Max is the happiest baby, he’s always smiling & laughing

We cannot appreciate success without failure. The stove and concrete look amazing. Max is just an adorable teddy bear. Thank you for bringing us on this amazing journey and sharing your dream.

That’s one of the things I admire most about you Lou ..is how you research and plan and find the most efficient way to do everything. Off course I most admire your dedication the your very very sweet family❤❤❤❤❤❤

If freya’s paws hurt from the cold you could put some Vaseline on the soles of her paws. This will help prevent cracks and wounds in her soles.

That moment when you guys sat down in front of the fire and just enjoyed the fruits of your labor--that's what it's all about. Congrats on completing this fantastic project!

For the concrete, more water means it will take longer to cure, but it also will give you more cream to work with. in turn giving a smoother finish overall. Having a Mag float and a steel trowel will also help procure the desired finish

For Frejas paws you should check out a mushers wax. I put it on my dog's paws in the winter time and it helps a lot!

I moved from the city to the northern wilderness (🇨🇦) 36 years ago to take a teaching job… and I’m still here. I am turning 60 this year and wilderness living is still my thing!! Every place I have lived in here in the north has had a wood stove for heating, and I was a total newb to this type of heating when I first got here. I bought this house 24 years ago and it has an outdoor wood boiler which means the fire is outside and it heats water which heats our house. I have always dealt with wood burning devices and chimneys in winters that can be quiet severe at times. You probably know this already, but with the chimney being outside there will be more heat lost, and also more condensation and creosote build up than if the chimney was indoors. Your containers are not tall (like my house is) so cleaning the chimney should be fairly straightforward. It’s great that you anchored your chimney with support arms… chimneys move a lot in the wind, and the snow pushes on them. Also (imho) it’s great that you did not place the wood stove in front of the glass window as glass is finicky with extreme temperatures differences on each side of the window. A little fence around the wood stove will keep Max and Frejya safe. Please understand that I am not trying to be preachy here, nor do I want to come across as a know-it-all, I just want to share my experience and maybe help to make your experiences safe and cozy too. I love watching your videos and following your adventures. Your DIY approach to your wilderness lifestyle is super inspiring!! Lastly, just for fun, I thought I would mention that my Brother-in-law goes to the furniture/appliance store in town and collects the free wood that wood stoves and big appliances are shipped in. He designs and makes the coolest (and very beautiful) wood slat carrying boxes out of them. We use these boxes for everything and I love the upcycling/DIY approach to making something so useful out of scrap wood. These boxes are great to keep in our vehicle for grocery shopping, etc. Thanks for the awesome vids… I love them!! Have a great upcoming week ahead. It’s Family Day here in 🇨🇦 tomorrow (third Monday in Feb). This is a National Holiday that was created a few years ago because the time between New Year’s and Easter is long, cold, and dark, and we are often stuck indoors during this time. This new holiday allows people to connect with family and friends and to recharge their internal battery until we can experience Spring. Happy Family Day to you, even tho’ I don’t think it is a holiday in the US. Warm hugs to you and your family… Ⓜary💕🌲🏔

A happy child is a well loved child. Max is adorable. The woodstove looks amazing. I’m looking forward to seeing the Space transformed.

Bravo Lou! Such hard work which you do with integrity (and I guess a lot of sweat) - you deserve every success. 😊

This may have been my favorite video on the shipping container build so far. Thanks for sharing the journey of building the wood stove! I agree that the cracks give the cement slab character. I'm excited about watching the process of creating cement counter tops! And, once again, every time Max appears in his bear suit I am grateful y'all decided to let him be on film. He is ridiculously cute in it. My husband and I are done with the baby stage, and while we're in a super sweet stage with our own kids, you really can't beat a happy baby. Thanks for sharing Max's joy with us!

the last minutes of this vlog - with you three plus the dog lying in front of the fireplace - was the image of true love and happiness lived in simplicity.

It always seems like things are difficult and frustrating but with some perseverance all things work out in the end! So happy that you guys can push through obstacles and make the most of every situation!

Loved most you stepping through krispy snow. We have no snowhere, missing those nature sounds. Magical.

