We Built A BROKEN Log Cabin... then RESCUED it!

What happens when a DIY garden room build goes completely, horribly wrong? 

When our budget garden log cabin arrived with warped boards, missing tongues, and walls that completely buckled during the UK heatwave, our dream garden office build looked completely ruined. But instead of tearing the entire thing down, an unexpected rescue from an ex-film set carpenter completely changed the game. Here is the full story of how a nightmare BillyOh Winchester cabin build was transformed into a one-of-a-kind bespoke garden workshop.

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We Built A BROKEN Log Cabin... then RESCUED it!



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

This is our wooden garden office log cabin. It looks absolutely beautiful now and it's used every day by my son. But when we were building it, it went very, very wrong. This is the entire story of how we bought a Winchester Billy O summer house that was meant to look like this. The parts ended up looking more like this. It took us weeks to build the parts. Well, many of them were more than a little bit warped. And because of the dimensions, it's 4 by 2.5 m, which meant some of the walls at the front had gaps and really wobbled. Yet, we finished it up to getting the roof panels and floorboards down, but the UK's hottest summer ever completely buckled all the walls and windows, and everything fell out of place. It was completely ruined and unusable. We had no idea what we were going to do next. So, this is the story of how a local builder helped fix this shack. And it turns out he used to be a carpenter on movie sets. The first thing we needed to do was dig a big hole in the garden and take delivery of a ton of wood. Our brilliant brother-in-law Steve built an entire floating deck for where the log cabin was meant to go. We had to dig holes by hand and used posts set in postcrete. It's a bit like driving ground piles in for a house build. Then Steve somehow designed this elaborate base that is attached to the posts, which is really difficult because the camera doesn't properly show quite how much of a slope we've got in our garden. Our dog Casper here was jealous because this is the area where for years he'd dig his huge holes. You've probably seen some of them on the channel. He's definitely looking disappointed here, but I think we might have finally found a way to stop that. We had to dig around all of the attempts we put down over the years to stop Casper digging. Here's a closeup of how the heavy frame is attached to the posts. When they were all down, and I think there were around 16 of them, Steve and my son could then build the decking. That would become the area where we could start to put up our massive log cabin. I think the decking itself is a bit of a thing of beauty. But it was difficult guessing how much room we wanted around the footprint of the log cabin itself. It had to be big enough to feel like a porch at the front without taking up half the garden. It is so solid and we really like the way it finished up looking. We had a bit of a hurry on in the bad weather because the log cabin had a delivery date. Though that delivery date kept getting pushed back and pushed back at no notice by the company for no reason. Finally, the Billio cabin arrived and the delivery driver was brilliant and he kindly helped us get all this stuff into the garden. So the uh so we've had the delivery. Really nice guy, really helpful. So I've got a bit of chicken and rice. We've got the this is what comes. Ignore that bit. But we've got these bits. We got two roof bits. We've got sides and ends. And then over here we have more sides. That's the back. I think these are the sides. And floorboards. These are the floorboards. There's quite a lot of those on the on the van. And then I think these were just packing uh spacers that we don't actually need. Oh, yeah. Of course, there's the frames for the windows and the actual windows and doors as well. So, we got two windows, two doors propped up against the wall for now. But yeah, this is pretty much how much comes.

Just before I put the camera on, there was this clang crash.

It happens. Right, let's go back to the time lapse. Oh man.

So, end of day three and didn't think we get this far. We got the window frames up. The we're on to some of the warped boards and they they're really bad. Um this one is down in that end and just up in the air here because this one is so warped. It's looking good. We're supposed to have done the floorboards because we don't have the technical details. Uh haven't put those in yet. And actually, it's a lot easier putting the laser on without wibbly wobbly floorboards.

It's the final rafter to go before the roof.

So, I'm showing this to my son for the first time. This is insane. Look at this.

This looks a lot better than whatever we did. We did. Oh my god. He's like Oh wow. And the the window fits in here. Yeah. Yeah. Isn't that amazing? This when we put the one on the back. Yeah. Yes. That was the roof. It was really Oh my goodness. So, when I started this vlog, it was to try and capture things around the house, observations as a dad. This is the start of a series of vlogs. I don't know how long I'm going to keep this going, but I'm going to try and capture something every day. And today, I'm capturing this, which builder has built. It's It looks like a tiny house. It's amazing. And all of it is to fix something that didn't work out so well. Look. So, we tried building this. It's from uh it's called the Billy O Winchester cabin, and it's Yeah, it's meant to look like this. And in reality, it looks like this. Except it didn't look like this. We did, Joe and I, managed to get it all the way up to the roof. And we built the roof. We even got the flooring down. We just needed to get it to a point where someone who knew what they were doing could finish it off. And unfortunately, I think because of the materials, uh, it didn't work out because the walls that were straight when we put them up, but in the extreme heat, the walls have kind of now look like this. Let me go closer. The walls now look like this, and they just weren't holding at all. So, we couldn't get a window in. And I think it's peculiar to this this size of cabin because if you have a bigger cabin, you can have bigger walls here that hold the window, but all we had was just like a pile of pile of bits of these put on top of each other. They just didn't they didn't fit at all. We've paid for this with uh money from my dad who uh left us last year. So, we thought, you know, we treat treat ourselves and give my son somewhere to put his PCs. But this has been going on since uh since June. This has been going on for about two two and a half months. The wood was twisted at the beginning. I'm not that fussy. It's okay. I know that wood is a natural product, but this stuff had like knots and big holes in it. The floorboards weren't floor, they were holes, and they didn't lock into each other. So, I tried contacting the company. Again, this isn't a grievance-based attention farming video. uh it's just our journey that I contacted the company and said, "Look, can you help us out?" Because these floorboards, they're really not. And they just sent back usual icy shrug of indifference. So, Garden Buildings Direct thought that these boards were good enough. I beg to differ because if you've got floorboards on the floor and you got big holes in, you're going to see underneath the shack and there's water under there possibly. I just need proper floorboards and they they refused and I know I'm not experienced at this but it's been very disappointing. The Billy O Winchester I I wouldn't recommend it. So anyway, so now called a local builder who couldn't believe how they were supposed to go together. So this afternoon he's fashioned this. It's like an Amish building, isn't it? It's like an Amish barn that we're going to raise. And it's also um I don't know. It's like one of those things from the the black and white movies where I stand there and the whole thing can fall.

