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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.
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.
This is tough country and we're tough men.
This is Building Alaska.
Previously on Building Alaska,
at Lee Raymond's build at remote Quiet Lake,
relentless rain keeps him
from getting his roof up on schedule.
We have to wait till it stops raining to set this up.
The pressure increases as two of his hardest workers
leave for college.
Now Lee is faced with breaking in new crew members,
including his son Aaron, to get the job done.
312 miles to the northeast in remote Chicken, Alaska,
extreme builder Jim Wagner
welcomed the long-awaited cement truck.
You're like our hero.
At last, a foundation for the family cabin was poured.
Finally, 212 miles to the southwest
near Matanuska Glacier,
our third builder Chuck Gerwig and his helpers
cleared an area of trees to make room for solar panels.
We're gonna make a little smoke.
While burning the debris, Chuck and his client
set off some unexpected alarms.
We don't often see State Troopers in here.
Things eventually calm down.
But back at Quiet Lake,
it's anything but calm or quiet.
Oh, boy.
Breaking in a new crew is never easy...
...especially when a fishing trip
designed to bond ends in disaster.
Guys, we've got to turn around and go back.
My son who is high-speed, no-grease
decided to make his own trail through Alders.
Beep, beep, beep--
And so it wasn't very long until
he literally broke the driveshaft.
Wrap it up around the bumper.
A quick tow gets the team back to the base camp.
Straight ahead. Aaron, straight ahead.
But it's a slow start to what Lee hopes is a big week.
We're a little bit behind,
but we're going to get rough on that thing.
We got to get it on this week.
It's a lofty goal, considering most of Lee's team
is only seeing his two-story 700-square foot dream cabin
for the first time today.
We have three new crew members
and that's because two of my favorite boys,
the M&M Movers have had to move on.
They are now in college and I like that.
I like having educated people around me.
Most of these guys here are fairly intelligent guys too.
Bill has worked for me since '98,
Earl has been with me about the same amount of time.
And so Earl and Bill are best of buddies.
♪ I want to go fishing ♪
My son Aaron, unfortunately, create new dynamic
because father and sons don't always get along.
And I am going to warn you right up ahead
we're going to be yelling at each other.
Aaron, I want you finish up this damn deck today.
My son is incredibly gifted. He can do anything he wants.
The problem is he has a lazy streak in him.
What am I doing here working away, slaving?
The youngest addition, Ty, has a lot to learn.
Ty is a state wrestler.
He's just a short little stocky guy that moves real quick
and right now he'll do anything I ask.
And that's what I need.
I am doing this job because it's a hard job
and I am the new guy.
I like it. It's fun.
Back at Chuck's build site near Matanuska Glacier...
...it's been a family affair to pitch in.
A clean job site is a happy job site.
And that includes his 17-year-old daughter, Tiffany.
When the floor is clean
it's a lot easier to be all around the scaffolding
that we're going to be using for the sheetrock.
And the sheetrock is a backbreaking,
labor-intensive job.
I think this is going to come out of here relatively easy.
Yeah.
So once again Chuck is afloat but will soon lose his paddles.
His boys and the worker are off to school as well.
My two sons and Caleb drive to college in Texas
and that starts Monday.
I picked another young guy up, Gerard.
My focus now is to run the sheetrock as hard as I can
and as long as I can to get Caleb and the rest of the guys
out of here and then we'll fall back and regroup
and see what we're going from there.
And while Chuck needs to scramble,
he's still not ready to hang the sheetrock.
We're just going to move on to vapor barrier.
Them hammer tackers are kind of nice
until you miss and hit your finger.
Hot air rises and carries humidity upwards
where it can penetrate the sheetrock.
Without the vapor barrier, the rising warm air
will form water droplets
when hitting the cold air in the attic.
Not only will the moisture damage the drywall
and insulation, it can become an incubator for mold,
a dangerous human health hazard.
We put the vapor barrier up
and then we seal along the edge with black death.
It's a gooey caulking that never dries.
Finally they tape the scenes
to complete the waterproof seal.
Chuck is just about ready
to start the massive drywall job.
Oh.
Get your butts up!
Building off the grid in Alaska
takes guts, skill, and self-reliance.
And in the tiny community of Chicken,
the concrete foundation of Jim's vacation home
is finally ready to be released from its wooden frames.
It's been about 24 hours.
It will take up to like 27 days
for this to actually get hard.
But it's easier to strip them when it's a little soft
because it's easier to loosen things up
and scrape boards off.
