In this vlog, Mike Andes and his friend Ben take viewers on a casual, on‑site tour of the 5‑acre property in Bellingham, Washington, where they have just broken ground on the headquarters for Augusta Nation and Homeworks. The video weaves together a light‑hearted search for their mailbox, a celebration of the groundbreaking ceremony, and a detailed walkthrough of the construction progress: driveway completion, a larger culvert installation, removal of 2,000 cubic yards of topsoil, and the start of a retaining wall. Mike explains a $50,000 budget overrun caused by soil removal and retaining‑wall work, discusses wetlands permitting, storm‑water bioswale plans, and the mandatory fire‑suppression system that requires a $350,000 water tank and diesel generator despite nearby fire hydrants. He also outlines future plans for a second building and the cost advantages of expanding on the already‑developed land. Interspersed throughout are personal vignettes—Ben’s speeding‑ticket story, a tour of Ben’s recovery room with a new mini‑fridge, a coffee‑shop stop, and a detailed Costco haul that showcases their everyday routines and product preferences. The vlog balances technical project updates with informal lifestyle content, giving viewers insight into both the logistical challenges of building a new headquarters and the personalities behind the venture.
Chapters
Ben is trying to find which of these mailboxes is ours because the owners never told us where our mailbox is. That's the current dilemma. And then we're headed to the headquarter building that broke ground today. What's the word?
Ours might be whenever you walk into the neighborhood. All right, another box towards the entrance.
All right, mailbox situation number 2.
Get it?
Let's go! Ben, is that my million dollars? I sure hope it's my million Is it a brick of gold?
I wish. I have probably an expensive email. Exciting adult stuff. I love getting bills in the mail. This is so exciting. They broke ground like just a couple days earlier than I expected them to. They were gonna do it on Monday. Let's check it out.
Sniff it out. Make sure it's going good.
Here we go. The materials that have been sitting here for like I don't know, 2 or 3 years. So awesome seeing it finally happen. This coming soon sign has been here for years, so to see it actually be coming soon now is so exciting. Did it pass the supervisor's inspection? How do you feel right now?
I'm just ready to be done. I'm really thinking about, do we do building 2 here? Building 1 wasn't going to fit us even from day 1. Are we gonna take those trees out and build a bigger one.
How many acres is this?
5. We've got lots of space. It's mostly just the wetlands we're dealing with. So the stormwater will help. Stormwater, like retention pond. Next week it'll become a little more real too because we're doing all like the carpet finishes, paint colors, all the little stuff.
All the fun stuff.
Right. So maybe Ben will come help me. Cell phone tower. That means we have good service here. Let's go. 5 points! Hey everyone, it's Mike Andes here, and today I'm showing you around a facility that we have had in our possession for over 5 years. And it's this land out in Bellingham, Washington, 5 acres. But today we broke ground on the headquarter building for Augusta Nation and Homeworks.
Y'all know what this is? It's a speeding ticket. You remember whenever I was like, I've never gotten pulled over before, I've never got caught for speeding? Yeah, well, yesterday was the day. I 100% deserved getting a little slap on the wrist, you know. I was definitely speeding on the freeway and I should not have been. And it was exactly in the zone that Mike had referenced in the video where I was also talking about never getting pulled over before. So needless to say, I had that coming. I should not have been cocky about it and I should not have been speeding. But it was a great lesson that I learned because now I'm checking my speedometer every 5 minutes. But on a more positive note, um, I figured I would actually just go ahead and show you guys the recovery room because this is probably like one of my favorite rooms in the house. It's definitely gonna be like the most used besides the main 3 rooms in the house: kitchen, living room, bedroom. It just became one of my favorite rooms in the house because of the newest addition and And that is the mini fridge. That's right, it looks beautiful. It just came in and I took it out of the box, put all the drinks in like immediately. It looks so good. The top 3 shelves that are being used right now are Mike's, and then I have my Lonnie's at the bottom. But I thought it'd be delivered tomorrow, but it came today and he doesn't know that it's here, so I'm excited to see his reaction whenever he gets home. As for the rest of the room, you know, we like to keep it simple. That's the goal for now. That rug is not permanent, by the way. It just didn't have have a spot, and I figure why not in front of the cold plunge. So we got that set up earlier this week, and then the lovely, lovely StairMaster. Now you might be wondering, where's the treadmill and y'all's weight set? That's upstairs. And the reason why the StairMaster is not upstairs is because it would not fit. I think they got it up the stairs, but they could not fit it in any of the bedrooms. Like, the bedroom doorways are pretty tight as far as like having to swing the whole piece of machinery in there. So it's downstairs for now. Like, I do wish we could have everything all in one room to make it make sense, but that's okay. The recovery room plus the StairMaster room is looking so good. We're going to our favorite coffee shop. This has been— this has become a part of our Saturday ritual. We boycotted Woods because it's seriously—
we don't boycott anybody.