I'm so excited about this because it's a proper frame now that the that the window will fit. We we didn't have that with the Billy O Winchester. Yeah. So, this is this is what it should look like. And this is what it shouldn't look like. So, hopefully we'll have a place to put all of this one or two computers. We've not seen the kitchen table since November. It's about uh 10 months ago. We are days away from getting our kitchen table. All of that is to get the kitchen table. Can't wait. Casper, what do you think?

It's sunset on day two of trying to rescue our terrible garden buildings direct Billy O. Winchester cabin. It's actually Billy. Oh, no. Winchester cabin. Look at this. It's up. It's up. Let me spin the camera around. H. Finally, we have a front that's actually square, that doesn't warp in the sun, that doesn't have gaps in it. Well, it's obviously got big gaps, but they're for the window and doors, but they're true, so they're going to fit. And just to show you how bad the walls twisted in the heat, look, this this will really show up on camera. So, we've had to overhang. So, we our brilliant builder uh sorted this out. Look at this. Look how that wavy davyy line of the wall goes. That is how twisted it was. Um so it's almost like a feature now. Um it's like um it's character, isn't it? It's nice bit of character now instead of just gaping hole gaping holes for walls that weren't walls. Don't know how we're going to sort out the the floorboards, but yeah. Look at this. That is how badly twisted. Look, I mean, there's a blooming gap there. Um, awful. But anyway, the front is fantastic. And it turns out uh our build I'll run some footage of the of the frame going up and it really was like that Buster Katon thing where if it falls over uh you clear the door frame, but we we lifted it into position. He spent about what he he must have spent a day and a half designing and fashioning this front because it had to fit exactly the joists. Uh which I can show you now. Look, the joists and they just fit perfectly in a way they did not do with the Garden Buildings Direct uh Billio Winchester. Uh they're all gaps and this was all wrong. It was just off. Um, it wasn't anything we had done. It just it's just not straight. So, now it's perfectly straight. And the the gaps for the joists for the roof to go on tomorrow. I think we're going to get a roof on tomorrow. It's lucky we've got uh a week of good weather. Another week of no rain. Let's go back to the footage of the uh the frame going up and we had to push it into place um pretty exactly. So he he actually put a like a doors stop actually screwed it in so that it would push against it. We knew it would be in exactly the right position. Go back to the footage. And what you probably can't see is that there's a line of silicone uh down the side as well. Obviously it'll be it's all going to be screwed in to place as well, but the front is absolutely perfect. And the windows are in exactly the right position and it's centered even though the walls are wavy davy all over the place. Walls, we know that this front is is is perfect. And so it's going to look so good. I think obviously it doesn't yet match the log cabin look of the the rest of the of the shack, but uh I think we're going to I think he's going to clad it with feeder edge boarding. I think it's going to look really good. But underneath it, it's insulated. It's solid and it's square. It's perfectly square and perfectly straight in a way that it has never been. I mean, look, we I can show you now. This is how it came from Garden Buildings Direct. They just didn't these pieces, they just didn't they look straight, but when you put a pile of them uh in a row in a column, there's no way that that was going to be a perfect fit. It I mean just it just they just kind of teetered on the edge and the height of them didn't match the height of the boards on the right hand side. So, it's a bit difficult to explain, but you've basically got a pile of blocks like it's Jenga, and the windows and doors are going to slam against this this thing that wobbles. And I can really push this. It's totally solid. I can hang off this. I tried hanging off the other one just to kind of try and bring the the boards together, but this is totally 100% solid now. Turns out the builder used to work on film sets. Um, it does look like a film set build when it went up. It's just so perfect for this garden and for what I do in this garden with the video making. Uh, so I love that little part of the story with it as well. And it looks great on the decking that our brother-in-law made as well. I'm just so happy with how it's coming together. We were so worried that it wasn't going to work. Also, I think the the look of the the cabin, it was the the best that we could find for what we could afford. But the um it just looks a bit twey. It looks a bit like a sort of, you know, Daily Mail supplement, garden furniture ad kind of design aesthetic to it. It's not offensive, but it there's just something a bit old about it. And what what's nice about what we're doing now is I think it's going to look a bit more I don't know what the word is. It's not rustic. It's going to look homemade in a good way. So, that's the update on day two of rescuing our Billy O Winchester cabin. Really pleased with how this is going to come together. It's it's obviously taking so much more work, but at least I know that work is being done properly. I'll try to keep updates coming on the channel. I'll put uh I'll put these in a playlist, I think, and that's on screen now. This is the third update now of how we're trying to rescue our garden buildings direct Billy O. Winchester log cabin or as we've dubbed it Billy oh no. On the previous videos I explained how us putting the roof on actually made the front totally buckle in the heatwave and the warped boards. the they were just so twisted that eventually the walls kind of twisted the front off to the point where it was impossible to put the window frames in. We could put them in, but we couldn't attach them to anything. We got some help from a local builder who has managed to build an entirely new front for the log cabin. And turns out he's a a former set builder on film sets. So, we now have a garden cabin that's effectively a film set, which is what I wanted for this channel. And I think I showed this on the last video, but over here, you can see how bad the walls warped in the heat cuz that is a straight line. And yeah, you can see just how wavy uh it is. Look, I mean, I put my finger in the gap between the the logs there. The next big thing was I didn't put it on camera. He he managed to build a roof as well. So, the roof boards were completely useless. They completely buckled in the heat. They were too thin. I've got them under the top wall in here. Don't know why I'm protecting them, but they completely buckled under the heat and that's what was tearing the front of the walls off. So, he's built this completely new frame at the top here with plywood. And we've managed to Can I get the camera up there? We've got uh roofing felts. And I I went out and bought some new roofing felts as well because I think the stuff we had was total crap. So, it it's watertight, which is great cuz we had a little bit of rain yesterday. We're in the middle of a heat wave, though. So, it's mainly the heat that we're protecting the uh the cabin from. I've got a big job today, and that is Well, it's not big. I've got to put down the floorboards that we took up. These ones on the top look good cuz I've selected them. underneath there are all kinds of atrocities. We've got like I can point one out right here. We've got like big holes in the floorboards from knots, but I've also the tongues on the tongue and groove disappear to nothing. So the boards don't lock into each other. We I tried contacting Bu Garden Buildings direct and tried to explain the situation that can you help me out with some extra floorboards. They said no. Um the knots are there for a reason. But on their videos, the the floorboards they use are of course completely pristine so that you can't see down through the floor into underneath the log cabin. That's the whole point of a floorboard. The first thing I need to do is to remove these three floorboards. And this looks like a really simple job, but it's taking a bit of uh bit of work to get this final floorboard out. But the reason I'm spending so much time on this is that I can't mess around with these floorboards. I've only got a very specific number that are any good and even that is short of the number of floorboards that I need. So I need to get this out really carefully because I don't want any more damaged floorboards.

