[Justin] We're building an underground home.
We're gonna put a foot of dirt on top of the whole thing.
[Janis] Oh, wow.
[Justin] Whoa!
It's got a mind of its own.
Oh. Whoa, whoa.
The motivation for building is definitely time with the family.
Oh, my gosh!
Building this is not going to be easy.
It's not staying on the roof!
[Justin] Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Trying to take me out.
Access to the build site is almost impossible.
Uh, Carlos, you're going off the edge.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
It's been months of stress...
[Janis] I'm not getting a whole lot of sleep.
and problems.
Just too cold, too wet,
so we'll put it on another day.
[Janis] We can't keep going unless we have that piece.
It's not like you can just go down to the store
and buy another one of these.
Hold on to it, hold on to it.
You can see, the wind is blowing this thing up.
Here we are, past our initial deadline,
and we're paying for it.
I just don't know if we're gonna be able to keep going.
[narrator] Are you ready to go off the grid?
So, what do you guys think?
[boy 1] This is cool.
[boy 2] It's really hilly.
[Justin] It's pretty hilly, huh?
- [boy 1] Yeah. - [Justin] Lots of hills.
So, we have this land in Southern Idaho.
[Justin] It's rolling hills, beautiful mountains in the background,
couple of small lakes close by.
I love the mountains. I'm a mountain girl.
You could get lost just looking around up here.
-Totally -It's just wonderful.
Because there's no lights around
from, like, a town or anything,
at night, the stars are gonna be awesome.
- [boy 1] Yes. - Right?
You'll be able to see a million stars.
- I'm Justin. - I'm Janis.
[Justin] And we're building our hobbit hole
in the Bear River Mountain Range.
The build site is near Preston, Idaho,
which is about four-and-a-half hours southeast of Boise.
- Access to the build site is almost impossible. - Yeah.
[Justin] There's hills, there's dirt, sand.
[Janis] The road is hard to drive on.
There's just no easy way to get things in and out of this site.
I love this. This is my favorite part.
It's like a movie.
Oh, wow.
[Justin] Okay, you guys wanna get out and walk around?
- [Janis] Let's go. - [Justin] Let's go see it.
The motivation for building is definitely time with the family.
I'm an anesthesiologist, Janis is a nurse.
We have six kids. The oldest is Jackson,
he's 18.
Zachary is 16, Zoey's 15.
Dawson is 13, Holly is 10,
and Grace is eight.
[Janis] Having six kids,
it's like we are running 100 miles a minute.
So, coming here will be a really great place,
where we can bond as a family and spend time.
What do you girls think?
- What do you think? - I think it's gorgeous
and beautiful.
[Justin] We're gonna start a lot of traditions right up here.
- [Janis] Mm-hm. - [Justin] We want this
to feel like we're some place else,
we're apart from this world.
So, we've gone above and beyond in the design
to make it unique.
We're building a 2,400 square foot underground house
with two large decks to take in the view.
When you first walk in the door,
on your right will be the living room,
on the left will be the kitchen and the dining room.
A little further around the corner,
we have a nice, little pantry,
and a secret door going into the main bedroom,
with an attached bathroom.
Downstairs, we have a rec room with a pool table,
and another secret door going into a lounge room, and two more bathrooms.
And two big bunk rooms for the kids.
For our off-grid features,
we're building a pavilion up the hill
for our solar panels,
and we'll have a well for water.
And we're building it underground
because it's cool, unique and whimsical,
- and that's, kind of, what we're going for. - [Janis] Yeah.
But also because building something underground
makes it really well insulated.
We've looked at a lot of places,
- and we've never felt this good about a place. - For sure.
[Justin] We feel like this is the place to build our little getaway,
and a place we can have forever.
Objections?
- Good. - [all laughing]
We're building a 2,400 square foot structure,
our budget is 200,000,
and our timeline is three months.
Let's go make some dreams come true
- and frolic. - Let's do it.
Let's go frolic.
Frolic time! Frolic!
- So, the plan for today is to start digging. - Yeah.
Dig the basement. It's going to be a big, ol' hole.
- It's like a monster tugging over the hill. - So big.
[Justin] We've got a big piece of equipment, a big truck.
It's gonna get down there with a big shovel
and dig it out.
[Janis] Whoo-hoo!
Finally, it's here. We can do this!
Our friend Bracken is here to help us today.
I've never done an underground house before,
so, hopefully, everybody's happy.
[chuckles]
- Well, this thing's awesome. - Okay, let's get going.
[Bracken] Sounds great.