It takes quite a bit of effort.
Then Jim steps on Aaron.
Oh.
Gets a bit overeager.
Just leave that baby right there.
Fortunately, the damage is only cosmetic.
It's just a tip on the inside,
but if the whole chunk of the wall went out,
that would be a big deal.
A wooden frame sets the stage
for the 17 floor joists.
A little bit high.
(indistinct)
Don't tell me.
Don't tell you it's perfect?
But a level beginning doesn't keep Jim
from stressing about fitting into an 18-inch crawlspace left
under the floor for future plumbing access.
I think there's enough room to crawl around.
Going down every day and eating ice cream
and chicken though is killing me.
I mean my butt's getting so big
I won't be able to get under there.
You're going to have to get under there and insulate.
Well, that'd mean I'd have to stop drinking beers
and that ain't about to happen either.
But there is good news.
We're ready to frame a floor like no other.
With just five more joists to go,
Jim's son Jordan comes back from the woodpile
empty handed.
That's all the 2x8s.
There should be some form boards would be my guess.
It's a frustrating moment for Aaron and Jordan.
Mm, we're still going to be shy.
But not for Jim.
I know I've got more on the truck.
In order to keep the truck's nearly 10,000-pound load
from tipping during their 300-mile trip
from Gustavus to Chicken,
Jim wedged the smaller flat boards
in between the mid-shaped logs for stability.
I can probably fish those two out.
Sounds like a plan.
You got plenty done today anyway.
Yeah.
It's fall in Alaska, a time when the days get shorter
and the state's hibernating mammals
begin adapting to the changing world and climate around them.
Back at Lee's build on Quiet Lake...
Okay, boys, it's time to wake up.
It seems bears aren't the only creatures
looking to hibernate this time of year.
Hey, sleepy heads.
It kind of puts Alaskans into this slumber mode.
Literally there are guys that want to sleep all the time.
Damn, guys are still in bed. Come on, get up back there.
Aaron, let's go.
I got a way of waking them up.
Get your butts up!
( grunting )
That 500 Mag, whoo, that thing will wake anybody up
for miles around.
Kinder, good boy.
It is crack-the-whip time and I love cracking the whip.
Are you going to get that done today?
Yeah, sure.
Then do it.
Lee is one of those unique people
that has a very artistic personality
and he can be all over the map.
Hang on, don't move yet.
And he's tested my patience several times
as well as I'm sure I've tested his.
Bill, what's your problem with the 16 feet?
If you don't want to do it, you cut rafters.
I'll take care of that.
First order of business today...
We're going to build pony walls on each side,
get this up like this before we go up with the roof.
Now we have more space up here,
we can put beds up against it.
The lengths of the logs don't really matter
as they will be cut to size once in place,
but the height is critical.
Each side must identically mirror each other
in order to keep Lee's structure level.
Earl cut these logs weeks ago and there's a problem.
He doesn't use a tape measure.
They should be six, they should be seven,
and they should be eight.
I wasn't asking for 5 and 7, 8s and I wasn't asking for 6.5.
There are no two logs the same.
Earl!
And Lee's mood is about to get a whole lot worse.
We're going up to the sawmill.
We're going to show this guy
how to use a tape measure or something.
I'm not sure what's going on.
What do you read?
I am reading 10.5 with my tape.
Is our tape set messed up?
Nope.
I took an example of it up to him
and asked him to measure and it was off.
I need 6 inches, 7 inches and 8 inches.
I don't have any.
They are everything but...
My big issue was he was too busy talking
back than listening to a word I had to say to him.
I know what you want. You said it four times.
7 inches, 8 inches.
Bring me the log and I'll make six, seven and eight.
No, no, but they're all up above.
I need consistency.
I will make them work, but it's a lot more work.
A planer gets the logs to size but it eats up precious time.
Most of the time he is right. I give him that.
Lee's wall will not be completed today
and the unpredictable Alaskan climate
moves another day closer to winter.
It remains to be seen whether Ben
is going to be back from the bush in time to help at all.
Joe, I definitely let him know
that we could use his help.
At Chuck's build near Alaska's Matanuska Glacier,
the weather couldn't be more perfect.
Let's put sheet number one in that corner over there.
Sound like a plan.
The garage ceiling is ready for sheetrock.
He is good at picking stuff up many times.
This is just a drywall jack.
Basically it saves us having to lift every single sheet
and holding in place while trying to run a screw gun.
