[Wes] We're gonna be building a river cabin.
This is where I grew up!
[man] Push! Push! Push! Push!
[people shouting]
[Lindsay] It's our little piece of paradise.
Woo! Now it's just good old fashioned man power.
[man] 1, 2, 3!
[Wes yelling]
Leave it to me to find the one nail.
I'm not really sure if Wes will survive this.
Oh, God! Wes! Wes!
[Lindsay] That's our only barrel gone.
[Wes] Yeah, she gone.
This is going to complicate things.
We are on a tight timeline.
Crew's not here.
This is ridiculous.
[yells] I'm locked up!
[groaning]
I think we're done.
Grab it, Lindsay!
Oh, God!
This is not fun.
[Wes] We're on time crunch and the proverbial crap has hit the fan.
[man] You're good, just like that.
[Wes groans] Oh, no!
[narrator] Are you ready to go off the grid?
[Wes] Be careful stepping through here. It's slick.
Don't fall in the river.
So right up here, on the top of the hill, this is where we're going.
- [Wes] It's a little steep through here. - [Lindsay] Got it?
[Eva] I saw a purple butterfly. [chuckles]
We've been fortunate to acquire this land up here,
we got about three and a half acres,
kinda out in the middle of nowhere.
This is where I grew up,
and this is kinda where I played as a kid,
hanging out on this river.
- I'm Lindsay. - And I'm Wes.
[Lindsay] And we are building our off-the-grid river cabin on the Ocoee river.
The build site is located in Benton, Tennessee,
one hour of East of Chattanooga.
[Lindsay] This is it, guys!
[Wes] So look, sis, here you go!
- [Eva cheering] - [Wes chuckling]
- [Wes] Facing the river, so you got that nice view. - [Lindsay] Look at the view.
I think it's really pretty 'cause then I can go swimming in it.
- That's right. - I know, it's relaxing.
[Wes] We got to stay back, 'cause as you can see some of these banks are eroded,
I wanna make sure we get good solid ground to build on,
so we'll be able to see the river from the house,
- how cool will that be? - [Eva] Cool!
[Lindsay] It's our little piece of paradise.
It's very quiet and peaceful.
[Wes] Last year at Easter,
our home in Chattanooga was destroyed by a tornado.
We were without power for a couple of weeks.
So it really reset us and re-centered us as a family.
Work is busy, school's busy,
and it just really brought us together,
and so it was important for us to build somewhere
where our children and us could have the opportunity to continue to grow together.
The challenges with building on the Ocoee river
are the river itself.
The river gets very, very high, it can sometimes flood.
How tall is it gonna be?
So because of the river, we're going to have to build it up,
probably eight feet off the ground, so even this is like,
as high as I can reach will be where our feet are.
So do you think that's going to be too high, sis?
- No. - [chuckles]
[Lindsay] What are we gonna put under it?
- A movie theatre. - [chuckling]
- I'm thinking big. - [Wes] Oh, we know.
[Wes] We're just excited to be sharing the property
with our seven-year-old daughter, Eva.
So this is where it's going to be. [chuckles]
- [Lindsay] Excited? - [Eva] Yeah.
- So do you wanna measure it out, kinda put some flags? - Me.
- See what it looks like. - I'll put the flags in.
- All right. [chuckles] - I like flags.
[Wes] Eva will be a lot of help, um, she'll be in the river,
uh, she'll be trouncing through the worksite,
probably digging holes where we don't need holes,
covering the holes that we've dug,
um, and Eva will just boss everyone around.
[chuckles]
- Hold that real tight, sis. - Hold it!
[Wes] I got 24... 30...
Here we are! Put a flag there.
All right, sis, hold that one more second.
We're going to come up here, we're going to put a flag up here.
Like right about here, roughly.
All right, so I'll show you guys where we're at.
This is gonna be where me and mommy's bedroom is right here,
with a nice big window to look out on the water,
maybe we'll let you come by and hang out in there.
- [Wes laughing] - You know the answer to that.
[laughs]
[Wes] We're building a river cabin on stilts,
with a greenhouse and a big front porch,
so we can take in all the views.
When you walk in, you'll come into the great room, which has our kitchen
and living area,
to the right will be the full bathroom,
in the main room we have a neat feature,
a loft bed for Eva,
and then we also have a spare room for friends and family.
