Original subtitles

Narrator: In new Brunswick, Canada...

That's where I was standing. You missed.

...off-grid builder Richard Leblanc

battles mother nature...

The last thing I want is to have all the hard work undone.

...and man-made problems...

This has never happened.

Richard: None of my crew knows how to install these blocks.

This is building in Canada in the middle of winter for you.

Doesn't stand a chance.

We got snow higher than the top of our head,

who's watching the crane?

Just gonna slow us down quite a bit.

Narrator: ...Building a luxury off-grid home.

Deep in the forest.

It's gonna be an awesome freaking house.

Narrator: Are you ready to go off the grid?

In the heart of Canada's maritime provinces,

20 miles from the nearest town,

professional builder Richard Leblanc

has found the perfect spot

to build his off-grid dream home.

Try to keep up, guys. Try to keep up.

This is my happy place.

All I'm missing is a fishing pole.

The first time I seen this property,

I came down the river on a canoe,

and I still remember thinking how beautiful it would be

to have a house right here.

Five years later, I was lucky enough

to be able to buy this land,

and that's amazing.

I've always said I wanted my kids to grow up

in the country just like I did.

This is exactly why I fell in love with this property.

Narrator: The house will be for Richard; His wife, Melanie;

and their 2-year-old daughter, Elodie.

Richard: My wife loves the property.

She thinks it's absolutely gorgeous.

However, if I'm gonna get Melanie

to leave the city, I got to make sure

that she can live normally out here, as well.

So I'm really building a dream home,

and hopefully she'll fall in love with this house.

Narrator: The 8-acre site is located on the Scoudouc river

in eastern Canada,

20 miles from Moncton, new Brunswick,

and a 10-minute drive to the Atlantic ocean.

It's not too far from the city,

but yet we're in the middle of nowhere.

♪♪

[ Whews ] It is quite steep.

I've been building homes for 15 years.

I started off building cookie-cutter,

vinyl-siding homes.

I'm ready for a new challenge, and that new challenge

is energy efficiency.

Reach.

Here in the east coast, we vary from sub-zero

to 90 degrees

with 90% humidity.

So, we got to build for all climates.

Narrator: Richard is using an energy-efficient

building material called ICF

instead of traditional wood frame.

Icf stands for insulated concrete forms.

So these icf blocks, you basically stack them up

like legos, brace them, pour concrete,

and it's your full wall assembly.

It's your vapor barrier, your insulation,

your framing members.

It's everything all in one.

We chose these blocks because there's less room for error

when it comes to air-tightness.

That's one of the most important things

when building passive house.

A passive house is essentially

90% more efficient than a [indistinct]-built home.

We're building a house that's almost 7,000 square feet,

including garage, basement, and mezzanine.

Narrator: Richard's massive wilderness home

will have three floors and be completely off-grid.

It will be heated with geothermal technology

and powered by an impressive array of 58 solar panels.

Richard: It was important for me to go off-grid.

However, we're really building a luxury home.

In the basement, we'll have two bedrooms for guests

and a bathroom.

We'll have a second living room.

We'll have a spot for a gym area.

On the main floor, we'll have kitchen,

dining and living room,

three bedrooms.

We'll have an en suite bathroom, bathroom for the kids,

and a powder room for guests.

In the mezzanine, we'll have two offices

for my wife and myself.

We're certified net zero, which is essentially creating

as much energy as you require for the run of the year.

So, I've set the bar pretty high.

I'm building this house in order to show that it's possible

to live off-grid without sacrifice.

So we're gonna do a total of seven rows for the main floor,

we'll do our floor system,

and then we're gonna do another seven rows of above grade.

Narrator: With other projects on the go at the same time,

Richard will work with different crews

throughout the build.

Richard: On site today, we have my crew of four.

So we have my lead carpenter, Jason,

and then we've got Gary, reg, and Alonzo,

who are all helping out in any way that they can.

If you think this is heavy, wait till we lift the windows.

Richard: The hardest thing with this build

is none of my crew knows how to install these blocks.