You kind of get a welt on the top side of your head
where the button on your hat is
if you've been pushing sheetrock
with your head all day.
You can take this, Tiffany. You don't have to do that.
I scored it.
Okay.
I figured Tiffany carried about 2,000 pounds
of sheetrock the other day.
You're not going to get every young lady to do that
and she'll try anything I'd ask her to do.
So I got to be careful that I don't sarcastically
tell her to go do something
and turn my back because she'll try it.
But Chuck's son Ben is off on a remote fishing trip
and son Joe continues his piloting work.
It remains to be seen whether Ben is going to be back
from the bush in time to help at all.
Joe, I definitely let him know that we could use his help.
Can I screw it yet? Can I screw it?
Come on, guys, hurry up.
We started in the right room.
We heard from Ben.
He is coming home but he got stung with a bee
and his arm is twice as big as it used to be.
So we don't think he'll be holding
the sheetrock gun or screws.
With the garage ceiling finished,
it's time to tackle the vaulted ceiling in the living room.
What I might do is grab Tiffany
and I'll go back to the insulating.
Joe's on the ground. He is on his way.
Okay.
So he could help you guys.
Chuck and Tiffany insulate the wall into the attic.
Will 39 work?
Yeah. 35, 36.
And the exterior wall.
TIFFANY: Here you go.
With Chuck's son Joe on the scene,
the boys will put up vapor barrier
on all the remaining ceilings.
Drywall stilts, they make a short guy tall.
I got a raise.
Could you hold it up there again?
11, 11.5.
Looking good.
When the tongue and groove is up there and the beams,
it's really going to look nice.
The ceiling is done.
The walls are going to be easier.
We don't have to worry about scaffolding.
So that groove, I don't have to worry about anything
on that wall, other than the fact
when this wall shrinks,
you're starting to see a raw sheetrock.
But that will be it.
Here we are.
There it is. Done, trimmed, like a glove.
As the walls take shape, there's good news.
Even stinging honeybees
couldn't keep Chuck's son Ben away.
Good deal.
So how is your arm feeling?
Fine.
Gosh, man.
Still fat.
Yeah, hope it doesn't stay that way.
And your muscles not that big, I know that.
As a bonus, Ben brought along Zach.
Put that away.
( indistinct )
That's all we're hanging.
We've done well. It's been a tremendous day.
Thanks, guys.
One, two, three.
It's been a tiring and bittersweet day.
The oldest boys leave for school tomorrow
and Chuck feels the empty nest looming.
I am proud of them.
I wouldn't want to hold them back, but...
...I'd still love to be working with them.
Well, I made an executive decision.
We're gonna pull up and dry out.
It's raining so hard now
that we're just all getting wet and drenched.
At Quiet Lake, it's back to all business
and the race is on to get that cabin roof up.
Today I want to get these logs all the way up,
purlins set, ridgepole in place.
Hopefully get the first two rafters set
and maybe jack the ridgepole up in place.
All right, let's go up.
It's an aggressive game plan
but the newly planed log sidewalls go up pretty quickly.
I got this in.
All right, we got to spin this sucker around.
I got to set it on that wall right here.
Lunch break!
It's only an hour for a lunch break,
but it's enough time for Alaska to unleash
its biggest rainstorm of the season,
forcing Lee to make a difficult, crushing call.
Well, I've made an executive decision.
We're gonna pull up and dry out.
It's raining so hard now
that we're just all getting wet and drenched.
Yeah, it's frustrating.
And when your hands get wet and cold, it's miserable.
Suck it up, buttercup.
Yeah, baby, come on.
Yeah, this is not what we wanted to get accomplished today.
I really did want to see that pole up there,
but a bad day at work can be a great day at fishing.
All right, let's go, guys.
We just put on our gear and got wet
and went to the river.
Got really wet.
We caught fish, just didn't catch that elusive silver,
which is what I want.
John, hey.
Yes.
This is a chum, dog salmon.
See the rim of golden light.
But this dogfish will live to swim another day.
I felt the skin on its tail.
He's getting a little bit old.
It was pretty tough.
And for the second time in two days,
Lee's fishing trip ends in defeat.
He's hoping he has better luck with tomorrow's weather.
Meanwhile, at Jim's cabin site in Chicken,
a change in plans.
Unloading the flatbed truck was not on Jim's to-do list yet,
but it just got moved to the top.
We didn't finish the floor last night
because we have boards that were
put underneath these logs to kind of help even the load out.
It's just the way we had to stack it
before we left Gustavus.
