Three years ago, I had a dream to build a giant Ant House, basically a house with a
feature gallery-style Ant Room.
I went looking for a property for the Ant House, and when I found it, I went straight
to work.
It was easily the biggest project I’ve ever worked on in my life!
As mentioned, the biggest feature of the Ant House was a large hi-tech, museum-style Ant
Room, where I could house all my pet ant colonies and beasts on this channel, and film them
in ways I’ve never been able to before.
It’s been a long journey since I first began, delays, road bumps, and even the pandemic.
Completion and move in date kept being pushed back and back and back, and the last move
in date was supposed to be December of 2021, and well it’s January 1st now, and I’ve
got some news to share.
Today, I’ll be updating you on the progress of the most ambitious project I’ve ever
worked on: building the ultimate Ant House.
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AC Family, so many of you have been asking for an update on the Ant House, so today I
will do just that.
As you can see, it’s still not done and nowhere near finished, and I’ll be explaining
why in a bit.
The total drama I’ve been through over the past few months since I last updated you guys
on this Ant House has been a hard lesson to learn, but do stay tuned until the end because
there are a few things I’d like to share with you guys that I haven’t shown you,
yet, as well as some changes.
So AC Family, now let’s get on with the tour.
So this is the Ant Room as of this past week.
As you can see, it’s still a little bare but there have been a few minor refinements
since I last updated you guys on the Ant House five months ago.
Now, in any ordinary circumstance, it’s atrocious that the construction has been moving
at such a turtle pace, but there’s a very unfortunate reason for that, and I’ll get
to it later, but first check this out.
For those that didn’t see the last Ant House video, this here is the utility area, and
all of you owners of aquariums, terrariums, and ant farms surely know the need for an
area like this, basically for washing up tanks, tank decor, instruments, etc.
When it’s finished, it should look like this.
Cupboards, cabinets, and shelving for storage and placement of instruments and books, a
sink, a granite countertop, a fridge to place ant and other pet food that needs chilling
or freezing, pin lights, spotlights, a slated ceiling over this utility area, and solid
flooring.
As you can see the colours I chose for our Ant Room are mostly neutral dark colours,
which helps when I film in the Ant Room to minimize reflections, and also gives the room
a nice modern, man-cave feel.
The colours will also make the vibrant ant setups pop, when situated around the Ant Room.
What do you guys think of it?
Let me know in the comments.
Moving along, as you can see the windows are still not installed, as they will be the last
thing to happen for the Ant Room, like the icing on the cake.
The glass panes are custom ordered and will be imported from out of the country.
That installation should be crazy!
As for the floor, half the room is ready for tiling.
The other half will be done soon.
As mentioned, the tiling chosen will probably be a neutral colour like dark or rocky grey,
just to make the ant setups stand out.
We’ll see.
Here’s something I wanna show you, guys.
These things sticking out of the floor mark where we will be installing floor outlets,
so we don’t have cables running across the room to the walls.
They can be hidden in subtank stands so again no spaghetti cables which is a huge problem
in the current Ant Room.
This whole section here will be glass, now here’s something new.
Check out this feature wall.
I’ve decided to rock clad it.
Doesn’t it look cool!
So here is where I plan on hanging some kind of logo in LED where it can say the Antiverse.
I think that should look super neat!
At this feature wall, I hope to place a huge feature ant terrarium that I am extra proud
of.
I was thinking we could also try growing climbing vines and plants onto this wall.
What do you guys think?
The rock cladding continues all the way up to the second floor, but we still need to
do the rest of the second floor.
We’ll go up there in just a minute!
Looking up you may notice the rectangular holes where glass floors will be installed.
I can’t wait for those to be installed, as well.
Going up to the second floor, not much change here.
Again, floor outlets arranged in the places where I felt Ant Setups would go, and here
is what I love the most about this Ant Room, the viewing deck!
It’s from this vantage point where we get the most gorgeous view of the lush bamboo
forest in the yard.
I don’t know about you, but I could sit here and watch this all day!
Now here’s another new thing.
Originally the plan was to have a rail here so that we could kinda look down to the first
floor of the Ant Room and possibly even build a two story high ant setup.
But after thinking about it for a while, I figured, building a 2 story high setup might
compromise and block this panoramic view of the forest, so I changed my mind, and came
up with an even greater idea for this space.
I hope to put a net where I, as well as guests visiting the Ant Room could crawl onto and
just sleep, chill, and admire the view of the forest, like we were spiders all hanging
out on a web.
