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PAULIE: Next on "Building Wild".
JEREMY PRATICO: Find a man that doesn't want a log cabin,
I mean everyone wants a log cabin.
PAULIE: What the hell?
JEREMY PRATICO: I see we've got no anger issues up here.
PAULIE: Oh. [BLEEP]!
TUFFY: Chain snapped, watch out!
You and the boys can build the damn camp.
Let me work on this pond a little bit.
That's [BLEEP] deep over there, boy.
PAULIE: It's not a lot of room, not when you put a big excavator
in here and you put a school bus in here.
TUFFY: You ever see anybody so excited over a bus?
PAULIE: Whoa whoa! JEREMY PRATICO: Oh my gosh.
PAULIE: We are, the Cabin Kings.
I'm Paulie, design and detail guy.
Doors are looking good. That's Tuffy.
Backwoods inventor, and when it comes to heavy machinery,
he's the man.
TUFFY: You need to get out of there!
PAULIE: Our business... Building Wild.
If you want a custom cabin, we can build it fast
for a great price.
To keep costs low, you help supply materials, manpower,
and a lot of hard work.
Together, we'll build the cabin of your dreams.
TUFFY: Where we going this week Paul?
PAULIE: Bear town, Vermont.
We're gonna go meet a guy by the name of Jeremy Pratico,
he's a teacher.
He teaches fifth grade students...
TUFFY: Oh my god. A school teacher.
PAULIE: Yeah yeah, a school teacher.
TUFFY: He teaches shop class.
PAULIE: No not in elementary school man, no shop class,
he teaches fifth grade.
How can you have a problem with a school teacher?
TUFFY: School teachers have snow days.
There are no snow days.
PAULIE: Yeah I-I-I realize that, he's a smart guy,
knows a lot of stuff, but he is not a carpenter.
Nor, nor are his friends. So.
TUFFY: I know, 'cause his friends are all in the fifth
grade. So how we gonna pull this off?
PAULIE: Number one, we are going to keep it simple.
Like a fifth grader, simple.
But we're still gonna make it special.
TUFFY: Keep it simple.
PAULIE: Simple. That's right. Simple is...
TUFFY: Couple chalkboards on the wall,
some crayons on the windowsill...
PAULIE: I like it. See, you're already thinking special.
See, Tuffy, I knew it. I knew you'd come around.
TUFFY: I'm sure you're gonna find a way to make it difficult.
PAULIE: How pretty is this.
Jeremy! JEREMY PRATICO: Hey!
PAULIE: Hey man! JEREMY PRATICO: How's it going?
PAULIE: Good thank you, how are you?
JEREMY PRATICO: Good, good to see ya.
PAULIE: I'm Paulie, getting your feet wet?
JEREMY: Oh yeah, sure are, right in there getting dirty.
PAULIE: Very nice to meet you. This is Tuffy.
Daniel, pleasure.
DANIEL PRATICO: Hey Tuffy. Nice to meet you.
JEREMY PRATICO: My name's Jeremy Pratico,
I am a fifth grade school teacher in Arlington, Vermont.
Ever since I was a little kid it's been my dream to own
a log cabin, find a man that doesn't want a log cabin.
I mean, everyone wants a log cabin.
It's, it's a way to just get away and-and,
be with your own thoughts, or be with friends and family
and having that laughter.
PAULIE: Are you ready to get this started now,
it's gonna be a good week.
My partner here is a little worried.
To keep costs low, our usual business model is of course,
our client brings the labor, we bring the knowledge,
we bring the know-how and speed on how to complete
this in a week.
DANIEL: Oh, we're in trouble. PAULIE: We're in trouble...
DANIEL: I'm a SCADA engineer, work on computers, and,
uh not really a carpenter so much.
TUFFY: You guys do own some uh, work shoes right?
DANIEL PRATICO: We do, yeah these are uh, um very nice.
JEREMY PRATICO: I could buy some I guess.
TUFFY: You gotta go buy some?
JEREMY PRATICO: I brought Paulie and Tuffy in to help me
because, I know zero about construction,
I failed in school doing a little Popsicle stick thing.
I couldn't even do that alone, let alone build a whole cabin
of my own. So I figure getting people that know
what they're doing would probably be the best
way to go about this.
TUFFY: I think you guys are gonna have to buy
some work shoes. DANIEL PRATICO: Oh yeah. So.
PAULIE: What do you say we ah, we go take a look
at the property? JEREMY PRATICO: Let's do it!
PAULIE: You ready? TUFFY: Get your work boots on.
JEREMY PRATICO: Oh boy! Heheh!
So we're gonna follow this road up,
then we'll cut off into a field.
Well we might have a little trouble getting up there.
'Cause it does get pretty rough up in there, so.
TUFFY: We have the all-terrain package on here, we can do it.
JEREMY PRATICO: This has been in my family for generations.
Our land is called Bear town, and I own ten acres in a big
field, and my grandfather owns surrounding about fifty acres.
TUFFY: What's up with the bus in the bushes?
JEREMY PRATICO: That bus has always been here.
Kinda just forget about it and, move on, you know.
Funny how I'm a teacher and there's a bus on my land, right?
PAULIE: Yeah. I-I would expect no less.
Let the games begin guys. JEREMY PRATICO: I'm in.
PAULIE: All right?
JEREMY PRATICO: There's really not a bad spot up here, so.
I can show you, it's right this way through here.
There's some level stuff over here,
there's some back that way.
PAULIE: This isn't so bad up in here, is it?
Tuffy?
TUFFY: I don't see it. You're just building in the woods!
PAULIE: I mean did you have a spot it-that,
since you've been a little kid that you've been thinking about?
JEREMY PRATICO: I've got several spots I've thought about.
So the waterfall's kinda down in there.
I love teaching fifth graders.
But it's also good to leave, and go to a nice place and be nice
and calm and quiet, and you don't have any worries about
having to assign homework and hearing,
"Mr. Pratico, Mr. Pratico, Mr. Pratico."