So we're gonna just roll off a few logs
off the top and get rest of our floor joists
out of the middle here and then we can lay down
plywood and we can start stacking these logs.
With all of the floor joists unloaded,
Aaron and Jim turn to finishing the floor
and adding the plywood subfloor.
We're going to begin stacking logs, which is way awesome.
Trying to put Jim's elaborate
log numbering system to the test.
What's that saying back there?
Front, right, number one.
One out-of-place log would make for a wobbly cabin
and for Jim that's just plain unacceptable.
When I build, I want to put out the best product
that I possibly can because my name's on it.
This structure I want to last for a long time.
If it lasts 100 years, then I did a good job.
Going together the second time a lot faster
than it did the first time, I can guarantee you that.
For Jim, his legacy is not seen
just through his buildings but his family as well.
Yeah, the best thing I ever did was meet his mamma.
So I got the joy and pleasure of getting to raise him.
Pretty solid.
I never dreamed that I could put
this all together in one day.
Yeah, in a day.
You don't want to finish that up tonight?
We could probably.
And Aaron urges Jim forward onto the side posts
that will support the top beams.
That looks pretty good.
Let it roll.
Sweet.
I feel like I could fly right about now.
Before you know it, there'll be a roof on this
and we'll be in a nice, dry space
which will be way awesome.
For today, we give two thumbs up.
Things won't get done as fast, that's for sure,
because we're down to just Tiffany and Zach and I.
The college help went away.
It's a pretty big house for three of us.
Like the seasons, the cycles of life come and go.
( chatter )
And on this Monday morning at the Gerwig household,
a final breakfast is shared before Joe,
Ben and Caleb start their long road trip
to school in Texas.
I go to school down in Texas with Ben
and we hit it off, good friends.
And so he's been after me
for 2 years to come to Alaska, come to Alaska.
I've enjoyed being here and working
with the Gerwig family and learned a lot.
I've had a good summer.
Two in the backseat are going to be a little cozy,
but it'll be a good trip.
Well, should we pray before you guys climb in there?
Lord, we thank You for these guys again
and, Lord, we just pray that You would go before them,
make the road smooth for them.
Amen.
Look forward to hearing that
you guys made it to the other side.
Okay, pile in.
And now, I guess it's up to Zach.
He is the replacement.
So off to work we go.
Never a dull moment.
It's part of getting ready for the spray and the finishes.
We're going to do a rough sawn plywood ceiling on the porch.
Got it?
Yep.
All right.
Things won't get done as fast, that's for sure,
because we're down to just Tiffany and Zach and I.
It's a pretty big house for the three of us.
I knew it was a big job when we got started.
I started as early as the ground let me.
We worked as hard as we could, 6 days a week.
This is where we are at.
The college help went away.
We're going to attempt to be ready to spray finish
tomorrow morning.
Chuck and Tiffany install
the final touches on the ceiling.
Zach, on the other hand, needs a power nap.
For over 30 years, Lee dreamed of building
in remote Alaska and calling his build here
simply off the grid really doesn't do it justice.
Take it towards the sawmill.
He is 35 miles from any road and the only access
is by floatplane, or when the snow is high enough,
snow machine.
So luxuries such as an extended weather report to plan
your days are nearly impossible to come by.
We actually text the pilot who flies us in and out.
Luckily, Lee's pilot was in range,
but the news is not good.
We're going to be in rain until Thursday.
So I'm not going to wait.
We're going to start putting rafters up in the rain
and we're going to start putting this roof on.
So today we're going to see who's men and who's boys.
But neither father nor son are starting off
on the right foot this morning.
If this is the way you're going to be, you can go back to bed.
When Lee sent his son Aaron off to find nails
for the rafters, all he finds is trouble.
You're an ( bleep ) and that's fine.
If that's what you want to waste your my time,
that's all I want, right there.
Where the ( bleep ) are they?
( indistinct )
I don't care. I got them right here.
Let's go.
Don't be ( bleep ).
I'm not the one-- I asked for panhead screws, did I not?
Explain to me what they're for.
No. Let's go.
I am *** him, but not too *** him.
Aaron, I need your ( bleep ) upstairs.
Bring your tape and your pencil.
Whoa.
He's a good kid, he's a smart kid.
He has issues with learning things from adults.
Okay, I'll cut it, but why is my angle wrong here then?
I have no clue, Aaron.
Perfect.
With tempers tamed for now...
We're going to set one right here.
It's time to tackle the two rafters
on either side of the structure
that will set the place for the ridgepole.
