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ANNOUNCER: They're totally off the grid.
It's gonna be extremely labor intensive.
Three men risk it all to carve out their homes
in some of the most unforgiving wilderness on the planet.
There's danger everywhere.
In remote Alaska, brutal forces
can crush men and machines.
MAN: But we have to work with what we have
'cause that's all we've got.
But with sheer determination and guts,
these men lead their teams on a mission.
MAN: This is tough country and we're tough men.
This is Building Alaska.
Previously on Building Alaska
at Lee Raymond's build on remote Quiet Lake...
Ready, up.
The backbreaking task of lifting the heavy purlins
into place is finally accomplished.
MAN: That's good.
Now Lee and his team can start working
on the cabin's second floor.
312 miles to the northeast in Chicken, Alaska,
extreme builder, Jim Wagner
and his family have worked hard
to get the foundation set for their cabin.
Now they must wait for the concrete to arrive,
but the wet, muddy,
unpaved road has put that critical delivery on hold.
Finally, 212 miles away, near Matanuska Glacier,
tragedy struck our third builder.
Ryan went home to be with the Lord.
His right-hand man, 29-year-old Ryan Beachy
was tragically killed and his girlfriend critically injured
when his motorcycle collided with a moose.
As a community mourn, the question remained,
could Chuck move past such a devastating blow
and finish what he and Ryan started?
MAN: What would Ryan want us to do?
He wouldn't want us to just kill the whole project.
So we just go through it daily and keep on going.
The home Chuck is building for his clients,
Rebecca and Cleve Steadman
sits just a few miles from the majestic
Matanuska Glacier.
One of over 100,000 glaciers, icefalls,
icebergs and ice masses in Alaska,
turning the state
into a spectacular icy wonderland.
CHUCK: Where are they gonna put the solar panels?
I'm thinking from here down would be better.
Back in the saddle,
Chuck is planning the next step for his build.
Family friend, Caleb Gibson is here to help.
But we got these windows here and I don't really care
to cover up all the window.
Chuck is building a state-of-the-art
energy efficient home.
But where to place the solar panels is tricky.
They need to be high enough to maximize solar power
without blocking the view from the ground floor windows.
CALEB: We're gonna have to get rid of some of the greenery
to catch some more of the scenery.
CHUCK: There we go.
Basically, we're wiping out from there,
come across to here, take these taller ones
and we're gonna go over there
and rob that cluster.
Cutting down those trees will give Cleve and Rebecca
a spectacular view of the glacier
and the Chugach Mountain range.
Okay, let's go.
Back at Lee's build at Quiet Lake, it's late July.
Still working with nearly 24 hours of sunlight a day,
the gang has been putting in
some serious overtime.
And Lee's cabin,
phase one of his retirement plan,
is quickly coming into focus.
The place is starting to look really cool.
We've gotten a lot done
and we're ready to start the next phase.
It's been a long hard slog
and Lee would not be this far along
without his two youngest workers,
Matt and Mike.
LEE: Michael is Earl's son.
He's a smart kid.
Not a real fast mover, but sometimes being
slow and tedious is a good thing
because it keeps people from hurting themselves.
Matt is Lee's protege.
Matt has definitely become like my second son.
He has worked for me now since he was 16,
hard-worker, smart kid.
You tell him how to do something once,
he picks it right up.
As rookies,
the boys took the brunt of the hardest labor.
Michael, put on that pile.
Put it right here. Make two rows, Matt.
Go get a walk plank.
It's meant little sleep, bone crushing jobs
and a lot of bad luck.
But the seasons will soon be changing
and Matt and Mike need to leave at the end of the week
to prepare for college.
I'm losing Matt and Mike, the problem is
there's just so much going on now,
so I will have to bring in some new blood.
MIKE: I've only been working for Lee for about a year.
I like it out here but school starts at the end of August,
right around when we'd be coming out.
But Lee is going to get the most out of these
two hard workers before they go.
And the next phase in his cabin build
is to put down the loft floor
and set the rafters to support the roof.
LEE: Okay, guys, this is where I want to be today.
I want to have my upper loft deck on, okay?
Everything that I'm putting on today has to be pre-sanded
before we put it up.
And today it's gonna start raining,
so we got to do some sanding while it's dry.
Rain has been a constant nemesis all summer,
one of the wettest in memory.
Because the rain can stain unsealed wood,
the crew is working against the clock
to sand and cover all of the boards
before the skies open up again.