Some of our off-grid feature are
a water pump that will pump water from the creek,
through a filtration system for the house,
we have a composting toilet,
and we have 12 solar panels that will power the house.
[Lindsay] I'm a little nervous because we only have six weeks to do this build.
We also have to stay within a budget of 50,000
and I tend to like to change things sometimes.
But I think it's going to be worth it in the end.
[Wes] So yeah! Say go Team Bright!
- [Lindsay] Go Team Bright! - [Wes] Yeah!
[Wes] We're out here, ready to get started,
our first step is we've got to dig some holes
to put our post in to get our house up off the ground.
We're gonna start with this one here.
- That's fine, mate. - Yeah!
We get our buddy Warren on the skid steer with an auger,
digging these holes so we don't have to do it by hand.
[Wes] Dig deep!
[chuckles]
- [Lindsay] We are breaking ground! - Yay!
[Wes] It feels great to actually move some dirt,
we've talked about this for a long time, it's been a long time coming,
we're excited to be actually seeing some progress.
We have 12 holes to dig,
we're gonna use a 12-inch bit,
try to dig about three feet down.
Last hole, let's go!
[Lindsay whooping]
That's a deep hole right there.
Good job, Warren! Let's put these posts in.
[Lindsay] Now that the holes are dug, we have to transport
these super heavy poles to the site.
The access to our property is gonna be one of our challenges.
[Wes] We really can't get trucks close to the build site,
so we're just going to have them drop off the materials where they can.
And then we'll have to trek things in the rest of the way by hand.
All right, guys, so we gotta get these poles
right down there to the holes.
It's about 300 pounds each, so...
I'mma need y'all to man up.
I'll probably carry the most of the load 'cause I'm the strongest one here.
I'll stay in the middle, so I don't really have to do anything.
We've been good friends for a long time with a lot of people,
so we're calling in every favor.
[man straining] This seems a little uneven.
[grunts]
- Sorry about your shoe. - Oh, you're all right!
[man] Try and get in the same stepping pattern.
[Wes] All right. Set your end down first.
Set your end there.
Everybody out?
[man] I got it! I got it! I got it!
[thuds]
[cheers]
- Boom! - Go, team!
We've got about a quarter mile at least toting these 12 foot heavy posts.
But we've got some of the strongest guys in East Tennessee
to help carry 'em to our site.
[Wes] Woo! One more down! Yay!
Atta babe! [sighs]
- Ready? Going down. - All right.
Going down.
[cheers] Oh, my gosh!
We did it!
We got all the poles here, it's time to put 'em in the ground.
Y'all ready?
Great.
1, 2, 3.
[grunts]
[Wes] Now it's just good old fashioned man power,
getting them actually in the hole, raising them up,
and ready to go from there.
All right stop! I'm leveled, go left.
Looks perfectly square.
[Lindsay] We were just cruising along, everything was great,
and pole number four...
All right, let's do this, come on guys!
2, 3, go!
Push! Push! Push! Push!
[Lindsay] You're too far.
Push! Push!
[all shouting] Whoa!
[Lindsay] So we carried all 12 poles
over here to the holes...
We're just cruising along, everything was great,
and pole number four...
All right! Let's do this, come on guys!
2, 3, go!
Push! Push! Push! Push!
[Lindsay] Guys, whoa, whoa, whoa!
[all shouting] Whoa!
Should've listened to the boss.
We got a little bit of hurry on the fourth pole, we uh...
We missed our aim there, no one got hurt,
we're good but...
We're on time crunch and no need to slow it down.
Just try that again.
Sorry guys, I got this.
- All day, man, all day! - Don't worry about it.
- Heavy. - Looks good.
We got it in and so looking for smooth sailing the rest of the way out.
Woo-hoo!
- You got this! - You're doing good, too.
- We'll be back in a bit. - I'm not sitting here holding this.
[Wes] You got this, boo.
[grunting]
[Wes] We got all the poles in, everything looks great, nice and straight, and level.
So, we're good to go.
[Wes] Been a busy week here at riverside as you can see,
we've got all of our floor joists down,
our sub floors went down,
we got a lot of progress going.
We're gonna set up our walls today.
It's going to b a long day but we got a lot of help.
You guys ready to put this wall up?
Lindsay's gonna be out today, she had to work.
We're gonna surprise her this evening with some walls to look at.
