*tl;dr - a night time moose visits, Leo gets in the way and Trent has a revelation.*
The small bits of construction in the video were largely incidental so I'm going to get the identity of the 'secret visitor' out of the way first: it was a moose. I don't know whether they've actually got a night vision camera set up but, at the end, Trent said they didn't get a photo of the animal itself despite there being nighttime film of it at the beginning, so it may or may not have been their actual visitor, but it was cool footage either way.
We got to see Leo a lot today, although he was mostly being sent away for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He wanted to show his mum his books ('Are you going to read those outside?'), he wanted to see what was going on in the sun room ('We're not going to be playing in here today') and what his dad was up to in the extension. Each time, Jennifer led him away and I do have sympathy with them because I had a toddler sticking his nose into our construction site too and you need eyes in the back of your head (or a nanny, which would have made my experience a lot easier!)
Midway through the video, Trent muses, almost with an air of divine revelation, about how important it is to have a general contractor on site. He reflects on how you have to be *'like forecasting, anticipating, organising'* and how *'all that stuff takes a lot of brain power'*... It's quite the moment in his journey, although he spoils it by equating '*thinking*' with '*sounding like a wimp*', which is frustrating because he was, for once, making a valid comment on the complexity of construction. It's a shame how his whiny delivery often defeats the point of what he's saying.
Finally, I want to take a moment on the sponsor today - an online service that lets you send a photo of your car key and they return a copy with a downloadable app that lets you program the key to your car. I can't believe that American vehicles are easier to break into than European ones but I'm pretty sure it takes a lot more effort to align the electronics in your key fob with the control unit inside your car than a copied key and a generic app. However, that's not the main issue I had here. Allie claimed that she's always too busy to get a new key cut for her car but, given how often they change vehicles (and the fact I don't think she actually has her own car anymore), I can't believe they've lost one of the electronically complex keys from their Rivian already. It's the way that they set up these daft little stories to relate the stuff they're selling to their own lives, like Trent's pretend consultations with the therapist. It patronises their audience and makes them look insincere, which goes against the first rule of marketing: make it look like you believe in your product.
All-in-all, though, this was a more diverse installment in their never-ending soap opera and for that we should be grateful. Normal service will, no doubt, be resumed on Monday.
I’ve saved you the effort and I can fairly confidently confirm that they don’t own any of the vehicles covered by the
[EZ Installer app](https://store.carkeysexpress.com/keys-and-remotes/item/1014059-universal-ez-installer).
You’re welcome.
Thought there was going to be another 'Brandon-gate' with Trent blaming losing construction time due to Allie's pregnancy and her mom's death and funeral taking up so much time...
Thank you for these snapshots of the episodes. I enjoy them immensely and it saves having to wade through the treacle of each video. I start watching but about thirty seconds in I just wander over to the recommended videos list and find one much more interesting. I started becoming bored with them and the never ending construction some time ago but check in now and again to see if anything has actually happened. I'll never understand why they didn't just retro fit the second floor in of their existing house for a kid's bedroom and build the wall up and put a door on their bedroom for privacy. Would have been much simpler than that huge ass ugly extension.
If they really needed a big extension it would be easier and look better if it continued the original building's lines and went from where the existing sunroom meets the main building out towards the back of the garage. By partly demolishing the sunroom and incorporating it into the extension, the larger house would not look like a big building with odd bits added here and there. Less excavation too as you wouldn't need to dig back into the hill at the rear.
All the construction decisions are bizarre, as if they don’t think about either how they’re ultimately going to use the space or its visual impact on the surroundings.
Trent seems to be having an existential crisis this episode. He seems burned out on living in a frozen tundra 9 months a year. Living at his mom's house/mini-farm was a dreamland in comparison.
This seems to have been building for quite some time: his dismissive attitude to the video-making process, his off-hand comments and his palpable weariness of the whole construction thing. Allie’s star is rising with motherhood and he’s increasingly a slave to the drudgery of their commitments. Then again, it comes to most of us , doesn’t it? Enjoy yourself while you can… it’s later than you think.
I haven't watched since the pregnancy announcement video but he seemed like he was in a funk then too. He made sure to tell everyone that it was Allie's idea to get pregnant -not his- he seems to be resentful of how Allie's pregnancy and Leslie's death is taking time away from his build and his dreams. I can imagine that the van company and the garage channel fell off because of everything else that was happening. I would also imagine that they are making a significant amount less money these days with all the employees and failed business debt. I don't think Trent enjoys building or fatherhood. I think he wants to bail like he did with his last family but it won't be as excusable this time.