And the ridgepole makes its grand entrance.
Remember, kids, Lift with your back not with your legs.
All 40 feet of it.
Ready?
Let's go.
That's the hard part.
The pole needs to go up 9 feet
and will cantilever 6 feet out on either side
creating an overhang for the front balcony and back deck.
Make it tight.
Great progress, boys.
But the praise doesn't last long.
We're not even near-center, guys.
We're off by 3 inches.
Aaron, when you put something up like this,
you got to put it in the center.
The ridgepole is turned.
That's why this is so far out of level.
I depended on your judgment, okay?
All right, Bill, let's see if you can roll it.
The only fix is to roll the log clockwise 2 inches into place.
Oh, baby, that's almost perfect right there, guys.
Put some of the-- shoot it again.
I wish I had looked at it before I let him know,
but I didn't and so it's my own fault.
I should have climbed that ladder and taken a look.
I like that.
Once the log is turned...
It's perfect.
And Lee and Aaron have decided...
My son and I, we agree to disagree.
I think I have a little too much confidence
on the roof sometimes.
I have walked off of them on accident.
After 15 days straight of hard work
and shivering nights huddled intense in Chicken...
TANYA: I think we're all ready
for the comforts of home again.
Jim and his family are beginning to see
the light at the end of the tunnel.
It's looking great.
It's looking big and roomy now.
Well, our plan for the day
would be to get these walls framed in
and see if we can't get the upstairs floor built.
Yep.
But before any framing can happen,
Jim and Aaron need to figure out a few things first.
I'd do a bathroom here.
Determining where the bathroom will go
and how big it will be helps them figure out exactly
where to frame for walls and windows.
Now that we got that determined,
we can go ahead and frame this in and move on from there.
And while Aaron starts on the framing,
Jim tackles what may be
the biggest challenge of the entire build.
Nearly 40 years of building experience is the only guide
Jim uses to cut a door out of 4.5, 12-inch-diameter logs.
It takes precision, steady hands,
and quite a bit of nerve.
If he makes any little mistake, it's all over.
( indistinct chatter )
Jim's door is cut perfectly straight on one side, anyway.
Yeah, that's crooked as ( bleep ).
It's a simple, but critical fix.
We think outside the box
but plumb, level and square is never compromised.
We now have a doorway.
With the front door and the back wall framed
and the rooms roughed out...
I'm in the kitchen.
Now I'm in the bathroom.
It's time for Aaron to take his mom Tanya
on a tour of her new digs.
We have the bathroom right here.
It's going to be about 6x6 so it's going to be somewhere
around this size right here.
Laundry room, shower room.
That's right.
The 2-story cabin will have a total of 640 square feet,
with a living room, kitchen, and bathroom
on the first floor and sleeping loft above.
I hope you're not expecting to see too much progress
in the next few days.
Me and Jim and Jordan are going to be out caribou hunting.
Well, in my opinion, caribou meat is progress.
There we go.
Well, that makes me happy then.
When winter approaches,
Alaskans always stock up on meat.
After all, a family needs to eat.
312 miles away at Quiet Lake, things are looking up.
Blue skies, buddy. That's progress.
I like this. Big day today.
We have no rain. We've got a lot to do.
We're going to get this thing sheeted,
get it dried in and make it look like a cabin.
Sunny skies make for safer conditions.
It's a 40-degree angle and we do that
so the snow will slide off.
But with such a steep pitch,
Lee is always on the lookout for overconfident feet.
My biggest problem is my son, of course,
who is at that age where he is the Superman.
He thinks, you know,
he can fly through the air and not get hurt.
But the problem is there is that sudden stop at the bottom.
I think I have a little too much confidence
on the roof sometimes.
I have fallen.
I have walked off of them on accident.
I just, you know, get ahead of myself.
I learned everything I know from him.
High speed, no grease, he'd do it the same way
and he still would today if he could, you know.
But three knee surgeries and then two knee replacements
have taken their toll on Lee.
For the first 6 months, he couldn't even feel his feet.
I know it hurts him, I know it affects him,
but you wouldn't know that, you couldn't know that.
He's still going to work and push through the pain.
All right, let's go kill something.
A recent sheep hunt really showed Aaron
the extent of his father's pain.
My whole life growing up, he's carried the meat,
I carry the horns, you know.
Not as heavy of a load.
He threw on that foam pack of meat
and he was moving very slow.