All right! Here goes the first wall, here we go!
[creaking]
[Wes] Cool! First wall is up, very exciting, yes!
It's a lot bigger than I anticipated but it looks great.
It was the longest wall, the heaviest,
so it was a challenge,
we got it set, now we can kind of build off the other three from there.
- Yeah! - [woman] All together, 1, 2, 3!
[Wes] Our sub floor is about 9 feet off the ground,
so it's going to be a challenge getting all of our lumber up on.
We'll build the walls, kinda hoist them up,
little more challenging with the elevation but
I think we got enough man power to get it done.
[nail gun clicking]
[Wes yells]
Leave it to me to find the one nail
that was nailed through that I caught.
When it's me working, there's always some blood and...
gore.
[hammering]
[Wes] Injuries aside, we're making a lot of progress.
[hammering]
In addition to all the exterior walls,
we will also be framing out all the walls for the different rooms inside.
Before we knew it, it was time to put up the last wall.
[creaking]
Last wall! Here we go! Woo!
Heck yeah! Looks good, looks good!
Let's set it and it'll be good to go.
[hammering]
[Wes] So today was a long day,
we got a lot accomplished, got all of our walls up.
Close your eyes.
No one has seen it yet, so it's going to be a big surprise to the family,
so I'm looking forward to seeing they're faces.
3, 2, 1, go!
[cheering]
[Lindsay] It looks so good!
- [Lindsay whooping] - [Wes] Y'all wanna check out the inside?
You wanna see your bedrooms?
All right!
I was a little nervous when he showed me the floor plan,
I wasn't sure how big it was gonna be or small it was gonna be
but it turned out perfect, exactly like he said.
Hang on! I'm gonna open the door.
- [Lindsay] Are you for real? - Yeah! [laughing]
Come on in, check it out, guys!
[Wes] What do you think, Eva?
This whole thing I'm gonna decorate.
[chuckling]
Eva had definitely the most energetic reaction,
and then her list of demands,
so we made sure Eva approves so we're good.
[Wes] Had a big day today, getting all the walls up,
tomorrow is going to be crazier, we're going up high.
We're going to put the rafters on,
put the plywood up, get ready to put the tin roof on.
As they say, we'll be in the dry.
Big day tomorrow!
[Lindsay] Today's supposed to be a big day,
the crew's not here, we're supposed to have all the rafters up,
the roof up today,
we are on a tight timeline,
and nobody's here.
We can't get a hold of anybody,
they were supposed to be here about two hours ago.
The weather here is super unpredictable,
so I'm getting a little worried,
because sometimes it can rain just out of nowhere.
And we're supposed to be in the dry right now and we're not.
[sighs]
This is ridiculous.
[Lindsay] Today's supposed to be a big day,
the crew is not here, we're supposed to have all the rafters up,
the roof up, today,
and nobody's here.
They were supposed to be here about two hours ago.
Hey, babe! Have you heard from anybody?
Not heard from anyone.
[Lindsay] It's so frustrating.
One of the challenges being out here in the middle of nowhere is
getting people to be able to get cellphone service,
get connected to people,
we've been on the phone making phone calls but we're having no luck
getting anyone out to help today.
The proverbial crap has hit the fan.
As of right now, it's just me and Lindsay and
we definitely can't get what we need to get done today with just the two of us.
We're gonna lose a whole day here, you do realize that.
Yeah.
This puts us behind schedule and
time is not on our side right now.
[Lindsay sighs]
[Lindsay] It's so frustrating.
No one showed up yesterday,
so now we are just gonna have to do this with just the three of us.
Lindsay, Dan and myself.
Dan is a good buddy of mine and as of right now he is my only friend.
We're going to get these rafters up, we got a timeline to meet,
and there's nothing left but to do it.
So it's going to be a big challenge putting these rafters up,
they're 30 feet in length,
we're going to have to hoist them through the window,
so this is going to complicate things.
- The wall. - [Lindsay] I'm up!
To the wall.
To the wall, grab it, Lindsay!
[chuckling]
Oh, God!
- [Dan] Why don't you go help her? - [Wes] Yup!
[Lindsay] Are you guys holding it?
I'll walk it back to you.
[Dan] This is the back end!
It's the way it's supposed to be. You're good just like that.
[gasps] Oh, no!
Shoot!
[exhales]
Oh, the hits keep coming.
