The kitchen island in the River House will be supported by four 5″x5″ columns. I am making them out of 3/4″ thick bamboo plywood using a lock miter joint at each corner. Pictured above is a cross-section of the joint taken from a thin slice I trimmed to square up the end. It looks rather complicated but can be made with a specialized router bit. Setup is a little tricky but once bit height and fence depth are properly adjusted things move along with little additional fuss. The only negative side to working with bamboo is that it dulls cutting tools very quickly. By the time I machined the 16 panels I needed, my once very sharp miter bit was groaning at the prospect of more bamboo. I must say, I am very pleased with the way the columns turned out and am now planning on using this joint for the construction of the stair treads and possibly for all drawer boxes as well.

The bamboo plywood I am using to construct all of the cabinets and built-ins for the new house has been a pleasure to work with save for the fact that it wears out carbide-tipped tools very quickly. Not so pleasant have been all of the mistakes made by the supplier. (1) Selected a carrier that did not have the right equipment to provide the contracted delivery method. (2) The second “rescue” carrier had the right equipment but arrived on site with the wrong kind of truck on their first delivery attempt. (3) When it was finally delivered (several weeks late), every single one of the 36 sheets had some form of water damage. (4) We ordered the carbonized color (darker one above) and received several that are of the natural color). We even received some sheets that are carbonized on one side and natural on the other, which is not even a product that the company sells. The photo above is of two sides of the same board! Thus far the company seems prepared to make things right so I am just rolling with the punches for now. I have been cutting off and scrapping water damaged sections or using them in non-visible locations. The mixed color challenge will be the most time consuming to address as it will required staining the natural boards to match the carbonized.

Twenty years ago, I enjoyed watching a television series called Boston Legal. The show was about the fictional law firm Crane, Poole & Schmidt whose Boston office was located at 500 Boylston St. Today, I had a meeting there with the founder of a venture capital firm and made the connection as I approached the building.

I found this little fellow lifeless on a window sill in the River House. All of the operable windows there are in their venting position to allow the house to dry out. The plaster, paint, concrete, and many other construction materials have a great deal of latent moisture that needs to be shed. We cannot begin laying the floor until the indoor humidity has stabilized at a reasonable level. The vented windows let in a lot of insects but they do not seem to be able to find their way out again. Fortunately, we should have our AC up and running in the next week or two which will allow us to close all the windows. As I am typing this, I just realized that we have screens for all the windows and there is no reason not to install them now.

The front door assembly was the final missing element of our new home’s exterior. It was installed today but not without challenges. Due to the way it must be tipped into position because of its extreme weight the opening height has to be larger than the published rough opening. Mathematically speaking, the space needs to be sized to equal the hypotenuse of a triangle with a base equal to the width of the door assembly and a height equal to the height of the door assembly. When the foreman of the five-man installation crew found me in my shop to inform me that the door would not fit, I simply grabbed one of my battery-operated saws and followed him upstairs. I have learned to roll with the punches through the course of our build. In less than 20 minutes, I was able to increase the size of the rough opening and the door assembly was placed into postion. Even though it is fully functional as-is, the crew will return on Friday to remove and reinstall the assembly so that it can be anchored more securely and raised up higher so that the door will have more clearance above the finished interior floor (to accommodate a rug).

When we sold our home on Mattison Drive, I left my old table saw with an attached router table for the new owner. I was not interested in trying to move that 20-year-old behemoth out of the basement. I replaced the table saw shortly after moving into the original River House, but the router table has been a low priority until I decided I would be fabricating our stair treads using a lock miter joint for which it is essential. Router tables are invariably a DIY construction project as I have yet to find a decent one fully configured. Mine uses a cast iron table top and mobility stand from Harvey. The router is a Bosch 2-1/4 horsepower unit and the router plate and lift are made by Jessum and sold under the Kreg brand. The Harvey fence I ordered will not arrive for another several weeks so I will be using my old Incra fence until them. My 40 year old Craftsman machinists tool chest proved the perfect solution for organizing and storing all my router bits and tools. Assembling and aligning all of the components took the better part of 4 hours after which I returned to cabinet making.