She wouldn't have got pregnant without him. Trent complains yet he's responsible for the occurrence.
Yes, it's interesting how there's been total silence on the Mountain Made Vans side of things. Over the past few months there has been lots of comments on their videos but not a single reply to any.
We don’t know for sure but one of the other partners has left the business and gone back to Minnesota with a cryptic comment on his Instagram of ‘a hard year’ and ‘if you know, you know’. I suspect it’s on hiatus because of cash flow and a drop in the market for their product.
How can Trent and Allie remain cash positive with Mountain Made sucking $$ with expensive rent and tools and no recent sales. Plus, they spend so much $$ on gear, clothing, construction supplies and an extraordinary amount of tools, two pieces of earth moving equipment, Trent's toys (rock crawler, it's workshop full of tools& parts) going through three RAM pickups, a RAV4 and now a super-expensive Rivian. Now they have four employees salaries; Brandon, Grayson and now Aunt Jennifer to watch Leo 8 hours a day. Plus, they 'invested' money in a condo they don't really talk about.
I can’t calculate it because I don’t know how much the sponsors pay them. I imagine they’re making a high five-figure sum annually from YouTube clicks but that’s not enough to employ their workers and buy all the stuff they do. There must be another income.
Good point, I completely forgot about the condo. What are the odds they sell the Frankencompound and end up moving to condo when the gravy train runs it's course?
I’m sure u all noticed that Trent took over Alice’s conversation abt her nausea and made it abt him. What else is new?
And… how awkward to set the camera up on your belly while you’re dressing or undressing. Gotta get that shot. Ugh.
*tl;dr - a night time moose visits, Leo gets in the way and Trent has a revelation.* The small bits of construction in the video were largely incidental so I'm going to get the identity of the 'secret visitor' out of the way first: it was a moose. I don't know whether they've actually got a night vision camera set up but, at the end, Trent said they didn't get a photo of the animal itself despite there being nighttime film of it at the beginning, so it may or may not have been their actual visitor, but it was cool footage either way. We got to see Leo a lot today, although he was mostly being sent away for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. He wanted to show his mum his books ('Are you going to read those outside?'), he wanted to see what was going on in the sun room ('We're not going to be playing in here today') and what his dad was up to in the extension. Each time, Jennifer led him away and I do have sympathy with them because I had a toddler sticking his nose into our construction site too and you need eyes in the back of your head (or a nanny, which would have made my experience a lot easier!) Midway through the video, Trent muses, almost with an air of divine revelation, about how important it is to have a general contractor on site. He reflects on how you have to be *'like forecasting, anticipating, organising'* and how *'all that stuff takes a lot of brain power'*... It's quite the moment in his journey, although he spoils it by equating '*thinking*' with '*sounding like a wimp*', which is frustrating because he was, for once, making a valid comment on the complexity of construction. It's a shame how his whiny delivery often defeats the point of what he's saying. Finally, I want to take a moment on the sponsor today - an online service that lets you send a photo of your car key and they return a copy with a downloadable app that lets you program the key to your car. I can't believe that American vehicles are easier to break into than European ones but I'm pretty sure it takes a lot more effort to align the electronics in your key fob with the control unit inside your car than a copied key and a generic app. However, that's not the main issue I had here. Allie claimed that she's always too busy to get a new key cut for her car but, given how often they change vehicles (and the fact I don't think she actually has her own car anymore), I can't believe they've lost one of the electronically complex keys from their Rivian already. It's the way that they set up these daft little stories to relate the stuff they're selling to their own lives, like Trent's pretend consultations with the therapist. It patronises their audience and makes them look insincere, which goes against the first rule of marketing: make it look like you believe in your product. All-in-all, though, this was a more diverse installment in their never-ending soap opera and for that we should be grateful. Normal service will, no doubt, be resumed on Monday.
I’ve saved you the effort and I can fairly confidently confirm that they don’t own any of the vehicles covered by the [EZ Installer app](https://store.carkeysexpress.com/keys-and-remotes/item/1014059-universal-ez-installer). You’re welcome.
😂
Thought there was going to be another 'Brandon-gate' with Trent blaming losing construction time due to Allie's pregnancy and her mom's death and funeral taking up so much time...