[thuds]
[Wes] These rafters were custom made,
so there's no extra,
we're talking days before we can get another one,
and we can't just leave a gap, so,
we're going to have to figure out a way to make it work
and move forward.
Get the nail gun.
[nail gun clicking]
- You ready? - Yup!
[Wes] We should be able to put a couple of nails in
maybe a screw and get it to where it'll function properly.
[Dan] That's good, Wes.
Oh, God!
[Lindsay] We have the short end on the long end side,
and the long end on the short end side, so we're trying to spin it
without taking it all the way down again.
[Dan] Stand under it.
This comes with not having the people you need in place.
[Wes] Where are our friends?
- Where are our former friends? - [Lindsay chuckling]
[Dan] Down a little.
[thudding]
[whoops] We did it!
Did I mention it's hot out here?
[Wes] Today is looking like it's gonna be the hottest day of the year,
so that's going to make it more challenging but
we're going to try and push through, we got to make up some time.
[grunting]
[Dan] Flip it up.
[Wes] This is not fun.
[Dan] We're good like Hollywood.
[nail gun clicking]
Is it in?
In.
It's in!
There you go.
[Lindsay] Good job, boys!
[Wes] The first few beams took us forever to get right,
and now we're in a groove.
But it's not long before I feel the heat starting to get to me.
[Wes groans] I'm locked up!
[grunts]
I go to take another step up the ladder,
and just like I got struck by lightening.
[Lindsay] You cramping?
Yeah, I'm cramping.
[Wes] Full body cramps was in pain.
Need some water?
[groaning] No, I gotta stretch.
[gasps]
[grunts]
[breathing heavily]
[Lindsay] Wes tends to get a little dramatic with his pain.
I'm a nurse practitioner, so unless your leg's falling off,
I really don't see things that big of a deal.
[Wes] I tried to throw some water on my head,
hydrate, nothing was working.
Hang on. [groans]
I think we're gonna call it today, okay?
Yeah. I think we're done for the day.
- Let's just call it. - All right.
[Wes] We were fighting an uphill battle with the three of us,
and then me, even at half speed,
I'm still pretty good usually,
but not on this day.
The cramps ended it for us, they always do.
So a little incident with the cramping,
but we have prevailed.
We got all the rafters up,
all the underlay in it.
We got all the house wrap up,
and our windows are installed.
Hey-o!
[Lindsay] We're about to put the metal on the roof, it's about 18 feet high,
I'm a little scared of heights,
but Wes is really scared,
so I'm kind of looking forward to seeing the drama from him,
let's just hope he doesn't get a cramp.
All right, so we've got about ten of these pieces of tin,
that's got to go from there up to there.
[Lindsay] You think you can handle that?
I know I'm not scared but I know you.
Oh, God, just get the metal.
I got it.
[Lindsay] You need help, honey?
No.
[Lindsay] Oh, a couple of bugs.
[Wes] All right, let's get this piece of metal on.
Y'all ready?
Looking good down there.
Not only am I excited that it's roof day,
but I'm fired up that our friends are finally back
and we're going to make a lot of progress.
It's going to be a good day.
[metal sheet rattling]
[Lindsay] Wait, is this too long?
- [Lindsay] Is it too long? - [Wes] Uh, yup. It is.
[man] Yeah, you're looking at about 11 and a quarter. So...
- So, are they all that? - [Wes] Yeah, all of them the same length.
[Wes sighs]
God, leap on.
It's definitely too long. It's about a foot too long. Gosh...
[Wes] Ugh... Further and further behind.
[Lindsay] We're about to put the metal on the roof.
- [metal sheet rattling] - And we realized,
it was extremely too long.
[man] Yeah, you're looking at about 11 and a quarter.
So, are they all that?
[Wes] Yeah, all of them the same length. God, leap on.
- [Lindsay] So what do we gotta do? - [Wes sighs]
We'll have to cut if off.
- And you think that's gonna work? - And go from there.
It's gonna have to.
We measured 27 feet, 7 inches. We received 28 feet, 8 inches.
So, we're gonna have to...
cut that off and make it work.
Okay. Well, there's another couple hours of work.
I know. We're just further and further behind.
All right. Let's get this grinder up here,
and we're gonna cut a foot off on this one.