It's a big learning curve. We still have three rows to go

and doesn't look like we've done much.

8 "10" inside, two inside.

Do you want to take a quick measurement?

Because it's so new to us, it's great to have Justin around.

He's an icf expert, and he's able to help us out quite a bit.

We shouldn't go too high over there

until we're ready to tie that corner in, right?

Yeah. Right in this section here.

Narrator: And until the icf blocks are filled with concrete,

the team must install a bracing system to keep them in place.

Justin: We're anchoring the braces to the floor

'cause once the concrete weight is on the wall,

the bracing system's designed to push the wall out.

Right now, it's wobbly foam and it's moving around.

And then we're gonna pour the concrete and then

we're gonna push it in, put it exactly where we need it,

and our walls are straight and we can keep going.

Narrator: Richard began preparing the site a few weeks early

and it's officially started.

Richard: We started off clearing trees...

...excavating, preparing for the foundation.

No more tree.

We did all the underground works...

So, plumbing, electrical.

We drilled a well for the drinking water,

and we ran a pipe for the future septic

that we're gonna connect to.

We laid 8 inches of gravel under the box

where we framed in for concrete.

We're getting there.

We then brought in all the icf blocks.

At this point right now,

we're completing the construction

of the exterior walls in the basement.

So I'm hoping to get this project done in 4, 4/1 months.

It's important to get this house done sooner than later

because who knows what winter can bring us.

I've giving myself a pretty tight schedule.

I've got a full-time business, but I can't put it on hold

because I decide to build my house.

For a building something that's out of the ordinary,

we've got some structural elements and lots of steel.

We're gonna need cranes quite a few times.

We've got three or four pours

that we're gonna need to do with the concrete.

And there's just a lot of moving parts,

and I've got some big challenges ahead.

I really think I can do it.

However, everything's gonna have to line up.

There's a huge tropical storm coming.

This could make a mess for our site.

But the walls, we could bring the icf foam blocks out,

except the braces, there's nothing holding

those walls up, right,

so we really need to get that concrete in there

before that storm hits us.

We're doing good, but we're not going quite fast enough.

Narrator: And they still need to install the window frames,

finish strapping and bracing,

and add additional insulation before they can pour concrete.

Richard: It's just a race against time now.

Better keep at it.

Finally at row number seven.

Finally made it. We're on top of the wall.

Narrator: While they are making progress,

a crucial part of the icf

is taking much longer than expected.

Richard: This is a pain in the [audio drop].

We're sliding these blocks in

to add extra insulation in our exterior wall

because we need a certain amount to meet passive house criteria.

We got about 1,400 of them to slide in.

Alright, get in there.

We got to cut them, make them fit in between rebar,

in between these webs

one piece at a time.

I think I woke up in the middle of the night

dreaming about these little blocks.

We still have quite a bit of work to do,

and concrete's supposed to come on site soon,

so looks like we might have to cancel it.

Right now, these things don't make me very happy.

I'd love to be pouring concrete,

but we still have a bunch of rebars to tie up.

We got to tape corners, adjust walls...

There's still quite a bit that needs to be done

before we're ready for concrete.

Alright, guys, we tried,

but we're not ready for concrete.

So let's switch gears and let's try and tie everything down,

make sure all the walls are braced.

Hopefully, we'll weather the storm out.

I'm a little disappointed.

I was really hoping that we would've gotten it done

and then we wouldn't have to worry about the storm,

but not much more we can do.

We can only push so hard.

The last thing I want is to have all our hard work undone.

[ Thunder rumbling ]

The rain is a pretty big issue,

but I'm more concerned with the wind.

So all we can do is sit and wait.

♪♪

♪♪

Narrator: Off the grid in Canada's east coast,

professional builder Richard Leblanc's build site

is being pummeled by a tropical storm.

The intense winds and heavy rain could destroy much of the work

done so far on this 7,000-square-foot

high-efficiency dream home.

Richard braves the storm to check on the build.

♪♪

Narrator: Now that the storm has passed,

Richard can see the final toll on his build.