Seems like one shipping container is going to be very narrow , where putting two containers together would have been more livable space, but it is your building project.

I have that same wood burning stove, but in a slightly taller and deeper version (almost countertop height). I love it! You can also cook or keep things warm on the front plate. I love it!

Would you have gained heat by putting the vent exit at the top of the wall so that the pipe would shed heat inside the room?

Happy to see what you guys are doing! I will be personally milling my own lumber and making more of a cabin style home however, so much of the things you share help me with general ideas and issues I will have to overcome. I am truly happy I found the channel and ill be sure to share it as much as possible when I tell people about my tent idea while im building and setting up my homestead :)

They make a fan that sits on top of the wood burning stove. The heat makes it spin. Well help circulate the heat. Also we had one when I was a kid. My grandpa would could on top of it. He would put a pot of soup beans on it. Was great memories

Lou, wonderful job on the fireplace. It's so relaxing to sit in front of a fire.

For feeding the stove, would angling it into the room give you more access, and have a curved screened surface.... rather than squared off .... Monday morning quarterbacking here... sorry love watching your thought process and outstanding outcomes Lou

Congratulations on the stove installation! Watching the flames dance, it warms your Soul. 💜💜

I have the same wood burning stove in my bedroom, I sometimes cook breakfast on it or heat up dinner. Love that little thing ❤ It was originally my oldest dauhgters room, so she is the one who picked out that specific model and she chose that one because of the stove plate on top. She wanted to be able to heat up food in her room 😀

Been a weekly joy watching you guys grow and build that past few years! Dana, I also LOVE your style! What sweater are you wearing? I love big comfy sweaters ❤

So glorious guys! I just love it! Just a little reassurance for you- we live in northern Idaho. Everyone has a woodstove, and almost all of our community has kiddos. No one has gates around the stoves. We have just done a lot of reinforcement with our little one that it is hot and not to touch it. She is less than 2 and knows that the whole hearth area is off limits. They can feel the heat around it too and will leave it alone. We have never had any accidents, nor have our friends. So just to reassure your hearts!

My heart went out to you on this one Lou. Excellent turn around and signature positive attitude on display again. You're an inspiration, Ser.

15:16 cut to LOU 💃 🕺 dancing with Freja and signing a catchy tune 🤗 haahahaa lmaooooo

Lou you have gotten so good at welding! It’s very nice to see you both learning so much new skills with this build. You are an inspiration. Thank you for sharing. I am already looking forward to next weeks video.

Great job Lou! Make sure to put a pot of water on top to keep from drying out the place.

Great episode and kudos Lou for hanging in there! A lot of people are asking why you separated the containers when together they would have been SO much more spacious? And so much easier to heat? Separate you will need more than one heat source, can you please explain your thinking on this? Thanks and all the best!

The Jotul is an excellent stove. I have the same one for my house. Very efficient. You will need to move the heat away because your space is so small. I use a small blower to move heat to the back three bedrooms from the living room. My space is bigger than what is recommended for the Jotul but it produces enough heat to keep the whole house comfortable.

i'm sure it must have been such a let down to have cracks in your concrete pad once you were done, but now that it's installed it reminds me of veins in a marble stone. I think it looks really nice!

I understand stressing over wood stove install details, I took months deciding mine. I hope your install works for your goals, but if it doesn’t it’s all changeable. Things I prioritized were: 1) a straight through the roof stack - this was a colossal pain vs through the wall, but it’s safer, drafts better, and in the end a much cleaner aesthetic inside and out. I did do an insulated stack on the interior, I am considering swapping it out for a single wall for maximum interior heat transfer. 2) seeing the fire from most of my main living space - I love being able to see the fire through the glass from 90% of my living, dining and kitchen area. Not only is it mentally warming to see the glow, it’s practical as I can monitor the status of the fire at a glance. I can still cook on the top. So I would’ve turned your stove 90 degrees and ran the stack straight up through the roof. Stacked wood under the picture window , maybe with a bench on top. I don’t use a baby gate, never has been a problem with little kids and pets (they learn HOT fast), but a retractable gate from side to side would be easy to do.