So right in here might not be a bad spot,
I mean this is kinda like, the spot that,
I'd always thought of.
It's pretty level, and you can still hear the water
from the stream.
PAULIE: Right in here? JEREMY PRATICO: Yeah.
PAULIE: Picking the right site to build our cabin is-is,
of great importance.
It may not make things any easier,
but if you pick the wrong spot, then-then you're
really-you're-it's gonna be me-a messed-up week!
I mean this is good guys, this is-
TUFFY: I like this for level in this here.
PAULIE: Yeah, I mean this is nice and level.
TUFFY: Be a lot less earthwork, lot less damage.
PAULIE: Right.
TUFFY: This is pretty good access to here.
PAULIE: Yeah.
TUFFY: Let's go see that stream.
PAULIE: Okay, we'll see the stream,
and let's figure this is it.
This is gonna be home for next week, alright?
TUFFY: Alright.
PAULIE: Jeremy's a great guy.
Uh, problem is I don't know how much work we're gonna get out
of him. So I've figured out a solution here,
to keep things simple what we're gonna do is we're gonna go with
a kit cabin, pre-fab, that'll-that'll save us time,
that'll save us money, keep us right on budget.
JEREMY PRATICO: There used to be a big pond right there.
That's been long gone, I-last time I saw that was
when I was a little boy.
TUFFY: The dam just failed. JEREMY PRATICO: Yeah.
This was a pond way back in the day,
my mom used to swim in it as a kid, and then you know,
time just wore this out.
TUFFY: How deep was the pond when your mother swam in it?
JEREMY PRATICO: Oh boy. TUFFY: Does she remember it?
JEREMY PRATICO: Oh yeah she remembers.
It was probably a good eight, eight feet, eight, ten feet.
We were thinking... own my own pond, I'll help,
I'll bring a shovel. PAULIE: Alright.
JEREMY PRATICO: We talked about overlooking a stream,
but wouldn't a pond, I mean that'd be-that'd be...
TUFFY: What's the sense of building a camp up here unless
you've got a swimming pond? You've got-it's a given!
You gotta nice stream and a waterfall.
PAULIE: One second...
The whole idea is that we keep this thing simple, right?
TUFFY: What's the sense of building a camp in the woods
without a nice swimming pond?
You and the boys can build the damn camp,
let me work on this pond a little bit.
We're-we're in a business together,
we have to-we have to think alike and work together.
But, I think this is more important,
I mean everybody's gonna love the camp and sit on the porch,
for ten minutes.
Then you're gonna pick up your food and your beer and you're
gonna come down here to my pond and spend the rest of the day.
PAULIE: Do you wanna do this? TUFFY: Yeah, yeah
I do wanna do this. PAULIE: Feel good?
Just so I know how many days.
TUFFY: Yeah, I wanna see how deep the mud is.
The first thing I need to know is how deep the mud is.
PAULIE: How do I do it?
What do you want me to do it with.
TUFFY: Just take a stick and stick it in the mud in front
of ya. Be careful though.
He wants to know how long it's gonna take, I asked him,
well how deep is the mud, so.
PAULIE: Right here about that deep.
TUFFY: Oh that's easy then. PAULIE: This is not deep at all.
TUFFY: That's good and hard?
PAULIE: Well, no it goes in a little. This is deep here!
TUFFY: Getting deeper.
It's a waste of time having me up there putting a kit together,
any monkey can put the kit together,
let them guys get an education and put the kit together,
leave me alone and I'll build you a nice pond down here.
PAULIE: Let's uh, figure out what we're gonna do here.
JEREMY PRATICO: I think, it'd be nice little addition-addition
to the cabin, they'd go perfect hand in hand.
I showed them this stream that used to be a pond,
and I kinda thought...
why couldn't they add that?
I mean what-what better place, would it be to sit on my porch
and look at a pond.
TUFFY: I'm only gonna be missing from the job site for two days.
You can handle that can't you?
PAULIE: Well he's the man to do it, if we're gonna get it done.
If you can get me some help, we may be able to lose him
for two days to come and do this.
JEREMY PRATICO: Look, I've got people. Real guys.
PAULIE: Guys who know tape measures,
guys who know how to... swing a hammer.
JEREMY PRATICO: Guys who'll do it in a second. Oh!
PAULIE: Here's the-here. Okay, here we go.
We are not shaking hands on this yet.
Tomorrow morning I wanna see ten guys come walking down
that path.
And I wanna see them coming with tool belts,
I wanna see 'em coming with hammers,
I wanna see 'em coming with saws.
JEREMY PRATICO: I promise. PAULIE: Alright, promise.
DANIEL: We'll make it happen. Make it happen. Make it happen.
Heheh!
PAULIE: We've agreed on a number for Jeremy's dream cabin.
For the cabin, now the pond is something totally different.
So if we're gonna build a pond he's gonna have to bring
more labor.
Dropping it here.
JEREMY PRATICO: Drop it here that looks good.
PAULIE: Thank you so much for coming out here to Bear town
to help Jeremy Pratico here.
We appreciate you all being here, our goals for today.
Wouldn't it be nice to have the deck up,
and we're starting to move our logs into place.
Okay, let's all get to work. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
I never thought he was actually gonna come up with the,
the amount of help that he came up with.
TUFFY: Yeah that changes my game a little bit here.
PAULIE: Jeremy really stepped up to the plate and brought
a great, group of laborers to help us do what we do
and the more labor we get, the more we can do. Who are they?
JEREMY PRATICO: I got-boy my, my family, friends,
I've got coworkers, I've got uncles, students,
parents that I've taught before.
PAULIE: That means I lose, I lose my partner.
TUFFY: Well, I've got things to do now.
PAULIE: All right. Okay. JEREMY PRATICO: Busy busy!
TUFFY: He brought in a-a first-class set of workers,
so I mean we own the pond, so.
Now-now I'm in for the challenge.
First thing I'm gonna do is divert the stream
over to one side.
