Ryel Kestano finishes all fifteen foundation piers for his Colorado cabin, bending rebar with a vise grip and pipe to reinforce each one. He lights the fire pit as fall temperatures drop and credits his ex-father-in-law, a master carpenter with fifty years of experience, plus YouTube tutorials for getting this far.
So I've cut out a template. Here from one of the tubes to use to build a little form around. I'm going to use these 2x4s to build a form around the top of each of the sauna tubes and then anchor that down with stakes on either side of the, the trenches so that the top is totally stable and set and isn't going to wobble or move at all. And that way I can get it all dialed in vertical, plumb, and set. And, uh, from that point on it won't move at all. So that's what I'm up to now. Gonna use this and, uh, got 15 of these to make. So what I'm trying here is to figure out a way to bend some rebar into a 90-degree angle, and this is my best go at coming up with something. I'm gonna finish bolting this vise grip here to the tree and then stick the end of the rebar in the jaws and then a pipe over the end and crank down on it because I need some L shapes at the bottom of the rebar that's going to go up and down the sauna tube. So we'll see how this goes. Moment of truth. Yes! Nice, it worked. Awesome. Perfect. Bit of a milestone moment here. Got my first pier, uh, fully set, plumbed straight, and ready to go for concrete. Uh, it was a long time coming to this moment, so pretty excited to finally make it to this milestone. And now I just got 14 more of these bad boys to go, but, uh, definitely encouraging and exciting. Never thought I'd be so excited about installing a foundation pier, but here we are. First fire in the fire pit. First of many, I hope. Feels really nice to get some warmth now that it's getting pretty cold outside as we get ever closer to winter. I thought I would share a little bit about how I'm learning as I go along and what my sources of information are, because I'm really starting with very little experience. And that was part of the objective here, was to learn as I went along and sort of prove to myself that I could tackle a big project like this and figure it out as I went along. So my primary source is actually my ex's dad, my ex-father-in-law, who's a master builder and master carpenter. And we're all still close, and he's got probably 50 years' worth of knowledge and wisdom in his mind, and I feel some kind of duty to be a recipient of it. And this is such an amazing opportunity and way to receive that wisdom, almost like the wisdom of the lineage. And I would hate for it to die out with him. So he's been guiding me and mentoring me. Hopefully someday he'll be able to come out here and be on site. He lives in Oregon, so he's been awesome and helping me out and guiding me through the process. And then of course YouTube, YouTube University you might call it. I've watched I don't know how many hours of YouTube instructional videos on how to do just about everything. And then making a million mistakes, so many mistakes already, every day, all the time, and learning just a little bit every time I make another mistake, just kind of getting it dialed in and refined and honed in. And that's been kind of the process. I mean, it's all common sense. It all makes sense once I wrap my head around it. It's definitely daunting up front, but slowly making progress and finding my way through. And for anybody watching this, super grateful for any input and suggestions and feedback. Really appreciate that and could benefit from it. So yeah, that's kind of how I've been navigating this, uh, pretty big project and journey, and really thrilled to be learning all these amazing skills that I hope will serve me and others for a long time. Well, got all the piers done, all 15 of them. Feels like another huge milestone, uh, and so encouraging to make it to this point. Now it actually feels real, like a cabin might actually be built here. It's always a little bit of a touch-and-go situation until I got myself to this point. And now, now I feel like, uh, we can press on all the way to the finish line. Pretty sweet sight to look out and see all these, uh, perfectly arranged columns all set up. Really cool to get to this point. So yeah, concrete truck is coming in a few days. I was thinking about mixing all my own concrete, but winter's coming, temperatures are getting colder, and so this is the one concession I'm making is getting a cement truck in and just pour these all off. That'll probably be the only time that I'm gonna get outside assistance and resources to build this cabin, so But yeah, feels really good to get to this point and excited to press on. So that'll be it for this episode. Stay tuned for concrete, then we'll start laying beams on top of these posts and start to build up the floor from there. Thanks for watching.