Are we having fun now, boys?
Fun.
Hold on, I can't hear you!
I got safety protection!
( Lee laughs )
Sanding the boards is a miserable job.
For once, Matt is happy to be peeling logs instead.
This isn't a fun job
but it beats the hell out of that.
I'll take this over grinding any day.
But Lee won't let Matt miss out on the action.
You're not dirty enough down here.
That's why I'm working over here, man.
You don't have enough dirt on you.
This is my last build trip to Quiet Lake.
This is kind of sad moment
and joyous moment at the same time.
It's gonna be nice to not have to break my back
for 12 hours of the day.
LEE: This is some really nasty, dirty work right here.
But it's got to get done.
It's part of the steps and you don't want to step over
'cause they'll be harder to do in place
than it will before we put it up there.
This is the ceiling that you're gonna see
from below when you're looking up.
The boards serve a dual purpose.
They'll be the ceiling for the first floor
and the floor for the upper level loft.
It's 2 1/4 inch thick white spruce
that I've nailed down and it's got taper to it
so that should make it more fun too.
After these floorboards are done,
they're gonna go up in place.
And hopefully, we'll get some screwed down today.
We got that many done.
Not very many, but we're getting them.
Meanwhile, in remote Chicken, Alaska,
constant rain is also wreaking havoc
at the Wagner's build site.
We ran into a slight snag with all the rain
that we've had up here
and the road is pretty much impassable.
We have to get the road passable
so that the concrete truck can come up here.
Fortunately for Jim,
family friend Elm is ready to give it a shot.
ELM: The option was easy.
get a bunch of material brought in with the truck
or wait for it to dry out.
Elm repairs the road as much as he can for now.
But it's going to take at least a full day of sunshine
before the mud dries enough
for the crew to finish the job.
So the family decides to make the most of a mucky situation.
TANYA: Well, we're about to head up
to do a little bit of gold mining,
have some fun today.
Elm and I have a little bit of a competition
going on to see who can find the biggest nugget today.
This is exactly why we come up here every year,
just for this.
The cabin is to make it comfortable
while we're doing this.
Buckets of gold are heavy.
Gold mining is serious business in this family.
And Tanya is taking her bet with Elm to heart.
I'm pretty confident that I'm gonna win.
I might have been smack talking you a little bit.
Oh.
What have we got in there?
A bunch of little pieces.
Not bad, not bad.
Yeah, I think I see a lot more little pieces--
Yeah. That was our first plucking.
He's toast.
JIM: The problem with taking off work
and coming up here,
I like gold mining way too much.
Once I get the bug, I don't know
where the cabin is going, so.
Jim and family are having fun now,
but could so much time away
from his build jeopardize completing it in time?
TANYA: This might have been a fatal mistake today
because once Jim gets going on the gold,
it's hard to stop him.
Lee's tools are coming unglued.
CHUCK: Did you see his glue gun?
The tube exploded so he just duct-taped it together.
And things are even worse for Chuck.
Oh-oh.
CHUCK: It broke the cable.
Near the Matanuska Glacier,
the crew makes room for the solar panels.
Chuck is cutting trees and his helper,
Caleb is hauling them up the hill.
It's always good not to be down there
haphazardly falling trees.
It's important to fall the trees
in the right direction.
But sometimes, you just have to improvise.
Well, that wasn't supposed to go that far.
It didn't catch the memo, I guess.
Using a chain,
Chuck bundles up two to three trees at a time
so that Caleb can pull them up with ease.
A forklift and chain
will make the job of hauling the trees out easier.
CHUCK: Good.
All right.
Or so they think.
I'll pull on it slow.
Oh-oh.
CHUCK: It broke the cable.
CALEB: The logs hung up and just ran up against the stump
and I'm just pulling slow.
So it stretched the cable and broke loose.
Thankfully nobody was standing there,
but nobody was hurt.
A cable snapping with that speed and force
would cut like a knife
and could have been deadly.
It's got to be an elevator cable.
It's got rope in it.
Every one of those strands got rope in the middle.
You broke it anyway.
Yeah, we broke it anyways.
The snap caught the attention of Chuck's client,
Cleve Steadman.
We had the stump down there that got in the way.
Chuck takes the time to make sure
every bolt is tight and secure before they start again.
And we got to put back together, so
we'll just be careful.
They put the mended cable to the test
and go back to work.