The next job is to sort out the floorboards that we've got. I've got this system going where I put good boards to the right hand side, bad boards to the left, and the ones on the left have got things in them I think that make them unusable. The floorboards on the very very left hand side are the worst. Moving right to the best, and then on the right hand side, I keep that graduation going so that the very best boards are to the right on the right hand side. I'll show you the problem I've got that garden buildings direct think is okay. Let's put the camera up. Look along here. From here to here, no tongue. Don't know if you can see this on camera, but no tongue here. No tongue at the end to lock into the groove. There's no tongue whatsoever. From here to here, so there'd be a gap. Oh, and uh there's a hole there. From here to here, no tongue. No tongue from here to here. And there's a big crack from here to here. Big hole in the floorboard. Big hole in the floorboard. And another one here. Big hole in the floorboard. Hole. Hole. No tongue from here to the end. Big hole. Big hole. There's no tongue from here to the end. No tongue from here to the end. So that doesn't interlock. No tongue from here to the end. Oh, and there's a nice hole here to see you with.

I don't know what to do. I think what I'm going to do cuz that's not enough boards on that side to do the whole shack. But I think I'm going to try and put the nice ones sort of in the middle. So, those ones you'll see. And also, I'm thinking those are the ones that will take the most traffic. With my floorboards sorted, this is I thought this was going to be a breeze, and it wasn't. Uh, it was very tricky because the some of the floorboards just weren't in a good condition. I've got to choose and mix them up so that the the boards that have the tongue missing at the end, that that tongue is towards the other end. It's not at the entrance. And I'm also choosing that the not so good boards for the edges. And then as I get into the middle of the shack, I'm trying to favor the floorboards that are the straighter ones, the ones with fewer knots and the ones where the tongue is is okay to go into the groove. So when it rains, it will go onto the deck. You know that they are going to soak up moisture. They are going to curve up. I've moved some batterns to near the door. because of the way I put it up, um there isn't that much of a lip for the floorboards to rest on. So, I've put some batters by the where the door is going to be so that they don't curve up just at the point where you step into the shack, you know, have a bit of extra uh support under there for feet coming into the front door. Trying to nail that. I'm not nailing all of them because it's pretty late and I don't want to be causing that much noise. It's now sort of 7:00 on a Sunday. Yeah, this is this is hard work and it's so much quicker with another pair of hands. If you're having to do anything like this, don't do it by yourself. Get someone get someone to help you. But the boards are so warped, we've got to put nails in just to hold them in place so that the later boards that go in aren't going to be uh you know gappy. There are some gaps where there's the tongue's missing. Stop.

Why? So, something bad just happened. I've had to come away from the house to record this. Um, we got yelled at. Well, we didn't get yelled at. My wife got yelled at. I didn't get it on camera, but uh someone banged on the door like really bam bam bam and uh complained about the noise completely reasonably cuz it was half 84 to 9 and we were still hammering. Uh I needed to get it down for the builder coming tomorrow morning, but um yeah, it didn't go down well. told that it's been going on for weeks, which is kind of true, that they're trying to enjoy a meal in the garden and all they can hear is banging. And they weren't they weren't from like next door or the next door to that or the door next to that. This was from like way up the road. It has been going on for weeks. I'm sick of it. But I can't do it when it's 34°. We're in a middle of a heat wave. This these are like the hottest temperatures ever recorded for July. But it's really embarrassing for my wife and my wife had to take the brunt of it as well. She just came in. She's like, "Stop, stop, stop." So, uh, but at least we got the boards down. They're ready for the builder tomorrow morning to, uh, start work on the windows and doors. It's the end of the next day, and I wanted to end the video on a on a bit of an up because we've got some developments with the shack. We're calling it the shack now, I think. Take a look at this. We have proper barge boards on, and I love how I love how they look. I think they look great. And you probably noticed it's had a bit of a a faceelift. We've got the felt, which I believe protects it from moisture. Stuff is going to go on top of that. So, it's all still to play for. It's just looking great. And also uh he managed to finish off the the floorboards as well. I still need to nail quite a lot of nails in. You can hear it creaking. My son and I didn't we've not done any down the side and there a lot in the middle that haven't been done yet. That's a bit of banging, I guess, but we can do it during the daytime and I'm going to space it out over the week as well. We also have some window frames. They're work in progress. Look at this. Look how good they are. I love the the overhanging lip. Can't wait to see how that works out. And we've got the door frame as well. So now there's something proper to fix to instead of the the wobble wobble. The doors instead will have a proper frame to attach to that does not wobble wobble through. Sturdy sturdy. It's the next day of our log cabin build and you can probably see it in the background. Take a look at this. This is absolutely incredible. So, the front cladding is now on. I think where where we last saw it, some of the window frames have been done and the door frame, but look at this beautiful cladding. Uh, so we had the the felt, the rainroof felt put on as like a skin for the outside. What I love most though is look how scarfed in everything is. There's so much detail here that the the boards meet the the joists and the frames absolutely perfectly. This is how I wanted the log cabin to look and not like uh not like this from Garden Buildings Direct, the Billy O. Winchester cabin. If you haven't seen my earlier videos, I've got a playlist on screen now and down in the description. That's the the body of this log cabin. It didn't go very well. We had uh problems with the walls and the especially the fronts. The fronts just didn't meet the the roof. There was a big gap because it relied on these really small pieces next to the door frame. So, the door frame had no strength at all. And also in the heat. Oh, look. We've managed to get some felt around it. It hides the wibbly wobbly wall. I see if I've got some archive footage of quite how bad the uh the curvature of the walls is. I thought I'd give you a little uh sneak peek around the back. It's just as tidy. I had to leave enough decking so that I could put some weather proofing on. Um I probably left a bit too much room behind the the shack, but at least we can get to it. And I suppose I could I could use it for some storage as well. Maybe somewhere to put all of this useless wood. But it just looks so smart. Um, I can't remember if these were on. We've got barge boards on as well. Uh, let's go in. So, it's been watertight for a while. I guess we'll have to do something with the with the walls, but I'll wait for the doors and windows to go on. That will be next week. And yeah, you can see quite how bad the walls are. Look. Can you see just how bad they are? Look at that. Oh, the window frame is straight obviously now, but that's what we had to contend with. The builder even put up an extra plank here, an extra log, partial log because it's just not straight at the top to the bottom. So, that's now true. And that meant that the the roof had somewhere to go. But, I don't know if you can see on the joist, I've got some Yeah. gaps in the walls. So, I'd like to see all those up once it's all done. And I've just seen a blooming. This is my wife's plant. That's already it's growing into the into here. So, we'll have to uh eradicate that. I go around the back and pour that into that gap as well. Yeah. So, I'll seal that up. Let's go and get rid of that plant. So happy with how it's looking. Now, how can I get to that plant? I have to go the other side. So this was where I was passing the uh the joist to my son and not communicating very well.