Richard: The wind was pushing all night,

so when we looked a little closer,

all the nails that we had holding the scaffolding,

they were all loose,

so we had to tap all the nails back down.

Narrator: After two long days of clean-up and another day

to let the site dry, it's almost time for concrete.

Richard: I just got to set the walls and make sure

everything is straight and plumb before we start pouring.

♪♪

The pump is here, ready to go, and the trucks are here,

so I got to get this ready.

Concrete is super heavy.

The way to do it is just go easy.

Do 4 feet at a time,

do three passes around the house,

and just let everything settle and fall into place.

We got our walls poured and we're good to go.

Due to the span of the house,

we had to reinforce the floor system with steel.

That's why we have the columns

going all the way up to the trusses.

Narrator: Richard's design is unique

as it will use three 40-foot columns

placed in the center of the home

from the basement up to the roof.

Each floor's girders and joists will be connected

through these columns, including the roof.

Richard: So, we got a crane coming.

We're gonna lift up those long columns.

We're gonna set up the crane. He's got a bit of room,

so I'll probably have to move more stuff over here.

Narrator: Installing the 300-pound steel columns

is a crucial part of the build,

requiring painstaking coordination among the crew.

Richard: It's a tight squeeze, but the size of the crane,

you can lift the steel right over the trees and swing around.

Let's go ahead and put this up.

♪♪

We have a mobile set up for welding.

We got to weld up in the air,

so height and distances

and reach is gonna be an issue.

So far, so good. Everything's level,

everything's flush.

So now this is secured.

Narrator: Richard and his crew do their part and put a section

of floor joists in place to support the steel columns.

So, we're gonna frame this section in,

so you're gonna lift that floor joist and put some caulking

underneath... Oh, yeah. Okay. Can do.

...and do caulk from that corner all the way out,

and we're gonna lay those floor joists in place.

Sounds like a plan.

Are you stealing Mike's ladder again?

Reg: Just temporarily dropping in the floor system.

Once they're all spread out, we're gonna take measurements,

put them all square, and then we're gonna tie them in.

See if she holds 200 pounds.

Narrator: Now, the steel team must begin

laying the a 500-pound horizontal beams.

There's just a lot of traffic and a lot of stuff in the way.

We're constantly searching for a ladder.

We're turning around... There's stuff in the way.

This is the fun stuff.

Narrator: And if the site wasn't crowded already,

the remote location doesn't make it any easier.

Richard: We have no power here.

We got to run everything on batteries, on generators,

so we got long extension cords, long hoses for the air tools.

It's kind of difficult because usually

you're in a controlled environment

or at least you have power or room to work around.

♪♪

♪♪

Alright, so, you can tar...

You can tar all those hangers.

That section is all... -watch out, watch your head!

Watch the head! - Whoo!

Richard: Who's watching the crane?

Narrator: It's a busy day on Richard's

remote Canadian build site

as he and his team race against a looming winter.

♪♪

So you can tar...

You can tar all those hangers.

That section is all... -watch out, watch your head!

Watch the head! - Whoo!

- Who's watching the crane? - Whoa!

Alright.

Well, you guys wanted some action.

There you go.

Richard: Things are moving along.

We'll have a nice, clean site real soon.

The weather's changing pretty fast now.

We still have another level of walls to build.

We're getting frost warnings in the morning.

The leaves are turning. We could see snow any day now,

so we really got to bring the house roof tight.

Narrator: It's two weeks later, and the main floor

icf blocks are in place.

Richard's well drilling team is on site to help

set up the geothermal heating and cooling system.

Richard: So, you got three Wells drilled.

You're working on number four? Yeah.

How deep are you guys going, each well?

100 feet.

♪♪

Narrator: Geothermal heating systems use the earth's heat

from below the surface.

The ground captures about 50% of the sun's energy,

which is naturally absorbed by pipes called loops

installed underground.

The loops contain liquid, which is formed and transported

until it reaches a pump inside the home

that distributes the heat throughout.

Yeah, so far, so good.

We're gonna do five in total, right?

Narrator: It's a week later,

and as the main floor cement pour begins,

Richard is feeling the time crunch.