Having completed most of the base cabinets for the kitchen, pantry, and laundry last week, I decided to treat my shop to some cabinets as well. They will do double duty as a miter saw station. Consistent with other choices in the design of the basement, I decided on a floating design so that there would be no damage in the event of flooding. Our foundation waterproofing has lived up to expectations for a bone-dry basement but the risk of flooding from the river is one we cannot ignore. The cabinets did not budge with me sitting on the edge but I will probably add some feet to ensure they do not deflect when I load them up. Each cavity will get a set of full extension drawers which is a project I will defer until after we have moved in. I still need to apply a finish and add some trim to the edges but I was quite happy with the amount of progress I made in one day.

We are enjoying a visit from Kris Earle, Jeanine’s childhood friend and bestie. We all gathered at Kyle’s house for lunch where Maya and her boyfriend joined us. Later the pair went out for appetizers and wine at Woods Hill Table. I helped Kyle with the last bit of his basement renovation project, adding a door to the top of the stairs so that his new tenants have a more significant measure of privacy.

On either side of my project with Kyle, I completed the last of the base cabinet carcasses for the kitchen, pantry, and laundry. Rarely does work go substantially faster than I would have expected. The combination of a very easy-to-execute design and having a fully functional shop has made this phase of the work go remarkably fast. Next, I plan to begin work on the custom cabinetry for the walk-in closets.

With cabinet bases nearing completion, I turned my attention to the River House countertops which will be fabricated from Quartz. The man-made product is available in panels that are 120″x55″. The shapes on the left-hand side of the drawing above represent the shapes and sizes we need. The rectangles on the right show how the needed shapes can be most efficiently cut from the raw blanks.

Nico stopped by the house yesterday and assisted me with the construction of kitchen base cabinets. Having an extra set of hands was especially helpful for the assembly process and offered Nico a good learning opportunity. In the hours we spent together, he did not think to mention that he would be traveling to Poland with the US National Amputee Soccer Team to compete in the Amp Futbol Cup. I have curtailed all travel until the River House is completed but may have to make an exception for this trip.

The last bit of work needed to complete our underground utility installation was getting the conduits into the house. This necessitated drilling 5 holes through the concrete foundation, two large ones for electricity, two medium ones for fiber optic and cable, and one small one for an emergency-off circuit required to take the battery storage system offline in the event firefighters ever have to kill the power when battling a blaze.

The conduit for our buried utility services was laid today. The two larger ones are for electricity. Each one can support wires for a 200 amp service. We only require one but decided to install a spare should we ever need to increase power to the house or run some future service from the street. The incremental cost of the extra conduit is small compared to the rest of the project. One of the smaller conduits is for fiber optic and the other is for cable. Jeanine has been coordinating with Concord Municipal Light and Power, Comcast, and Verizon to have all the wires on our old utility pole transferred to the new one that was placed a few weeks ago. Talk about an exercise in herding cats.

One of the key design features of my shop is the oversized exterior door which will allow me to bring in or remove large items like sheet goods and machines as well as to remove completed cabinetry and furniture. The base cabinet carcass for our laundry room pictured above is a perfect example of the need for this capability. I was able to complete it in half a day including the separate base (not pictured). As I drove back to the Road House feeling quite pleased with my progress, I started mentally envisioning how I would move it into the laundry room. No problem getting it out of the shop, no problem getting it back into the house on the first floor. Then it hit me. There is no way this base cabinet will fit through the laundry room door. Not even close. Fortunately, in the five minutes it took to complete my commute, I had developed a plan to cut it into two sections and am confident this will address the challenge.