Then I'll dig out all the mud, put it behind the dam,
and when I get all the mud cleared out then I'll just cut
the stream back in, you'll have an instant pond.
The mud seems bottomless.
When you get an excavator down so deep that you can't spin
the house, that's the part that turns,
if you can't spin your house around and get a bite,
help pull and pull and run your tracks,
once that house starts dragging in the mud,
you can't spin the house anymore,
then you're in real real big troubles.
That's [BEEP] deep over there, boy.
Did you see the machine in there, it almost got stuck!
It's very dangerous cleaning out old ponds.
I could dig you a brand new pond,
easier than cleaning out an old pond.
PAULIE: So we got a great pre-fab cabin from,
Southland Log Homes.
And everything's with it, we got doors, we got windows,
we got flooring, everything comes with it.
What we have to do is find a way to really personalize it
for Jeremy.
Everything's labeled.
We have longer logs.
Even longer logs, then we get to logs between windows
which are shorter. Right?
This here-all this decking. JEREMY: Those are window logs?
PAULIE: Window logs are short logs.
Short logs, short logs, short logs, short logs.
And once we start going everything has a number,
you see how everything is numbered?
JEREMY PRATICO: Yeah, right on the end it's all numbered.
PAULIE: Everything is on the drawing.
We look to the drawing, let me show you the drawing.
JEREMY PRATICO: Alright.
PAULIE: By the end of today we want to see actually walls
going up with those logs. That means we have to start
with our piers, we gotta get our flooring in, we've gotta start
building this cabin.
Alright. So here are our drawings, right?
Everything from roof rafters to floor joists coming in,
to our windows, to our doors, everything is laid out.
JEREMY PRATICO: I know nothing about any of this,
I had to follow the map and, the blueprints and find out
what piece-what numbers go with what numbers and,
it's a little tricky.
DANIEL PRATICO: Hey Jare, 42F! PAULIE: Is that for me?
JEREMY PRATICO: 42F. I think I'd learn this by now.
Those are over here.
DANIEL PRATICO: This doesn't have a notch in it.
JEREMY PRATICO: That doesn't? Yeah I don't know what that...
some of 'em don't. What does it say on the end?
I got blisters, my hands have been red,
it's-it's so different than anything I've ever expected.
So, it-it's hard work.
PAULIE: Randy! RANDY PRATICO Yeah?
PAULIE: Uh, your-your son, now...
he's a little eccentric, he's a little eccentric, isn't he.
RANDY PRATICO I don't like to use the word eccentric.
PAULIE: I think that's a good word.
RANDY PRATICO But I it-it, you know it's something different.
He likes to get into all these adventures,
he got me into more stuff over the years you can't even imagine
PAULIE: Have you?
RANDY PRATICO Yeah he made me make a bucket list.
But I'm at the age where I couldn't do a hundred bucket
list, I had to do a thirty.
PAULIE: Now do you have a bucket list?
JEREMY PRATICO: Yeah.
About five years ago I wrote a list of 100 things to do before
I die, and, it's-ranges from easy things,
like being in a parade and milk a cow, to hard things like,
you know meet Billy Joel.
And, number 8 on that list is, own a log cabin
with no electricity and running water, so this is almost like
a dream come true it's...
RANDY PRATICO He gots adventure going, let me tell you.
PAULIE: Does he? RANDY PRATICO He keeps it going.
JEREMY PRATICO: No no, living life and experiencing it,
so he's doing it.
PAULIE: How about we do a little experiencing building a cabin?
If we can get to the top of the buck by lunchtime,
that'll be really really good all right?
DANIEL PRATICO: You got it.
PAULIE: I'm going down and checking on Tuffy at the pond...
DANIEL PRATICO: Fine. Thank you!
PAULIE: This is looking good.
TUFFY: It's gonna come to an end quick.
PAULIE: Why? What's the problem?
TUFFY: I have no place to put the mud.
I keep-I keep trying to stack the mud up and it keeps
running away. It just runs away.
Yeah well where we're dumping the mud,
it just won't stack up it just keeps oozing like a big lava
flow, just keeps running away from me.
I've been dumping in the same exact spot
for the last 20 minutes. And it hasn't even got a pile yet.
PAULIE: This is exactly why I didn't wanna take the pond on.
We already have a client who-who is not the greatest when
it comes to building things, and now we've complicated things
even worse. It's a bad business decision.
What are we gonna do to give him the pond?
Because now his hopes are way up.
TUFFY: I don't know. This is like an excavator's nightmare.
I keep trying to stack the mud up and it keeps running away.
It just runs away.
I've been dumping in the same exact spot
for the last 20 minutes.
PAULIE: We don't want it to go into the stream.
We have our work cut out for us.
So what-what does that mean we can do here to fix it?
TUFFY: The only solution I can come up with is we can,
cut some logs and put 'em sideways in this ravine,
it'll help slow this creeping down.
PAULIE: And we'll make a tree and mud sandwich.
Our solution is not unlike what-what beavers do.
We're taking what we're clearing to build our cabin,
down to Tuffy, it's like adding more flour to a cake mix.
You know he's just toughening up that soil.
TUFFY: Alright, that's about all I can take.
PAULIE: In a lot of ways this kills two birds with one stone!
It gets rid of all our stuff here which is,
ah it's like I'm talking to myself.
TUFFY: We gotta do whatever we can to stop this creeping.
Nice!
Now that I'm done with the pond, I can go up and help these guys
with the excavator setting all the roof beams and the trusses,
and get this roof going.
JEREMY PRATICO: What do you got? BUILDER: 12!
JEREMY PRATICO: I've got 11 and 7/8ths.
PAULIE: Whoa, we've gotta go a 16th this way.
Today's a good day.
So far we are uh, getting our gable, which is the,
kind of the pointy end of our wall systems that are gonna
hold up our ridge beam, which is then gonna hold up our rafters,
which is then, going to hold up our roofs.
This is our ridge beam here.