Richard: We really need to get the walls filled in

with concrete before the snow comes.

And at this time of the year,

we don't know if it's gonna melt again.

So if there's snow in the wall, we pour concrete on top,

warm concrete melts the snow

and it creates a void in my walls.

So it's really important for both structure

and any air filtration in the wall.

We're gonna do three rows of 4 feet high

to bring us up to the top of our walls.

Richard: Alright, let's fill these walls in

before it starts snowing.

♪♪

Alright, we got to keep going.

It's all fun and games.

So we're very, very lucky that there's no snow yet.

It's been holding off.

But I think we're gonna get about 10 inches of snow,

and there's more next week.

So we're in the middle of it.

It's winter.

♪♪

Narrator: Just two days later and Richard's weather prediction

is right on point.

He's now forced to contend with winter.

Richard: It's a pretty bad storm.

So we're almost there. We got snow

higher than the top of our head.

This is what a one-week delay looks like.

Half of the day is gone,

and we haven't even put a dent on the snow.

Obviously just gonna slow us down quite a bit.

Richard: There we go.

What a mess.

Narrator: With the snow ending Richards plan

to be roof-tight before winter,

he's had to rethink his schedule.

Every other day it snows,

so one day of snow delays us by 2 1/2 days.

So we've been doing as best as we could

to keep up with the schedule,

but it's trying to put a toll on us.

Narrator: On-site today, Richard's crew includes Alonzo

and his lead carpenter, Dale,

working on the icf for the gable walls.

So, we'll grab everybody and make sure that it goes smoothly

and then we'll move over and start lifting some walls.

Let's lift some house. - Yeah.

This end gable is built but not poured yet,

so it's still kind of moving around

and we're setting the girder truss in place.

We're way behind, but there's not much we can do.

It's cold, it's snowy, it's very challenging.

Man: Dale, watch out!

This would be fun in August. Nice little summer breeze,

no snow, no ice.

Narrator: Once the trusses are in place,

they'll be that much closer to getting the roof on.

Richard: Alright. Good job, guys.

We got a few hours left today, so let's take advantage of it.

Keep it up.

Narrator: The intense winter weather has now doubled

the time line to eight months.

Meanwhile, despite laying down the plywood base,

the roofing team can't get their start

until the weather is dry for a few days.

So they've shifted their focus to another pivotal part

of the build... the windows.

Richard: So, the container's starting with 20 windows.

We ordered these windows from Poland a couple months ago.

Richard: They're thick, heavy glass

that are super energy-efficient and meet passive house

rigorous standards.

So I felt I'd get a higher-quality product

by going to Poland to get these high-end windows.

Narrator: But before they can even begin to install the windows,

the snowy road is posing a new challenge.

Almost there. [ Chuckles ]

There's no easy way in.

Man: Watch yourself.

This is easy turn and we're we're struggling,

so I don't know how it's gonna go.

Almost there.

It's okay. We can keep going.

Richard: So, we're already an hour behind.

I swear to god, the container parked at the door at 8:00.

This is building in Canada in the middle of winter for you.

Everything takes forever.

Richard: This is starting to get a little ridiculous.

Just straighten up the truck.

Probably we start cutting slowly.

Slowly start cutting.

I don't think we stand a chance.

There's no way she's getting around that last turn.

She want to get out of this one. Stop.

You might as well stop.

Turn the truck off. Let's unload it.

- That's what you want to do? - Yeah, yeah.

Alright. Turn the truck off. We'll unload it.

That's what it's gonna be. It's all we can do.

We're stuck at the end of the driveway,

so we're gonna have to use the tractor

to bring the glass down to the house.

Can you come up for a second?

By yourself?

A whole pallet fell over.

Richard: It's heartbreaking.

Narrator: 20 miles from the Atlantic ocean

in new Brunswick, Canada,

Richard is already several months behind schedule

and now he faces a devastating setback.

Alec: Can you come up for a second?

By yourself?

A whole pallet fell over.

Yeah, right in the very front.

This has never happened.

Richard: That's all I needed is a damaged pallet.

