[Sydney] We are building our geodesic dome in the North Georgia Mountains.
I have zero experience in building.
First time for everything.
[Aaron] The terrain is just really rugged out here.
I'm so nervous. I'm so nervous. I can't even watch.
[Sydney] We do have a lot of brush.
[Aaron] And we're going to set it all on fire.
[both] Whoa!
Boom shakalaka.
This Georgia weather is just...
It's not helping us right now.
[Sydney] Oh my gosh.
How am I supposed to build a house in this storm?
Another rainy day here in Georgia.
I feel like days are just slipping away.
Hang on guys, I think we did something wrong.
- [Sydney] Oh! - [man] The lines are off a little bit.
I hope this dome doesn't fall down.
[Sydney] We're kind of at a... a tense moment here.
- [Aaron] There is no messing up at any point through this. - [Sydney groans]
[Sydney] I didn't realize how hard it was going to be.
[narrator] Are you ready to go off the grid?
[Sydney] Do you want to go see it?
Where our new home is going to be.
We chose this property because it's close to work
but yet far enough away.
Close to family
and also secluded too, so it's really nice.
We're going to build our home right up here.
We have got this perfect spot picked out.
[Sydney] I'm Sydney.
[Aaron] I'm Aaron.
[Sydney] And we are building our geodesic dome in the North Georgia Mountains.
The build site is two hours outside of Atlanta in Dalton, Georgia.
[Sydney] Oh, Titus, are you excited?
[Titus] Yes.
[Aaron] The terrain is just really rugged out here.
We've got right at five acres, it's rolling hills, really steep.
[Sydney] Lots of greenery. A lot of places that we can plant and garden.
But also a nice place at the very top that's just a sweet spot for us.
[Aaron] Look!
[Sydney] You'll be able to dig so much right here.
Is it going to be cool?
[Titus] Yes.
[Aaron] We have a son named Titus.
He's four years old and he is just our joy.
He loves to dig in the dirt.
You'll be able to live right here with mommy and daddy.
[Sydney] Wow.
[Sydney] He's a little adventurer and he loves to be outdoors.
So it's going to be really cool just to experience this whole property with him.
[Sydney] You're already starting it for us.
Call that a day's work.
[Aaron] We are building a geodesic dome on a 40x40 deck.
And when you walk in it you're going to see
our living room and our kitchen area.
And then the back half will have our bedroom, bathroom
and our son's bedroom.
And we just can't wait to live there together.
[Sydney] So, for our off-grid features, we are going to have solar for power
well-water, and then we are also going to have a wood-burning stove for heat.
You going to start breaking the foundation for us?
[Titus] Yes.
[Sydney] Yeah. Let's do it.
This is not a vacation home.
This is our full-time residence.
Our son's going to be growing up here,
so, we're going to make it a really nice home.
And we've got to do it quick because we've already sold our other home.
[Aaron] All right. Give mom a high-five too.
[Sydney] That's my boy. All right.
- I like it. Done. Done. - [Titus] Done.
[Aaron] The dome is 39 feet wide,
20 feet tall in the center, 1,294 square feet
and we're going to hopefully do it in five weeks
- with $55,000. - Ooh.
[Aaron] This is going to be a big challenge,
building this dome, but it's going to be so worth it.
[Sydney] Labor of love.
Yes.
Hey, honey. So, I'm going to put you to work.
- We have got a lot of brush to cut. - All right!
All right. First time for everything.
Yes.
I have zero experience in building.
We're going to take out these trees right here...
- Okay. - so we can have enough room.
And a few back here.
I've helped build six other homes for other people, but,
building a geodesic dome is going to be a little different
so it's going to be quite interesting trying to figure this thing out.
I think I can do it.
[Aaron] All right. Let's go.
But this is going to be really interesting, watching my wife just
doing these things out here, but I know she's got a lot of energy.
Yeah. What about my strength?
- And strength too. - Yeah.
[Aaron] So, we've got about 10 trees to take out.
Cut them up and then put them to this brush pile
- and we're going to burn them. - [Russell] Okay.
[Aaron] So, I've never cut trees before so I'm a little terrified
but I've got a good friend, Russell,
that's coming to help, so, I feel a little better.
I feel a little bit better too about it.
- [Aaron] Parallel? - [Russell]Yep.
[Sydney] Yeah. Muscles.
[Russell] Finish cutting that wedge.
[Sydney] You know, like a slice of cheese.
[Russell] Okay.
All right. Go.
[Sydney] Right, she's going. All right!
Good job boys. You cut your first tree.
[Aaron] All right!
[Sydney] Got it. Clean cut. That's nice.
[Russell] Good job.
[Aaron] First chainsaw experience was a little scary,
but we made it happen.
- I think you did a great job for your first go-around. - Thanks.
[Sydney] Coming down!
All right.
Today, we knocked a lot out, cleared a lot of land,
but there is one behemoth tree over 100 foot tall,
it's right in the middle of our driveway
and we just don't have the equipment for it or the manpower.