[Justin] We've already laid it out.
It's all computerized and GPS'd,
and he's gonna put it exactly where we want it.
Here we go.
- [Justin] There he goes. - [Janis] Whoo-hoo!
Whoo-hoo! Finally!
[Justin] Wow.
[Janis] Well, here's the start of our dream.
It's, like, we've been waiting for this day for a long time.
So, this is pretty exciting.
-[Justin] Starts with a hole. -Totally.
[Justin] The hole for the house, the basement,
it's gotta be 10-and-a-half feet deep,
45 feet on the long sides,
and then, it's 20 feet wide.
But it's a lot of dirt.
So, we have to make the basement extra deep
because we've gotta have room underneath for radiant heat stuff,
and then, we have to have the dome
sitting right on the footing,
right on the concrete.
I think Bracken's a champ.
I think it's gonna get done.
Oh, my goodness. That is deep.
-[Justin] Look how deep that is. -[Janis] Wow!
We've finished digging,
now we need to show the kids and see what they think.
Oh, my gosh! That is a lot. That's like...
[boy 1] It's bigger than I thought it was!
[boy 2] I totally wanna jump in.
The kids thought it was pretty cool.
So, where we're standing is gonna be where there'll be, like, a big window
to sit in and look out that way.
Over there is where the front door is gonna be.
The kitchen will be, kind of, halfway in the middle,
and Mom and Dad's bedroom is over there.
And then, over there is stairs down to the basement.
So, for you, little dudes, your pool table right there.
- Yeah! - I like it!
- So, living in this is gonna be okay? - Yes.
- I want to live in it. - All right, okay.
Makes me very excited that they were that excited.
Then we'll keep going.
- Keep going. - Keep going. Whoo!
[Janis] Had a great first day.
Next step is cement trucks.
So, day two of our build.
We broke ground yesterday.
That was a fun time, great day.
Then we found out that our road can't hold cement trucks,
and we're supposed to have cement trucks here in two days.
So, we have to fix the road,
and it's gonna cost $75,000.
Who has $75,000 lying around?
And no, we don't. It is so upsetting.
[Justin] We have a budget, and we are so far beyond it with that.
I just don't know if we're gonna be able to keep going.
[sighs] It's so heartbreaking.
[Justin] So, we broke ground yesterday.
That was a fun time. Great day.
Then we found out that our road can't hold cement trucks,
and we're supposed to have cement trucks here in two days.
So, we have to fix the road,
and it's gonna cost $75,000.
So, a bit of happy news, the build's back on.
- I sold a kidney. - [laughing]
We found the money, we found a way.
We didn't want to have to spend all this money on the road,
but we knew that if we didn't,
then this whole dream, this whole thing was over.
- So, we're pushing through. - [Janis] Pushing through.
[Justin] We didn't expect it.
It's a lot more money than we wanted to spend,
but we have to get it done,
so we're gonna keep on going.
-[Janis] Keep on trucking. -[Justin] Keep on trucking. Get it done.
We finally finished our road,
and the cement trucks were able to make it to the site.
We set the forms for our foundations and let the cement flow.
[Janis] We were just about to start our basement walls,
and the snow came and completely shut us down.
The snow has finally cleared up,
and we're back to work, building the forms for the basement walls.
[Justin] And the concrete truck is back on site
and ready to pour.
But it's not leaving the trucks just yet.
I'm having a major freak out this morning.
We have six cement trucks coming,
and the first one's already here,
and we still don't have the official signed paperwork
from the engineer that says it's okay.
We had the footings already in place.
They're two feet wide and a foot deep.
We got the rebar in place, we've got the forms in place.
So, the concrete truck is ready to put the concrete in the walls,
and the inspector says,
"Well, the engineer says you need a three foot wide footing.
Yours is two foot wide."
We are hoping that we can just add another foot of concrete.
But the possibility is there
that we may have to tear up those footings and make them all once piece
if the engineer says that's what we have to do.
I gotta talk to the engineer,
get us all on the same page.
If we don't get the approval,
the whole thing will be scrapped.
What I need to know, Jeff, is if we can...
Uh, if we can add a foot of width to the footings
or if we need to tear the whole footing out and start over.
'Cause we have the concrete truck,
like, sitting here, ready to put the foundation walls in.
Yeah, so we just add some rebar?
We can do that? We can drill in the side and we can add rebar,
and we need to pour whatever the extra width is to get us to three feet?
Okay, great. Hey, thank you.
That's awesome. Man, that made my day. Thank you.
