The Allure of Building Alaska

I frequently watch a series on television called Building Alaska. It’s broadcast on the DIY Network, and each episode features three groups of people building homes in the Alaskan wilderness. Some of the people profiled hire professional builders while others do the construction themselves. They all face common challenges, including costs, weather, and transportation (on a recent episode, the windows for one home could only be delivered after being slung from the underside of a helicopter). In every episode, we see the homeowners and builders manage to deal with stress, and we observe their abilities to persevere and use creativity and ingenuity to carry on with their projects.

What draws me to this series? Part of it is the location. Alaska is the only U.S. state I haven’t at least passed through (for instance, I can count Idaho because I spent about an hour driving through the state on my way from Grand Tetons National Park in Wyoming to Salt Lake City in Utah). As a result, Alaska is a state that’s long been on my must see list. When I was a kid, my maternal grandfather had hopes of taking our entire extended family on a vacation to Alaska, but incompatible school vacation schedules stopped those plans. Since then, I’ve toyed around with travel arrangements to Alaska, and I’ve even occasionally considered moving there for work. Now, I have two different friends who live in Anchorage with their families, and hopefully someday I’ll get there to say hello.

In addition to the allure of the location, another draw of the show for me is the scenery. Many of the homeowners choose building sites with spectacular lake or mountain views. It amazes me that our planet holds such beauty. Maybe if I lived surrounded by such scenery on a daily basis, it wouldn’t surprise me so much to see it on television. But for me, it’s a treat to take in such views, even if only on a small screen once in a while.

Aerial photograph of a mountain lake in Alaska. (USFWS National Digital Library/Steve Hillebrand)

Another draw of the show for me is the engineering aspect of it. This might be surprising, since I have no background in engineering. However, I enjoy watching the process of homebuilding. It’s interesting to see people start with plans on paper and progress through various stages of construction. For example, I never knew there were so many choices when it comes to foundations. But, the builders on the show each deploy different foundation systems depending on the terrain of the various building sites (in a recent episode, one builder used metal shipping containers as the foundation for a house that would be built atop them, while another used screw-in piles to accommodate rocky soil). They also use different construction methods, such as building log homes, timber framed homes, or stick-built homes, to create different styles of houses. Seeing a home emerge from a simple clearing in the woods to become something several stories tall and several rooms wide is fascinating.

I also enjoy observing the different people who are profiled on the series. One thing I’ve noticed is they each have different motivations for building. One recently profiled homeowner was building his home with the aim of eventually completing a weekend getaway place for his family. Another homeowner was building a home that he hoped could be used not only by his family but also by the families of veterans needing a respite from stress and trauma. Yet another couple was building not just a house to live in but also a base for their dog mushing business. As the homeowners focus on building the varied houses, each one also displays a different personality. Since I’m someone with an academic background in the humanities, it probably comes as no surprise that the human interest aspect to the series draws me in. I get emotionally attached to the homeowners’ stories, their ways of interacting with each other, their hopes, their disappointments, and their eventual successes.

I’ve written before about another television show I enjoyed called The Zoo: San Diego on Animal Planet. What these two shows have in common is that they are both educational. Whether learning about animals or learning about construction, I like to challenge my mind. I enjoy encountering new thoughts, ideas, people, and processes. What do you most enjoy about your favorite television show?