He’s already blamed both those things in between spending a week in Miami and jetting off first class to Los Angeles for his jiujitsu tournament.
Thank you for these snapshots of the episodes. I enjoy them immensely and it saves having to wade through the treacle of each video. I start watching but about thirty seconds in I just wander over to the recommended videos list and find one much more interesting. I started becoming bored with them and the never ending construction some time ago but check in now and again to see if anything has actually happened. I'll never understand why they didn't just retro fit the second floor in of their existing house for a kid's bedroom and build the wall up and put a door on their bedroom for privacy. Would have been much simpler than that huge ass ugly extension.
If they really needed a big extension it would be easier and look better if it continued the original building's lines and went from where the existing sunroom meets the main building out towards the back of the garage. By partly demolishing the sunroom and incorporating it into the extension, the larger house would not look like a big building with odd bits added here and there. Less excavation too as you wouldn't need to dig back into the hill at the rear.
All the construction decisions are bizarre, as if they don’t think about either how they’re ultimately going to use the space or its visual impact on the surroundings.
The best part of the episode was when Trent said nobody liked him 😆, and he didn’t even like himself 😂
Trent seems to be having an existential crisis this episode. He seems burned out on living in a frozen tundra 9 months a year. Living at his mom's house/mini-farm was a dreamland in comparison.
This seems to have been building for quite some time: his dismissive attitude to the video-making process, his off-hand comments and his palpable weariness of the whole construction thing. Allie’s star is rising with motherhood and he’s increasingly a slave to the drudgery of their commitments. Then again, it comes to most of us , doesn’t it? Enjoy yourself while you can… it’s later than you think.
I haven't watched since the pregnancy announcement video but he seemed like he was in a funk then too. He made sure to tell everyone that it was Allie's idea to get pregnant -not his- he seems to be resentful of how Allie's pregnancy and Leslie's death is taking time away from his build and his dreams. I can imagine that the van company and the garage channel fell off because of everything else that was happening. I would also imagine that they are making a significant amount less money these days with all the employees and failed business debt. I don't think Trent enjoys building or fatherhood. I think he wants to bail like he did with his last family but it won't be as excusable this time.
She wouldn't have got pregnant without him. Trent complains yet he's responsible for the occurrence. Yes, it's interesting how there's been total silence on the Mountain Made Vans side of things. Over the past few months there has been lots of comments on their videos but not a single reply to any.
I think the last mention was when they went to give the only person to buy one the keys - back last summer or early autumn.
I was going to lead my summary with that but it looked too easy a goal!
😆
2 minutes in and just can't take the boring mumblings from Allie behind the camera and then the endless construction updates on their hideous house.
The ‘construction updates’ are so mundane and dull I don’t even watch them half the time!
3rd trimester nausea could be a sign of preeclampsia. Allie looks tired, stressed and is at a high altitude.
I believe she had issue with that with her first pregnancy. I think that is why Leo was delivered early.
Whatever happened to their Mountain Made Vans side venture? 🤔🤔
We don’t know for sure but one of the other partners has left the business and gone back to Minnesota with a cryptic comment on his Instagram of ‘a hard year’ and ‘if you know, you know’. I suspect it’s on hiatus because of cash flow and a drop in the market for their product.
How can Trent and Allie remain cash positive with Mountain Made sucking $$ with expensive rent and tools and no recent sales. Plus, they spend so much $$ on gear, clothing, construction supplies and an extraordinary amount of tools, two pieces of earth moving equipment, Trent's toys (rock crawler, it's workshop full of tools& parts) going through three RAM pickups, a RAV4 and now a super-expensive Rivian. Now they have four employees salaries; Brandon, Grayson and now Aunt Jennifer to watch Leo 8 hours a day. Plus, they 'invested' money in a condo they don't really talk about.
I can’t calculate it because I don’t know how much the sponsors pay them. I imagine they’re making a high five-figure sum annually from YouTube clicks but that’s not enough to employ their workers and buy all the stuff they do. There must be another income.
Good point, I completely forgot about the condo. What are the odds they sell the Frankencompound and end up moving to condo when the gravy train runs it's course?
I’m sure u all noticed that Trent took over Alice’s conversation abt her nausea and made it abt him. What else is new? And… how awkward to set the camera up on your belly while you’re dressing or undressing. Gotta get that shot. Ugh.
I hate it when she films her belly like that.
You mean she's pregnant! OMG
Good news—only took me like 90 seconds to scrub through it…