Love that you show the mistakes! We are all human! Love these shipping container build vids

Thank you for the realistic portrayal of a DIY project! This is sooooo relatable!

Smile, I have been building a 4 pc container off grid at 9400 ft in Colorado all by myself so I can appreciate your challenges....keep going.

Cement floor - nobody’s gonna know. Lou my heart was breaking for you watching how hard you worked on that. Such a trooper. To future Max - your dad is a rockstar!

I love the journey you’ve been on! Been here since NYC vlogs. Have you thought about doing a video about parenthood and how it’s been? I’m a first time mom just in the past year too and would love your guys’ thoughts!

I’m always inspired by your videos. You have a beautiful life, thank you for sharing with us

I love watching your progress with the shipping container build! The thumbnail picture for the video shows a gridded canopy connecting the two containers, that looks so nice.! You should paint the privacy fence black to match the window trim. You guys are amazing, this is a really cool project. ❤️

i love the last minutes of the video, what a nice family time watching fire is everything you need 💟

The woodturning stove looks great! Well done Lou. However, having lived two winters on my ship with a wood burning stove as the sole heat source I recommend you should also install a diesel heater. Preferable with floor heating. It's just not fun waking up with temperatures just above freezing when you must get the stove going.

I'm always amazed by all the hard work you all put into the projects! Mistakes happen, especially when you're dealing with new things, but it is inspiring how much effort you put into getting it right. Lou, with all this physical work you've been doing for the past year or 2, I'm wondering how is your back feeling? I know it's not one of your priorities right now, but it'd be a great video! Much love from Brazil! ps: can't get over how sweet Max is!

The pad for the stove is beautiful! Well done! 💜

I'm really impressed. But I do wonder if you could box that stove pipe in because you will surely lose a lot of heat?

Max is the happiest human! ❤

Wish you could have used that slab. Thinking you could have filled the voids with mortar and tiled the whole thing.

Great video, sending you all lots of love ❤

Congrats guys!! Awesome work. Well done. Enjoy your new cozy appliance . It adds so much to a home ❤️

The build is really coming on guys! Really amazing work! It makes such a difference when you can have heat generation inside your home

There's never such a thing as a dumb idea, that's how you teach yourself going forward and then what not to do the next time so it's all worthwhile, even if it's frustrating at the time. I think you're doing an amazing job and it was worth giving the idea a go with trying to set the cement that way, if you'd never tried you'd never know! 🤷🏻‍♀️🤗

Beautiful family!!! Your place is coming along sooooo nice. Good job!!!

U waist 70% of heat by make such short chimney insite. U shuld put vertical radiator pipe insite of cabin. And best option is buld stone and brick chamber after iron stove to make accumulation wall. But if U like fire all the time is uor chuse.

It's amazing seeing the progress you guys are making with the build, I really enjoyed this one! The concrete looks really good too :)

Lou you always do such a wonderful job. Thanks for showing the hiccups to show us it happens sometimes. ❤

Maybe accentuate those cracks with a kentsugi style technique. Sometimes reminders of the learning process can be beautiful. 🧡

I'm wondering 2 things. Isn't part of the heat from the riser tube? If its outside you loose a lot of radiant heat, right? BUSH RADICAL put his out the wall too, but closer to the top of wall instead of by the floor. This let's you damper the heat/air flow as well from inside. And, my old house had the wall heater by a window, uninsulated wall. Bad idea. So why by your windows where heat loss is imminent?

Having heat will make such a difference👍🔥Well done😊

A lot of heat will be lost from the stove pipe being outside plus more condensation... but I'm only halfway through- maybe there's a reason. Love yalls channel!

Use porcelain tile! You can get big pieces - 24x48 or even 48x48- that look like concrete

Hi great video..lu you should check out "little house off Grid"... He installed a fire place and is always talking about dry wood and no smoke and ne chimney tar build up..seams pretty smart..he had a chimney fire the first year from using wet wood ..good stuff??🥰

I have my stove in the lang walk.. if i could do it again i would put of in the corner where it reeks less specie...you choice while it is not burning and then jou like to sit around it... Well a burning stove is hot!!!