Whoo-hoo. Okay, all right. Bye.
Yes!
Okay, we did it. We're okay.
This machine pumps the cement from the cement truck
out a hose,
and they go into forms that we have set up there for the walls.
Are you gonna get in there and help?
- Are you gonna let me? - Maybe.
- Are you really gonna do it? - Let's go. Come on, come on.
- Really? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, the wall's ten feet tall and six feet up.
There's a narrow plank to walk on.
And you walk on the plank,
and you're holding this hose, which is pumping out...
I think he said 100 psi or something.
I mean, it's this enormous flood of concrete.
Whoa! [laughing]
Whoo-hoo!
Man, this thing's got a mind of its own.
It was like a rodeo.
I'm holding on to this hose, I'm on this narrow, skinny little beam,
and this thing's trying to shoot me up in the air.
And, sometimes, you miss.
Whoa! [grunting]
I thought I knew what I was doing.
I felt like I was this big, concrete pro.
And I can't even tell you what happened.
All of a sudden, concrete's going everywhere.
He missed the spot totally.
[Justin] Whoops. Sorry, boss.
We're on truck number three of six.
It's going well, actually.
To get to this point, where we're actually doing this,
is a massive relief.
I feel like all this concrete lifted off my shoulders.
Whoo-hoo!
[Justin] That's it. We're done.
A little rough start, but we ended up with a great day.
Great job, guys. Way to go.
Walls are all poured.
We're ready for the next thing.
[Justin] We've made great progress over the last couple of days.
The crew's been able to start framing out
the basement interior walls.
[thunder rumbling]
[rain pattering]
But unfortunately, before we could get the ceiling installed,
we got hit with a massive rainstorm.
Whoo-hoo!
So, we're gonna have to call it a day.
Uh, we got a lot done, as you can see,
but that's all we can do today.
Uh, just too cold, too wet.
And it's getting late. It's gonna get dark here in a minute.
So, we'll put it on another day.
What are you gonna do?
[Justin] After a couple of days of rainy weather,
the sky has cleared.
And we were finally able to complete the basement framing
and install the plywood layer of the first floor.
Next, we install the radiant heating tubes
that are going under the first floor.
And I've got the pleasure of being out here solo
to slop on a water-proof membrane
on the concrete walls that will eventually be underground.
I think that's fun.
We've come a long way.
We get to extend the footings finally.
We get to put the floor on,
so that we can start putting the dome together.
[Janis] Today's a big day,
'cause we finally get to put up the dome.
This is what we've been waiting for.
[Justin] The big day, we're gonna build the dome.
[Janis] Whoo-hoo!
That means we gotta take all these parts
all the way down there to the house.
We've got a trailer here.
We're gonna load a bunch of 'em up onto the trailer,
take them down.
We'll also have to carry some down by hand.
And then, once we get 'em down there,
we start putting them together.
- Are you guys ready for this? - Yeah.
- Okay. - Whoo-hoo!
[Justin] We've got a big crew today.
We've got five or six people that are coming from the dome company,
we've got four local contractors,
we've got our family, which is, like, five of us that are up here currently.
And then, three or four more family and friends
that are coming up as well, so...
I can't even count that many. Ran out of fingers.
I'm glad it's him driving this and not me.
It's not easy.
Especially, backing up a huge, long trailer like this
all the way down this hill.
Uh, Carlos, you're going off the edge.
Yeah, he's got to straighten out.
They maybe have underestimated the number of trips this is going to take.
It's a good thing we've got this nice, wide road.
Wait. Whoa, whoa, whoa.
You want us to just unload them?
- [man speaking] - [Justin] This side? Okay.
Whoa!
It's great to have this many people.
We don't really know what it's gonna take to put all this together.
More hands should make it better.
[Janis] There's a lot of pieces.
[Justin] There's a lot of pieces.
I don't even know how many pieces.
I think there's over 50. I think we've decided.
- Somebody should probably count the pieces. - Oh, yeah.
[Justin] Okay, first couple of pieces here.
Yup.
We're making sure that we have a nice, exact square corner
to start from, because everything else goes out from that corner.
So, if that corner's off, and we're not exactly right, you know, 90 degrees,
then, by the time we get to the end of the line there,
it'll be way off.
Kind of surreal that we're actually building this now.
It's been a long time thinking about it,
and wondering if it was really gonna happen, so...
Actually being here and putting it together is pretty awesome.
Do you want a couple of little loose bolts in?
[man] Yeah. Wait a minute.
- [Justin] Wait? - [man] Yeah.