And uh yeah, so I'll have to deal with that as well. But at least the cabin hides it. I need to move these plants. I don't want it growing into the roof. Oh, it's up there. Look at that sneaky blighter. Maybe it's extra insulation. Put it on the top. Try and train it. But yeah, the plants are really taken to it already. So, I don't think it'd be long before that plant is growing over the roof. It's the next day, the very next day. And I think this might even be the final day of this log cabin build. It's It's behind me right now. I can't turn around cuz it's too good. So, it's too nice. Look at it. It's done. It's finally done. I I knew we'd have this day eventually, but to see something that was so rickety and broken and not solid to now look like this is breathtaking. Let me show you some of the features of the final touches that have been put on to this beautiful log cabin, garden, office, pod, workshop thing. This thing is absolutely gorgeous. I've changed my shirt, by the way. Let's go in and I'll I'll try and point out as many things that I love about this as possible. So, this is the room. This is a bit like a Grand Designs reveal, isn't it? I've got some creaky floorboards cuz we haven't finished nailing the floorboards down, you know, that enraged the uh the rest of the street. It got up to 40° in here yesterday, which is kind of why I'm doing this in the morning now. But oh my goodness, look at what the builder did with the with the window framing. So we got lovely proper framing around it. We've used the the furniture, the handles from the Billio Winchester, which I I think they're slightly twe. I don't quite like the brass look, but my son loves them, so we're going to stick with it. Um, you've got frame around the door, but the door frame, there was a wobble wobble on the Billio Winchester original front that we had. I was trying to explain this a few times where the gap between the window and the door was made up of little tiny versions of these. Actually, I can show you. The wall was built up using these blocks between the window and the door which meant that firstly they didn't actually get up to the roof height. There was a huge gap about 5 cm 5 to 7 cm. So I tried putting them at a wonky angle just to kind of spread them out and bite into the roof. But it meant that the whole wall between the window and the door just wobbled and it just and it didn't connect to the roof. I think it's a problem that's unique to this width of cabin. So, if you get a 4.5 m wide cabin, you're going to get these blocks and they're not good. They are really wo doing Casper. They're they're not good. And this is why we've had to get quite a financially substantial build to to have a solid wall for the door and window to lock onto. But this is absolutely solid and insulated as well. So there's a there's there's a proper wall with the original walls. I kind of like that we've got this wibbly wobbly design from the Billio Winchester where these these timbers warped in the hottest July ever recorded. Uh you can see we've got this quite original design. It is kind of medieval. Uh, which I kind of like, but look, I don't know if it comes across on camera, but it's not straight. This is straight and true. And the builder had has he's kind of carved into it. So, the frame the the walls kind of eat into the frame, which I I like. I think it looks original. We've got it on the other side as well. Look at that. Oh my goodness. Look at that wave. So, it's straight at the bottom, but where the original roof was nailed to the walls and it took the 38° heat, um you can see how much it warped and the distance between the the window frame and the wibbly wobbly wall which is straight at the bottom. So, it kind of bows out which I guess gives us extra room in the in the shack. So, that's good. I think we're calling it the shack. Um because I've got the happy hearts. The huts at the end of the garden. It it got dubbed the happy heart. That was the original building. That's where I make all my YouTube videos. We've also got some gaps where these have never met. And this was just where the the timbers were were twisted and they were they were like that on arrival. When the roof was nailed on, the wall was really twisted because it took heat at the front. the roof pinned it in place and the only way it could expand was to was to do its thing is to just twist and warp which is unfortunate because it means we've got these these gaps. So there is tongue still in the groove. I'm slightly worried about when it gets to winter apparently these cabins really do contract and the the logs fall even further into place. They're not nailed together. The instructions said don't nail them. I'm hoping that if they do fall that they'll they'll kind of lock in better as they fall into place, but I'm a bit worried because some people have shown these massive holes appearing in in their billio cabins. Do you know what? We managed to fix this. We managed to get someone to help us fix this. So, I'm kind of hoping that if anything bad does come up, then it's all fixable. We we'll manage to find a thing. We can't see the back of it. So if if there were holes on the walls there, maybe we could put some kind of cladding on the back just to keep it insulated and hole free. The first question anyone ever asks whenever whenever I show them a happy hut if they're male, the very first question, it's always the first question guaranteed is how do you get power to to the cabin? What have you done with the electricity? Um yesterday we had uh electrician in to connect the new hob, the new kitchen hob, our IKEA hob smashed. Um so we had an electrician in and I took him up the garden to to get a quote for this. And what we're thinking of doing getting two power outlets, having a socket in the lefthand corner there and another socket in the right hand corner there. and he suggested putting some kind of junction box at the top so that we can fit lighting so that I won't have wires training up the wall which is fantastic and all of that wiring can take place at the back so I won't actually see it. It will just come into the hut. We'll have armored cable and that armored cable already runs from the the hut to the garage. I don't know if we should do some extra fancy lighting. I don't know if it's going to be too much if we got some kind of LED strip underneath the barge boards here. Um, it it would look cute, I think, for about 5 minutes and then I think it might get a bit annoying. But I don't know. That's that's what you think. Say say in the comments how you would light this. My son wanted he just wants fluorescent strips. He wants it to be like a working workshop. I I I think that would be a shame, but uh you know, to make it look like some kind of sweat shop factory, but I guess that's kind of what this is going to be used for. So, as I step on the the creaking floorboards, the the only touch of interior design we've added is the IKEA Melon doormat and a Costco very industrial wipe your feet doormat because it does get uh muddy even on the few steps leading up to the the shack. The other thing I really absolutely love is the the lap board. I don't know what you'd call this. This kind of echoes and mirrors the the fencing boards that we had put in about a year and a half ago. I I've made a video about that. Um that was our brother-in-law made that. It still looks absolutely gorgeous. We have that echoed. The builder saw that and said, "Well, I could use that kind of stuff for for the cladding." So, he's gone he's gone horizontal on here. All I can compare it to, and this is this is a compliment. It sounds like it's uh it's a this it looks like one of the shacks in Frontier Town at Chestington. It looks like something that you'd get in a theme park, which I really, really love.