[Aaron] And so, our friend Colby's going to come in
and help us knock that tree down.
It looks like we've got a pretty good lane out this way.
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to reach up here about shoulder height
then I'm going to make a face cut for our direction, and then a back cut.
Just keep your eyes up and watch for any hazards
other tree tops swinging back, they could snap and break.
[Aaron] The tree is really big, so it's a little dangerous.
[Sydney] If a gust of wind comes, it could fall a different way
than we were expecting.
So, we'll see.
[Colby] Your best bet is to be uphill from the falling timber.
That's going to be my escape route as well.
Okay, well, I'm going where your escape route is. We're going uphill.
- You got that? - Yes. All right.
[saw motor revving]
I'm nervous.
Colby is cutting this tree and it is starting to crack
and I'm getting really kind of nervous because it's shifting and it's wobbly.
[Aaron] We're really scared, running up the hill.
Whoa. Come on.
[Sydney] Ah! She's going down!
[Aaron] Timber!
Wow.
The tree is down. Boom shakalaka.
- [Sydney] That was great. - [Aaron] Right?
That was a doozy of a tree.
We're all good, everybody's safe.
And so now we have a good path again for our driveway.
- Thank you, sir. - Thank you guys.
[Sydney] So now that we all have our trees down,
we do have a lot of brush that we need to get rid of.
And we're going to set it all on fire.
So, you think this is a good place to do this? Do you think it's going to be safe?
I don't know but we're going to find out.
Okay, well, I hope that it works.
We have all of this wooded area, so I'm a little worried that it could spread,
the wind could blow, something could catch.
So, I'm hoping that we can keep it contained.
[Aaron] Just give it a shot, baby.
[Sydney] Wow. Okay.
[Aaron] All right. Here we go.
[Sydney] All right, let's see.
[both] Whoa!
[Sydney] So now that we all have our trees down,
we do have a lot of brush that we need to get rid of.
And we're going to set it all on fire.
[Aaron] Just, give it a shot, baby.
[Sydney] Wow. Okay.
[Aaron] All right. Here we go.
[Sydney] All right, let's see.
-Whoa! Yeah, yeah. That was good. Okay. -Whoa!
Wow. Okay.
[Aaron] I throw the stick in and boom! Blows up.
[Sydney] It was a huge flame and it terrifies me.
[Aaron] Now we just need some marshmallows.
[Sydney] Very nice.
[Aaron] So, now that the fire is going,
we're just going to let it burn for a few hours
and we won't have any brush anymore.
[Sydney] Today is a really exciting day for us.
We have a guy coming in bringing all our lumber, our cement.
We have a full crew here to help us get our decking
and, you know, the foundation done.
This just gets the ball rolling
for us getting the house as soon as possible.
[Aaron] It's really muddy.
I'm really hoping that that truck is going to make it up
with all that lumber and cement.
[Aaron] That's a steep grade, right there.
All right. He's coming up.
[man 1] I hope he makes it up cause I'm not trying to haul this up.
[Aaron] He's got to get some more momentum going.
Being wet doesn't help it at all.
[Aaron] Come on, buddy.
The cement weights around 12,000 pounds,
the wood around 10,000 pounds.
So, we're pushing 22,000 pounds with the truck.
[man 2] Dude. Man, I don't know if he's going to make it past
that stump right there, though.
[man 1] Come on, man.
[Sydney] I just see his tires spinning.
He's having a really difficult time.
[man 1] Aw, man. You've got to be kidding me.
It's not looking good.
[all] No!
[indistinct chatter]
[man 2] Is he spinning?
[Aaron] Seeing him just not being able to get up that hill
is making me really sad.
Not really sure what to do from here.
[Sydney] Well, it was worth a shot, huh?
Yeah. Got to do it.
Yeah. Made me real nervous.
Now we need to figure out what we're going to do with all this lumber.
You think you can take a 4x8 sheet on your back?
[chuckles] I don't get paid enough money to do that.
[Sydney] Yeah.
[driver speaking]
You did try. I appreciate that too.
Appreciate ya.
[Aaron] The truck is not making it up there.
So, I guess the solution is to try again when it dries up.
It's just a real bummer today to have that crew come out
and not really get anything done.
We're just really frustrated, defeated.
[Sydney] This is gonna set us back a week.
[Aaron] This Georgia weather is just, it's not helping us right now.
[Sydney] Yeah it sucks.
[Aaron] Just as the ground started to dry up,
Mother Nature showed up again.
How am I supposed to build a house in this storm?
[Aaron] All this rain, I feel like days are
just slipping away.
[Aaron] Another rainy day here in Georgia.
And look at this hill behind me.
[Aaron] Nobody's making it up that
with a bunch of material.
[Aaron] If we get any more rain
we're just gonna build down the hill.
[Aaron] Live in a pond, I guess.
After a few days of rain,
the skies have finally cleared up,
and now the path is dry.
And we are ready to roll.
All right, they're delivering the wood.
[Titus]
- Yeah, the wood for our house. - Yeah.
