I’m Obsessed with Home Renovation YouTube Channels

Hello hello I’m coming in hot with another late night (9:43) free write because I had an actually busy day which included, but was not limited to, going to FedEx, the DMV, the laundromat, and finding time to absolutely obsess over every detail available to me re: Harry and Meghan’s absolutely insane interview with Oprah last night. Somehow I still managed to get some of the work that other people are holding me accountable to done, but didn’t really have time for much else, which is why I find myself in this situation again, basically ready to go to sleep and with no new “high culture” things to write about.

We love a run-on sentence!!!

Anyway, I’m not a very handy person. I have terrible handwriting, I can’t draw or paint or anything like that, and I’m known to have broken a drill or two in my feeble attempts at building things. I know nothing about construction or electrical work or plumbing or even interior design. Yet somehow, recently, I have become completely obsessed with following people on YouTube who are building their own homes.

First you got Trent and Allie, how are building a cabin from the ground up in the snowy mountains outside Salt Lake City. Similarly, up north in Canada, Eamon and Bec have bought a dilapidated cabin and have been completely remodeling it. They recently took some time off from that project and built an igloo instead.

Further south you have Jordan and Kaylee, American expats in Panama who are building a tiny home on what will one day be a sustainable organic farm. Kaylee also just found out she’s pregnant, so things really need to hurry up down there so their baby has a home!

I recently also found two young, single women embarking on similar endeavors on their own- Isabel, who is building a tiny home in the mountains in Washington state and Hanna, who is refurbishing a cabin in the woods in Montana. So you don’t need a man to build your own home!

To be honest I kind of fell down this rabbit hole on accident. Most, if not all, of these channels were originally van-lifers (an obsession that I addressed in my Nomadland post) whose lives were redirected because of the pandemic. I was already following their travels, so I just stuck around for their new journeys as well.

But now I’m in too deep. I imagine myself going down a similar path, even though I would be absolutely atrocious at it. I love nature and am definitely fairly crunchy granola, but I’m a city girl at heart. I’m too helpless for the type of adventures I watch and fantasize about on the reg.

I love living vicariously through these adventurers forging their own paths and literally building the lives they want. I can only hope to one day have their gumption and zest, even if it isn’t directed at a construction project. That being said, I’ve done things I thought were impossible before. And there’s a big difference between living in a cabin in the woods in driving distance from a major US city and, you know, moving to Panama. There are levels here, so maybe I’m more capable than I think.

For now, and for the foreseeable future, you will still be able to find my in my Brooklyn apartment just imaging these adventures and witnessing them through the eyes of those brave souls who choose to share theirs on the internet. If the past year has taught me anything, it’s that anything can happen and planning is pointless, so who knows? Maybe one day I’ll have a cabin in the woods too.