The beginning is always more difficult. Then we go faster.
I'm sure, I'm sure.
But this is a crucial part.
- It's laying the corner stone. - [man] Yes.
[Justin] We gotta do this one exactly right.
- We wanna come down from the top? - [man] Always.
- Always from the top-down, right? - Always from the top.
- I read that in the manual. - Any difference goes to the floor
- and disappears, but up is the main. - [Justin] Got it.
With the corner in place, we really got moving from there.
We're very carefully aligning how they come together
so that the whole thing will be straight.
We want the inside to be really flush
so that when we cover the seam,
it doesn't look like a seam.
It doesn't look like you have a wave going down the wall.
So, we gotta really line those up perfectly.
We're about, I guess, almost a third of the way done with the whole building.
Tomorrow, right back at it.
We'll go as far as we can around this side.
We'll be done in three days.
It's just been so amazing having everyone else out,
from Uncle Laney in his kilt...
That's why we're not getting him up on any ladders.
I am so proud of you.
to my mom being here. It's just great.
- I love you. - Oh, I love you so much.
And look at your dream.
-Look at that. -[Justin] I know. Isn't that crazy?
[Justin's mother] Love it.
[Janis] Day two: the dome build.
We're gonna get this thing done.
[Justin] Okay, next piece.
- 25a. - 25a? All right, I'll go get it.
Thanks.
It's so fun to look down at the site,
and to be able to see our work,
and it's not just a slab of cement.
Yesterday, we didn't actually have any major mishaps.
Yes!
It, kind of, worries me.
[both laughing]
[man] Uh, Justin, there's no 25a out there.
[Justin] We were actually supposed to take the inventory
of all the parts a couple of nights ago,
but that was the night we spent back filling.
And we never really got to going through the manual,
making sure everything was there.
No. 27, 27. Oh, crap.
- [Justin sighs] - [man] It is not here.
We don't have it anywhere, guys.
[Justin] Hey, you can't just not have that piece.
We lost a piece or we don't have a piece.
It's almost just like this,
but it doesn't have this piece on it.
It's not, like, a decorative piece,
it's, like, a structural piece.
And we can't even finish what we're doing without it.
This thing took months to get here.
If we had to have them send another piece, months.
I don't see it.
[Janis] We can't keep going unless we have that piece.
[Justin] Everything was going fine with building the dome,
until the instruction book called for piece number 25.
[man] Uh, Justin, there is no 25a out there.
We lost a piece or we don't have a piece.
And it's not, like, a decorative piece,
it's, like, a structural piece.
I can't even think about it.
I don't see it.
[Janis] We can't keep going unless we have that piece.
So, did we number 'em wrong or something, because--
- [Justin] Maybe. - [man] Hey, hey, hey.
[Justin] 25a? Are you kidding?
- [Janis] Did you find it? - [Justin] Really?
-[man] Looks like it got buried. -[Janis] Oh, thank gosh.
Who put that under there?
[Justin] Nope, nope. We're just happy we found it.
- 'Cause it was probably me. - It was the unloading--
- Unloading was happening fast and furious. - [man] It was the road.
Oh, my gosh.
-Bring it over? -Let's do it. Let's get it in there.
Crisis averted. We found the piece.
Getting it up into place right now.
But that was too close.
It's not like you can just go down to the store and buy another one of these.
So, we're relieved.
We're glad to have that piece in. Glad we found it.
Now we just got to keep going. Make some progress today.
A lot has gone on since we finished putting the dome together.
It's been pretty cool to see it come together.
We've got all the walls up now.
We've been doing a lot of work on the outside, with waterproofing and stuff.
We've had to put little bits of waterproofing on each, little bolt.
The basement, now, is all framed.
We've got the stairs that go down there done.
We've just got the windows in,
so we're excited to see how they look,
start placing them in their openings.
[Janis] They're fun to look at.
They took three months
- to get here. - Yeah. Three-and-half at least.
Ah. I sure hope this fits.
-[Carlos] Yeah, you and me both. -[Justin] It better fit.
I mean, it's supposed to be, like, exact.
Wait a minute.
- Are you all the way over on your side? - Yeah, I'm good.
[Janis] At the top. Look at the top.
Is this supposed to be out here?
[Justin] The window is just right, it's just the--
-The frame? -[Justin] The flange. This thing.
The part that secures the window to the house, we didn't account for.
So, we should have gotten the windows, like, three inches smaller.
[Janis] How are we going to fix that?
[Carlos] That is a good question.
Did we not measure it right?
[Carlos] So, you have 40... Almost 41.