[Aaron] Well, that's the last of the wood
and all of our building materials are finally here.
[Sydney] So now that we finally have all of our materials on site,
we're ready to build our deck platform.
[Aaron] It's gonna be a 40x40 deck.
And hopefully it's only gonna take a few days to construct.
[upbeat music playing]
[Sydney] The deck is finally done, it looks awesome
and now we really get to start on the dome.
I'm just so excited to get to that next step.
[Aaron] All right guys, so the dome is finally here.
[Aaron] It came from many miles away,
all the way to North Georgia.
[Aaron] This came from overseas.
You can't go to your local store and buy this.
So there's no messing up
at any point through this.
It's 20 feet tall in the center,
and we've got about 450 parts,
and we've got a lot of nuts and bolts.
[Aaron] So let's not lose our minds, okay?
[Sydney] Looking at all this, there's no way that Aaron and I can get this done
by ourselves.
So we have Tim and we have Dylan
and some more crew workers with these guys
and hopefully, with all their help, we can get this put up today.
[Dylan] We need
a 10 and a 12 attached to that
first plate.
[Sydney] Okay.
[Dylan] And then we'll start working our way around once we get that.
And they strategically, got this laid out where
they think it's gonna make a dome.
This is kinda like a jigsaw puzzle
[Aaron] with instructions in another language.
English is hard enough for me.
[man] Beautiful.
We've got these first few pieces going up
these guys are moving really quickly.
[Sydney] So we have a lot of high aspirations
to getting the dome up today.
And we've been waiting for this for so long,
and to finally to see
the first, like, foundational lays of it.
[Sydney] It's exciting.
[man] There you go.
[Sydney] All right, yeah.
[Tim] And that oughta hold the door up.
[Sydney] It's uh, wait, is it supposed to be all wonky like this?
Hang on, guys. I think we did something wrong.
[Aaron] I don't think this is gonna fit.
- Yeah, it does. - [Sydney] No, don't say that.
[Aaron] The lines are off a little bit.
The guys are really in a good groove here.
[Sydney] But then we notice that
there is one particular part of that is not right.
[man] I can see right out now that it's not gonna work.
- [Sydney] Oh. - [Aaron] Oh, shoot.
[Sydney] We're in a stand still a little bit here.
[intense music playing]
[Sydney] It's uh,
wait, is this supposed to be all wonky like this?
Hang on guys, I think we did something wrong.
- [Sydney] Oh, shush. - [Aaron] Oh, shoot.
[Aaron] I don't think this is gonna fit.
No, it's gonna have to.
[man] It looks a little long to me.
[Aaron] The lines are off a little bit.
[Tim] I can see right now that it's not gonna work.
[Dylan] Yeah, it is. [Sydney] No, don't say that.
[Sydney] The guys are really in a good groove.
But then we notice that there is one
[Sydney] particular part of a triangle that is not right.
We're in a stand still a little bit here.
[Tim] I think we've got some pieces in the wrong spot.
[Aaron] Just confirming this is an 11.
Actually we got a 12 in the spot
where we're supposed to have 11.
[Tim] So we need to go back and check.
[Tim] Do we have to swap these two pieces out?
[Dylan] We got a 12 and a 10
that are misplaced.
[Dylan] I guess we're gonna have to take this back apart.
I hope the rest of this dome doesn't fall down.
So they're go and have to
get in there and take that down.
It's good that we caught it now
cause if not, it could have been a huge mess
to take care of later.
[man 1] All right, let's just push on it... [man 2] All right, okay.
[Dylan] All right, let's put the 11 into here.
[Dylan] Okay.
Well, it's good we caught it now, right?
[Dylan] Yeah.
I don't know what
we would have done if we had caught it when it was all up.
[Tim] So many pieces, I can see how that would happen.
- [Tim] All right. - [Aaron] All right, let's keep going.
First row was a breeze.
[Sydney] Now, the hard part starts.
Now, we're moving up to the next level.
We got the guys up on the scaffolding,
and it's a little sketch.
So we just really got to stay on our toes,
and make sure nobody falls off.
It literally looks like a maze.
So I'm putting in a whole lot of trust in Dylan here.
He's the one who is calling out all the numbers.
Where these bars need to go and what direction
I'm really hoping that he's right
because if we have one mess-up,
I mean, we're probably gonna have to take the whole thing down again.
We've got five more pieces left.
And then I think, hopefully,
if we got all our numbers right
and put it together right,
we should be done.
[Tim] Okay.
[Aaron] So we're getting to the very end,
some pieces are not fitting.
Scaffolding's shaking too.
We're 20 feet in the air.
But, we just got to brave it.
[Sydney] Well, we're kinda at a tense moment here.
[Aaron] Tim, don't go back, any more. Your foot's hanging off.
[Tim] I don't like it.
[Dylan] Y'all good?
[Tim] Uh, I'll tell you what,
we got a height situation here.
- [Dylan] Yeah, step up higher. - [Tim] Watch out, here.