Hey, love the videos every week. I've never made a countertop but I have laid concrete in sheds and things before and when we wanted a smooth finish for a step or something we would add more water to the mix and make sure its mixed in properly so it goes hard. We also would tamp the area we want to be smooth edged and the water will rise to the top and make a nicer finish. Don't know if i explained that properly but I hope it helps.

Don't forget your CO monitor!!

Hey dude, if you make your concrete wetter, add about 5% more cement, and work it really hard int he mold, you will find fin cement mix comes to the edges, and then it is only a simple sand to finish it smooth.

Jamaica 🇯🇲 here blessings to the family congrulations

Congratulations!!! 🎉🎉🎉

Pouring concrete is a learned skill. You'll do better next time. I think you could have bought a pre-poured pad for that stove at one of the big box stores. Anyway it got done. Thanks for sharing.

Max is so cute, always smiling; even in negative temps. I saw him bending both legs well, is his club foot completely corrected?

Oh yes, that first fire 🥳

It looking really good

So cool! I can’t wait to see the finished home! My SO and I are definitely inspired to pursue our own little homestead.

using tiles over the concrete under stove would radiate heat for space also...

I love a good wood burner, but I think I would have gone for a rocket stove with thermal mass bench, as it uses less wood and means you have a bench that radiates out heat even if the fire were to go out at night. Especially as you can make a gravity fed rocket stove, so it is less likely to go out until you want it to, by removing the fuel from the hopper.

was there a reason you didn't weld 2 containers together?

oh I felt your pain with the concrete! We also went through something similar with figuring out our wood stove install. So much research and brain power is used before you even start working and then you start and have to go research again! 😂 Anyway, enjoying y'alls progress.

Jøtul is from Norwalksy and a good stove

Sweet Max looks like a Ewok. You are all so very blessed.

why dont you guys make the 3 Shipping Container one home

I know I’m WAY behind on this. Was there any thought to making the top of the stove at counter height and storing wood underneath?

Could you add tile to the concrete to finish it??

Wow, I’m actually catching you live! Cool 😎

Congratulations! Ahhhh :D I love this, it made me think of what fire means to humans: "Fire control changed the course of human evolution, allowing our ancestors to stay warm, cook food, ward off predators and venture into harsh climates." Your installation reminds me of a channel I started watching, "Luca Ventrella in the outdoors", he lives in the mountains of Italy and he has an almost identical woodstove that he uses in all different ways, you might get ideas and enjoy watching what he does. :) Yay! beautiful video, and music❤!

They are so narrow..I would've had to place them side by side and open the sides up with wide doorway framing ... This would also permit the entire living space to be heated by one stove .. in the space given though I probably would placed the stove sideways.. and used a couple corner pipes to rout to the outside

Ive seen some really compact stoves, some which can be wall mounted and still pump out a lot of heat. Did you go for one this size because you are doing the air exchanges between containers so your hoping it will heat both?

Be sure to install a carbon monoxide detector when using a woodstove. You really don't need a kiddie gate to keep a child away from the stove. I've had a woodstove for 30 years and neither my children or grandchildren ever go near it. There's no substitute for proper guardianship of a child and teaching them to use their amazing brains. I guarantee you that the person most at risk for a burn around the stove is the adult tending the fire. With a gate in front of it I feel it poses even more risk, especially in such a small space. Teach your children well.

so you need a fireplace for each container ... if you'd have leaned 2 of them you'd have a greater warm space with one fire ...

Awsome!

I put dog gates around my fire place works great and very mobile..

Hey Lou. What’s the brand of that blue brimmed trapper cap you wear?

Maybe put bricks in the hole to place the stove on, or ceramic tiles.

Buy freja some snow boots.

you can parge that still ok i thing you dit good

Where did you purchase the Jotul stove and chimney parts to do it yourself?

I think you should have just trimmed the first pad you made with a saw. Then coated it with something pretty. I definitely would not have cut it up.

Will you be using a insulation like insofast?

you will have to provide an air inlet if you plan on burning a fire inside of container.....

Why not use slate or stone under the fireplace instead of concrete?

why was your concrete so dry?

Can't you tile over it? Tile is what's under our wood stove.