But this time,
Chuck's keeping an eye out for any obstacles.
There's about four more loads down there.
So we're not done yet but we're close.
Back at Quiet Lake,
the team thinks they've been caught in
a never ending cycle of wet and even wetter.
LEE: You never know.
Here it could be raining cats and dogs
and it could be just a drizzle all day long.
But in any case, it will definitely slow us down.
It's the last board.
Isn't it time to have a cold one?
Yeah, once I go back to my normal skin color.
With the boards sanded,
it's time to clean up
and get to the business of laying down the loft's floor.
Are we gonna clear that?
I don't know.
All right, we'll find out.
Using a strap helps ease the burden
of placing the boards one at a time.
MATT: Is this one gonna be a problem?
It's a grueling and dangerous job.
Matt only has a couple of purlins to balance on.
And in true Lee fashion,
the floor layout is complicated.
I don't know where these are going.
The short ones obviously come down on this end, okay?
Because this comes out into a pie.
Put the smooth side up right now
or then we'll flip them over
'cause if we flip them over now
we'll scar them by sliding them around.
This one's going all the way over.
That's it. Looks pretty good.
MATT: Still got some highs and lows in it
but for a wood plank floor, it's coming out real nice.
Once the boards are in place,
the next step is to secure them to the frame.
Did you see his glue gun
how it's duct-taped together?
The tube exploded so we just duct-taped it together.
You know, when you're out here you just can't run to the store.
You have to be able to fix it and if you can't,
then, you know, hopefully
somebody in your crew is out here
that can fix it.
Somebody else would have probably just thrown
the whole thing away.
We can't throw it away out here.
We got to use it.
All right, it's time for a beer.
The floor is finally done,
a big step in the building of the house,
but there's not much time to celebrate.
It looks like it's gonna rain so we need that tarp.
It looks like rain.
Rain spreads misery throughout Lee's build site.
LEE: So anything out in the rain needs to be picked up.
Better go find it and put it away.
Me, I need to get picked up and put away.
Alaska is a unique gem.
Everywhere you look, natural riches abound,
above and below the ground and water.
And today in Chicken, Alaska, the Wagners take it all in.
Elm, let's do our comparison to see who won.
I clarified whether we were going
for quantity or quality.
Well, you won both.
I had one grape. I had no idea I was battling
against Jim Wagner, but I'm still stoked.
We found gold. It ain't much but it's something.
It is pretty, isn't it?
Yes.
In today's market,
their take for the day is worth about $250.
But they're going to have to put their gold fever on ice.
TANYA: We're hoping
the concrete truck will come on Friday.
That completely depends on the road.
A few days of sunshine dried out the road,
but it's still not level enough
for the cement truck to safely pass.
So Jim, Aaron and Jordan
are smoothing out the potholes with gravel
while Elm works out a long-term solution
with a new ditch.
ELM: This is more preventative.
Now if it rains,
the concrete truck can still come
because with the ditch,
the water won't
sit on the road bed and make mud.
It will have somewhere to go.
If the truck gets stuck, you end up paying
for the price of the concrete plus 120 bucks an hour
for the truck to sit there.
So it's fairly essential.
that the concrete truck does not get stuck.
MAN: I think we got the road pretty well fixed up.
So I feel real good about that.
With the road almost done,
Jim and Aaron get to work building the frames
for the concrete foundation.
AARON: We're gonna take these 2 x 6s
which is also gonna be
our wall framing but we're gonna use it
to form our footings.
And then after that,
we'll work on the walls.
With the wood frames up,
it's time to lay the rebar which is mandatory
for foundations in earthquake prone Alaska.
But like most things here,
it's not easy to come by.
The closest town, Tok, has a limited supply.
So we went in to get rebar,
we needed 30 pieces, they had 10.
So we had to buy a bunch of little pieces
that we're gonna tie.
So it was good that we brought our
tight wire tape with us,
so that Jim can scrap pieces together.
So that is a challenge being
this remote is that you have to have
everything you need and you have to think ahead.
AARON: Getting the grate inside the footings
is really important
because that way when you figure out
how much concrete, you know, you're right on,
'cause if you were off even a little bit,
it's 80 miles from where the concrete's coming from.
So it has to be right the first time.
No pressure.
Once this is done,
then we'll form up the little walls
and then we'll be ready for cement.
Traditionally a concrete foundation
will be poured in two sections.
First, the footing and once that's cured,
the walls would be formed and poured.
