Junk Cabin: Secretly building my wife a COVID office

[Music] [Music] so i'm about to embark on my most ambitious venture yet what do you think may in fact i'm doing it with may because she can't talk yet so she can't give it away i'm going to try and build an office for my wife without her [Music] um it's going to be an office that i'll put up in the paddock but i've got to try and do it in between time during this whole lock down period can you hear helen up there can you hear mama so may and i are just here uh underneath the house almost we're gonna do some inventory of wood to see what i've got here to to build it with i reckon we've got this no worries we don't want helen to hear all this activity and then put flooring and then put the walls up in the big front window what do you think good one this is a fun project because i've got to use what is on the property stuff i've salvaged over time i shouldn't really leave the farm unless i have to the hardware store is the last resort i'd love to get it done before helen's birthday and without her finding out and i don't want to do anything too noisy in front of the baby that's the rules between here what's in the little barn and what's under the house we've got more than enough so then for the next month we've got to say that there's nothing interesting in the paddock whatsoever and try and hide it from her i've got some good splinters in my hands so on your left you've got your ceiling joists on the middle part you've got a lot of your stud work and then on the right hand side some more stud work and some base and top plates all right love we need to find four big rocks to sit the office on [Applause] that's a goodie i've had these rocks for about five years oh that's a real good one but never with a use for them oh golly filmmaking with a baby is hard especially when you've got to do it in secret helen's still away she's away having afternoon tea with my mother uh who i've had to make um in on the secret i've got to sweat up and i haven't done a thing other than just try and get here so here's our plot right in front here underneath the oak tree it's beautiful and so i don't know where it's gonna go i'm just gonna fill out around now where um this four by two and a half meter thing goes what an exciting project [Music] i think i'm gonna make the switch that rock should be that rock because that rocks bigger than that rock and that's higher so that should go there i think that makes sense [Music] i feel like i'm having an affair just going hell for leather trying to get away with something in a time i shouldn't be doing it see how it works once you're happy with your foundation and you square this thing up then it's just carpentry and it's just building so i'm going to quit while i'm ahead and get the tractor and me out of the paddock and go and make it look like i've been drinking tea or pulling weeds voraciously or something [Music] so i've only just done 20 minutes to bring some of the big beams up i really want to get moving on this foundation with what timbers i've got because i i don't have the length of timbers that i thought so i've just got to make it up as i go helen just drove past pretty slowly down along the bottom edge of the property already gonna pretend i've been cloud watching or something i've been given a get out of jail card i think because helen's been up here and saw the rocks and she said what are the rocks for and i said um i'm gonna set up a place to dry timber and she said that's a great idea so that's what this is i'm just going to kind of go with it look at that some days you just get things right [Music] awesome okay i need to take this measurement can i take this measurement can you take sophie never work with animals or children and i don't you make this very fun i have a real love affair with wood i must admit i love the stuff it's worth all the toil [Music] scavenging from some dumpster somewhere storing under the house denailing moving shifting because finally a project like this comes along [Music] almost the size of the cabin what i'm about to do now is i'm going to unpack the trailer for all the studs so the foundation's done flooring is not she's my apprentice and this is the apprentice helper because um you know just sitting around gets a bit boring watching data tv two four six about ten days til helen's birthday one two and three studs i really enjoy making things and especially when you start not quite knowing if you've got all the stuff [Applause] but i can't afford to muck around too much i think rain's on the way and it's only so much disappearing in the field i can do anyway see how this goes [Music] so just walked past with the baby talking to herself i've been telling her i'm in the little barn yeah that was close i suspect helen knows something a bit odd is going on but she's so busy at work i think she's not giving it much of a thought which is good for me and progress and good for her business because she propels her business and this is none of her business not yet and the wood itself is beautiful better than what you can buy the hardware now the grain is so magnificently tight and straight 80 years worth of growth in my left hand this is australian hardwood you can see that gorgeous grain there it's a little bit more funky that's probably 40 years so i'm working with the most magnificent of timbers really old trees and if i get my cotton socks on i reckon i should have it up by the end of the day very satisfying seeing all this wood that i've kept under the house for years bucked up and all sized and and ready for its new life i've just put a real good gash in my finger i'm in a real good gash bad technique rushing it's a yeah it's nasty so i think i'm beating for the next 20 minutes i just feel like i need to chill out body i'm having to take out these little wedges on the end just all takes time it's more stuff to do you know i lied i haven't been down to get my finger fixed it's bleeding out nicely it's a nice wound there comes a time in every cabin's life where you've got to put it up [Music] [Music] so i was just up here uh finishing off for the day thinking that i'd gotten away with another day but no the great reveal yeah i started walking up the hill and i thought you'd built a platform to dry wood and then i see basically a small room that you've built what do you think baby she knew about it so what tell me the story this is a shock and a really exciting one amazing like where how have you done this when uh i've done most of pre-cutting down at the little barn so that i could just go boom in a big hit so by tomorrow i'll have the roof and tin on and that's when i was going to reveal it to you it was a full three-sided building oh my god that's all it's got a stove and all sorts of things this is amazing yeah so i haven't spent a dollar it's all the whole lockdown project but when is this what you've been doing outside when you've been pottering in the boat every time you know what would be so awesome although it's probably completely impractical okay can you be able to see that tree from inside can you the rafters are labeled one to five yeah can i have number one please where did you number them uh on the very end uh yeah just flip it over all right there's no knuckles there are but your international bats will go in here well yeah but we would body was wondering i'm just going in what i would imagine would be your order check i don't get where you've numbered these number two number two no it's number four hopefully they're too big you've got the raft around the wrong way yeah the notch goes both bows on a mission you can tell you're either on a building side are you not well we're a little bit half-assed on the building is the camera on yeah oh god [Applause] [Music] i need a nice long bit that goes from one corner of the building to the other for bracing so that when the wind blows it doesn't just fall down [Music] since helen's come on board she wants a window on the western wall so she jumped on various uh online marketplaces and got this for free locally we went picked it up and it's cheaper for someone to take it away for free than someone to take it to the tip so it was full of rot which is what i've cut out made a door into a window i'm gonna make the frame out of old door jambs from my local high school like all of the stud work in the uh the actual cabin like any good building project it changes once you take on board someone else's opinions [Music] especially someone who loves light and helen's got a really good design mind and so whatever she wants from this point on she can have boom look at that might be the last of our fine weather for a few days so we might come up and tap this tomorrow what do you reckon yep a whole bunch of insulation for the back side of the cabin from horse chaff bags my little sisters they feed this real fancy stuff to their horses and um i use these bags for tree surrounds or recycling or or whatever they're just really good hearty bags it's been a super rewarding process and i can finally take my foot off the gas one because helen knows and two i don't really want to finish it's been so nice walking up the hill to come to work you know two-thirds of which was secretive and intense and i'm limping through with what i've got at the house as you can see i've got a bit of a patchwork quilt going on here with the last wall [Music] so i'm at this stage now where i really want to slow things down because i've really enjoyed this the building has served its own purpose as a job and as a reward and something to do i think she's put on a kilo since this project began winter's here too winter's turning the leaves are turning the cows are in the paddock [Music] at this stage it's cost zero other than buying materials in the past that haven't been used for whatever i bought them for there's realistically probably about three or four hundred dollars worth of materials that i've paid for at some stage in this building everything else is just me collecting it over all those years and making it it's immensely satisfying i can't say that enough to know how much use this is going to get and serve a purpose for writing and filmmaking and you know we have this beautiful timber made mostly timber made steel clad box sitting on the top of a hill under a tree they will get used for decades now hopefully more i have to sometimes stop myself when i'm building things and remind myself that i enjoy it i really enjoy the process of building and it's not just always a sprint to the finish i really want to enjoy these last few sort of processes of putting the last few bits of tin on it's amazing space to work [Music] under the oak trees as the leaves turn to winter yeah getting a bit desperate uh taking timber out of the barn even though it's just temporary to use in the cabin that is the life of the salvaged timber man i'm shuffling around wood from one project to the next they've gone from a temporary work site to temporarily bracing the barn to now being permanently used in the cabin on the hill [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] that's just beautiful [Music] oh boom sing it to me like anything that's secondhand it takes longer because you've got to make things work so nothing's as easy when you work with junk wood it's all been de-nailed rot's been cut out so the deck is five different types of timber five different thicknesses [Applause] i always surprise myself because i kind of resist the funky nature of building at the start i just wanted to use all the one kind of wood because it's so much easier but i way prefer the look of that i think i've got a soft spot for this building already i think it might be the best thing i've ever made it's a product of 10 years worth of scavenging stuff that other people have thrown at or i've found it on the side of the highway or or it's hand me down or i've over ordered it's an absolute mongrel but it's a beautiful little building and just quietly i think helen loves it may will no doubt do some dodgy stuff here with her friends over the years i think it's win-win it's all come together to create something that is really functional and you know represents this time of lockdown and now helen has an office on the property what a little beauty a little junk made cabin made during covert 2020 half of which my wife didn't know about for about 60 bucks two boxes of screws i just couldn't limp through putting the deck down on all the other hodgepodge screws that i've got and helen bought so it didn't cost me a [Music] penny you

