Original subtitles

The area here which a lot of folks

call Muscle Shoals there's a story about a woman who's

part of the Trail of Tears, and she walked all the way back,

took her five years to come back because she missed the water.

She said the river sings.

There's something about the land, the water, that is

just something mystical about.

When you drive here, you actually

come to the end of the road, and then

you kind of wind down a very steep hill

before you get to the cabin.

And it's literally just-- it's thick with woods on both sides.

You just feel like you're the only person out here.

Our family-- there's five of us, my wife Jean.

We've been married almost 28 years now.

We have three children, and we have two dogs.

We decided that we needed to kind of reset life,

and the best place for us to do that was here in Alabama.

We first moved here, you could have shot a cannon on Saturday

night and not hit anything.

And now you can't find a parking spot on Monday night.

It's been really interesting to watch that evolve,

and it's been great to be a part of it.

Later, when we were looking for a place,

Jeannie wanted to be on the water,

I wanted land and to be out in the woods,

and this was kind of the perfect combination

of those two things.

There are seven acres of hardwoods,

and it's literally covered up with woods and, you know,

the hills.

We have not really done anything to disturb it.

As we started, you know, to think about the cabin I mean,

we completely overhauled it.

We were really trying to create almost like a loft space.

You know, completely open, contemporary type field.

Originally, there were five rooms.

Six rooms, actually, if you include the bathroom.

And then downstairs was unfinished-- no plumbing.

We wanted to basically take all the bedrooms

that were in the house and put them downstairs.

It's actually two suites downstairs

and one with a walk-in steam shower

and then one to a soaking tub.

We also put in a bunk room for my son.

We love to use reclaimed materials.

But the other thing we wanted to do with the house,

we did not want one piece of Sheetrock in the house.

There was a lot of wood that was required.

We knocked out every wall in the space so it needed support.

So when we put the support beams in,

we knew we were going to cover them with some big reclaimed

boards we had.

These floors came out of a house in South

Carolina from, like, the 1850s, and they're different.

They're not all the same.

You know, there's some pine, there's some oak.

It's all mixed.

My dad had saved portions of the staircases that were

in my great grandmother's home.

When we started working on the cabin,

I mean, we took the spindles and the handrails

and repurposed them here.

And it was kind of one thing where there was such a moment--

just got to let you go.

We got to use this.

This is something so special.

And when we put it in, it really kind of

was a relaxing moment because it opened up

kind of for us to be ourselves.

You know, we love finding a cool antique piece

or mid-century modern piece, or making things

out of the reclaimed materials.

That staircase really kind of helped us, I think,

balance things out.

It's very inspirational here for me, working.

I did not start out thinking I would be a fashion designer.

I actually started school as a PE major.

And somehow, I flunked out as a PE major.

It's harder to do than you think.

A little too much fun.

Fortunately, a friend of mine somehow

convinced my parents that I needed to go to art school.

Studying it and then applying it was probably the best

thing that could happen.

I feel like, sometimes, when you're getting comfortable

or being comfortable with yourself,

comfortable with your surroundings,

comfortable with who you are, I feel like that absolutely

affects your work and design.

I like the fact that I can be at work so quickly.

Something's on my mind, I can easily just start right then

because it's all right here.

Well, the chandelier ended up here.

Literally, we've had this iron sort of candelabra,

wrought iron piece, and it had been at our house sitting

in the garage for years.

I just started taking wood from the water,

bringing it here, and just layering

it on top of each other.

It's kind of been the focal point of the house, really.

You know, it's one of those things.

It wasn't really a planned idea for the space.

It just kind of happened.

The whole place has been like that in some ways.

I mean, it's not-- we've been working on this place

for five years now.

As we work on it, we just let it evolve.

Alabama, at one point, produced a lot of marble,

and it's called Alabama White.

And when we redid the kitchen, we

combined the reclaimed beams that we had,

and we were able to get our hands on some Alabama White.

Each tile is completely unique to itself.

And when you put all that together, the montage of that

is awesome.

We love to take found objects and remake

them into new things.

Our dining tables actually an old cafeteria table that we

found in Nashville for $25.

I got two of them, actually.

One is in our store in Birmingham,

and then we have one here.

I bought, like, these church pews out on Magazine

Street in New Orleans.

There were 20 black walnut, beautifully

carved church pew ends.

We were able to kind of repurpose some of those,

and they're here in the space.

The wildlife here is incredible.

Mid November to December, there's a migration

of giant white pelicans.

Literally, I've seen hundreds all bunched up together.

When we built the--

what we wanted to try to do is connect those outdoor spaces,

as well as have them connected to the cabin.

So we basically took the deck, made

a staircase where it actually can serve its bench seating.

That looks out into the water so we

have, like, a large gathering, people can sit outside.

They can sit on the steps.

Easy access into the cabin, easy access to the dock.

Yes, we redid the deck.

We wanted to have sort of an outdoor fireplace.

But it wasn't like we could build anything too massive.

I sketched it out, and it was kind of this J shape.

I took it to some steel fabricators

and they said, no way, this has too many rounded edges.

And they said, we have to work in straight angles to weld.

I said, oh, well it's good to know.

It's like, yeah, you know, you should have known better.

And so I said, well, let me revise the sketch

and I'll bring it back.

And we'll talk about it again.

So I went back, revised it, straightened out the edges

and made it more angular.

We love hanging out with a fire pit on the deck,

and it's very relaxing.

What we really enjoy doing is, when we put a space together,

there's personal connections to it.

It gives a story behind it of why you chose that piece of art

or why you chose to use a certain material to make

something else out of it.

Jean and I both have-- you know, it's

something we just enjoy doing.

I hope the cabin can stay in the family over the years.

When your kids get older, they start

to spread their wings and stuff, so you want

them to want to come back home.

You want them to be a part of that

and relive some of those old memories and create new ones.