[Sydney] We're way out in the boondocks here,
we don't have a hospital nearby.
Poor cell reception out here.
[Sydney] Also, Aaron doesn't have
the best track record with ladders.
He's fallen off two,
walked away with a sprained ankle,
messed up wrist.
- That wasn't good. - I'm okay.
[Sydney] So, I'm really concerned about him being that high up.
[Tim] I might have to push up on this to make this work.
[Tim] Well, I'll tell you what, this is real shaky.
[grunts]
[Tim] Okay, that's us.
[Dylan] Is it tight?
[Dylan] You'll need one more piece,
and you can connect all the rest of 'em together.
[Tim] I mean, that's beautiful.
[Aaron] Let me get this up, hold on.
That is a tall son of a gun.
[Aaron] Right there, come on.
[groans softly] There we go.
[Dylan] Last one.
[Aaron] Cinch that cracker down.
[Tim] Whoo, you tighten her down.
- Here we go guys, all right. - [Tim] It's what we've been waiting on.
[Tim] Awesome.
[Tim] All right!
- [all] Yeah. - Awesome. Whoo.
We finally get that last piece in,
and it feels so great.
They did it, I'm so proud of them.
[Aaron] I can hang from this.
- [Tim] Yeah, got this weight off of you. - [Aaron] Yeah.
[Aaron] Whoa, okay. All right, that's enough.
[Tim chuckles]
We got the canvas tomorrow.
[Tim] Yup.
[Sydney] Everybody's kinda ready to go home and be done.
And then tomorrow, we get to do the canvas.
Welcome to your dome home.
[Aaron] All right.
Wow.
[blues music playing]
[Sydney] All right, guys.
Today we're putting the tarp on.
I don't know exactly how we're gonna do this.
So we're gonna need a lot of man power,
a lot of muscles.
- Hopefully, we're up for that challenge. - [Sydney] Yeah.
Today is our big day.
It's probably gonna be our hardest day.
We're gonna take this huge canvas
and go over the dome that we built.
And we just gotta really strategize
and figure out how to get this thing
up as quickly as possible.
[man] Oops.
[Tim] My God, that thing looks like a beast.
[Dylan] Hmm.
[Aaron] This thing is huge,
it's over 300 pounds
and it's really awkward too.
[Tim] If this is the inside,
the end of that's gotta go up and over.
It's gonna be
quite the feat.
Okay, so it's the top?
[Tim] Well, let's say it is.
[Tim] Not certain though.
[Tim] It's not marked "Top," is it?
[Aaron] We realized right away
that it was gonna be a lot harder than we thought.
[Sydney] Kinda unsure about
how this is gonna work.
Somebody want to put a rope up on that end
and pull it up and over?
- [Dylan] Yeah. - Okay.
[Tim] I'm gonna have to put a choker
kind of rope on this so we don't rip it.
[Tim] So I'm gonna have to tie it down here.
[Aaron] We're trying to put this tarp up
and no instructions for it so...
We're gonna hog-tie it,
and then Dylan's gonna throw that rope over.
And uh, we're just gonna start pulling.
[Tim] Yeah, we'll get all that once we get it.
[Aaron] Right here.
[Dylan] Sweet, okay, that was, that's perfect.
[Dylan] Let's go.
[grunts]
- [all grunts] - [Dylan] All right, hold on, hold on, hold on.
- Let's try it again, everybody. - [Aaron] Yeah.
[Sydney] All right.
[Dylan] One, two, three.
[all grunting]
[Dylan] Pull it down.
[straining]
[Aaron] Pull that sucker.
[Sydney] Pull it.
[Tim] I'm pulling.
[Dylan] There, it ain't pulling.
[Dylan] That sucker is heavy.
[Tim] I'm stuck.
I can't do anything with it.
- [Tim] I ain't got nothing to grab to my hands are so wet. - [Sydney] I know.
- I didn't realize how hard it was gonna be. - [Aaron] Yeah.
And it is so hot out here.
So this is just considerably heavier
um, than we even thought it was gonna be.
[Sydney] We're all drenched in sweat,
we're already exhausted.
At this point, I don't even know if we're
gonna be able to get it up.
[Aaron] We gotta come up with another plan.
[blues instrumental playing]
[Aaron] Pull that sucker.
[Sydney] Pull it.
[Tim] I'm pulling.
[Dylan] There it ain't pulling.
- [Aaron] God. - [Dylan] That sucker is heavy.
[Tim] I'm stuck.
I can't do anything with it.
[Sydney] At this point, I don't even know
if we're gonna be able to get it up.
[Aaron] Oh boy.
[Dylan] "Oh, boy" is right.
[Aaron] That is strange.
[man] Yeah.
[Tim] Y'all ready?
[Tim] All right, guys.
[Tim] Pull it.
[straining]
God, it's too heavy.
We thought we had the muscle for it, but obviously we don't.
Time for a new game strategy.
I'm gonna go get the tractor. See if that won't make it easier. Okay?