Okay see our pockets up there, take a look-see how there's
pockets in the gables? JEREMY PRATICO: Yeah?
PAULIE: Right this is gonna sit right in that.
Tuffy's gonna lift it up and he'll put it right in place.
TUFFY: We've gotta use the excavator to put the main ridge
beam up, and then the rafters will all connect to that.
But it's a huge beam, you can't put it up there by hand.
JEREMY PRATICO: What's the chance of this falling down
and crushing my whole cabin?
TUFFY: Well that would be real bad, yeah.
PAULIE: Jeremy you're gonna take the tag line, very important.
JEREMY PRATICO: What does that mean, take the tag line.
PAULIE: You're gonna take this orange strap.
You're gonna keep it from swinging.
JEREMY PRATICO: Oh boy.
Oh this is, very dangerous.
I don't know how, how secure I feel about taking the tag line.
Are you confident that I can do this?
PAULIE: Are you confident that he can do this?
TUFFY: I'm more confident with our guy on this end.
PAULIE: Yeah, he thinks you're gonna do a wonderful job.
JEREMY PRATICO: Alright, if I can teach kids I can do this.
TUFFY: Pull it down some more. Some more.
Right about there.
It look all right Paul? PAULIE: Yeah.
JEREMY PRATICO: Geez, better him than me out there.
TUFFY: Now, just swing on that Listen, Don't...
PAULIE: Wait Jeremy, it'll come to you.
TUFFY: Yeah don't get near it. JEREMY PRATICO: Alright good,
because I was getting real nervous.
PAULIE: Yeah. It will come to you.
JEREMY: It's a long fall. TUFFY: Damnit.
Don't pull it, let me do it.
PAULIE: It'll slip right in, he'll lower it right in place.
TUFFY: Everybody going? PAULIE: Looking good.
Beautiful. TUFFY: You got it.
JEREMY PRATICO: I had fun putting the roof beam in.
I have like, zero percent skills doing that but,
I was working as hard as I could.
TUFFY: Here I'll give you the chain...
PAULIE: Very nice Jeremy, very nice.
JEREMY PRATICO: Look at that, huh?
PAULIE: One of the things we've been trying to do all week is
kind of take him to school, when it comes to building a cabin.
And he's learning a lot of stuff.
Very nice work Mr. Pratico. Very nice work.
JEREMY PRATICO: Yeah! PAULIE: You get an apple.
JEREMY PRATICO: Paulie! PAULIE: Yeah.
JEREMY PRATICO: I've got my family here.
PAULIE: Praticos, how we doing? How's everyone going, good?
JEREMY PRATICO: We're awesome.
I think you know we should have a space for them.
You know have their own space where they can, you know.
This cabin kit, well it's beautiful,
but it's only gonna be able to sleep a few people, so,
I'm hoping we can work something out,
and make it a little bigger to fit more people in there.
I'm just thinking we need space to have them stay overnight,
so they're-I mean, my family's not picky.
For now I'm just thinking, add-ons.
Like, stuff that we already have around the ar-I mean,
what about like the bus? Or...
you know any of the things that are in the wo-I mean
just nature alone.
PAULIE: We're-you know what I'm gonna take Tuffy,
we're gonna go back and look at the bus.
Let's go back and look at the bus,
revisit that and maybe there's a way of using that.
One of the things I love about what we do is we actually have
our clients working with us all week long.
Now, the problem with that is they're always bringing up
new ideas. Can we do this, can we do that.
My job is to kind of walk that fine line,
make sure what they ask for isn't gonna cost more time,
isn't gonna cost more money so, it's a fine line.
JEREMY PRATICO: This bus has been here for, wooh, forever.
PAULIE: Guess we'll park here.
JEREMY PRATICO: Right here is good.
It's been here forever, we just don't know what to do with it,
you know, it's... TUFFY: All the tires on it?
JEREMY PRATICO: All the tires are on it, yeah.
PAULIE: Have you driven it?
JEREMY PRATICO: Uh, I've never driven it.
I'm pretty sure it doesn't start.
PAULIE: It's here, it's something we may be able to use,
it may fill some of the needs.
There's a lot of cool stuff in here Tuffy.
Does the horn work?
TUFFY: Come on, does the horn work.
PAULIE: Lots of switches. This window's kinda nice.
Do these open up?
JEREMY PRATICO: I haven't opened tho-oh lookit, there you go.
PAULIE: You got a sun roof. Look at that! Ow.
Telling you Tuffy, this isn't a bad little thing
we got going here.
We've become known for customizing the cabins
that we build.
And Jeremy wants that.
So, we-we do want to find a way to take this log cabin
and customize it for him.
TUFFY: You're not gonna use the bus for anything.
PAULIE: We've used stranger things, that's for sure.
Maybe we can do something with this.
TUFFY: I'm not gonna drag this ugly thing over next to a brand
new camp.
PAULIE: He's a school teacher. JEREMY PRATICO: Kinda fitting.
PAULIE: You know?
JEREMY PRATICO: Anyone that knows me knows that,
I'm a little out there and zany, and as a teacher I'm the one
jumping on the desks and, so it's-it's very fitting.
TUFFY: I'm-I'm not for it. It's just an ugly school bus!
JEREMY PRATICO: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
by the way.
PAULIE: Maybe we fix it up a little bit.
TUFFY: Let's scrap the thing, get a little money and put
an addition on it.
PAULIE: This here is gonna save us about $1500 in lumber.
TUFFY: Always gotta give in to him all the time.
He wants to use this bus, we're gonna use the bus.
I could learn to like it I guess.
PAULIE: There you go.
It's a bus sitting in the middle of the woods, tires are in mud,
so we're gonna get the excavator,
we're gonna pull the thing out, drive it to a place where
we can really inspect it.
Let's get this thing out of here.
TUFFY: I got the chain hooked into the frame.
You're not gonna have any brakes,
if you get free wheeling, stay in line with me,
don't try to miss me.
PAULIE: thinks this is gonna be an easy job.