40 and seven-eighths, but...
But that's just the frame of the window.
-[Janis] That's just the inside. Oh. -[Carlos] That's the inside.
[Justin] So, we're trying to figure out what happened.
The windows don't fit.
We can't modify the window frame.
What are we gonna do?
[Carlos] The only thing we can do is cut from the top point,
wherever we tie in.
We can cut that flange off, glue it to the bottom.
- If we take this flange off? - [Carlos] Just-- Yes.
You just take the flange off so that it actually goes in square.
- You can sit it straight up. - [Justin] Okay.
So, I think we have a plan to try at least.
We don't really have much other choice.
So, let's, let's get something to cut this flange off,
- and try it again. - [Janis] Okay.
Okay. Now, the other side.
- [Carlos] Moment of truth. - Try again, huh?
Let's try it from the outside.
[window squeaking]
Oh, yeah, look at that. Beauty.
- Whoo! - See?
Why? What's the problem?
It looks beautiful. The windows look fantastic in there.
Once they modified it.
[Carlos] With it being as tight as it is,
I don't think that I wanna put 'em all the way in
just because when we fill it with dirt on the top,
we're gonna have some kind of flex, some kind of movement.
Okay, yeah.
And then, we can adjust the tops and bottoms that we need
and have everything exactly the way we need it.
We can make it work.
[Janis] Today, we're gonna get the Murphy door in.
- And Justin has been a fan of secret passage doors. - Secret doors.
I've always wanted a secret door.
[Janis] The Murphy door we have faces the butler's pantry.
Okay, halfway done.
And so I stained it the same colors as the cabinetry
so that it would look like it is just a spice rack with doors on it.
But when you push it open,
it's the bedroom with a beautiful view.
[laughing]
[Justin] Oh, my gosh. That's so cool.
It's gonna be pretty neat.
- He is always wanted secret doors. - I love it. It's perfect.
- I know and I want more. - Always.
I want one for the bathroom, closet--
- [man] Pantry, Mirror. - Over here. Over there.
[Justin] It will totally blend in.
[Janis laughing] That's awesome.
Another big thing we've to do still
is the support wall. The buttress.
It's gonna take a lot of mixing
of the sand and cement.
And we've to go all the way around the house.
But doing it ourselves is going to save a lot of money.
We gotta fill this all the up to here.
That whole thing.
So, us the family,
we can mix the stuff together.
We can lay it on the ground.
Doesn't require a lot of skill or experience.
So we're gonna get the kids together and we're gonna do that.
When putting the sand in the concrete in when it's still dry,
and then the water.
Repeat it over and over and over and over again.
I don't know for sure but I'm thinking,
I'm saying 500 loads
to do it, all the way around the house.
It's gonna take a bit.
[Justin] We're out of water? All of it?
I thought we'd get lot further than that.
Where should we go get the water?
- Reservoir. - [Janis chuckling] Okay.
Get back as fast as you can
because right now we're just waiting until you get back.
It's already slow enough with this tiny little mixer.
If we're gonna have to stop every few batches
to go get more water,
we're not gonna get very far.
Hopefully, they hurry back.
Hopefully, they'll get back quick.
[Justin] Cruising along.
Mixing up sandcrete.
Everybody is helping out.
And we run out of water.
I thought we'd get lot further than that.
Argh.
We've a well but we don't have it
pumped and piped down to where we are yet.
So, we've got to figure out where we are gonna get more water.
- Reservoir. - [Janis chuckling] Okay.
Get back as fast as you can
because right now we're just waiting until you get back.
The reservoir is about two miles away.
So we've gotta take these water buckets
to the reservoir and back,
before we can keep making our sandcrete.
It's already slow enough with this tiny little mixer.
If we're gonna have to stop every few batches
to go get more water,
we're not gonna get very far.
Hopefully, they hurry back.
Hopefully, they'll get back quick.
[Justin] All right. Here they come.
What took you so long?
All right. Sweet.
Let's keep going now.
There.
Dump it in. Argh!
[Justin laughs]
[Justin] There is absolutely no way we're gonna do it this way.
It just takes too long to do such a small amount.
But there is no way this is the long term solution
to go all the way around the house.
We're gonna have to go back to the drawing board,
come up with another way to do this a lot faster, a lot more efficiently.
'Cause this is gonna take us months.
[Justin] We've been working our butts off.
For the retaining wall, the sandcrete ultimately didn't work.
So we thought why not use sandbags?
And that worked out great.
And it saved us a lot of time.