Oh, it's heartbreaking.

We have two full skids damaged.

We got a lot of glass that are just trashed.

This one is damaged. That one is trashed.

There's a lot of damage. It all went right on top of it.

It's just about 1/3 of the windows that are broken.

Narrator: Even the windows with damaged frames are unusable

and must be broken down before disposing them.

Man: There you go.

♪♪

There you go!

Richard: All of the windows are all the large openings...

The ones that I wanted to seal up first

because they're the ones

that are letting the most heat out of the house.

The single thing that we did not want to happen,

and it did happen.

Narrator: Even though Richard's plans to install all the windows

this week have been shattered,

he'll have to make the best of it.

Richard: The one good news, the silver lining,

is that I've got two full sets of glass for the basement,

so I can finish the basement entirely and seal it up

and keep heat just in the basement for now.

But unfortunately, the upstairs will be cold

for another few months.

So here we are in the middle of all this,

Mel's on her way to come see the windows,

and I have to let her know

that 1/3 of the windows are all broken

and can't be installed.

Is it the big one windows?

A lot of the big windows.

Mel: I'm coming out today because I wanted to see

the window delivery.

It'll delay us from about six to eight weeks,

which is...

Well, we wanted to move in in six to eight weeks.

There's a few damaged ones,

but the ones that are here are nice.

But it's really nice. Yeah.

Richard: It's gonna cause huge delays.

It's gonna cause headaches.

We're trying to heat the house with no windows.

It costs a lot of money.

We're blasting heat, and it's just burning away money.

I don't know what this is gonna do to the time frame.

Like, just everything stopped to a crawl.

Like, I don't know.

I don't know what we're gonna do.

[ Exhales sharply ]

♪♪

Narrator: With new windows on order

and despite there being little relief

from the winter weather,

the roof is underway.

Richard: We had to wait for a nice stretch of weather

where we didn't have too much snow

before we finally got these couple of days

where it's not snowing strong enough that we can still work,

and we just got to get as much done as we can.

It's kind of tough doing a roof this time of the year

with all the snow and ice, and the guys are tying up

as best as they can and we got scaffold set up,

but there's still always a risk when you're up on a roof...

On a steep roof, especially, like this.

It's just cold.

When you work in the winter,

work through the tough conditions.

That's the worst part of it.

This looks awesome.

Narrator: Over the last few weeks, Richard's solar field

has also been installed.

Richard: We have a total of 58 solar panels

for the solar rays,

approximately 20 kilowatts in total,

which will easily power up this whole house throughout the year.

It's gonna be able to run the house for two full days.

So a full 48 hours

without generating any electricity at all on site.

♪♪

We got things pretty much under control at this point.

Trades are in there doing plumbing,

electrical, heating.

The interior conditions are almost all done.

So really, all we are waiting for are the remainder

of the windows.

Here we go. Let's go get those windows.

Narrator: To be on the safe side,

this time Richard meets the truck at the main road.

Richard: Okay, hold on.

Is this pallet damaged? What's going on here?

It better not be damaged again.

Narrator: Near his remote new Brunswick built site,

Richard is at the main road

picking up his replacement windows

only to discover another damaged pallet.

Is this pallet damaged? What's going on here?

It better not be damaged again.

Narrator: Before he can assess the situation,

Richard sends the first pallet to the building site.

Alright, one down.

Two to go.

Ugh, I really hope these windows aren't broken.

Narrator: Now that the last pallet is unwrapped,

Richard and his team take a closer look.

Okay, so, [indistinct].

Yeah, you're responsible for this window.

All you have to do is hang on to this damage.

Richard: They're damaged.

One corner piece damaged. I think I can live with it.

Okay, let's slide the trolley

about 6 more inches back.

Ready? - Yeah.

Richard: There. Right there. Perfect.

Richard: Those windows came a little early.

The supplier was nice enough

to ship it on a plane.

Today, we have my two guys... Julian and Dale.

Thought it was gonna be like 1,500 pounds,

but it's...

Me and Jerry tilted it up,

so it's pretty good.

