose on a train,
and I thought it would be the perfect size for Jeff's cabin.
This is perfect for you. This is you.
SHERON: Come sit down. Make yourself comfortable.
I just love the ceiling.
The openness of it, it makes this room looks huge.
Yeah, it makes the cabin look a lot bigger.
JEFF: You guys want to see the loft? I do.
Okay. Let's go one at a time, then.
You can stay down here.
You can't get two people up there at one time.
Hold on to it tight, Jeff. It's very rickety.
It's not that bad. Yes, it is!
No, it's not. Oh, nice.
I wanted a loft, because it's only 16x24 feet,
and I didn't want to take up all that space with a bed.
And this is all empty space anyway. This is perfect, Jeff.
♪♪
Thank you so much for coming out and visiting my cabin.
This is so nice.
Well, you guys drive safe down that awesome, wonderful road.
Yeah, that's your next project.
Yeah, right.
[ Laughing ]
KIM: I think he did a fantastic job.
It's Jeff. He did a great job.
He's gonna be very happy here.
♪♪
SHERON: Are you proud to get this done? Mm-hmm.
Yeah. I'm so glad I was a part of it,
to be here to see
all the the special moments and spend them together.
Building this cabin is definitely a dream come true,
and it's finally come to fruition.
I am looking forward to living here
and making memories for the rest of my life.
Hey, thanks, Mom. Couldn't have done it without you.
That's true, you couldn't have.
Alright, get out.
[ Laughing ]
♪♪