We're making good progress inside the house too.
We've got the walls all framed.
We've got some electrical stuff going in.
We've got some plumbing stuff going in.
Pretty soon we're gonna be able to put up windows and doors.
I'm not getting a whole lot of sleep.
[laughing] And today I sat down for a few minutes
and poof, I went out. [laughs]
With saws and generators and stuff,
just making a ton of noise and she is just out.
- [Justin laughs] - [Janis laughing] So tired.
[Justin] For the outside, we've added a spray foam insulation to the dome.
And now we're stretching a huge pond liner over the whole thing
before we cover it with dirt.
[Janis] Uh-oh.
[Justin] Hold on to it. Hold on to it.
You can see the wind is blowing this thing up.
One, two, three, pull!
It took six guys to pull this thing on.
It weighs 600 pounds and the wind just picked it right up.
[Janis] Okay. We're gonna start putting dirt on!
Whoo-hoo! That did it!
- [Justin] Yay! - [Janis] Whoo-hoo!
-And we don't need sod. Look at this! -[Janis laughs]
[Justin] So we're digging the dirt from right down here.
We're just bringing it up in big old scoop loads,
using it to weigh it down,
and then we'll start evening it out.
Then will put a foot of dirt on top of the whole thing.
It's gonna be, I don't know, I'd guess somewhere around six tons.
That would be my guess.
Right there. Yes.
[Janis] Buried our house today.
How many people can say they're doing that?
I don't know very many.
But we're burying it. It is pretty exciting.
[Justin] Put that one right in here. Right in here.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
[Bracken] Oh, God, Justin. Looking out. Look out.
[Justin] Jeez.
Tried to take me out.
I got little carried away.
I was just giving him some instructions on where to put stuff.
-[Bracken] Sorry. I didn't mean to get you. -It's all right.
With all this dust, it's hard to see.
[Bracken] I wish we had a water truck.
Oh, my gosh. I mean just a rain cloud. One even.
We expected
that when he digs up a big, deep scoop like that,
that it would be at least a little bit brown and moist and it wasn't at all.
It is just dry and sandy.
[Janis] What are you gonna do?
[Justin] That didn't quite go as I expected.
It's not staying on the roof!
And it won't stay up on the house.
[Justin] All right. Next one up a little higher.
Part of the reason that we set the deadline that we did,
was to stay away from this season.
We knew it was gonna be hot.
We knew it was gonna be dry.
That's why we wanted to be done a few weeks ago.
Here we are, past our initial deadline,
and we're paying for it.
We've all these sods standing by,
but it can't go on until we have the house covered with dirt.
I think we're just gonna have to do as much as we can,
and then wait until we can get some water out here to moisten the dirt.
[Justin] In the last week or so,
we finished the outside.
Lot more dirt and lot more sod on top.
We've water now.
- [Janis] Hallelujah. - [Justin laughs]
There is been a well this whole time,
but we didn't have a way to access it.
So, we got a pump, we got a tank.
There is water down there at the site.
If you want to open the spigot and have a drink, you could.
And then we've really been working hard on the pavilion.
Which is where we're gonna have all of our electrical stuff--
- Solar panels. - Solar panels.
[Justin] Generator.
That's exciting.
- Special delivery. - Just what I needed.
[Justin] Just get a little closer.
[Janis] I'm a little worried.
Because there is still so much to do inside.
And we're so far behind schedule.
[Justin] We have a lot to do before we finish with the house.
Now that the dome is covered up,
we're confident that it's not gonna shift anymore.
So it's time for windows.
Almost all the windows are round.
If they're not complete circles, they're half circles.
But the ones we're gonna put in today, especially, are very unique.
You don't just get these anywhere.
We had them special made,
just the sizes we want
and they're here,
and we're ready to put them in.
- [Justin] Yeah. - [Janis] This window
took 14 weeks to get here.
- [Justin] That's all you got to say. - Yeah, we'll see.
- [Justin] All you got to say is please don't drop it. - [Janis] Oh.
[Janis] The biggest and heaviest window we have,
of course, needs to be installed above the egress
for the basement level.
- [Carlos] You ready? - [Justin] Yep.
[Janis] And watching them lift it over into the frame,
has me so nervous.
[Carlos] Okay, stick the bottom in.
[Justin] Okay.
[Justin panting] Just a little too big.
[banging]
[Justin] It's pretty dang tight. Nothing getting in there.
[Carlos] The nails holding.
[hammering]
[Justin] All right, I'm letting it go.
[hammering]
- [Janis] It looks so beautiful. - Doesn't it look good?