- Yeah, we're gonna try something different. - All right.
[Sydney] The tarp's way too heavy for us.
We're just not gonna be able to handle it.
Thankfully, Tim does have a tractor to lift up the bulk of it
so we can have a little bit more leverage,
but he's not really close to where we're at.
We're out way in the country, and so it's just really putting us
behind schedule again.
[Sydney] It took a while for Tim to get back here,
but we're just anxious to kind of see how this process unfolds.
Typically, people would just call in a crane, but we're way out in the woods.
Nothing like that can make it up here.
Best we've got is a tractor.
- [Tim] All right. - [Dylan] All right, Aaron.
All right, I'm gonna lift up on it, guys.
Just watch it and make sure it doesn't hang on anything.
- Okay. - [tractor starting]
[Aaron] Tim and his tractor...
Looking good.
he's gonna lift that canvas up, and hopefully, that's gonna bring
a few hundred pounds off of our load.
- [Aaron] That's good right there. Stay right there. - [Dylan] Right there. Whoa.
Let's see if we can pull it up.
[Tim] Now that we got the weight lifted up with the tractor,
we're gonna see if we can get it to slide up.
- [Dylan] It's gonna work. Three. - [Tim] Three.
[both grunting]
- [Sydney] Look at all these. - [Dylan] It's like it's not even wanting to go at all.
- [Dylan] It ain't moving at all down there. - [Aaron] It's not budging.
[Sydney] There was literally no inch of a movement with this canvas.
Nothing is budging, so we're gonna try to just, uh, regroup
and kind of come up with another game plan.
- [Aaron] I got another idea. - [Dylan] Yeah?
In each section, pushing up until it folds over
and we just go to the next rung and pull it up.
- All the way around? - All the way around.
- Oh, yeah. - And just keep feeding it through.
[Dylan] That would work.
[Sydney] Unfortunately, we had to decide just to ditch the tractor
and so now what we're gonna have to do is just inch by inch,
take this canvas and go triangle by triangle.
[Aaron] We're just gonna use good old manpower.
It's kind of like putting a twin-sized cover on a California King.
I think we've got it right here, Dylan.
Can you get her hung and pull down and around?
- [Dylan] You ready? - [Tim] One, two, three.
- Do it again. - [grunts]
-[Dylan] All right. One, two, three. -[Tim] Two, three.
[Aaron] This is the final kind of pulls, but it's the hardest ones for sure.
We're so close, just a few feet away. I'm worn out.
But we're gonna power through and get it done.
[Tim] All right, one more time. One, two, three.
[all straining]
- [Tim] That's us. - [Aaron] That's it.
- [Sydney] That's it? - [Tim] That's perfect.
- [Dylan] I like it. - [Sydney] Is it in?
[Tim] Just look at it. That looks good. I was worried. [laughing]
-[Sydney] Yeah, me too. Thank you. Wow. -[Tim] It's awesome.
This looks incredible, guys.
[Tim] I like it. Got a house.
[Aaron] Finally got it into place and it looks beautiful.
[Sydney] It's larger than life. It's more than I expected.
Honestly, I can't believe we're gonna live here.
[Aaron] Hurricane Ida came through yesterday, so we've got a lot of rain.
It sounds really cool in this dome, but, uh,
ready to get those doors and windows in.
So it rained for two days and we get to the site, and it's flooded.
[Sydney] There's mud everywhere. And we even have puddles on the tarp.
Oh my gosh.
[Aaron] And puddles inside the dome.
It was the first big rain for the dome, and it did not pass.
So we've gotta find a way to get this thing watertight.
[Sydney] I just don't know what we're gonna do.
[Aaron] So it rained for two days, we get to the site, and it's flooded.
It was the first big rain for the dome, and it did not pass.
So we've gotta find a way to get this thing watertight.
All right, honey. We've got this rope to run all the way around the dome,
all the way through the canvas and make sure this thing is good and locked down.
- Think you can help me? - So no more gushers in our... our house?
- [Aaron] Yes. No more rain and no more bugs. - [Sydney] Mm.
First thing we have to get done today is to secure the tarp.
That way, we don't have to hit any more flooding issues inside of this dome.
So we've got a lot of lacing to do.
- [Sydney] Run... - [Aaron] Start it right there, yes,
and we'll run it all the way through,
and it needs to go underneath the pole.
Yeah.
So it will feed through here. This might take...
- [Aaron] This could take a while. - [Sydney] 20 years.
I don't have 20 years. [laughing]
[Sydney] We're already noticing that this rope and securing process
is gonna take a lot longer than we actually anticipated.
Man, yeah. This is like shoelaces.
You know when you're trying to get your tennis shoes to fit on right?
Yes.
Okay, so the first five or six done.
- [Sydney] And now only about 500 left. - [Aaron] Mm-hmm.
-[Sydney] We have one left? -[Aaron] One left, all right. Let's tie a knot in it.
- [Sydney] Okay. All right. - [Aaron] All right.
- [Sydney] You getting that? - [Aaron] Yeah, hon.