The bus has been here for, 15 years stuck in the mud,
we've gotta drag this bus out, up a hill,
and we've got a light chain, and an excavator.
That's all we've got to work with.
This is not gonna be a five-minute job.
JEREMY PRATICO: Never been a bus driver, have you there Paulie?
PAULIE: Uh, never a bus driver.
JEREMY PRATICO: This is your chance!
PAULIE: I'm ready when you are. Here we go Jeremy.
JEREMY PRATICO: Alright.
TUFFY: He's stuck already and I'm gonna push him ahead
a little bit.
PAULIE: What the hell!
JEREMY PRATICO: I think we're going deeper in the woods.
TUFFY: I'm trying to loosen you up!
You're really really stuck.
PAULIE: Well, you gotta pull me out!
TUFFY: No kidding.
JEREMY PRATICO: There we go.
PAULIE: What's the problem?
TUFFY: I think the chain broke. Broke the chain right in half.
Bad link in the chain.
Chain's only good to the weakest link,
see how much it was already broke before?
JEREMY PRATICO: Oh yeah, sure do.
TUFFY: Well we'll just, lookit we'll just shorten it up.
We can fix it right here. We'll just shorten it up.
PAULIE: There we go! That's getting it!
TUFFY: Just follow me. All you gotta do is follow me.
PAULIE: Oh, [BEEP]!
JEREMY PRATICO: Do the brakes work on this thing?
PAULIE: No, no brakes.
JEREMY PRATICO: I'm on buses all the time but this is not
quite the experience that I have when we're going on field trips.
Thankfully.
PAULIE: You can't be turning that tight!
I can't follow you when you're making left and right turns.
TUFFY: PAULIE: just thinks everything's easy.
I'll just drag the bus out.
Around the corner, through the field.
Up through the woods. Simple, he thinks it's all simple.
PAULIE: Can you be a little smoother?
TUFFY: He's turning too sharp. I can't...
can't keep my bucket square to the bumper when he's turning
this sharp.
Follow the bucket! Please.
PAULIE: I'm following the bucket, BLEEP!
JEREMY PRATICO: I see we've got no anger issues up here.
PAULIE: We're going into the woods!
Oh. BLEEP!
TUFFY: Chain snapped! Steer it Paulie, steer it!
PAULIE: You're going into the woods!
TUFFY: Jeremy wants some more living quarters with the cabin,
Paulie wants to use this bus as-as a living quarters,
but it's proved to be quite a task dragging it out
of the bushes, and up the hill to the build site.
PAULIE: Watch that hood!
TUFFY: Chain broke!
Steer it! Steer it!
PAULIE: I'm steering! Hold on.
JEREMY PRATICO: Holy [BEEP]. TUFFY: Bye Paulie.
PAULIE: Hold on!
Yo! TUFFY: The chain broke!
PAULIE: And there I am, I'm pressing the brake,
I'm pressing the brake like this!
TUFFY: Nobody home.
PAULIE: Man we are lucky!
JEREMY PRATICO: Holy mackerel, that is a bus ride.
PAULIE: What stopped me?
TUFFY: You just... drove into the mud right there.
JEREMY PRATICO: I'll take screaming kids on a bus any day.
PAULIE: Throw that chain out.
TUFFY: Right, that's the fourth time it's broke.
PAULIE: What do we leave it here,
where do we work on this thing.
TUFFY: I sent somebody after another chain.
We'll get another chain and get out of here.
PAULIE: Alright well we're using the bus now for something,
that's for sure.
I'm gonna go ahead and have a hot dog.
You know what at the end of a day,
we-we take a rest around a campfire,
which is great because it gives us time to get to know Jeremy
a little better.
TUFFY: We had a teacher in the 5th grade, and uh.
One of his puni-punishments for, he would get everybody
to come out of the classroom.
He'd take the garbage can, dump all the garbage on the floor,
whoever'd done anything wrong, whoever he wanted to make a fool
out of, put you in the garbage can, put the cover on it,
duct taped it on, laid it down sideways,
kicked the thing down two flights of stairs.
With a kid in a garbage can. JEREMY PRATICO: [LAUGHS] What?
TUFFY: No. I took a garbage can ride once.
JEREMY PRATICO: [LAUGHS] Well, you know.
RANDY PRATICO Those are good stories.
PAULIE: You know on your bucket list,
one of your first things is build a cabin.
Has it been the experience that you thought it would be,
that one thing you have on your list being fulfilled?
JEREMY PRATICO: I would say soon as I walk in the final product,
that's-that's when I'll cross it off.
Like this is, something out of my wildest dreams.
It's perfect.
RANDY PRATICO: It's just surreal.
It-that's an unbelievable thing to have,
a son that really cares enough about us all that we do things
together and so, we're just so happy.
PAULIE: We've got a lot of things happening today,
number one is we wanna get our floors on our cabin,
get our roof done.
Now that we have our bus a lot closer...
PAULIE: Looks to me like it's right where you want it.
...we're able to incorporate that into our cabin.
First I'm gonna do with the bus is cut it in half.
We're gonna use a demolition saw with an abrasive blade.
We're gonna start on the top of the roof,
we're gonna cut the bus, the bus body all the way down around.
Then we're gonna use a set of torches to cut the frame.
At that point when you make the final cut the bus is gonna,
fall to the ground.
So therefore we're gonna build, some cribbing out of blocks
of wood, we're gonna build cribbing up under the frame,
and the bus is gonna land on the cribbing, instead of my head.
PAULIE: Why not cut the bottom first.
So you don't have to be under it when you...
TUFFY: Because it'll pinch-it would-it would pinch me up here.
PAULIE: I know but then now you're under the bus
when you make your final cut.
TUFFY: Well get a stunt double then!
PAULIE: Whenever you're cutting something that has many
different elements to it, like the bus,
it can be very dangerous.
So, we gotta block it up to make sure when we do cut it
that it doesn't collapse on anyone or that it's-it's safe.