A few throw pillows and blankets might make this area super cool!
Hopefully, our guests aren’t afraid of heights!
The roof is pretty high on this second floor so if I wanted to build a super tall ant setup,
I still could!
Out here is the roof deck where I could also have ant and critter setups.
There will be a huge roof here eventually and we do plan on building a storage shed
up here for various supplies, tanks, and hardscape.
So now that we’re here, check this out!
Looking down three stories you will see the Ant House’s giant aviary.
The aviary will essentially be a massive three story, tropically designed terrarium where
I plan on housing birds and anything else I can find that might be able to live harmoniously
within it.
It will be surrounded by glass, viewable from all floors, and have a retractable roof in
case of torrential downpour.
And, what’s cool is, the Aviary will have an automatic rain shower system so if it gets
too dry and I need to water the plants, I could just hit a switch and watch it rain.
The drains in the floors are covered to keep snakes and unwanted creatures from coming
into the aviary from the outside.
I’m pretty sure some wild ant colonies will eventually be moving into this aviary, too
and I can’t wait to film them when they do!
Pretty cool right?
The whole house is designed around the ants.
This giant room here is the studio room where I plan on having our AntsCanada production
team for this channel edit the videos.
Currently, I’m editing these ant videos by myself, but once I can have a team to help
me out, we’ll hopefully be able to upload these ant videos much more frequently and
better quality.
I’m even building a professional sound recording booth, where I can record the voice overs
for these videos.
Our kitchen has a huge U-shaped counter with electrical outlets at every seat for the AC
team and I have to have our meetings and discussions on all things ants and this channel.
The ants will have 24 hour security guards and dozens and dozens of security cameras
and smart triggers, just in case someone crazy decides to kidnap my ants.
Hey, you can never be too careful!
These ants are like our children!
OK, and now AC Family, something a bit more serious.
It’s time for the sad news.
So the sad news is, as you may have deduced, we won’t be moving into the Ant House just
yet.
What happened was, we had to change contractors.
For those of you who aren’t into construction and don’t know what that means, it means
I had to discontinue working with the company that was hired to build this ant house.
The exact details of why I had to switch contractors is something I must deal with privately for
now, but if any of you have had to build a home, and then change contractors, you know
how big of a mess it can be.
So needless to say, 4 months ago, the construction of the Ant House came to a full stop.
There was lots of paperwork, money lost, and for a moment I felt like this Ant House would
not be completed anytime this year or next.
I was completely distraught.
But, AC Family, sometimes when you hit a dead end, and come face to face with a challenge,
it’s a blessing.
Turns out, I found another very skilled contractor, and the house construction has resumed, better
and faster than ever.
This new contractor is very experienced and I’m learning a tonne of new things about
building a home of our scale.
Good news is, we’ll probably be moving in this year sometime in the first or second
quarter.
I’d love to move in by March, but one thing I learned from working with this new contractor
is that ambitious projects like this do take some time and need to be done right, no cutting
corners, no cheap building materials, etc.
We need this Ant Room and Ant House to be done right!
So, I’m praying we can finally move in with our various ant colonies soon!
That is the current update on the Ant House construction.
New beginnings are some of the most exciting times in life, and it’s an understatement
that this Ant House excites me to no end, despite it being the most challenging and
hardest thing I’ve ever worked on in my entire life!
This Ant House has been a crazy dream that somehow is on its way to becoming a reality.
But the biggest thing I’ve learned through all of it is that, when chasing your dreams,
you will inevitably run into challenges.
The bigger the dream, the bigger the challenges.
Nothing great comes easily in life, but with every failure and every challenge comes a
stepping stone and an opportunity to get stronger, wiser, more prepared, and when you do realize
that dream, it will all be that much more gratifying.
I pinch myself every day, asking myself if all of this is real.
I want to also take this opportunity to thank you guys, AC Family, for making my dreams
come true.
None of this could have been possible without all of you supporting my ant videos over the
years, and man, have there been many!
Thank you for letting ants into your hearts, following their stories, and giving ants a
chance.
This is just the beginning, AC Family.
The most exciting times are coming up for the channel and the ants we love!
So if you haven’t yet be sure to SUBSCRIBE to join our ever growing AC Family!
Until the day, we finally move into the finished Ant House, thank you so much for watching,
happy new year, and may each of you achieve your greatest dreams this year!
It’s ant love forever!