Expanding a Cabin in the Arctic | Life Below Zero

Nothing's going to stop me. Snow, wind, 40 below, things like that don't stop me. [Music] Couldn't be any better time to finish this up. Dogs are all resting. Well, now it's time to keep after it. I don't want to leave this undone and wait because this is just going to accumulate here.

Rosie, you play with your pig, and I'll take care of the window, okay? Jesse Holmes has nearly completed the new addition to his home in Briscana, but with winter already descending on the landscape and his new bedroom still incomplete, Jesse will need to work through the bitter cold night if he's to be shielded from the coming storm.

All right, one more step to make this a room here. Get this window out, and it looks like I can wiggle it out right here and keep it from breaking. There's a big sense of vulnerability moving this window. I've been able to do a lot the last couple weeks since my surgery, but I'm still really weak and having to move this window is the crux of this whole deal.

There it goes! There it goes, nice and easy. Okay, now it's time for the big lift. I've been struggling for five weeks to get strong again and I'm still 80%. This window is a 100% job; you know, you get one chance. You drop it, it breaks. I don't have another window to put in here.

Oh man, I am having a hard time here. Just ain't as strong as I was. There it goes! [Music] All right, that's the final screw locking it down here. Take a look at it and let it soak in. I'm exhausted from a long day at work, but I'm glad that I committed. Cut the window out, got it in there. That's a big step; now everything is just making things aesthetic.

Rosie, come get your limelight! Come, come! Hey, come check it out! Look, we got a new bedroom! Yeah, look at all that new room for you to terrorize in, huh? Yeah, huh? Do you like it?

To me, having this home here is a symbol of never giving up. Through these last couple years, I've been to the breaking point, to where I didn't think I could take it anymore, and then I keep going and block it out of my mind.

Keep focused; eventually, you just become as hard as the surroundings. It doesn't kill you, and then it tempers you and makes you stronger. I didn't just move out here to train dogs; I moved out here to become a better man, and every day this landscape molds you into that. Anywhere around here, I feel a sense of satisfaction.

This is a place with a lot of future for me. It's hard not to get emotional. This is something that I have wanted for myself for so long. I don't even know what to do with it, and I'm just gonna let it play out from here, but I see really good things happening in the future. [Music] You.