But with the cost and difficulty
of getting a concrete truck to Chicken,
Jim and Aaron decide to have it poured in
one monolithic piece instead.
Well, the advantage with one pour
is that we're 80 miles from our concrete,
so one pour is gonna be a lot easier than two.
The concrete around the foundation
won't be entirely one piece.
Jim is leaving a small access spot
to get underneath the house for wiring.
Normally I put an access through the floor up on top
but I'm so limited on space.
AARON: We got our footings and our walls up.
Our rebar's all in
and I think that's about it for today.
JIM: Excuse me,
how are we supposed to put tools away?
Back at Quiet Lake, Lee tries to keep his project
on schedule despite threatening skies.
It's gonna rain.
You can smell it in the air
and the clouds are coming in dark,
wind starting to pick up a little bit.
We're covering it up.
We will just continue to work in the rain.
We'll get wet but, oh well, that's Alaska.
That's the way it is.
Because of the rain, we had to tarp
the second floor to protect the wood,
to keep water stains down to a bare minimum
'cause you spend the time sanding
the bottom of the flooring logs,
when you look up, it's a finished product.
Well, if it gets rained and soaked,
then you get water stains in there.
It's raining.
Let it rain. We're ready for it.
We got tents up.
Anything out in the rain needs to be picked up,
better go find it and put it away.
Me, I need to get picked up and put away.
The crew has to gather
all of their tools and materials
and create new workstations under tarps.
LEE: All the way through into the front.
The problem here is that
we're making a lot of the material
we're using in the structure
and so all that material is just now being made.
That's part of the reason this thing is going up
a little slower than others.
So I have to make still more 2 x 6s.
Ooh, that's *** a saw.
The wet wood just slows everything down a little bit.
Steam and smoke start coming up from the saw.
We know the blade's getting hot
but we try all we can.
Moving operations
under the tarps costs precious time.
It's dry, that's all I care about.
A little protective barrier.
LEE: Boy, it be nice if I could pull this off.
So I'm gonna try these rafters out tomorrow morning.
After hours of battling miserable conditions,
the men are wet and cold and ready to call it a day.
While Lee is hit by setbacks,
113 miles away,
Chuck is making better progress.
We'll get them up and it improved the view.
It should be good for the solar panels.
And then we'll get them cut up, get the limbs burnt.
The tree trunks will be cut up for firewood,
but the limbs need to be stripped and burned first,
a job Cleve and Rebecca are happy to help with.
So just go ahead and start a fire right there.
They've asked me
if there's anything that they can do,
please let them know and I thought today was a day
that we could use their help for sure.
Where do I start?
Anywhere. It can all go away.
CHUCK: It's good to have them help.
They were a big help in the process
and so that was great.
You're doing good, Cleve.
We're gonna make a little smoke.
Yeah.
And that's an understatement.
Seems the property owners are a little too good
at whipping up a fire.
Is all of Chuck's hard work about to go up in flames?
Back at Chuck's build site, things are heating up.
Oh-oh.
Despite the setback of a snapped cable,
Chuck and Caleb were able to remove enough trees
to clear the space needed for the solar panels.
With the help of his clients, Cleve and Rebecca,
they start a fire to burn the remaining kindling.
I got to do a little something just to justify my existence.
Why pile all this stuff up?
You just get away with it now.
Burning the limbs now
helps prevent the build-up of kindling around the house
and possible fire danger down the road.
So by what we did today,
we were able to take the firewood over there
so that someday in the future
that can be cut up into firewood lengths,
burn the limbs, keep a small fire.
So just keeping a small, low profile today.
But the fresh moist trees are creating a lot of smoke.
Soon the operation is anything but low key.
We had a lot of smoke coming out of that.
It doesn't take long for their little fire
to get a lot of attention.
The forestry helicopter had flown overhead
and then the state trooper showed up.
We don't often see state troopers in here.
It was probably a drive-by 911
that said there was a fire
and that someone needs to respond.
Forest fires are a constant and serious threat in Alaska.
Lightning strikes alone start about 400 fires here each year.
Back in 2004, wildfires burned
more than 5 million acres across the state.
To help combat the problem,
the forestry service asks that trees and kindling
be at least 30 feet from the edge of any home.
And the state trooper is here to check it out.
The state troopers come in here
to check out where the smoke is at
but even the forestry guys said
"I can see it's well under control."