Richard: Jerry and Charlie are also here to give us a hand.

And we also hired... for the day, we hired two extra guys

just to kind of help us lift the windows

and hold things in place.

So we're a crew of six today.

We got a lot of boots on the ground and we'll be able

to get these windows moved around and installed.

- Whoo-hoo! - That's it. I quit.

[ Laughter ]

Richard: We got all the windows in the house.

Now the fun part...

Try and get them installed.

♪♪

There, like that. That's better.

Alright?

Man: There we go. [ Indistinct chatter ]

Narrator: The windows are massive.

The team has to install them 13 feet up in the air,

and the biggest one, in the middle,

weighs over 500 pounds.

That's where I was standing a few minutes ago.

You missed. [ Laughs ]

So we're hanging over our head...

It's heavy windows, heavy glass,

and it's tipsy and it's awkward.

It's difficult.

There's always a risk for when we're high up

off the ground like that.

♪♪

Narrator: Now that the crew has experience

installing these windows,

the first one is in place.

The rest go in without a hitch.

It's good. The final piece is coming in.

♪♪

With the last window installed,

Richard can begin interior work.

Everything's good. It's where it needs to be.

- Where it needs to be. - Oh, my god.

Was I ever nervous about

this window [indistinct].

Narrator: Now that the house is finally airtight,

completion is in view.

Not that the windows are installed,

we've got another two months of work ahead of us.

So it's gonna take a little longer than expected,

but we'll be super happy with our home.

♪♪

Narrator: The finish work is underway...

♪♪

...but Richard is still waiting to generate his own power.

Richard: How awesome does that look?

All color-coded.

It's all nice and clean.

It's a piece of art.

These are my beautiful selves.

Aren't they pretty?

Unfortunately, they're still empty.

We're waiting for the batteries to show up.

It's been weeks and weeks and weeks.

Once we have power, everything...

We can turn all the lights on. We have plugs everywhere.

We're running like a normal house,

but until that happens, we're fighting for extensions.

We got a hole in the wall

with wires going to get all the tools.

Like, we've got four or five different trades in the house.

So everybody's scrambling to try and get enough power

to run their tools.

That was the biggest challenge of building off-grid,

was to get that temporary power during the build.

♪♪

- Alright. - Since the start of summer,

Richard has had to work around other projects,

stretching the schedule more and more.

Richard: We're on month 11 of the build.

It's been taking way longer than we had expected.

So we're starting on [indistinct]

Hanging doors.

Alright, so, we got cabinetry here.

There's just stuff everywhere. There's still so much work

left to do, and we got so little time.

Finally got these batteries.

I got half of them after waiting for six months for them.

Wow. So we have 20 of these...

Well, 10 in the truck and hopefully

10 more sooner than later.

These are big-honking batteries.

At least there's a good handle on it.

[ Straining ]

I think they weigh like 120 pounds each.

We need all those batteries to run this big house,

but at least we got half.

Narrator: If Richard wants to make his moving deadline in four weeks,

he's going to have to hustle.

Richard: Now that we have the batteries,

are gonna be going on solar power

by the end of the day?

Not today, no. Not to... oh, come on!

We got about a couple of weeks to tie this up

and then we're moving. Ready or not, here we come.

Narrator: In the heart of Canada's east coast,

builder Richard Leblanc

is rushing to get his off-grid dream home

move-in ready.

Richard: Alright, we got the other half of the batteries.

We got a whole bunch of batteries to bring down

to the basement, boys. - Yee-hoo.

♪♪

Building off-grid, this is what it's all about...

Being in the middle of nowhere.

Beats the city traffic, that's for sure.

♪♪

Come check out my favorite room of the house.

This is absolutely amazing.

So, all lights are going green.

Where about probably 80%, 90% charged

and good for two or three days, at least.

We probably have three times more battery storage

than we actually need.

We're completely off-grid.

We're creating our own electricity, which is amazing.

For the last year, all I've been doing is working on this house.

The whole thing was super overwhelming.

And along with that,

we are also expecting a baby in a month.