No, we don't. But you know, we, we diverted our attention, let's say that.
We voted with our feet.
To Lumino! So good. Thank you, baby. That's what I'm talking about. Good morning, you beautiful people. Every day is a good morning if you wake up and you're able to get out of bed. That's right. I'm currently on my way to Costco because we need a few things and Costco is my go-to, you know, better value. It's 9:05, so I'm taking advantage of that executive membership. Not to flex on you guys like that, but I'm just saying. Oh man, you guys, check out Mount Baker. Can you see it? Can you see it? Can you see it? That view never gets old. I absolutely love living in Washington so much. I said it before, I'm gonna say it again. One hack to getting more steps throughout your day is parking as far away as you can from the building. I didn't park as far away as I could have, but you get the gist. Still pretty far away. Hello. Don't have a super big list today because I just came to Costco, I think last week. Wow, they have Shark vacuums now. But we do need the essentials, and value-wise, it's just better to get it from here because it's in bulk. So I don't have it on my list, but thankfully I just remembered, because we're going out of town, we're low on the Chomps meat sticks. So I need to grab some of those. Per usual, I had 4 things in my cart and only one of them was on my list. I always come in here and get way more than I feel I need. Mike absolutely loves these, so I'm gonna get a bag. Cosmic Crisp are the best apples ever, no contest. Yes, it is. You're fine. I'm gonna grab this right here. Go for it. Per usual, I had like 6 things on my list and I walked out with 12. That's usually how it goes. Hi, how are you doing? Good, how are you? Good. Sorry, pulled just too far forward. Um, could I please do a 16 oz iced almond milk latte with sugar-free vanilla? Awesome, thank you. There you go. Thank you, you as well. Thanks. Okay, not going to lie, I was worried for a second cuz when like don't judge a book by its cover, you know what I'm saying? But, um, I didn't get like the best vibe whenever she first walked up. And so I was like, let me just check the reviews. 3.9 stars at this place. But the coffee tastes good, thankfully. So like, she was not the friendliest barista I've ever met, but that's totally fine. Maybe she's not having a great day, but as long as the coffee's fine, we're chilling. Oh my. Anywho, let's take these groceries home now. All right, quick rundown of everything I got. These are excellent single-use towels that I use to like dry my face after I wash it at night. And I like it because I used to use a washcloth, the same washcloth like for a few days, and it's kind of not great for your skin. There's a lot of bacteria that can build up on that. So these are single-use and I'm excited to try these because I got some other ones from TJ Maxx, but I had to try this brand. So got those. Um, of course got Mike some Wild Chips because he really likes that flavor. Some Cosmic Crisp apples. I will only be getting these. Cosmic Crisp is the absolute best. I get these for our travel snacks, or at least Mike's now since I'm on a meal plan. I don't really have most of this stuff, but mini Archer Beef Sticks, clean ingredients. And this Kerrygold butter was on sale. It's made with milk from grass-fed cows. And usually get the Kirkland brand because it's a lot cheaper, but it was on sale for cheaper than what the Kirkland brand was, uh, priced. So got some of that. More travel snacks, just like the Kirkland brand, the Chomps. Meat sticks. It's cheaper. Taco seasoning because we're out almost. Vanilla extract. This mild cheddar cheese that I use for Mike's spinach omelets because those are still a staple in his diet. I don't think he'll ever not eat his spinach omelets. Some carrots. A bag of sweet potatoes for my meal plan. And a bag of onions. You know, nothing crazy, just the staples that we needed. Actually quite a few staples. Like, I always need onions, vanilla extract, taco seasoning, and whatnot. So That is the Costco haul. I downed my coffee in like 2 seconds, but not gonna lie, it's mostly because it was all ice. Like, check this out. Oh, it actually kind of melts a little bit, but like mostly ice. But it was good coffee, so like at least the espresso shot wasn't bitter or anything, so can't complain.