And the detail that we've got, um where the boards meet the edges and where the edges meet the roof. Um, he sworded the the joists at the front to give them this diagonal angle so they don't jut out. I was more than happy to have juty out joists, but he he kind of finessed them so they'd blend into the barge boards on the roof here. Let me let the footage speak for itself now. I'll try and show it to you from every angle with some music just to show you as much detail as possible because on the wide shots, I don't think it does it justice. it it just looks like how it should be. But so much thought has gone into uh every corner and every every part where the frame meets the wall. He's managed to scarf in really lovely detail and it's also so solid at the front. I can't tell you how wobbly and holy and insubstantial the front of this cabin was. And that is the side that's going to take the brunt of the weather. And it's also going to take the brunt of opening and closing the windows and the doors, every single entrance, the front of the shack just could not take uh when it was the Billio Winchester log cabin. I am very much calling this a dad delivers success. This has been a really difficult video to make because I didn't know that it was going to work out well. If you do hit the thumbs up button, it really helps me to keep these these videos going. And are you watching this video because you're thinking of a log cabin or a garden uh summer house or garden pod, garden office, workshop? Say hi in the comments. Tell me what you're thinking of doing and is this the kind of design that you're looking for. But as we move into the winter, I'll be making more videos like this. So, on screen now is the playlist for all of my cabin or I guess we're going to call it the shack, our log cabin videos.

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I Made My 17-Year-Old Drive Through A Car Wash For The First Time

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I Made My 17-Year-Old Drive Through A Car Wash For The First Time

Our Learner Driver Car Wash Challenge.

Taking my learner driver son through an automatic car wash for the very first time!

This is what happens when we navigate the local carwash, from entry code to the ultimate soap party... rotating brushes, and heavy-duty blow dryers. Plus, we debate whether rain is still our best car cleaning method and the true disappointment of special edition Oreos.

I Made My 17-Year-Old Drive Through A Car Wash For The First Time



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

So, this is a new lesson for the daddy driving instructor. You don't like the word daddy driving instructor, do you? I think it sexualizes it. So, [laughter] anyway, we're on to a new lesson now, which is driving through the car wash, and we're going to take you on the car wash with us. Woohoo. What program have we gone for? Uh, premium because Ultimate's a scam and Ultimate Plus is out of our budget. Yeah, with Ultimate it was um dry. They dry your car and they clean the wheels properly as well. Oh, there you go. Enter your code. Here we go. So, it's 465 441. 441. Well remembered. I've pressed the five and it's registered to code not valid. So, this is a valuable part of I'm glad we did this. Shaking. 465. It's nervous. 441. [laughter] I like that. Code accepted. Should I put it on? You could have. Okay. Use car wash now. Use car wash now. Said go dead slow. Get dead slow. Dead slow. It's okay. And now we're going to go. Now, thankfully, we remembered to take the L plates off cuz they would have flown off uh because of the brushes. Though, we've lost two L plates, haven't we, recently?

But you between Yeah. stay between the lines. Wait till it says stop. So it says forward. It doesn't really come across on camera. We keep going till it says stop. And I would really recommend doing the window up. Oh yeah. Because that could be interesting. Right. So we've respected the stop sign. Put the gear stick into I already did that.

Well remembered. Oh, look. Look. So, now we get the foam. It's foam party. [laughter] Open the window now. Oh, I got to smell it. Oh. Oh, why are you making those sounds? It's covered our car in soap. The car isn't used to being covered in soap. We basically clo our car. How often would you say we clean our car? Never. The rain cleans our car. Oh, do you know what? I... I think we cleaned it once since we bought it. Mom paid someone. Mom paid someone to clean it. Oh, yes, she did. You know that someone, don't you? Yeah, I do. Cuz he bought pot with it. I'm not supposed to say that on camera. [laughter]

Oh, I'm sorry. Um, cigarette. So, mommy's funding probably someone's habit. Right. So now the brush has come back for a revenge for a second spray. Oh, I could ring. Can you smell it? I could roll a window down. [laughter] You're obsessed with opening the window. It's so funny. I could literally ruin someone's day. I will open the back window. Yeah, she just get absolutely That's not good. Never get into a car wash with me in my car. In my crap box. So, what's that? Was that the wax or the foam? I've lost count of the things we've paid for. We had soap and then some foam, I think. And now the brushes, you can't really see them. I should open the window. Should I open the window? Oh, it's coming back. Where's the brush? Oh, here comes the brush.