Channel: Beau Miles

Views: 1,975,861

Rating: 4.9759331 out of 5

Keywords: Beau Miles, Building, Lockdown, Australia, up-cycling, re-using

Id: BzSeGJF6RhM

Length: 20min 34sec (1234 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 12 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/AvidCoco]

This guy's outlook on life is so wholesome. He doesn't give a fuck about anything other than having a chill time and doing what he loves.

In his recent Q&A he mentioned he's doing 1 video every month this year (I think) which is really exciting seeing as he usually only does a few a year.

[u/DrDunc]

Beau Miles is an absolute legend really enjoyed this vid. Some of his other ones like the kayaking around South Africa and where he completes a random chore every km while running a marathon are also worth a watch.

[u/SpaceManSmithy]

All of this guy's videos are excellent. He's got such an interesting outlook on life.

[u/ronearc]

"There's no doubt May and her friends will do some dodgy stuff in here when they're older, so it's a win-win."

Always nice when people acknowledge the inevitable without any sense of dread. ;)

[u/VeniVidiUpVoti]

As a straight dude. Holy fuck what a man.

[u/buckwheatho]

This is amazing.

[u/picmandan]

There’s some good humor and little stories in his list of ingredients at the end, too.

[u/claystone]

Ol Beau at it again! Always surprised at what he is up to. I'd love to crack a can of beans with him someday.

[u/MegaDom]

Love this dude. Only mistake he made, imo, is hanging the doors so they swing inwards on an already limited space.