[whirring]
[Wes] Now, we're gonna have to
take all these pieces and cut 'em individually
which, what should have taken not a lot of time to get 'em put up,
is now gonna take a lot longer.
Bingo.
We cut the first piece of tin that was on the roof
instead of having to take it down and re-putting it back up.
And then, we got our guy, Kelly.
He's gonna use a grinder to cut the rest of the tin.
[Wes] Pull it up. About an inch and a half.
- Well, that's about three and a quarter. - How'd it work?
[whirring]
On top of the roof, I took control of the drill.
And I was killing it.
[Lindsay] Did you see that?
[Wes] The first couple pieces of tin, it went great.
And so, now we're ready to roll, and get the rest of 'em up.
[Lindsay] Here we go!
[drill whirring]
We're done, guys! Good job!
- [all whooping] - You're the man!
[Wes] Last piece of tin is in.
And now we're ready for solar panels.
- We good? Y'all need any help? - Yes, sir. We're getting it done.
[Wes] I am now in "manage" mode.
So, someone has to do it. It's a tough job.
Lindsay's eating grapes in the shade, somewhere.
- [worker 1] Coming up. - [worker 2] Comin' in, hot!
[Wes] We've got some good, strapping, young men that are hoisting these up.
The panels were the smoothest part of the day.
We were able to hand 'em up, screw 'em down. Everything went great.
Let's go over here. This spot looks good.
[Lindsay] So, I have this old whiskey barrel.
And I want to char it and burn it to bring the wood out of it,
the natural accents of the wood to make some porch swings.
So, I'm really excited about this project.
Do you think you could make any swing out of this?
- [Wes] Heck, yeah. - [Lindsay] Okay.
- Have you ever used a torch? - I looked it up on the internet.
Oh, my goodness...
- Will you please be careful? - Yes, we can do this.
- Okay. - Okay, come on.
[Lindsay] I've never done this before, but...
I think it's gonna be pretty easy. We're just gonna torch the sides.
[Wes] Don't keep it in one spot too long.
[Lindsay] Okay.
Uh...
Oh, God! Wes, Wes!
[Wes grunts] No!
- [Lindsay] Oh, gosh... - [splashing]
Well, I told you, you didn't know how to use a torch!
[Lindsay] That's our only barrel.
[Wes] Yeah, and she gone.
[Lindsay] There goes my swing. Oh, gosh...
I have this old whiskey barrel.
And I want to char it and burn it.
Everything's going as planned. The wood is looking great.
And then all of a sudden...
Uh... Oh, God! Wes, Wes!
- [Wes grunts] No! - Oh, gosh...
[splashing]
What did you do? Well, I told you, you didn't know how to use a torch!
She kind of, got fond of on spot,
and stayed there too long, and boom!
[laughing] "Boom!"
- That's our only barrel. - Yeah, and she gone.
Oh, gosh...
[Wes] Where's the bugle playing?
I guess we'll find another barrel if you want the swing.
Okay. So, I guess we're not doing this today, then?
[chuckles] Don't be... What do you mean?
[both laughing]
- No, not today. - Okay.
We are about to put up our yellow pine board and batten siding.
We chose this for the rustic look.
Something that we thought would give a good feel for the land.
- You're gonna nail it, babe? - Yeah.
- [Lindsay] Comin' in hot! - All right.
- [nail gun clicks] - Oh, God!
- [chuckles] - We'll make sure it's still level.
[Lindsay] This thing's dangerous!
Lindsay claims that she can use the nail gun.
I've never seen that, or heard of her using a nail gun.
So, this will be... a little scary.
I looked it up on the internet. So, I'm pretty confident
I can use the nail gun.
- [Lindsay] Okay. Where am I going? Right here? - Yeah.
- [Wes] Now, zig-zag and go down further on the left side. - [nail gun clicks]
- See, I told you I could do this. - Yeah.
[nail gun clicking]
- All right. Ready for the next one. - Okay.
Personally, I think the way I put the nails in
is much slower and precise than Wes.
But of course, he had to show off, and go fast.
- [shouting] All right, babe, you ready? All right. - I'm ready.
[Wes speaking]
There should be some redemption for "the broken rafter" situation.
Even though, he's the one that broke it.
Not me.
[Lindsay] I got it.
- Good job. - I know. I got it.
Uh... That's off, babe.
- [Wes] Ah, God. - Like, really off.