How's it going?
TUFFY: I don't mind getting burned all this [BEEP]
it ain't bad.
PAULIE: Well you know there's actually wear that you could
wear, you could have something on that would keep
that from happening.
TUFFY: Too hot out man. PAULIE: Arr-ararar!
Tuffy loves the idea that he's cutting the bus.
It's something that, he's never done before, or maybe he has,
but to be able to do it now, for the Praticos, he loves that!
TUFFY: Now the next thing is to cut the frame right here.
PAULIE: Yeah.
TUFFY: We're trying to make our final cut to the truck frame,
and we can't use the demolition saw to-the frame is too tall.
Too cumbersome to get up in there.
We built the cribbing up underneath the frame of the bus,
both halves of the frame.
So when we make the final cut, the bus is not gonna drop
and pin the guy underneath there, doing the cutting.
Mainly me!
PAULIE: You sure we don't want to get the tractor in here?
TUFFY: Ah. We're fine.
PAULIE: Hey if this drops, it should drop right
on the cribbing right? TUFFY: It's supposed to.
PAULIE: The other side will be held up by the tires.
TUFFY: Yep.
BUILDER: How close is your head to the floor of that bus?
TUFFY: Close. I get you want me to move.
BUILDER: I want you to lay down.
TUFFY: How about if I stick my feet out,
so you can drag me if you have to.
You don't have to be nice about it either.
I'm on my final two inches. One inch left.
Closer...
On my final two inches.
One inch left.
Closer...
very good. I cut the whole cab of the bus
and the last thing to do was to cut the frame underneath.
Thanks for the pull job.
At the last minute he yanked me out.
You know he probably didn't have to but,
why leave your head underneath there if you don't have to.
BUILDER: He needed a six and six!
PAULIE: Where we want to be at the end of today,
is a complete cabin. Complete cabin!
TUFFY: Roof.
PAULIE: We wanna have everything done.
JEREMY PRATICO: You can do that by the end of today?
PAULIE: By the end of today, we have our roof on,
we're gonna have our flooring down here,
we already got our flooring over here which is terrific,
and we wanna get, uh you and your group of-of friends
and family staining, all right?
BUILDER: Hey we need to cut this here.
JEREMY PRATICO: How's that. You got it buddy.
Good next one, thank you sir! BUILDER: Thank you.
JEREMY PRATICO: Here's the next piece Paulie!
PAULIE: Jeremy's come a long way this week.
And one of the things we do uh here is we-we don't just build
wonderful cabins, we also build wonderful experience,
this is something Jeremy will remember for the rest
of his life.
Very good. Nice work man.
TUFFY: Jeremy's been dynamite and uh, better than I expected,
he's like Johnny on the spot.
He has participated in building his-his log cabin.
RANDY PRATICO: Back and forth. Back and forth. That good?
It's called sweat equity. That's what-[LAUGHS]
PAULIE: Yo, do you guys need a ladder, what do you want,
what do you want?
We're doing some special things for Jeremy,
we don't want him to see.
So uh I wanna send Jeremy away while we, finish off this cabin.
Where's your sister.
JEREMY PRATICO: Alyssa? Can you take over...
PAULIE: You're taking over for your brother so he can go
and get his classrooms ready... ALYSSA PRATICO: I'm on it.
PAULIE: Alright? Alright. JEREMY PRATICO: Thanks Alyssa.
PAULIE: See you later. JEREMY: Thanks-thanks so much.
PAULIE: While Jeremy's out, we're gonna go ahead and get
our buses into place because the time is-is ticking now.
TUFFY: My half of the bus, we're-we're putting a grill
inside, we're calling it a bus-beque,
I don't even know if it's a word but it's a barbecue,
in the hood of a bus.
We're gonna hinge it so it opens up like this.
With the steering wheel.
PAULIE: Well the plans I have for my side of the bus is really
kind of a bunkhouse seating area.
It'll be its own little kind of wing, off the main cabin.
Can this thing be knocked this way about two inches?
Just the back. Just the back.
TUFFY: Guarantee you people are gonna spend more time in my half
of the bus than his half of the bus.
It's two buses-you're using too many bus parts.
PAULIE: We don't have $300 to spend on beds.
TUFFY: Okay, use 'em up.
PAULIE: What do you want me to do.
TUFFY: Well my side's definitely cooler than his side.
PAULIE: You're using too many metal parts.
TUFFY: Guh!
PAULIE: I think Jeremy's gonna like my half of the bus a lot
better than Tuffy's half.
Tuffy's half is very very cool, but the half that I'm doing
for Jeremy, it's very personal just to Jeremy.
114 inches.
I wanna take my section of the bus which is the rear section
and flip it around.
So now, the section that we cut is up against the door
and all sealed around that door.
What's important is that this thing tucks underneath our eaves
it just tucks underneath our eaves and then we can build
two steps to step up here.
But the key is getting that attached and all leveled out.
It's gonna start to roll now!
TUFFY: I can't roll, it's right tight against the bumper.
BUILDER: I think it's tight against the shackle.
PAULIE: Oh that's good, good, good!
TUFFY: Are you alright?
BUILDER: You gotta go that way with your machine.
Tracks. Whoa stop right there.
How's it look down that way Paulie.
PAULIE: He's got room.
TUFFY: I move one inch here it's like five feet out there.
BUILDER: Straight back like you got it.
TUFFY: I gotta cut it and hold that, steady.
I've gotta do about four things at once here.
We got like 22 feet of room, you're-and we're-got uh,
16 foot 7 inches of bus, we had to get it, pull it in,
turn it 90 degrees and then move it up to the camp nice and easy.
PAULIE: Watch it, you've got a lot of [BLEEP] back here,
you've got the light tower, everything's back here.
How much more room do you need? TUFFY: Ten feet.
PAULIE: There's not a lot of room in this little pen,
not when you put a big excavator in here and you put a school bus
in here. It fills in very quickly.
BUILDER: You're tighter than hell right now!