[Janis] I love it more than I thought it would.
It's so cool how
the window silhouettes the view,
and I just love that.
[Justin] Two of our windows are very special.
The custom-made stained glass windows that we designed ourselves.
[Janis] Oh, my.
This is the dragon mountain.
[Justin] This one is gonna be in this window over here.
- [Janis] It's beautiful. - [Justin] That's gorgeous and that's gorgeous
So it looks like the moon is
- shining the light on the water. - It's so beautiful. I love it.
[Ann] So what we've got here is the Tree of Life.
We wanted the moonlight chamber to come back across
and echo words on the mountain.
That's exactly what I wanted.
- [laughs] Thank you. - [Ann] I'm glad.
That's what I wanted to hear.
I love it so much.
I felt so emotional about them.
There is something emotional about them.
That's just a beautiful, unique, personalized
little thing and maybe it's because of
so many things have gone wrong.
- Yeah. - As we have gone through this.
And it's been really hard that we get to see that and have that moment.
[Justin] Thank you so much.
[Janis] It's exactly what we had wanted.
[Justin] We still have so much work left before we're done.
Over the past week, we've put up all the drywall.
[Janis] We got our flooring done.
And Justin had some fun painting.
[Justin] Argh.
[Justin] We got our kitchen cabinets.
Finished up the bathrooms.
Did a whole lot of work on the outside.
It's gonna be a race to the finish
but we're gonna find a way to get it all done.
One of the biggest finishing touches,
is putting on the big, round door.
All right, here it is.
There is the door frame.
There is the door.
This door is massive.
Solid wood. Custom-made.
I don't know what it weighs. But it's gotta be
150 pounds maybe.
[Janis] I could not even help to lift it. [laughing] It was so heavy.
Janis, hold the door and don't let it fall.
[Justin] We're gonna have a tough time installing it.
And none of us know how to do this.
These bolts are imported from the land of New Jersia.
[laughs]
[Janis] We're on the last one.
[Justin] Yeah, we'll make that the last one.
- [Janis] Okay. - [Justin] Okay, Janis, you wanna do the honors?
- [Janis laughs] - [Justin] Come on. Come on.
- It's a big gun. - Okay. My skills.
[drilling]
- [Justin] Yay. - [Janis laughs]
- Last bolt. - Last bolt.
- [Justin] Give it a test? - [Carlos] Okay.
[Justin] Oh, here it go!
[all cheering]
-[Janis] Oh, my gosh. This is open. We got a door. -[Justin] Whoo-hoo!
[Justin] We got it installed and it looks amazing.
Okay, close it, close it, close it. I wanna see.
[Justin] I was so thrilled it worked.
So many things have gone wrong that we now went right, I was thrilled.
[Janis] Who is it?
Come in.
I feel like this adds the perfect touch.
[Justin] Oh, man. I'm so happy with that, Janis.
-[Janis] Oh, I'm so happy too. -I'm so happy with that. Nice job.
[Justin] We are done.
- Hallelujah! - [laughs]
My gosh.
- It's been forever. - [Justin] It feels amazing.
[Janis] We are exhausted. [laughs]
- But... - It's worth it.
[Justin] It's been months and months of stress
and problems,
and to have it done now,
is an amazing relief.
[Janis] Original budget was 200,000,
and we ended up spending 300,000.
[Justin] Lot of unexpected expenses.
And then just a lot of mistakes that we made,
and needing to do things over again.
[Janis] Our original timeline was three months.
And it actually took us four months to build.
But, it was worth it.
[Justin] My dad, Danny and his wife Rozell
are coming today to check out the house,
and we cannot wait to see what they're gonna think.
And he is a pretty emotional guy,
so I bet he starts crying just as he comes down the hill.
[Janis laughs]
- [Justin] Hey! - Hi!
[Justin] You made it.
-Oh, my goodness! It looks so cool. -I like the door.
- [Rozell] Oh! - [all laughing]
Started tearing up when I crossed that hill there.
- [laughs] - I started tearing up.
- I knew it. - You're such an amazing kid.
- [Janis] Aw. - Could you see it from up there?
No.
- Not really. Not really. - I didn't really see it.
[Justin] Big round door.
Custom made.
It's one of a kind for sure.
- [Danny] Look at the glass. - [Rozell] Look at the window.
Isn't this amazing?
[Justin] These are custom stain glass windows
that a friend of ours made.
[Rozell] She did such a good job.
- [Justin] A whole lot more to see inside. Are you ready? - We are ready.