- You didn't measure it right. - No, if I was doing the measuring,
- we know this would turn out right. - [Wes chuckles]
[Wes] We go to place the second board,
and notice that it's off.
So, our angles were catawampus.
[sighs in exasperation]
We're gonna have to re-cut, and we only have so many boards.
- So, they have to get this one right. - [scraping]
[whirring]
- We got it right this time? - Way better.
[Wes] We're good.
Oh, this is good.
[nail gun clicks]
- Two down! - Next!
We got the first couple boards in, got our angles right.
[whirring]
[Wes] And should be smooth sailing from here.
[Lindsay] This is the last piece, babe.
- Good job. Only 300-something more to go. - Ugh...
- [chuckles] - Okay.
So, we got this pump. We're gonna throw it in the creek.
And hopefully, we're gonna have some water here in just a second.
Here off the grid, water is limited.
So, we're gonna have to use the creek.
We've bought this pump, and we're gonna pump water, and purify it.
And use it for all of our needs in the house.
- Let's go, babe. - Put it in.
[gasps] Look, it works!
- [chuckles] - Maybe...
[Lindsay] Yes! It works!
Yes! All we gotta do now is hook it up to the filtration system,
- and we're good to go. - All right.
[Lindsay] The front of our cabin looked very plain to me.
Just had a lot of wood.
And I decided, "Let's do a rock wall. Underneath the window."
I thought it would look really good.
So, I've decided to take on this project.
Me and Eva, and Wes can help us a little bit.
So, what we have to do, we're gonna have to put the heavy ones down low.
We'll set them on the ground, we're gonna glue it.
And then, stick it on there. So, you gotta pick out a pattern and a design, okay?
[Wes] And then we gotta fill in all the gaps.
So, we have a... It's like a puzzle. You got it?
- [Lindsay and Wes laugh] - [Wes] All right.
We're gonna place the river rock on the wall
with some special glue they make for mason and concrete items.
[Wes] That look straight, sis?
[Eva] Yeah... But it could be a little better.
[Wes and Eva laugh]
- Really? Gonna try another one? - Yeah.
[Eva] I wanna glue it.
[Eva speaking]
[Wes speaking]
- Do we have more of that glue? - Yeah.
[Eva speaking]
[Wes and Lindsay laugh]
[Lindsay] I hope not or we'll be here all day.
[Wes] It's a little intimidating working with Eva.
She's pretty domineering and bossy.
She makes us all toe the line very well.
- [Lindsay] Okay, push it in. - [Eva grunts]
- [Eva murmuring] Yeah. - You wanna keep going?
We're going along really great, everything's working out perfectly,
and we've run out of glue.
[Lindsay] Oh, honey. We have a problem.
We're out of glue. Do you have any more?
Except the empty one...
[Lindsay] We only bought five tubes?
- We can't finish this. - No?
[speaking]
The front of our cabin looked very plain to me.
And I decided, "Let's do a rock wall."
We're going along really great, and we've run out of glue.
- Do you have any more? - Except the empty one...
You only bought five tubes?
[speaking]
- [Wes] I told you to get more. - No.
- This is you. - [Wes chuckles] No.
Should've bought what I said.
[speaking]
[Lindsay sighs]
[speaking]
- Y'all were there, too. - [Lindsay] I'm gonna wait.
So, Lindsay apparently, miscalculated on how much glue we needed for the project.
So, we're at a standstill, and we'll have to finish the wall another day.
Now we have yet another obstacle to overcome.
[Lindsay] Over the last week, we've been able to get a lot accomplished.
We've hung our drywall.
We built the greenhouse.
And we finally got the glue to finish the rock wall, and it looks amazing.
Now, on to the fun stuff.
You ready for this, babe?
I don't really know what we're doing.
[clattering]
[Wes] We're gonna be building your throne.
- What kinda throne? - Uh...
We're building our toilet.
[Wes] So, we're coming down to the home stretch.
It's, uh, time to make this house a home.
Starting with one of the main center points.
Uh, Lindsay's new throne.
- [chuckles] - Are you excited?
- So excited. - [chuckles]
- [Lindsay] You ready? - [Wes] Yep.
[Wes] For the compost toilet, we're gonna frame up a box.
Use some of the siding just to tie it in with the rest of the house.
Place the seat on it. And let it rip.