Wow. Feels like it's raining. To be fair, this is quite cheap. It is. Do you know what? Things have gone up so much recently that now the car washes car washes. It seems reasonable. Cuz one of these Oh my god. Here we go. Open the window. See, this would be the best time to have a sunroof. Probably have one. Yeah. Yeah.

Is this a really big moment? This is your first car wash. It's my first car wash. We did a car wash before. Did we? Yeah. Now you I think you were about five last time we got the car wash. I just want to show how the the bristles go over the the wing mirror. That's my favorite bit.

I thought it would go back to get the wing. Yeah. Oh, it might come back. It's coming breaking. Yeah, breaking. Oh, it's coming back. Oh, no. It's going to do the back now. Get the camera back.

Yeah, we would definitely have lost. We would have lost all the old plates. Wow, it's dark. It's giving the back a really good really good wipe.

Yes. Wipe that back right now. Will it come? Do you think it will come back to do the the wing mirrors properly? No. That's in the premium package. I don't know. Do you remember the premium? It was literally we dry the car. And then the other one was the ultimate dry. The car's going to dry itself. Oh, you'd think. And also, next time it rains, it's going to ruin it. Also, if it does the wheels, it's just going to get brake dust on them in like 2 days anyway. Yeah. Yeah. So, the This feels like we're in a rainstorm. Yeah. Yeah. Really bad rainstorm. a rainstorm that actually cleans the car. Here we go. It's coming back in forever. Yeah, we're getting our money's worth, aren't we?

Here he comes. Here he comes at the car wash. getting nice and clean in the car wash. Yeah, it's taking your fingerprints off the off the door. You really want to open that window, don't you? And the Oh, it did do the the wing mirrors. And now it's doing the windscreen again. Oh, that Oh, the bird poo's gone. The pen sand's bird poo.

A there we go. That rain.

didn't even get me as well. The calm. I didn't try to get after the storm. Hey, it is wet back there. Did you open the window? Just did that. Just a tip. [laughter] Just a tin. Have you seen Have you seen what brand car wash this is? Christ. What is it? Christ. It's the Christ brand. Saying that. No. No. It's the Christ brand car wash. Oh, it's drawing us. He moves in mysterious ways. Oh, so we do get a a drone.

Oh, this is the this is the scary bit, Joe, cuz this comes really close to the to the bonnet using the hood. It's probably got just as much power as a Lego Mindstorms to... to process.

This a bit. This is fine. [laughter] I want my money back in this spot. Sell me this car wash.

So, we did get dry. It said... there was not a blob. What if I go... If I go 70 back home, I'll get dry. This is true. Which I won't do. Which won't do. I really

but we have lost two L plates now going the speed limit. Yeah. What I don't understand is how come the car wash itself is so filthy. Yeah, they should have a car wash. Car wash doesn't actually tell me. You could just try drive off dry off your eye off. No, it's going to it's going to come back blow. It's blowing our back now. What? You can see the air holes. Count the pixels on display. I think we're bit fed up with this now. Yeah. Would you like an Oreo? We'll get you an Oreo. Can you offer them an Oreo? There you go. These are nicer than the BTS Oreos. They were not good. I thought they would be really nice, but they they don't taste like purple. Oh, I made a pack of those. Did you? Yeah. I found it kind of worried, so I can't eat. I thought they'd be smooth like butter, but they did not light up my taste buds like dino. They didn't taste like Oreos either. That was the biggest disappointment. I just wait for the sign now. Forward. Forward. We did it. I'm calling this a dad delivers success. Oh yeah. Pull away. Go dead straight. Dead straight. Uh, if you've reached this point of the video, thanks for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button. It really helps us to keep this channel going and to keep us going to the car wash. And on screen now is what YouTube knows you want to be watching next. So, I've got to watch the road, right? So, why not put the plates back on? Oh, you do, don't you? We'll just pull out over here. [laughter]

No, [laughter] I thought that was the car and I was making find somewhere to pull in. Maybe down here.

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BEFORE YOU BUY Yoto Mini 4th Gen Player (FULL Setup and Unboxing)!

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BEFORE YOU BUY Yoto Mini 4th Gen Player (FULL Setup and Unboxing)!

*BUY ONE HERE!* (commissions earned)

👉 (Amazon US/World) https://amzn.to/3THxhFj

👉 (Amazon UK) https://link.amazon/B06o3q2KC

 

Unboxing, setting up, and testing the brand new 4th Generation Yoto Mini player!

Thinking of buying a Yoto Mini Player?

I take you through the complete unboxing experience, walkthrough the step-by-step app pairing and Wi-Fi setup, and explore all the features. Discover how the new green button works for offline card-free listening, how to set daytime and bedtime playlists, and how to pair Bluetooth headphones.

Plus, we kit it out in a fresh frog green adventure jacket with a lanyard and put its durability to the test with a dad-proof drop test. Is the new 4th gen Yoto Mini the ultimate kids smart speaker? 

Disclosure: I perform freelance audio work for Yoto and they provided this player to me, but this video is completely unpaid, and not sponsored by Yoto plus they have no say in the contents of this video thanks!

BEFORE YOU BUY Yoto Mini 4th Gen Player (FULL Setup and Unboxing)!



TRANSCRIPT: (CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE)

THIS IS THE TRANSCRIPT - CLICK PLAY ON THE VIDEO ABOVE!