So, my wife is eight months pregnant...

[Chuckling] And are going through this huge move.

Melanie: Oh, it's nice to be able to settle in

the new house before the baby comes around

'cause you know how it is.

You don't sleep for the first few weeks.

The important rooms are done... Kitchen, living room,

bathrooms, and bedrooms.

We started working a little bit on the two offices.

The basement we haven't even touched yet.

Like, it's just too much work.

We got so much stuff to set up.

It's awesome.

It's gonna be an awesome freaking house.

So this is Richard's closet.

He has a lot of bathing suits. Wow.

Richard: We're moving in, we're setting up the house.

It's starting to take shape.

Whoo-hoo! Last box!

And it's an easy one. It's an easy one.

We had some really good help all day today,

both my family and Mel's family were here

and were super helpful.

I can see the house taking shape and seeing all our stuff,

you know, where it's supposed to be.

You know, just putting your feet up on the sofa

overlooking the river in the brand-new house.

It's starting to feel like home.

Narrator: After a full year of building

and all kinds of obstacles,

Richard Leblanc has finally moved his family

into their off-grid dream home.

Richard: How awesome is this... Being in the middle of nowhere

in the middle of nature? It is.

Hopefully you won't miss the city too much.

I hope not. [ Both laugh ]

It wasn't my idea to live in the woods

by a river, so...

I bit the bullet and I said, "okay, well,

I'll do it for you 'cause I love you."

Narrator: It's been a long road for Richard,

and there are still some things to finish.

But he's managed to get the important things done in time

just before the baby arrives.

I never lived off-grid before. [ Indistinct ]

We'll figure it out. First time for everything.

Yeah.

I love this. It's beautiful.

It's really, really beautiful.

This view will not get old. This is awesome.

It's really nice.

Well, we finally have a kitchen where we can host

our large families.

Yay! I'm really excited about that.

Oh, yeah.

Richard: In the kitchen, there's all kinds of daylight...

Beautiful, natural lighting,

glass all around us,

just a big, open space.

And that view... Just that view...

- It's beautiful. - Yeah.

Alright, let's go check out the kids room.

Oh, Elodie's gonna love her new space.

Richard: Yeah, it's perfect.

It's beautiful

and hopefully baby boy will like his room, as well.

Oh, it's so nice.

Look at that view,

we got a view of the river in every room.

That's what I love about this design.

Me, too.

And our bedroom.

Oh, this is the nicest view of the house.

It sure is.

This gonna be awesome waking up to this every morning.

Oh, it's beautiful.

Richard: You see trees all around.

Everywhere you look, you see trees and leaves

in the background and the river.

Like what a backdrop. It's just gorgeous.

The stairs are starting to get a little high

with the big belly, huh? - Oof.

- Well... - Oh, this is nice.

Richard: So the mezzanine upstairs was really

one thing that Mel requested,

and that office is just amazing.

So, first business meeting.

Let's talk about the construction...

Not building a house again for us.

No? This is it.

Alright.

Narrator: Now it's time to celebrate

all that hard work with friends and family.

Come check out our house.

- Welcome, welcome! - Hi!

Richard: Like it's just been a long stretch,

and I'm super happy to have them over

and see what I was working on and accomplished

in the last year.

[ Indistinct chatter ]

This is a playroom. [ Chuckles ]

I'm loving this house already.

It was an emotional roller coaster,

and I want to redo it

over and over again.

But just give me a couple days.

Give me a good night's sleep and a couple days of vacation,

and I'll be good to go.

Richard: So you wake up in the morning,

you walk down to the riverbank, you drink your coffee

and you throw your line in the water.

I find it very cool that we can have a house off-grid

and we still have the comfort

of a traditional home.

Richard: Well, in this day and age, I mean,

we don't want compromise. We want everything.

And that's what we did here.

Definitely outdone yourself.

It's great. Thanks, baby.

[ Chuckles ]

Richard: Even though it took a lot longer than it should've,

it doesn't matter.

What's important is the end product,

and the end product is freaking amazing.

Captions paid for by discovery communications

[ cheering ]