- Literally. - Literally. [chuckles]
Don't you think it needs a little flair to it?
[Lindsay] We finally get the box built.
And we get the toilet seat out. It's very "Blah."
So, I thought, "Why not paint it pink?"
[spray can hissing]
Babe, come look!
It's so pretty.
[Wes] Nothing really says "Building off the grid" quite like a pink toilet seat.
[Lindsay] Okay!
- Pink toilet. Yeah, it's great. - [Lindsay chuckles]
[drill whirring]
Your thrown awaits, Queen.
- Are you ready? - Yeah.
Aah! I love it!
[Wes] So, a while ago, we found this log.
We really liked the characteristics of it,
and thought we could really use it in the house.
- You ready? 'Cause I'm gonna drop it. - [Lindsay] I'm--
- And then, we're gonna take off. - All right, let's go.
[Wes] Big. And instead of carrying it, we floated it down the river.
[Wes] Whoo!
We've let it dry out.
And now we're gonna rip this down,
plane it out, and use it for some window sills.
[drill whirring]
Using the log we found for the window sills, looks amazing.
It's added a nice nostalgic, kind of, look to it.
Yes. That looks good.
[Wes] It was really neat to be able to use
something off the land in the house.
And also, the added danger that I had to go through
to get that log here...
uh, will live in infamy.
[Lindsay] One of the best things about this house
is we get to put our special touches on it,
and some of our favorite decorations.
[Eva] Watch out.
[all laughing]
I drew a family picture
and I've been painting it.
This is Daddy, this is Mommy, this is me, this is Allie.
And this is White Burrito.
Eva has hand-painted a boat oar.
And she's super excited to put it on the wall. So, I can't wait to see that.
Here you go, Daddy.
A little bit to the left.
More to the right.
[Eva] No, more to the left.
No. No...
More to the right.
Really?
[Wes and Lindsay chuckle]
I think she just wanted to torture me.
I don't think she had a clue where she really wanted it.
- How's that look? - It looks good.
[Eva speaking]
Yeah.
[Wes] Well, babe, since you messed up our original barrel there,
- we had to go-- Yeah! - In my defense, I've never burned anything.
Lindsay got the idea. She wanted to make a whiskey barrel swing.
It went horribly wrong.
My intuition was right, not to give you a blowtorch.
Well, thank goodness for Jeremy making this.
We had to call in a buddy of ours, Jeremy, to come through
and get it made. So, me and Lindsay didn't kill each other.
[Lindsay] It's absolutely beautiful. It's exactly what I wanted.
So, now we're just gonna hang it from one of the final touches.
- All right, let it go. - Got it?
- Okay. - Slowly...
[Lindsay] Got it.
Yeah?
[Wes] How's it look?
It looks so good!
- Oh, that is awesome. - I love it.
We're definitely gonna need a vacation after all this is said and done.
But we're looking forward to show it off to our friends.
And to think... You killed a barrel for this.
[both chuckle]
[Wes] We know it's gonna be a lot of long nights.
Lot of hard work, and a lot of effort.
But, we're looking forward to the challenge.
Ah! That is so cute!
I just hope we can button it all up.
[Wes] So, we finally finished the cabin
and it feels unbelievable.
We're so excited, everything's done. It all came together,
and we are just thrilled.
Our projected timeline to finish this project was six weeks.
It took us eight weeks, but it was well worth the extra two weeks
to get it done.
[Wes] Our budget was $50,000.
We were able to stay within the budget.
And we're pretty pleased to do this work in eight weeks.
[motor revving]
[man] Babe, I think that might be it.
- [woman] Oh, how beautiful that is! - [man] Oh, my goodness.
[man] Holy cow...
We're very excited to be showing the cabin off finally today to our friends,
Mark and Sherre.
[Wes] It's a little challenging getting here.
The fastest way is by water.
So, they'll be riding up on the boat safely,
and then, we'll have 'em come up and check everything out.
I cannot wait for them to see it.
- [Mark] Holy cow! - [Lindsay] Hi, guys!
- Hey! - What's up?
[Mark] Oh, my goodness. This place is out here.
- [Sherre] I love it, though. - [Wes] Out a little bit.
- [Mark] This place is amazing! - Hey!
[Wes] This is our little piece of heaven here.
- [Sherre] Y'all built this? - [Wes laughs]
[Mark] Yeah, this is great, man. You guys really built this yourselves?