PAULIE: Ay-yay-yay-yay...
BUILDER: No, no. Pull it-pull it back and you shove it straight
down Pat. You need more length now.
Stop! You gotta build a crib on it.
PAULIE: So there's a lot happening simultaneously and-and
it's dangerous too, you know you got all the weight of this bus,
people are running underneath the bus,
people on the side of the bus, it's best that everyone gets out
BUILDER: Let me look here Pat hold on.
TUFFY: Get your head out of there.
PAULIE: Don't put your head under there Steve.
If it kicks, he dies.
TUFFY: I'm right up against it.
PAULIE: No no no no, it's rolling back.
BUILDER: It's coming down! Rolling back!
PAULIE: It's rolling back!
BUILDER: Let go, let go let go. Runaway!
PAULIE: The bus just went on its own.
TUFFY: Grab the blocks out of there.
PAULIE: I'll tell ya I'll scratch the bus right now.
I will get rid of the bus..
TUFFY: Just move the blocks, that's all!
Just move the blocks!
I was afraid of slamming into the building.
So by using two machines I could hold it up and hold it back,
while the tractor pushed it.
PAULIE: That's squaring it up.
12 inches!
Right now we're moving that one back cut portion of the bus,
up against the cabin to give us more sleeping area.
Keep coming! Six inches!
Two inches... stop!
TUFFY: Are you good? PAULIE: Yeah. Dead on.
TUFFY: Who-who needs this stupid thing?
PAULIE: Dead on.
TUFFY: Who needs a level?
PAULIE: Well we need a level. But that's...
TUFFY: No, we don't need a level.
PAULIE: Let's take a look. What do you think?
TUFFY: It's a kid in a candy store.
PAULIE: Welcome to Beartown.
TUFFY: You ever see anybody so excited over a bus?
PAULIE: We took a big risk on this bus project.
And now we're gonna have to make up some time.
TUFFY: The front wheels are staying straight, right?
BUILDER: Coming out. Get ready to go in that hole.
PAULIE: Square it up a little!
BUILDER: Gotta come this way.
PAULIE: We want Tuffy's section of the bus, to be ground level.
So, there are holes where the tires will go
and that'll sit it right down.
TUFFY: Am I getting there? PAULIE: You're there.
TUFFY: I'm there. PAULIE: Yeah.
TUFFY: Let's unhook it Steve, I'm done playing around with it.
PAULIE: Just a few hours left you guys, alright?
This is going up top.
Here's what we gotta do.
We gotta get-wrap up the inside of the cabin so we can get all
of our furniture in here and get this thing ready, right?
TUFFY: Yep!
The whole side of the bus needs to be cut out...
to reveal the picnic area.
Put a picnic table or something in there,
you can sit in there in the shade or,
you know in out of the rain, just like a little pavilion.
PAULIE: This plywood, something should be done with that plywood
right there, how are we doing in here?
How's our bus door coming, you guys?
BUILDER: Oh we're fine.
PAULIE: Are we almost there?
BUILDER: We got probably 20 minutes!
Really, 20 minutes, alright 20 minutes you got, 20 minutes,
but no longer, Steve-o.
One of the things I really appreciate about Jeremy is,
here's a guy that has a great appreciation for nature
and the outdoors, and just wants to be in it every chance
he gets. And, now he will.
TUFFY: Fire in the hole.
PAULIE: Here they're coming. Not bad, huh?
JEREMY PRATICO: Holy mackerel. It's a pond!
PAULIE: Yes it is.
JEREMY PRATICO: When I see this pond,
and it just-it's like out of what I've dreamed of.
My friends and family would always say,
let's go hike to the pond, and it was never a pond.
And, now when we say let's go hike to the pond, it's a pond!
PAULIE: So much for keeping it simple, huh.
JEREMY PRATICO: You guys did it, yeah. You guys-
PAULIE: You leave us for a few hours and you come back
and there's a pond.
TUFFY: I knew he was excited, I could-I could see the gait
in his walk change when he came through the woods,
when he seen the pond he started you know,
it's like a horse when a horse gets excited they get...
they change their gait a little bit.
JEREMY PRATICO: Tuffy you're the man.
DANIEL PRATICO: I literally cannot believe
there's a boat-you can put a boat in here.
TUFFY: Just a week ago this was just full of mud and debris
and leaves and silt, now look at it.
It's a beautiful pond, it complements the cabin perfectly.
PAULIE: You wanna take a look and see what's,
what's up the hill?
JEREMY: Yes. Let's do it yeah. PAULIE: What do you say.
JEREMY PRATICO: Let's go check it out, yeah! Absolutely.
I am like beyond excited.
I wanna run, I mean I wanna take off and bolt up this hill
as fast as I can to this, beautiful log cabin.
[CROWD CHEERS]
I mean everything about it is-is just...
perfect. I'm, giddy to get in it.
PAULIE: Are you? JEREMY PRATICO: Yeah.
I mean it's-it's crazy to know that I-you guys put in for me,
you guys are just great. BUILDER: You're the man.
[APPLAUSE AND CHEERING]
MRS PRATICO: Good job.
JEREMY PRATICO: Thank you.
PAULIE: It's always fun to compare where we were a week
ago, and where we are now.
We've got a great cabin overlooking a pond,
we got a beautiful bus that we cut in half,
we've got a picnic area on one side and more sleeping quarters
of another. We have come a long way.
What do you say we take a look inside.
JEREMY PRATICO: Yeah let's take a look inside.
PAULIE: Alright!
Oh my gosh!
Oh my gosh. Daniel, please look.
No look, look, look. Heh!
This is out of my like, craziest dream.
Oh my gosh, look at this thing! Oh my gosh.
PAULIE: Red is his name.
Red the Bear and Chuck, the Woodchuck.
JEREMY PRATICO: Was that Chuck the Woodchuck?
PAULIE: Made that bear. JEREMY PRATICO: He did?
PAULIE: Yes he did.