It was reassuring that
those guys too didn't come in here all hot and mad at us.
They could tell that things were going good
and that we were trying to do what we're supposed to do.
After determining
that the fire is contained and within guidelines,
the trooper leaves the crew to finish their work.
We took down trees for the solar panels
and also it will work as a fire protection real well.
Although, at times we had a lot of smoke in here
and that's why we had some visitors but things went well.
Back in Chicken,
the road is as ready as it's gonna get
and the concrete forms are in place.
But with no cell
or email service at the build site,
the only way to find out
when the truck will arrive is to drive into town.
The email said that it won't be today.
So we should hear from him tomorrow.
We are so bummed.
No concrete sets them back at least another day
and delays have eaten up all of Elm and Beth's time at Chicken.
Now Jim is going to have to finish up the cabin
without two of his hardest workers.
I wish we could stay longer
but unfortunately, our actual jobs force us--
force us home, but we'll be back.
Definitely, we'll be back.
It's been fun.
Oh, believe me. Just drive safe.
Just another creek in the trail that gets thrown your way
and you just have to make the best of what you got
and we'll be happy when we get our concrete
and that's just normal life here, so.
Holy, I'm on fire.
Look how thick those things are.
And they're burnt.
At Quiet Lake,
the men take aim at Earl's botched pancakes.
Throw them high.
Back at Quiet Lake, the skies have finally cleared
and Earl tries his hand at whipping up breakfast.
It's only pancakes. How bad can it be?
Holy, I'm on fire.
It's gonna be Earl's pancakes, charred burnt.
Oh, yeah, peanut butter will cover that stain.
Oh! Look at that.
That's gonnna require a lot of peanut butter.
Well, they're gonna have well done pancakes.
Yep, perfect. Look at this batch.
See how they're just like perfectly done?
It seems Earl is not destined to become a chef.
Look how thick those things are and they're burnt.
Put some peanut butter on there, you won't see it.
Yeah, right.
Oh, yeah, charred burnt.
That's how we roll up here in Alaska.
They not only look like asphalt,
they kind of tasted that way too.
All in all, it was a catastrophe.
Sheesh, these aren't any good for eating.
We'll have to do something else with these.
I have a perfect idea.
Throw them high.
Hey, got that one.
Pull!
It's the Alaskan way of turning tragedy into triumph.
All right, young men, so what did we learn today?
Not let Earl cook breakfast.
That's a good thing, isn't it?
I suck at skeet shooting.
I can sleep in.
No, you can't. You still have to make coffee.
You can't screw up doing that.
All right.
We're done here.
Let's go back to work.
I guess.
Wait a minute. Michael.
Clean up our mess.
Meanwhile back at Jim's build site in Chicken, a smaller crew
leaves the Wagner campsite more vulnerable to wildlife.
And in Alaska, you should never forget
that you are not at the top of the food chain.
Elm and Beth left this morning.
Now we're down to six of us.
So we're putting up the electric fence
to keep our camp safe from bears.
The fewer of us there are,
the more of a concern it becomes.
This is a solar powered electric fence
so there is a solar panel hanging on the tree over there.
And it just keeps a constant charge
going through the fence while we're gone.
JIM: This isn't a guarantee.
Just 'cause you have insurance,
it doesn't mean that you have assurance,
but this helps it to ensure that when we come home,
chances of our camp still being here
all in one piece are a little bit better than
if we didn't have this, so.
But not everyone is sold on the fence.
As far as I can tell,
if a bear really wants you,
a little tiny piece of string
with some voltage running through it
ain't gonna stop them.
It's just a feeling of safety for the younger ones.
At Matanuska Glacier,
it's a new day
and Chuck and Caleb are back at the build site
in the cold and rain.
But luckily, today's task is inside,
installing the fiberglass bathtubs.
We're looking at the easiest way to get them in.
They are 30 inches deep and 5 foot wide.
That one we're gonna take down the hall
into the bedroom door and see if it will fit.
Chuck is worried the bathtubs are too big
to pass through the openings for the doors,
but Caleb is a bit more optimistic.
I think it will fit. I think it will fit.
There's only one way to find out.
You can't come anymore, huh?
No.
Just as Chuck feared,
the tubs are too big
to pass through the door frames.
I'm snug.
No.
We'll remove a couple of these studs
and we'll carry that tub right through here
and put it right in place.
Removing the studs is a setback
but the only option.
We're gonna give it a try, Caleb.