- [Sherre] You got it on stilts. I love this. - [Wes] Yeah.
- Oh, my goodness. - Yeah, we had to get it up off the ground a little bit.
So, we don't flood.
- Yeah. - [Mark] The perfect river house.
- That's great. - I'm quite impressed, guys.
I'd love to see inside.
- Let's check it out. - Let's go! Let's go.
- [Sherre] It's beautiful. - [Mark] Wow.
- Isn't it pretty? - Perfect.
This is why we built it. For this view right here.
- I can totally see that. This is amazing. - I love this, guys.
[Mark] Absolutely amazing.
Honey, this is what we need.
- I built this rock wall, by the way. - [Sherre gasps]
- You built this? - I sure did.
Oh, my goodness, girl.
[Lindsay] Okay, guys. You wanna check out the inside?
- [Mark] Absolutely. [chuckles] - [Sherre] I cannot wait.
Here we are!
- [Sherre gasps] Oh, wow! - [Mark] Oh, my goodness.
- This is beautiful, guys. - Wow, certainly.
[Sherre] Gosh, look at these walls!
- This is so country boujee. I'm loving this. - [Wes laughs]
You know that's our style.
- [Sherre] Is it? - [Lindsay] Yes!
[Sherre] I love your sink!
I love this butcher block. This is so pretty.
- [Wes] Do the walls look familiar? - [Mark] They do.
- I feel like we just walked by 'em. - You did.
So, we loved that outside so much, we wanted to bring
a little bit of it in here as well.
- [Sherre] That's a great idea. - And we love the rustic look.
[Lindsay] You guys wanna see the rest of it?
- [Mark] Yes, let's see it. - [Sherre] Okay, let's go.
- Eva painted us a boat oar. - Aww!
- Oh, my gosh. How cute! - [Mark] That's pretty nice.
Where's your clothes, honey?
- That's off the grid. - Off the grid.
[Sherre] I love it.
[Lindsay] Let's go see some more.
[Sherre and Mark] Let's go.
Oh, this is so cute!
- I love-- - This is where we would put you guys up,
- if you come hang out one night. - [Sherre] Oh!
- [Sherre] Did you make this? - [Wes] Yes. I did, actually.
- Nice touch. - Very nice.
[Sherre] So when do we move in?
[all laughing]
- [Lindsay] Here's the main bedroom. - [Sherre] Love this.
Come on in.
- [Sherre] Oh, wow. - [Mark] Oh, it looks good.
- Very nice. - Oh, that's so cute.
[Lindsay] Okay, guys. This is Eva's loft bed.
- [Sherre gasps] That's so perfect for her. - Isn't it cute?
- That is adorable. - Wes, tell them about our window sill.
[Wes] This was a piece that we cut off, that we floated down the river.
- [Sherre] Pretty amazing. - It was quite the adventure.
Uh, this window, I love the view.
- [Lindsay] Isn't it pretty? - It's beautiful.
[Mark] It's not too bad to wake up to that.
- You can't go wrong with that. - Or this view, right?
[all laughing]
You guys wanna see our bathroom?
- Yes. - Yeah, let's see it.
- [Mark] Love that sink. - You wanna see something really cute?
Look at my toilet.
- Oh, that's-- I love that. - With a pink seat.
- [Lindsay] With a pink seat. - [Wes] Of course. That's her throne.
If we're gonna do a composting toilet,
I'm at least gonna put a little bit of boujee on it.
[Sherre] That's right.
[Mark] So, Wes, how do you guys get the power
and your running water, and all that stuff out here?
We have twelve solar panels up top.
We are pumping water from the creek up.
And, and running it through the filtration system.
- [Lindsay] We're living off the grid. - [Sherre] You really are.
Wes and Lindsay have made a perfect place for their family.
And I can't wait to enjoy it with them.
Very proud of both of them.
- So, what do you think of the cabin, sis? - I like it.
What was the funniest part of us building this cabin?
- Huh? - Daddy cramping.
- [Lindsay chuckles] - "Daddy cramping?" Really?
[Wes] Things that challenge you and push you are usually some of the most
rewarding things we come across, and...
I can honestly say that building off the grid has been one of those experiences
to tell our friends.
"We built that wall, we did this. We did that together."
So, it was pretty cool.
[Wes and Lindsay chuckle]