JEREMY PRATICO: Oh my god, this is absolutely out of my wildest
dreams.
I get in this cabin and I look and I think,
how beautiful it is and how perfect it's,
it's almost like they're inside my head and they know exactly
what I want because this is perfect.
PAULIE: Go ahead upstairs.
JEREMY PRATICO: No. PAULIE: Yeah!
JEREMY PRATICO: Look at that.
Oh my gosh this is crazy.
PAULIE: What's the first thing you notice?
JEREMY PRATICO: [GASPS] First thing you notice
is that giant bed!
PAULIE: A king-sized bed for a king my-
JEREMY PRATICO: King-sized bed for a king!
PAULIE: There you go- JEREMY PRATICO: I like it!
PAULIE: A day earlier he was there helping us put on
the roof, he was doing some flooring,
and now you come in and the place has been transformed into,
really the cabin of his dreams.
JEREMY PRATICO: This is wild. Ah!
Oh man, this is the best! PAULIE: You like that?
JEREMY PRATICO: Oh my gosh this is incredible you guys.
First thing I notice is this massive king sized bed
and I'm thinking, yes.
I'm gonna sleep good here tonight!
Look at this!
PAULIE: Tuffy, you tell him what it is.
JEREMY PRATICO: I think I got a pretty good idea what...
PAULIE: Do you?
JEREMY PRATICO: It can move wood from outside? Right in.
TUFFY: Yup. It's a wood dispenser, yup.
DANIEL: And it catches it. JEREMY PRATICO: What!
TUFFY: Show him how it works Paul.
PAULIE: Here we go.
TUFFY: Put some wood in Paulie. Bring the wood in!
We're getting cold!
JEREMY PRATICO: [LAUGHS] Thank you Paulie!
PAULIE: It's the simple things in life.
TUFFY: He didn't know which way even to look.
You know he looked this way, this way,
he didn't know which one to check out even first.
He was totally excited.
JEREMY PRATICO: Look at this. The old bus door!
PAULIE: There it is!
JEREMY PRATICO: The old bus door.
TUFFY: Very complicated doors.
JEREMY PRATICO: Oh yeah, I love it.
Look at this. Oh my gosh...
Daniel look. DANIEL PRATICO: Oh my...
JEREMY PRATICO: [LAUGHS]
DANIEL PRATICO: Oh it's your list!
JEREMY PRATICO: It's my list!
PAULIE: Jeremy's a school teacher that uh on his land,
had this old school bus.
We were able to take that school bus and actually
give us-ourselves more square footage,
for his uh sleeping arrangements that he wanted.
And, we were also able to showcase his bucket list.
How about number 8 right there Jeremy.
JEREMY PRATICO: Number 8: own my own log cabin.
PAULIE: Boom.
JEREMY PRATICO: Done with-heh! With a red X.
PAULIE: Done with that one. JEREMY PRATICO: That is awesome.
I think Paulie, had the best idea
with this bucket list on the side of the wall.
It meant a lot to me that he, really thought about me
when he was doing his side of the bus.
Countless hours...
PAULIE: Go ahead. Tuffy, tell 'em.
TUFFY: This is the bus-becue.
JEREMY PRATICO: Oh this is the bus-becue?
It -- the bus is smoking.
TUFFY: Turn the, turn the steering wheel to the left.
JEREMY PRATICO: Turn the steering, whoa my..no really?
TUFFY AND PAULIE: Keep going! JEREMY PRATICO: [LAUGHS] What!
I don't-I don't know how he does this stuff.
You could ask me to do that and there's no way I'd be able
to figure out how to do it but this guy, he's tops.
Kids, be quiet I'm cooking the burger!
Oh I gotta come out and see this,
I can't-there's no way I can just...
oh my gosh that is, out of control.
Who in the world owns a schoolbus with a barbecue
in the front!
One of a kind right here! One of a kind!
PAULIE: Only Tuffy is gonna come up with an idea like that, and,
that's why I'm in business with this guy.
TUFFY: Let's take a look at the rest of it...
JEREMY PRATICO: Yeah I wanna keep going looking.
Look at this! [GASPS]
TUFFY: There's a little pavilion area...
It's like a little pavilion.
You can go to the hood, cook and go inside,
you can sit in there in the shade or,
you know in out of the rain.
DANIEL PRATICO: It makes such a great area for us to come up
and hang out, and... JEREMY: Yeah...
DANIEL: it's like our own diner hall, it's crazy.
JEREMY PRATICO: Isn't it?
I can-I, I can foresee the many, many, meals at this table.
Many meals.
As a kid I spent countless hours building Lincoln logs,
in dreams of one day owning the real thing, and here it is.
This is by far way above anything I dreamed of.
PAULIE: Jeremy and Daniel worked this week.
They-they, they really they put some sweat equity
into this cabin.
Uh, we could not have done it without them,
without everybody that was in that courtyard
we couldn't do it.
Let's get out of here. Thank you, take care you guys!
BUILDER: Thank you! [CROWD APPLAUSE]
PAULIE: What did-what did you write down as far as your,
as far as your list goes? TUFFY: Brand new tube...
PAULIE: Well was this on your list, is tubing on your list?
TUFFY: No, wasn't, no tubing... PAULIE: What's on your list?
TUFFY: Tubing, tubing in an ice cold pond was not on my list.
PAULIE: No, what is?
TUFFY: I've got a little list going.
PAULIE: I've got a little list going too.
I'd love to live in-I'd love to live in Italy for a little
while, make some cheese.
TUFFY: Oh my god... PAULIE: That's on my list.
TUFFY: I want to go to Alaska for a year.
PAULIE: Do you really? That's a good one.
TUFFY: I want to tour the country.
PAULIE: Yeah?
TUFFY: I want to learn how to play a piano!
PAULIE: I can help you with that one.
I want to hop a train one day.
TUFFY: My buddy cut his arm off hopping trains.
PAULIE: See what I mean? TUFFY: Yup, cut his arm off.