Is it recording? Is my thing recording?
Yeah.
Okay, cool. All right, welcome to week 1. We have finished the driveway. We have already had over $50,000 of work change orders. Fantastic. I'll explain why in a moment. But first off, we had to stop for a few days because there was so much water backed up in here. It was crazy. So they put a bigger culvert in underneath the driveway. But this is the driveway is now established. This is where you will drive in and then the parking lot is going to be here for the first building. There's only like space for 20 or 30 parking spots that's paved, but eventually we'll be able to gravel it more. And we've started the process for building number 2 and the permitting and seeing if there's feasibility around the wetlands. In Washington State, we like to hug trees, at least that's what they tell us. And then what they tell you when you're like, I want to take out that wetlands, they say, oh, just give us money. I don't understand that. It just like literally just give us money and this problem will go away. Literally, that's what's happening. So anyways, that's phase 2. So this is the parking lot area and then this is where the building is going to be. Now, the $50,000 of work change orders is the fact that we're taking over 2,000 yards, 2,000 yards of this dirt out of here. Why? Because they need to get down to the clay for the foundation. And there was too much of this topsoil stuff. I was like, can't we just repurpose it somewhere else on this property? But no, we can't. Down there is going to be where the bioswale or like the stormwater retention area is. Can't have soil down there. That's this type. So what did we do? We're removing 2,000— 2,000 cubic yards of this soil, and then we're going to have to build a retaining wall. Now, the retaining wall we can handle. We're a landscaping business, but hauling 2,000 yards of soil out of here is not cheap. So that the landscape wall, etc., we are currently at $50,000 over budget. I'm 5 feet, so this is probably 6 feet. This will be the east side of the building. And then it will extend 100 feet that way. And building 2 will start over there. Hopefully over there is going to be the pump house for the fire suppression system. Now what's cool is one thing that is nice, they always account for the fact that only one building will get on fire at a single time, which is great because that means I can build a second building, not have to build another fire suppression system. And so when we looked at like, do we build another building on this property? It was almost half the cost per square foot for the second building because the land's been developed. That's the real cost. And so I was able to get this land for dirt cheap. Thank goodness. Right in the middle of COVID I bought this thing for pennies. But now it's a lot of land development costs. And here's the crazy thing. You're like, why do you need a fire suppression system? There must not be any fire hydrants. Nay, nay. Look at this. We have fire hydrant right there. That is right on my property, right behind my car over here. Another one right there. Down next to the car. And yet I have to build a $350,000 water tank, including a diesel generator to pump water on in the event that my building is on fire. That, my friends, is insanity. So this technically— the reason that's the case is this is technically a transfer line between Ferndale and Bellingham. I'm right in the middle in the county. They will not let me tap into that fire suppression system, i.e., hydrants sitting out here. Now let me ask you, if this— if there's a building right here and it's burning down and you're a firefighter, what are you going to do? Are you like, hey, we should like figure out how to get the water from the tank onto the building? No, you're going to connect to the stinking fire hydrant and you're going to put out the fire. So that's why we are now currently $50,000 over budget. That's progress after week 1. Now we gotta go on the turnaround trip, and when we get back, we'll go over week 2's progress.