- [Aaron] This is the water knot. - [Sydney] Yeah, yeah. Perfect.
- [Aaron] Nice. Okay. - [Sydney] And that's it.
Phew, that took forever.
- No more water in the house, baby. - No more water in the house.
Now we're just looking forward to maybe actually getting some work done today.
- Ready on three. - All right, let's put this wall up.
One, two, three. All right.
[Dylan grunting]
[Sydney] Okay, a little uneven, but that's no big deal.
[Tim] Okay. I'm gonna slide it back from this mark, Dylan.
- [Sydney] Nice. - [Tim] Bring it back towards me about two inches.
Okay, there you go. That's close enough.
[Sydney] We finally get to start on framing the actual bones
and structure of the inside of the house,
so I'm really looking forward to that, because it's really gonna help me
visualize where things are gonna be, how it's gonna come to life.
- [Tim] All right. - [Sydney] All right?
- [Sydney] Okay. - [Tim] Okay. Show me some chalk. There you go.
- Put a tack in it. - [nail gun fires]
Awesome work, guys. It looks great.
-Walls go quick, don't they? Walls go quick, there you go. -[nail gun fires]
So what do you think? How does it look?
It looks straight so far.
It's starting to feel like a home. We got a few walls.
[cheering] We got walls!
So now we get to actually install our windows.
The windows have actually been sitting outside in their packaging
for several months now, and we're not really sure what's inside of that.
I mean, especially with all the rain that we've had,
all the leaves and stuff, but also all the critters.
Um, you cut it open because it does look like there's something...
- Living in there? - Living in there.
Oh, yeah. He's right there. You want me to get him out first?
I think there's actually maybe several things living in there, so.
[Aaron] So in one of the windows, we open it up
and there's a couple of friends in there.
And it didn't really bother me, but somebody is not liking them.
You find anything in there? Do you see it? Is it there?
- No. - Yeah.
No. He... [high-pitched] there's several more in there. Okay.
Aaron opens this thing up. There are two Granddaddy Longlegs,
one of whom is on a centipede, millipede, some kinda 'pede,
I'm not really sure what's going on.
Oh, and they're all together! Yeah, they're in there together.
[Aaron] Oh, it's a centipede.
They don't look like they're having a good time. I'm not having a good time.
So I'm gonna let Aaron have the reins on this one.
You're gonna leave him in there? Wrong.
He can live with us. Titus will love him.
[Sydney] But I said no.
See, I didn't sign up for all of the bugs.
[Aaron] We get rid of all of the bugs, and now it's time to get to work.
[exhales] Okay, it's over with.
[Aaron] All right, enough playing.
We have five triangle and two porthole windows.
- Are you ready to get this one up? - Yeah.
I'm really excited. It's gonna let in a lot of sunlight.
- Let's get it up. - All right.
[Dylan] All right, let's get this window in. It's the first one,
we're just gonna tack it up here and see how she fits in.
Good job, guys.
How we feeling here?
A little shaky.
Did I mention that I hate being up here on these?
[Sydney] You're doing good, Dylan.
- Turn this... - Lefty loosey, righty tighty.
Y'all tell me when it looks straight down there.
That's it. That's it.
- [Dylan] You like it? - [Aaron] Ooh.
-[Sydney] All right! I like it. -[Dylan] You like it?
- All right. All right, all right, all right. - Looking straight.
[Aaron] So we placed the windows and they look great.
We got a window.
So today we have a set of French doors they're gorgeous.
The only issue is that we have to get them up this hill in my mom's minivan.
Okay, easy does it.
So we have to use this minivan today because it is the only vehicle large enough
to fit these two double doors, and I'm really just hoping it makes it up the hill.
This hill that's already been rain-washed,
and so the traction's not that great, the gravel's really uneven,
especially with all the rain that we've had recently.
Okay, let's go grab that door.
- Put your seatbelt on, too. - Yeah, you too.
I pretty much had to start this at the road and punch it.
- Are you ready? - I don't know.
Oh, my gosh. You're actually going that fast.
Sydney's kinda freaking out as soon as I punch it,
and I knew going around that curve, it was gonna get a lot worse.
Oh my gosh, I think I'm gonna throw up.
- Come on, baby. - No, no.
- Come on, front wheel drive. - No.
And I don't think it's gonna make it.
I'm so nervous, I'm so nervous, I can't even watch.
I'm so nervous. I'm so nervous, I can't even watch.
This is like worse than a roller coaster.
[Aaron] Starting to get close to that curve
where you kind of have to rack it to the side and miss some rock,
and I don't think it's gonna make it.
[Sydney] The tires are just spinning and spinning and we're not going anywhere.
- [Sydney] Are we stuck? - [Aaron] We're stuck.
Sadly, we didn't make it.
[Aaron] Looks like we're walking.
[sighing]
Not enough horsepower.
We're stuck in this gravel.
We have got two solid wood doors
to carry up that hill.
[Sydney] We're just gonna have to take them out
and carry them one by one.