It was kind of humbling because he's always
been the one who carried meat on his back
and I kind of feel the same way in doing this construction
and stuff because he can't run around up there
and do the stuff like I can.
So I try to be here as much as I can for him, you know,
and try to help him out.
What?
How's your day going today?
Yeah.
Why are you asking?
How are you doing?
Are you actually trying to be nice for a change?
I don't know. Am I?
No.
Starting to look like something up here, guys.
Whoo!
It looks like Lee will get his metal roof on tomorrow.
It's going to be an expensive booboo.
And I feel if it was any of us,
we would've been yelled at and in trouble,
but, oh well, with him.
I learned this painting technique from a guy
and it's a painting frenzy, man.
Most painters probably won't like the way we go,
but the end product's good.
At Lee's build site at Quiet Lake,
his dream to complete the first phase
of his retirement plan finally seems within reach.
Today we will start putting metal on
and that roof will be finished.
Plywood sheeting is only the first step
in getting this house dried in.
As soon as it's sheeted,
we're going to run ice and water shield
and then after that we put felt on the top.
And the felt is just to keep the metal
from causing the wood to rot.
But yesterday's sun has turned
into a deluge of rain and problems for Lee.
This stuff should be sticking to the plywood,
but the plywood's too wet.
But Lee is not worried yet.
If you can't build in the rain,
you can't build in Alaska.
Basically, two men on each side, I will cut.
All they have to do is screw off.
They should be good at screwing off, you know.
You know what I mean?
You want to go down?
Oh, yeah.
The crew falls into an easy, comfortable rhythm
until Lee hits them with a downbeat.
( horn blaring )
We ran out of materials.
Lee comes down shaking his head
and says there's no more.
That put a damper on that whole situation
thinking that we are going to be able to complete that one side.
Lee extended the roofline on the back porch
for better stability down the road,
but it forced a shortage of 16-foot metal sheets.
I have nobody to blame but myself
because I changed the design.
He brings stuff out here with one idea,
takes the Etch-a-Sketch, shakes it up.
Those 8 to 10 sheets are gonna wind up costing a grand extra.
It's one trip on a plane.
It's going to be an expensive booboo.
And if it was any of us,
we would have been yelled at and in trouble,
but, oh well, with him.
We just move on.
Luckily, the missing metal doesn't stop them
from weathering the cabin out till supplies can be flown in.
If we get this rainy weather move in
like they're talking next week,
you could see snow in the mountains across the way.
If you've seen the fireweed, the flowers at the top.
When the flower gets to the top,
they say 6 weeks till frost.
So we're there.
It's getting the time of year, we've had a lot
of nice weather, I'd better get the outside sealed.
And it's just Tiffany and Chuck
for the final prep for spraying.
CHUCK: I haven't put a finish on yet
because I've been trying to let them dry out
as much as possible.
So we get as much of the shrink out.
If you seal your logs up too tight,
they can actually rot from the inside.
I like the idea of sealing the wood totally.
There's a lot of finishes out there that don't breathe.
Log oil is one of those possibilities.
It's cheap to put on.
Okay, there, we're ready.
CHUCK: Ad you better like doing it
because you're gonna do it every 2 or 3 years.
I don't mind finishing,
but I don't want to go back and re-finish.
Some people don't agree with my technique for outdoor finish.
You spray it on till it runs off,
and then you brush it in.
And I've turned the pressure up as high as it will go
and then from there the speed control is your arm.
Squeeze the handle and go.
I learned this painting technique from a guy
and it's a painting frenzy, man.
Most painters probably won't like the way we go,
but the end product's good.
I think it's been going really well.
Dad seems to be pleased with how it's moving along.
Now the coat should have a nice build on it.
It should be a good finish for him for years to come.
I'm really, really blessed to have parents like I do.
They're really loving and they're ones
that are very easy to look up to through the way they act.
Okay, I'm done. What about you?
I'm not.
You're not? Darn.
Looks like I'll be cleaning the gun then, huh?
I think it looks good. I like what I see.
Good day.
Next time on Building Alaska ...
I do have a deadline of one week.
The Alaskan winter looms.
TANYA: We certainly don't want to be trapped here.
And now Chuck's all alone.
I'm hurting.
Right now we've got nothing going on other than me.
And Lee sometimes wishes he was alone.
You know, it's a love-hate relationship.
I don't care what time we quit at night.
Have you ever heard me--
( arguing )
No, I'm not.
We love to hate each other.
Our intrepid builders race against time,
struggling to complete their dream homes
before the inevitable Alaska winter