Should we do it? It survived. This is the Yoto Mini 4th Generation player. And if you're thinking of getting a Yoto, I'm unboxing this in real time so you can see how this arrives and how it comes out of the box. I'm also setting it up and pairing it with the Yoto app just to show you what it's like if you wanted to fully set it up from scratch. I got to say, it's really easy though because they walk you through the process step by step. Yoto have really kindly sent this to me and I'm unboxing this in real time so you can see all the things that come along. Plus, as a bonus, I'll also show you how the adventure jacket looks and that comes with a lanyard as well so you can wear it or swing it around on car journeys. This is how the Yoto mini 4th gen arrives. Uh, it comes in a really nice petite, perfectly formed box. I'll just give you a tour of the outside. And this lid comes off. Ah. Oh, look. There's stuff in the lid. We'll go through that in a moment. But this is the player. Volume up, volume down on the left side. Skip through chapters round and round on the right side. And these dials are clickable. But let's see the actual player itself. Oh, it's building up the anticipation. Take a spin through your story songs and beyond. Spin me. Click me. Oh, this is lovely. So, there's a QR code to sort you out with the Yoto app. And this is how the actual player itself looks. I'll give you a spin. Oh, there's even more stuff in the box. We have a USB-C socket and 3.5 mm headphone jack, speaker. There's a screen. I've got to take the cellophane off, haven't I? And there's a new dial for the Yoto players, which is the green button. And I think this stores favorites. You can click it in and you can turn it. Don't if you can hear that. And you can click these buttons in as well. And then as with all Yoto players, there's a slot here for playing cards. You get a quick start guide and a make your own card where you can record things, record your own things onto the card that goes into the player like this. And that's how you can play things. Or one of the ways you can play things. It says pull here. I haven't done that yet. Should I pull it? Oh, look. Oh, that's a gorgeous cable. It's one of my favorite things about the my big Yoto player is the USB cable. This is a green uh branded cable. And then there's the quick start guide. I'll just give you a quick flash of this. You can pause the video if you want to read any of this, but this guides you through. Also in the box, we have some stickers. Oh, so you can put these stickers onto your make your own card to personalize the card. That's this card here. This says, "Hey grown-ups, you can add any audio from the Yoto app to a make your own Yoto card. Tap the link button to add Journey Jams to the card that came with your Yoto Mini. Then decorate it with this sticker." So, they've given you some free audio to get going. There's also some other free audio that you get, quite a lot of free audio that you get with this, but we'll turn it on to see how we access that. So, the first thing it says is plug in the USB-C cable provided. The Yoto Mini will power on automatically for setup. So, let's try that. Plug it in here. Now, it says Yoto app. And there's a picture of a phone. So, what it's trying to get you to do is to pair it with a Yoto app. Now, I've already got a Yoto login. You can download the Yoto app really easily. If you create a login, the Yoto app and your Yoto account will store any cards that you get. So, if you lose the physical card, you've still got the card on your phone and you can still put it onto the Yoto player. And on the bottom of the app screen, I don't know if you can see this, it says create, library, discover, and settings. I'm now going to click on settings, and we'll scroll down to my players. Now, I've already got a Yoto player. If you're doing this for the first time, you can click on set up a player. Then it says, which Yoto are you setting up? And we're going to go for the Yoto Mini 4th Gen. It says plug in your player. Your player needs to be plugged in while we set it up. Allow location access to find and connect your player. Allow nearby devices to find your player. So, that's so your phone can connect to the player. So, I'll allow there. Bluetooth connected. Next, let's connect your player to Wi-Fi. Now, this is great because if once you put the mini player onto your Wi-Fi, you can download cards and stream audio for free and and access all of the the free content that Yoto provides. So, I'm going to click on connect to Wi-Fi. It's searching for Wi-Fi networks. Next, it wants me to put in my Wi-Fi password. Now, ironically, I need my kids to tell me what our password is these days. Let's type it in. I'll hit connect. And then it says almost there. We're connecting to Wi-Fi. Connected. updating your player. So, it already automatically does a firmware update. That's the software that uh controls the player. It seems to be doing it automatically. Now, it says a few things worth knowing. Charging by adults only, no players in bed, not for kids under three, and keep it dry. But, this new generation player can handle splashes, but you can't dunk it in the sink or the bath. You're all set. Pop in your welcome card to get started. Oh, what's that? You can hand the player over to a little listener. They can take it from here. So, what happens here? Shall I put the card in? See what happens. Oh, I've got a little And welcome to the world of Yoto. This card will give you a quick introduction to everything you need to get started. That's so nice. How to play any Yoto card, how to use the green button, and where to find a world of free content. Are you ready? Let's go. Okay. All right. Let's start with the basics. Cards are at the heart of how Yoto works. To play any card, put it in the slot on the top of your player, just like you did with this one. To stop it, simply pull the card out. Like that. And this is so unfortunate that I've got beautiful bright sunshine, but the screen is actually showing icons while the audio is playing. And when I take the card out, it's got the the time, the correct time, unbelievably, and the little weather icon as well. Let's keep playing. I just push the card back in. By the way, that's how that's how yo players work, or one of the ways that they work is you can start and stop the device by just putting the card in and out of the player, and it just remembers where it was, and it picks it up from where it left off. When you put it back in, it'll pick up right where you left off. There's two orange buttons, one on the left, one on the right. Twist the left button to adjust the volume to make it louder. Oh, wrong way. Or quieter. Twist the right button to browse through tracks, then press it to choose. Holding the left button down will let you rewind. How I didn't know that. And holding the right button down will let you fast forward. Oh, and that small white button on the side of your player, that's the power button. Give the power button a long press to turn it off or on, or press it quickly to see the battery level. Now, let's get into the green button. The green button lets you explore your library and play the audio on your player without needing to put a card in. Grown-ups, you can add any audio or card in your library to your green button playlist at any time using the Yoto app. And then listening can happen whenever, wherever, card free, even offline. Twist the green button to scroll through the audio on your player. Once you found something you want to listen to, press the green button to play it. All right, so you can use this as a... as a play and pause button. So, as well as taking the card in and out, you can use the green button for play and pause. When you scroll the green button, it scrolls through the different things that you can access quickly on the mini player. So, out of the box, it's showing the clock. And then when I turn the dial again, it shows that we're on chapter 3 of this welcome card. And if I turn it again, there's access to Yoto Daily. Should we do that? Should I go to Yoto Daily? So, if I press play.

Oh, welcome, welcome, welcome once more to Yoto Daily, my friends. Welcome to Wednesday on Yoto Daily. So, that's Jake from Yoto Daily. Incredibly, you get a free daily podcast, and you can access it anytime by just turning the green dial. To get back to the card, I've turned the dial to show my card here. And then I'll press play by pressing in the green button. and Yoda Radio, our radio station playing constant kid-friendly tunes.