Muscle 'em up to the dome.
[grunts]
[Sydney] Okay.
My concern is that they are exceedingly heavy.
[Aaron] All right, big step, baby.
[Sydney] Yep. Big step.
Big muscles.
- [Aaron] All right, let's go get the other one. - [Sydney] One more.
We're never moving out of this house.
[groaning] Okay.
Ugh, have mercy.
So we've got both doors up, and were gonna see
how that beautiful green looks
against our white dome.
[Sydney] That doesn't make me feel happy.
They look too big.
[Aaron] Yeah, they look a little big.
[Sydney] So we finally get these doors up to the dome
and they don't fit.
We measured incorrectly.
So what are we gonna do.
A solution would be,
instead of doing French doors right here,
we just do one door there.
We can just have a nice little wood siding on each side.
I need to sleep on that.
So honestly, I'm not that excited about separating them.
I mean, they're French doors, they're meant to be together.
I like that. But at this point,
we're gonna kinda have to see 'cause were on a time crunch.
Maybe we'll just do a bug screen instead.
We're not in the jungle, Aaron.
[Aaron] We'll figure it out.
[Sydney] So over the last few weeks, we have made a lot of progress.
We have got the floor laid. We got the dry wall up.
And we have put in the bathroom tile.
[Aaron] All right, so we got a good amount of this done.
Think we're about half way.
So let's just keep going,
and putting these puzzle pieces together.
We have this really incredible rock wall idea.
The idea is to kind of have three mountain peaks with it.
We've already gotten it started,
but it is like a puzzle, so it's kind of taking
a bit longer than we anticipated.
- Okay. - [Aaron] All right.
We have to put on the glue.
Give me two beads on there.
Yeah.
Look at that, could have been a layman.
Slap those rocks on.
Give it a good whack.
Yep.
Put some shims in to hold it,
and just pray.
[Aaron] Okay, you're good.
[Sydney] Okay.
[exclaims] Hey!
All right, it's starting to look like a mountain.
So it is. Okay, so only 987 more rocks to go.
[Aaron] Give or take.
[Tim] And get... this one. Push up. Okay.
[Aaron] The canvas is finally stretched enough
for us to cut the canvas for the window.
It's a little nerve-wracking trying to put a hole
into this beautiful canvas.
Guys, please be careful.
[Tim] That looks really good, right there.
[Aaron] Okay.
So we need to draw a circle around the window,
and then start to cut it.
I hate to cut a hole in a perfectly good house.
[Sydney] Oh, gosh.
[Tim] Here we go.
There's a lot of pressure for Tim to get this right.
[Aaron] I'm gonna give you some pressure, okay?
[Sydney] Oh, my gosh. [nervous laughter]
Watching Tim cut this window,
I'm a little bit panicky inside.
If this cut doesn't go correctly,
there's no way to fix it.
I mean, it's not like we can just go, you know, to the local store
or even order it online.
[Sydney exclaiming] All right!
[Tim] All right.
- [Sydney] Wow, that lets in a lot of light. - [Tim] Only window.
[Sydney] We're hoping that the window fits perfectly.
Okay, okay. Moment of truth.
Okay, let go of it.
[Tim] That's it.
- [gasps] It's in? - [Aaron] Got it?
- Voila. - [Aaron] Sweet!
We got a porthole window!
Tim, we didn't get our French doors that my wife wanted,
but I'm glad we were able to repurpose this door.
Instead of having French doors,
we're just gonna take one door for the front.
Tim has actually come up with the idea of encasing it.
And he took it to his workshop,
made all the beautiful parts.
[Tim] Slide it over, and fit it between these.
Two 2x10s.
We'll, we'll line it up.
Then I'll go out here and put a screw in it.
Now, we're actually gonna have the dome fully sealed.
[Tim] Push the top all the way to where it hits the wood.
Good.
[drilling]
Okay, nice and smooth.
Now, let's check our door and see.
- See how it shuts. - Now we need to manipulate it to get it perfectly square.
Wow, that hit good.
Yeah.
[Tim] Nice.
That is already lined up.
- Nice and tight, all the way around. - [Tim] Awesome.
I finally see the end of this.
- [Tim] Okay, you're ready? - [Aaron] Yep, go.
All right.
I get to cook on this!
- [Aaron] Yes, right. - In my cast iron!
[Sydney] She in there?
[Tim] Now we're collecting energy.
Look at that!
[Aaron] It's gonna be a lot of long days, long nights
to be able to get this done,
but I think we're gonna get there.
Yeah, it's gonna be so worth it to finally be in our home.
[Sydney] The dome is finally finished,
and we are overjoyed about it.
We're so excited to finally have our home,
to establish a new life here together as a family.
[Aaron] It's more beautiful than I ever thought,
and I cannot wait to enjoy it.
So our original timeline was five weeks.
Maybe that was a little...
Ambitious? [chuckles]
Yeah.
And it ended up about two months.
