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CALEB JOHNSON:
Personality-wise, I just

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can't run from a challenge.

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It's more like just
run straight at it.

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That's what my life is
all about, is visualizing

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and then going ahead
and making it happen.

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And that's very rewarding.

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It's really special to
work on a small house

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because you can, to a degree,
have what your heart wants.

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I'm an architect by profession.

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That's what I spend
my time doing--

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drawing, then making
and thinking about how

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it all affects us as humans.

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[water sloshing]

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Come on, baby.

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It's all good?

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Let's go.

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Don't worry.

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It's like a ton--

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[engine starts, revs]

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[water splashing]

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It's so nice and
clear right now.

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CALEB JOHNSON: We're
located in southern Maine.

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Maine stretches in all of
these very jagged coast

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hundreds of miles north of us.

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And we are perched
right at the north side

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of what's called Biddeford Pool

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Biddeford Pool is
this beautiful harbor.

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It's a really lovely
place to live.

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[water splashes]

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SHANNON: Want me to cut it?

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It's a big reason
I didn't want

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to, like, tear the
house down, because I

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knew it would just, like--

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with a blank slate, you would--

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you just get something that
might call more attention

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to itself than it needs.

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Like, you don't need the
house to draw any attention.

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This is what should
have the attention.

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[music playing]

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My son came home one day while
we were building the house.

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He said to me that it has the
proportions of a blowfish,

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kind of squat and fat.

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So I thought-- I thought
he was kind of right.

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We have a 50-by-100-foot lot.

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So it's tiny.

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It's barely a lot.

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You know, it's
enough for two cars

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to park on and enough to put
a 400-square-foot footprint

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of a building on.

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Because we needed
it, we managed to get

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a four-bedroom home out of
that, which is really unusual.

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[water sloshing]

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My ex-wife and I
separated six years ago

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and needed a new home, but
wanted to stay right here,

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stay put, continue
to grow roots.

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And so my partner,
Shannon, and I found

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a little cottage on the beach.

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I have three kids, and
Shannon has three kids.

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We're here for one
week, and then we're

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in Portland the following week.

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This is a half-time home for us.

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It's designed to just be
a constant place where

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we can get out into nature.

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[birds squawking]

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[music playing]

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A typical day here
usually involves

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a pretty spectacular
sunrise coming

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up next to the lighthouse.

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Shannon and I tend to
get up really early,

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make coffee as a first
priority, play a game of tennis

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down the road, sit
and read on the couch,

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and then the kids
start to filter down.

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And we'll make plans to go out
on the water, take a boat ride.

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This house landed here as
a result of a whole kind

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of New England tradition motel.

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There is a primary house
here and then a bunch

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of tiny little 300-square-foot
cottages that were

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rented out as a roadside motel.

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[music playing]

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I purchased the property in
2016, and the house at the time

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really was not
sensible to renovate.

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It was just very
dilapidated, rotten.

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The area where I'm
sitting right now,

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the floors were really bouncy.

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We were actually concerned that
someone would put, you know,

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a hole leg through it.

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It would have been
faster to just crunch

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this thing up in a
half a day, stick it

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in a bunch of dumpsters,
and wheel it off and then

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build a brand new frame.

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It was not a logical--

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more of an emotional decision to
just do a full renovation here.

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I remember making
my first tree house

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and fell in love with
woodworking at that moment.

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You know, it was probably
in the third grade.

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I've been interested in
woodworking ever since.

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And woodworking is a
big part of this house.

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We custom-built the primary
oceanfront window here,

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and then I carved the pieces
that are the window stops that

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hold the glass in,
with some local history

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and some family history.

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We're still working
on this panel.

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I'll carve this someday.

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We have lots of little mermaids
and other things carved

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here and there, just for fun.

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[music playing]

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At 850 square feet, this house
feels much bigger than it is.

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It has a lot to do with where
you're leading your eyes.

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If you're making moves that draw
your eyes to the horizon, then

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all of a sudden,
that space becomes

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part of the small space,
and a small house could

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feel bigger than a big house.

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The house, may be on the inside,
were only about, I think,

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17.5 feet wide.

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And for any space, usually
10 feet is the bare minimum.

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So we had to get a living
room and a dining room in 17

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feet, which just isn't enough.

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So the only way that we
could do that and still

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walk through, get outside,
and have both functions

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was do a banquette.

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[music playing]

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We have a very
special kitchen here,

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from a woodworking standpoint.

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What I set as a parameter
is there'll be no plywood.

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We won't use screws.

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Glue is only put in place
to hold joints together.

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This length here that's just
hanging on a French cleat

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on the wall is just one piece.

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From front to back,
it's all solid walnut.

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Normally, you would have
a plywood panel here,

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and instead we got the
strength with a diagonal,

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creating triangles, which
gives you structural strength.

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And an artist who's
well-known here in Maine,

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he has done everything for 15
or 20 years only out of nails.

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He came into our shop,
and he's like, I should

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make you a panel for that.

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So John Bisbee made us this.

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We didn't set out to
make a beachy home

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or a nautical-feeling home,
but if you fit as much

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into a small space as
we did in this home,

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then you start using
some of the same tricks

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you would use if
you were designing

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a three-cabin sailboat.

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You've got to get two
or three functions out

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of almost every element of the
home, and that's very nautical.

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So it just kind of
happened by default.

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As you walk around this
house and live in this house,

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storage is just tucked here
and there and everywhere.

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The primary bedroom,
kind of fun.

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Built-in bed.

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Believe it or not, our wardrobes
are on each side of this.

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Really tight.

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It makes you have to
think about the clothes

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you're going to keep.

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To fill out any primary suite,
you need a good bathroom,

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so we fit a full bathroom in
the size of a small shower.

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The toilet, the sink,
the whole bathroom

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is right in the shower.

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So taking a 400-square-foot
footprint, which then means

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you only get a 400-square-foot
second floor, getting four

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bedrooms and two
full baths in it

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means that every
little nook and cranny,

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you have to think about storage.

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You have to think
about the flow.

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In this room, this started as
my daughter's room, m we decided

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to turn it into a little den.

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These lamps here came
from the original house,

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and I just found a
way to repurpose it,

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keep that story and
narrative moving.

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[chatter]

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[laughter]

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CALEB JOHNSON: One of
the most important things

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that buildings and
places do for us

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is remind us of the
importance of spending time

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with people we love.

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Cheers, babe.

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SHANNON: Thank you, honey.

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I think the children have all
grown up to love this place

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and have really
nice memories, and I

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think they're going to want
to continue coming back

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here to make more memories.

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It's special.

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CALEB JOHNSON: As our family
goes through different phases,

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thinking ahead to how this
will evolve with the family

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in a flexible way.

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So this is designed to work over
decades and over generations.

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[fire crackling]

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[chatter]

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Oh, OK.

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One or two marshmallows.

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Do you want, like, a sandwich
version of the chocolate?

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Yeah.

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CALEB JOHNSON: The
story of this home

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really revolves around being
together in a beautiful spot,

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doing things that
are meaningful,

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doing things carefully
and thoughtfully,

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and just enjoying our time here.

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[music playing]