Your green button playlist will switch at nighttime. So, grown-ups, this means you can edit your daytime and nighttime playlists to have different content available. Yeah, I'll just pause it there. So, in the app, you can actually choose which podcasts the green button can access. And if you don't do that, they'll just be there anyway. You can just customize the list using the app. Besides Yoto Daily and Yoto Radio, there's a whole world of free audio available. Grown-ups, you can explore the discovery section of the Yoto app to find thousands of hours of free podcasts, radio, stories, music, and more for your kids. Check out the download. Excellent for older kids who love asking why. Any of this audio along with your own Yo cards can be added to your green button so it's always there when you want it. There are also alarms and timers to help with routines, even the ability to record your own audio onto make your own cards. You can use this card as one once you finish listening. When you're done listening to any new cards for the first time, just leave your player charging and connected to Wi-Fi and they'll download to your player in the background. Once they're downloaded, they'll be available for offline listening. Great stuff. So, now we will set up the app. So, I'll hit ready to explore the app. And already as a message in the app, it says set up the green button. So I'll click on that. Meet your green button. You can create one playlist for daytime and another for bedtime. And you can also add favorites and free podcasts and sleep sounds onto the green button. So we'll go on to set up your green button. And the way to do this anytime is if you click on settings in the app, choose your player. So I'm going to choose the fourth gen mini Mini. And these are the controls for the little player. I'll just scroll down just to give you an idea of some of the stuff here. So you can set when you want morning to be and you can set a volume limit for daytime and you can also set what you want on the green button in daytime hours. So I'll click add. Now these cards are already on my account. So if you add cards to your account, you can then put them onto the green button playlist. If I go back and it's exactly the same for night mode. So you can decide when bedtime is or my kids now decide when their bedtime is. And you've got a nighttime volume limit as well. And you can have a different green button playlist for your green button at nighttime. And it comes preset with sleep radio and Yoto Dreams. I scroll down. You can set an alarm. Should we add an alarm? So you can choose which days. And you can choose which sound will go off. So you could have wake up with Jake. Should we do a fanfare? Let's do a fanfare.

Back to the settings. You can rename your player. You can check the battery level. And you can see how many things you've downloaded onto the player itself. When you're going on a journey, you can download things onto the onto the player from the app. We've got auto power off, Bluetooth audio. To pair this with Bluetooth headphones, you can either plug the headphones in here or to pair them with a Bluetooth headset. I hold down the left button for a couple of seconds and then you can see a Bluetooth headphones icon showing. This is now in in pairing mode. I don't have Bluetooth headphones to hand, but that is how you do it. Back to the app, we can set a volume limit for the headphones. You can choose to have uh regular time or 24-hour clock time. I use 24-hour clock time in in our house. I try to run it like a military operation, but the mission isn't going very well. And this is where your latest firmware version will show. One final recap of the buttons. The left button, you turn it left and right to go up and down. If you want to skip back a track, you press the left button once. If you want to rewind, you just hold down the left button. On the right button, you can turn the dial to go through the different tracks on the audio that's playing. If you want to skip to the next track, you press the right button once. And fast forward, you just hold down that button. So, rewind, fast forward. Power button on off is a long press of this button. And if you want to quickly check the battery, you just press it once quickly and it brings up the battery level there. Now, there's one thing I haven't shown you. On the top here, there is a lanyard connection. Yo very kindly sent me an adventure jacket for this thing. They probably know what I'm like. And uh this will give me a little bit of protection. I mean, these are they're strong. They're tough. Uh but always nice to keep it pristine with a jacket. So, I'm going to open up the box. And I've got a frog green, fresh frog green jacket. Now, let's see. It's usually really difficult for me to put lanyards on. Made it. And now I'll pull the other end through that loop. And that's the lanyard attached. And then to get the jacket on. Should we get the jacket on? So, I'm going to pull the the lanyard through. Wow. Yoto have thought of everything. Thought of Dozy Dads uh doing it in the wrong order. And then I'm going to stretch this on. It's brand new out of the box, so I don't know how easily this is going to go on. Just shimmy it around and you can stretch it around so that it matches the correct holes. And now everything is even more protected. Should I drop it on the table? Let's see how this works. Should we do it? It survived. Look, if it can survive me, uh, I think that is probably the best test of all. And then to play, I press the on button. That funky sound means that it's working. We've got the Yoto logo here. There are so many videos online showing you how to make a card. I'll... I'll link to my one in the description, but it's really simple. You just find the audio in your library. So, say I've got big bus. And then, can you see where it says link to a card? You just click on that. And then you can use your Yoto player and you can uh link to it that way. The other thing you can do, and this is with any Yoto player, is if you click on the create button in the bottom left and corner, you can record something or make a playlist and then you can tap it onto the card either by NFC on your phone or you can load it onto the card by putting the card into the player. But I'm just going to play a random card and then you push this into the player. You can see the icon. It's loading. Are you ready for a journey to sleep? We're just in time to get on this big yellow bus. So, to pause, I'll press the green button. If I wanted to fast forward cuz I want to get to sleep quicker, I'm going to hold down the fast forward button. The other way to pause it is to pull the card out. And then to carry on playing, your kid can just put the card back in. And what I can show you is back on the app, I can see what's playing. And I can even it's I can play and pause it from the app as well. So if you wanted to control the player for your kid, you can use the the play button here. And then I think if I click on settings and go into player two. So I can see that Journey to Sleep Big Bus is downloading right now. And it's dad proof. Look, if I drop it again, it's completely dadproof. I'm calling this a Dad Delivers success. Let me know in the comments if you're thinking of getting a yoto and whether or not you're going to go for a mini or one of the larger players. Thank you for hitting the thumbs up or the subscribe button. It really helps me to keep this channel going. So, thank you. And right here is what YouTube knows you want to be watching next.

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Which Vlogging Camera Should You Actually Buy? (Luna Ultra vs Sony ZV1)

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