[both] Oh, my gosh.
- Look at the ceiling. - It's beautiful.
[both] Oh, wow!
[Janis] This is all custom-made.
This was my design. I drew it,
- and found a metal shop that would cut it out for us. - [Janis] Cut it out, yeah.
[laughing] You want another huh?
[all laughing]
for the family.
[Justin] Does it feel like we're underground?
- [Danny] Not at all. - [Rozell] Not at all.
- [Rozell] It's so bright and airy and it just looks-- - Yeah.
I'd have never guessed.
[Justin] So you feel how much cooler it is here.
[both] It is.
[Justin] This is just because of the insulation.
- There is no air conditioning. - What?
- [Justin] We've pipes in the floor. - [Rozell] Uh-huh.
[Justin] That will do heat and cooling.
[Rozell] Oh, wow! Really?
[Danny] This is amazing.
[Janis] This is the kitchen.
So who picked this up?
[Justin] We wanted something big and grand.
- [Janis] Rustic. - And we got very lucky and found this.
[Rozell] It's so cool.
Where are you getting the water?
[Justin] We have a well and a big huge tank.
All the power comes from solar.
So up there on the hill, we've that pavilion.
That's the power source for all of this.
So we got all these really nice things,
but we're still
- off the grid, living underground. - [Rozell] Yeah.
- [Janis laughs] - Right?
- [Janis] Do you like our table? - [Rozell] I love that table.
- [Janis] Yeah. - [Rozell] That's so nice and big.
Where is the rest of it?
[Janis] This kind of our pantry.
It had this spice rack.
It's a very special spice rack.
What makes it so special?
- [Justin] What makes it so special? - Yeah.
- What? - Oh, my goodness.
- Oh, my gosh! - Look at this.
- [Danny] Check it out. - Look at that.
[Janis] You didn't think that was behind the door.
- [indistinct chatter] - I will never guess.
[Danny] We claim it. We got this bedroom. Yep, I want this.
[Justin] A nice big deck.
Yeah. It's a perfect place to go out and enjoy an evening.
- Just when it cools off... - [Janis] Yeah.
- We still have a lot more to show you. - All right.
- [Rozell] Love the sink. - [Danny] Look at that.
- [Rozell] Oh, my goodness. - It's a barrel.
Isn't that awesome?
[Rozell] You guys did a great job. That is cool.
- [Janis] Thanks. - [Justin] Thank you.
- [Danny] That's great. - That is awesome.
- [Janis] Let's go see the basement. - [Danny] Let's go.
[both] Oh, my gosh!
[chuckles] A pool table.
[Rozell] It'll be so fun for the kids.
[Justin] Well, we've had the spot for this picked out
- since we dug the original hole. - Yes.
[Justin] When we're laying out bedroom, bedroom, bedroom,
there was always, "And that's where the pool table goes."
[Janis laughs]
Then you comes down here and it's fun.
[Justin] Another cool bookcase over here.
[Janis] And then when you push on it.
[Danny] What? Another one.
- Look at that. - Oh, my gosh!
This is so cool.
[Justin] This is the TV room.
Great place for the kids to come and relax.
[Janis] Here is one of the bedrooms.
You can fit a lot of kids down here. Right?
Yeah. All of us could stay here.
[Justin] There's another bedroom right next to this one that also has six.
- More? - Yeah, that many.
[Janis] And here's our deck.
- Oh, look at the view. - You guys got everything.
[Justin] We love just sitting out here
and looking at this view.
Little hot tub.
I could see how it will be beautiful.
We've made a bunch of memories building it.
- And now we're gonna get to make a bunch of memories... - There you go.
- Using it. - Enjoying it.
enjoying it together.
- [Danny] So proud of you guys. - [Janis] Thanks.
You're awesome.
- Definitely did a good job. - You put it together.
Couldn't believe that it was on the ground. It looked so just
like a beautiful fairytale house. It was amazing.
[Danny] I'm so proud of Justin and Janis.
To the point where it brings tears to my eyes
every time I think about what they've done.
Just amazing.
[Janis] You know, it kind of makes me emotional because
we put so much work into this.
Walking in there today was like,
[sighs in relief] okay. It's worth it.
You get to enjoy your hard labor.
- [Janis laughing] Whoo-hoo! - Oh!
- Cold? - Yeah.
It's kind of the ultimate fairytale for us.
[laughing]
[Janis] It was an adventure.
I think I overfilled it.
[Justin] We've got this beautiful place now
to enjoy with our family.
Make great memories for generations and generations.