In the first episode of Sweet Homes, four friends who have never built a house pick a lot on Smith Lake, Alabama, and set out to build a lake house from scratch, on camera, on a budget they swore not to break.
Derek already has the spot. Lot five sits on a quiet cove with 100 feet of water frontage, a gentle slope, deep water year round, and no boats ripping past, so the kids can swim. “No need to look for land,” he says. The rest of the plan is thinner. None of them has built a house or made a show together, and Marko's construction experience is a drafting class in eleventh grade. They set a budget, promise to stick to it “as much as humanly possible,” hand the plans to Brad at Custom Home Designs, and turn Shannon, the only real builder among them, loose on the lot.
Months later they come back to find the house framed. Shannon is a little over two months past breaking ground and already behind schedule. Walking through it, Derek describes what they're building: mid-century modern, made warm instead of sterile, with the cliffs framed in the windows and a deck that feels like it hangs over the water. Then the problems show up. The basement stairs have to change, and Viewrail comes through. A mechanical room turns into a cocktail lounge with a wet bar, a happy accident. Brad flips the floor plan for an easier path from the mudroom to the lake.
The real scare is the kitchen. The cabinet order has to be signed off, the measurements don't agree, and it takes a run of phone calls between the site and The RTA Store to save the delivery date. “Catastrophe averted,” someone says. “For now.” The Lindsay windows arrive, American made, and the big door goes in.
“The beginning's the hardest. Getting it out of the ground is so hard.”
By the fire that night, over steaks, they set the goal that drives the rest of the season: finish the house and get it on the market before Labor Day.