Ready?
Yeah, okay.
That will work.
Okay.
You go ahead and put them studs back in.
It's a good day if your wall doesn't have to come apart
but if the pieces go back,
it's not necessarily a bad thing either.
The crew repeats the same process for the second tub.
Studs go out, tubs come in
and soon both tubs are in place.
Okay. Good.
Lee's determined to squeeze
the last drop of sweat out of the rookies.
It's a never ending job I feel like.
Lee, can we get more logs to peel?
Yeah.
You're just starting.
That's what I'm talking about.
In Quiet Lake,
Lee and crew turned a really bad breakfast
into pure Alaskan fun.
Hey, you got that one.
But it probably wasn't the best use of time.
As they return to the build site,
the rains are back and their spirits dampen.
Boys are starting to show signs of fatigue.
They are moving slow today.
And I'm hoping we get some things accomplished
'cause there's still a lot on my plate.
Hurry up, guys. Come on.
And as soon as this is cleaned up,
I'm gonna start cutting rafters.
I'm over this.
You're over it, all right.
Lee has a limited number of boards cut for the job
and precision cutting is critical.
They need to be identical to balance the roof.
One mistake would be costly.
It's pretty damn good.
Except for one is thicker than the other.
That tail has got a little on it.
Other than that I think it will work.
Okay.
We'll have to wait till it stops raining
to set this up
'cause they got to move that tent.
Think that's gonna happen?
Good question.
Lee's goal is to get the rafters up
before Matt and Mike head back
to get ready for school in a few days.
Lee will also take that flight back towards Anchorage
to replenish dwindling supplies.
So rain or not,
Lee pushes forward to try out the rafter template.
I can't wait.
I want to try them out now.
All right, slide your end that way.
It's got to be in the center of the deck.
If the dimensions of the first rafter's fit,
Lee will use them as a template to cut the others.
Come to me.
All right, now bring your end down.
It's supposed to be 16 feet.
And it's not.
Okay. We're off.
What are you looking at?
Well, first off, I got to put 2 inches in between this.
Lee hopes to make up some of the missing length
using a block 2 inches thick,
similar to the ridgepole that will connect the rafters.
Move it this way. Thank you.
Go into the notch. It's supposed to be 16 feet.
I'm 2 inches off.
2 inches shy.
Okay. Okay.
Ever the perfectionist, Lee will fix the problem.
All right, let's clean up, pick up and put things away.
And for the boys, they are back to peeling logs.
Lee always comes up with logs to peel.
It's like he just poofs them there.
It's a never ending job I feel like.
Lee, can we get more logs to peel?
Hell, yeah.
Yeah.
You're just starting.
That's what I'm talking about.
To the Northeast,
after days of delays in Chicken,
the concrete truck everyone has been waiting for
is finally making its way down Jim's road.
When I saw you make it past that corner,
I knew we're in good shape.
You're like our hero today.
You're okay.
But there is no time to celebrate.
First, they fill the foundation walls,
working with speed and precision.
Out here, no concrete can be wasted.
Once the walls are done,
they have to dig and fill the holes
for the wrap-around porch supports.
But Jim can't afford to have the truck wait.
So they pile some of the concrete on the ground.
It's a race against the clock
to dig the holes and fill the pylons
before the concrete hardens.
TANYA: We need a lot of covered area for hanging gear.
When we come back from mining,
we are wet and muddy
and we need places to hang gear where it can dry.
And we need a place for the barbecue.
Down eighth, right there.
As each tube is filled,
Jim measures to make sure it's exactly the right height.
Yeah, this is gonna be pretty cool.
Now that we're getting close to the end,
it's been a couple of hours,
so the concrete's starting to get hard.
This is our last sonotube
that is going to support the deck around the cabin here.
They had just enough concrete to finish the job.
This was a good day.
This is the beginning for us right here.
Things will really start moving now.
Oh! Oh, Matt!
I dropped my steak on the ground.
Are you kidding me?
But I still ate it.
In remote Alaska,
neither dirt nor dog hair
will keep a hungry worker from eating.
Rinse it off and do it again.
Just take a bite out of it, bud.
Oh, you got timber here.
For Chuck and his build,
the summer's highs have been high
and the lows have been low,
but Chuck and his team soldier on.
The inside of the house is framed,
and designer Mae Pauling makes the hour and a half trek
to meet with the Steadmans.