We were originally gonna spend about $55,000,
and I'm counting over 70,
but, you know what, we're debt-free.
It's the way to be.
- [group exclaiming] - Hey, guys!
- [Nathan] This is amazing. - [Sydney] Welcome, welcome!
[Sydney] So today, Nathan, Robin, and Marley
are coming up from Atlanta,
and they're really outside the box like we are,
so we're really looking forward
to seeing their reactions.
[Robin] I cannot believe this,
it's so much bigger than I thought!
[Nathan] It's huge in comparison to what I thought,
- I didn't know you were moving into a spaceship. - [Aaron] Yep!
- [Sydney] Hi! - This is, uh, very spacious.
- [Sydney] Yeah! - It's amazing.
We can't wait to show you the inside too.
We worked super hard on it.
[Nathan] It's pretty awesome.
[Aaron] All right, let's go check it out.
- [Sydney] Yeah. - [Nathan] Let's go.
[Robin] This view!
[Aaron] I know.
-[Sydney] Well, yeah. I know, it's killer. -[Robin] It is fantastic.
[Nathan] Yeah.
And with the stars at night, it's gonna be...
- incredible. - [Sydney] I know.
[Nathan] And did you get this door from a house that you guys had before?
That actually comes with a whole story.
- A lot of sweat and tears, but... - Yeah.
Here she is, she's beautiful.
Y'all wanna go inside?
- [all agreeing] - Yeah, let's go.
- Hey, come on in. - [Nathan] Oh, man.
Wow!
What!
- [Nathan] This is amazing. - [Robin] This is incredible.
[Sydney] Yeah? You think so?
- The stone on the wall is... - [Sydney] You like it?
It's fantastic.
[Sydney] And it took quite a while to get
everything, like, pieced out together,
It was like a puzzle. So it took us a good minute,
but it was so worth it.
- We love it. - [Nathan] That's awesome.
[Robin] It looks so good.
This stove is so cool.
[Sydney] We're gonna cook on it,
and then it's also gonna be our heat for the winter.
And so, we're gonna learn how to chop firewood.
Did she point at me and say we?
[Nathan] It's like, hold on, hold on, we haven't discussed this yet.
What about, uh, power, water, stuff like that.
[Aaron] So we have some solar panels on the side of the dome,
and water, we've actually got a well on the property, too.
The dome-stead.
[all laughing]
Okay, you guys ready to see more of the house?
- [Nathan] Of course, let's go. - [Aaron] Let's go.
[Sydney] Hey, so what you think?
- [Robin] This is the money view, right here. - [Sydney] Right?
[Nathan] I can't wait to stay the night.
It's like cathedral ceilings in here
[Robin] Yeah, the ambience with the string lights,
I love that.
[Sydney] Our goal, of course, was to bring nature inside,
so, you know, it's exactly what we wanted.
- [Nathan] Yeah. - [Aaron] Yeah.
All right guys, y'all ready to see more?
- [cheering] - Let's go.
All right, so this is Titus' bedroom.
[Nathan] So cool.
- [Robin] What a cute bedroom, Titus is gonna love this. - [Nathan] I know.
I would love to grow up in a house like this,
if I were his age.
[Sydney] Just wanted it to be minimal for him,
we want him to be out and playing, you know,
and enjoying nature too.
[Aaron] All right guys,
come check out the bedroom.
Yes.
- [Nathan] Oh, man. - [Robin] Yes, this is great.
[Nathan] Yeah.
So this is our main bedroom.
The idea behind it, too, like everything else
is minimalist, everything has a purpose.
And also my trellis wall.
It's a room divider, but the plan is to have
ivy run up the trellis, and kind of help give a shield
between the throne room and...
[all laughing]
[Nathan] You want that to grow as fast as possible.
- [Sydney] That's right. - [laughing]
Okay, you ready to see the bathroom?
[Nathan] Yes, let's do it.
Wow!
[Robin] Yeah!
[Nathan] This is amazing.
[Robin] Look at this huge shower.
[Sydney] I know, isn't that awesome?
The shower that we just came from
is like this.
But in this one, I can dance in here
if I want to.
- [Nathan] So much space. - I can have my own party.
[Robin] Beautiful.
[Nathan] Oh yeah.
I thought the dome was amazing
I am very proud of Aaron and Sydney
for what they have been able to accomplish.
I know this has been something, for him,
that has been a dream of his, really ever since high school.
He went and did it, so that's impressive.
[Titus laughing]
I had no idea really what to expect,
and this just blows my mind.
This is just the beginning for you.
Yeah, seriously.
[Sydney] Building off the grid was a lot harder than I think I even anticipated it being.
We're a little exhausted, I'm not gonna lie about it.
[Robin] Titus, what's your favorite thing in the dome?
Yeah, what's your favorite thing in there, man?
Is it the fridge?
Mm-hmm!
[Robin] Yeah.
[Aaron] Building this dome really tested me.
And I wanted to give up several times.
But it was totally worth it
because now I get to spend the rest of my life
out here with my family, and be debt-free.