AQUILLA TOWNSHIP, Ohio -- Jimmy Grey built one cool house.

The 25-year-old chills out these days in a 625-square-foot palace made of snow. It's quite the man cave, equipped with a flat-screen TV, surround-sound stereo and multiple strobe lights. The best perk? The Busch and Bud Light never go warm no matter how long it sits out.

It's no wonder the four-room structure ranks as Geauga County's hottest property this winter.

A snowstorm in early January provided Grey all the construction materials required to break ground in front of his family's Goredon Drive home just south of Chardon. Clearing the driveway created the start-up pile. Then Grey shoveled the front yard ... and his neighbor's yard ... and then another neighbor's yard.

That wasn't enough, though, so he and a buddy trucked snow to the project site. They'd drive around the neighborhood and dip into mounds left alongside driveways.

What drives someone to commit snow theft for arctic architecture? "One too many Chardon winters," Grey said.

Weeks of accumulation left Grey with a 25-by-25-foot winter wonder awaiting finishing touches. Armed with a spade, he tunneled in and created a live-in ice cube with 6-foot ceilings. Grey powered the cold condo off a 100-foot-long extension cord plugged into an outlet in the garage. He also ran wiring to hook the igloo up for cable. After all, what good is the flat-screen TV if you can't tune into ESPN?

Grey stacked chunks of snow dug out of the interior to make a wall around the abode, making something of a private courtyard outside the front door. It helps with the privacy, given the number of interested onlookers driving by.

Neighbors wonder what's next: "Did you start with the addition?" Joe Mukics jokingly asked Grey on Thursday.

The response? "Have you seen the new room?"

Grey keeps pouring energy into his fortress given the extra time on his hands. The laborer lost his job last spring and hasn't found employment. But he wanted to work, so he created the project to stay busy. ("If anybody needs a hand and wants to hire a hard worker, I'm the guy you're looking for," Grey said.)

The igloo typically hosts get-togethers a few nights a week, with numerous candles adding ambience. The small flames aren't enough to generate wall-buckling warmth.

It'll take spring temperatures, or maybe even a little summer sizzle, before the ice house melts into memory.

"To be honest," Grey's father, Jim Sr., said, "I'll be surprised if it's gone by the Fourth of July."