I am Mae Pauling. I'm owner of Interiors by Mae.
I came up today
to check out what kind of things
that we need to do on the interiors
as far as cabinetry and flooring.
Okay, that's the kitchen.
Okay, so let me get my little drawing out here.
So we got fridge, we got range, we got sink.
We're gonna go down with cabinets.
They're going for the real Alaskan feel.
Everything is natural.
The cabinets are gonna be real solid wood.
I think they're bringing the outside in
and they're really making it an Alaskan retreat.
But that also brings its own set of problems,
especially when it comes to the cabinets.
That corner, you're gonna have to allow me
a possibility of these ones shrinking
and these ones not.
The log wall is gonna settle.
I see. Okay.
So these are gonna dry down.
And these are not.
Okay.
Because the logs used
on the outer wall of the house were freshly cut,
the wood is still full of moisture.
Over time, the moisture will dry out
and the logs will shrink and settle.
So Mae needs to take shrinkage
into account for the kitchen design.
MAE: It's more difficult to work in a home
that's made out of logs,
but that comes second nature
just because I've been here my whole life.
So I think that's just a matter of experience.
So if we can think about that when you're doing this,
it would be beneficial again from my side.
When we all work together this way,
we're able to make measurements.
She's able to got to town
and figure out what cabinets are gonna fit
where and how this is the best layout.
And we put the plumbing in right the first time,
then it's so much better.
We don't have to worry about backtracking later on.
As fall sets in at the Matanuska Glacier,
Chuck's house is moving into the final stages of the build.
It's been a rough road
but through teamwork and sheer determination,
he's on track for now.
Meanwhile, back in Chicken,
Aaron is finally working on the outhouse.
So these are recycled cement forms here that I'm using
just because we're limited on materials
and this is gonna work just fine for what it is.
I just got some old logs.
They look gnarly and burnt
but the inside is actually really solid.
And then I got these granite rocks here.
Just set them on the ground
with a little gravel under them that will hold it up.
This is gonna be just fine and dandy
for what we're doing here.
You know we just always start with the floor
and it's gonna be a really simple design.
I'll just take this and nail this down
around the perimeter to make it a little more solid.
Nailing down the floor is the easy part.
Gathering logs for the walls, not so much.
I think for the walls
I'm gonna put up four posts on every corner
and then use little logs.
I'm not gonna worry about making it super tight.
The more ventilation with an outhouse, the better.
This started out as a priority.
However, I'm kind of glad I waited
because now I get to use these recycled materials
rather than a bunch of half logs
which would have been, you know,
not a very flat surface.
How's that looking?
Stronger?
Absolutely.
At Quiet Lake,
Lee abandoned his goal of setting the rafters for now.
There's no time as a float plane
will soon be on its way to pick up Matt and Mike
who are heading back to school.
Lee will come back as fast as he can
with fresh supplies and tools.
As for the progress, you know, we always have high hopes.
You know, I try to keep the morale up,
I try to keep the guys thinking we're gonna get this done.
But I knew that we were gonna go into some wet days.
All that has just played *** the guys
and slowed us down.
As Matt and Mike's time at Quiet Lake comes to an end,
the men enjoy a last meal for the occasion.
You'll never ever get a steak this thick in a restaurant.
Oh, baby.
That's good steak.
MATT: I'll miss coming out here.
You know there's a lot of perks and a lot of things
I learnt coming out here.
LEE: These two boys are hardworking, fun-loving.
They're just wonderful to have around.
I will have a hard time filling their shoes.
Oh, Matt!
Are you kidding me?
Nope, nope.
Rinse it off and do it again.
Just take a bite out of it, bud.
Oh, you got timber here.
I dropped my steak on the ground, but I still ate it.
That's how you roll in Alaska.
Fight the dogs off.
You're can have a cauliflower, dog.
Next time on Building Alaska...
Chuck also loses workers to college,
raising the stakes to hit his deadline.
CHUCK: Things won't get done as fast
because we're down to just Tiffany and Zack and I.
It's a pretty big house for three of us.
Jim's concrete foundation is finally ready
to be freed from its wooden molds.
Oh...
And Jim's steps on Aaron gets a bit overeager.
If a whole chunk of the wall went out,
that would be a big deal.
And Lee has to break in a new crew
including his son.
Father and sons don't always get along.
And I'm gonna warn you right up ahead,
we're gonna be yelling at each other.
Aaron, I want you to finish up this damn deck today.