When we decided to build our forever house, there were four things that I wanted to be bulletproof. The roof, the windows, the doors, and the cabinetry hardware. By bulletproof, I mean of such high quality that they would never become a maintenance issue or the source of aggravation. I have had to repair or replace drawer slides in every house we have ever lived in or worse yet, resigned myself to living with a sub standard user experience. This will not be the case at the River House. The drawer slides I have selected are manufactured by Blum and I put a sample set through my torture testing and have determined they will stand the test of time. They also support a push-to-open capability that will be used on all the drawers throughout the house. At $60 a set, they are not cheap but I much prefer this solution to a lower quality $40 slide and a $20 handle. Another important benefit is the ease of and degrees of freedom when adjusting for proper alignment. Not a big deal when you are installing a couple of drawers and can spend time tweaking each one. When you will be installing more than 100, every bit of time saving pays big dividends.

I met Tony Bennet at the funeral of my uncle Ernie, pictured above with his wife, Barbara. Instead of speaking about his long-time friend and occasional guitar accompanist, Tony delivered an acapella tribute that reverberated through the small church. I do not remember the story of how they met, but both had parents who were born in the Calabria region of Italy and immigrated to the United States. I think I remember reading in my father’s autobiography that Tony would often join the family for dinner at my grandparent’s house in Brooklyn. Unfortunately, that book is packed in a box somewhere and will not go back on a shelf until we move into the new house. Also in storage is a painting that Tony made as a gift to my uncle who left it for my father. I found it when cleaning out my childhood home before we sold it. At the time, I did not realize that Tony was the painter because it was signed Benedetto. Only later did I learn that was the way he signed all of his art work. I am looking forward to rediscovering it when we get settled.

Tony Bennet started life with next to nothing and worked his way to stardom. As is often the story, his success led him to excesses that nearly cost him his life and career. When he hit rock bottom, he reached out to his sons who helped him to reinvent himself and went on to recapture and even extend his former glory.

The trench that will carry power, fiber optic, and cable to our new house was completed today and the bottom was filled with sand. We are hoping to lay the conduits starting on Monday when our electrician returns from vacation. The backhoe operator managed to very neatly pile the excavated material in such a way that a car can still navigate the driveway. I was expecting the work to block all traffic so this is very helpful. Once this trench is backfilled, work moves to the other side of the driveway where a much deeper trench will be made for the water main.

In preparation for trenching which is scheduled to start tomorrow, the stumps and roots for the recently felled trees that directly border the driveway were removed. To leave them would have created a future problem as they decay leaving behind a sunken area in the ground. Given their proximity to the driveway, we deemed it necessary to have them removed.

I completed carcass construction for the floating vanities that will go in bathrooms 2 and 3. They are actually stacked one on top of the other in the photo above. The indented shelf on the side is where the toilet paper holder will go as well as two spare rolls. The vanity on the bottom has the indented shelf on the opposite side and has yet to receive the counter top with sink basin. I will install the drawer hardware next and then apply a hard wax oil finish to the outside surfaces before mounting it to the wall. Building (or possibly buying) the drawer boxes and attaching the drawer fronts will be the final step.

Jeanine is now able to bear weight on her foot again, at least for short periods of time and limited distances. She has quite an impressive array of pins and screws that were used to align her bones. The surgery went so well that she is considering having her other foot done after Thanksgiving. It is a lot to go through in a single year but this type of procedure is best done sooner rather than later.

My baby sister likes showing off her guns. Not too shabby for a 58-year-old. My brother and I used to tussle all the time as kids. The thought of doing so with my sisters never entered my mind. Good thing, because now despite my considerable experience as a wrestler, I would not want to tangle with Mayela. I am fairly confident I can still take my other two sibs, however.

I finally got down to some cabinet construction at the River House. I cut all the carcass components and glued up the edge banding for the vanities that will go in bathrooms 2 & 3. I also devoted considerable time in the evening to ordering components for a router table. I have decided to use lock miter joints for stair tread construction and really need a proper router table to make them. Surprisingly, it is the one piece of common shop equipment that you can not purchase as a fully assembled machine of any substance. Instead, you need to source all of the components and build your own. Normally, I would enjoy such a project, but given my other priorities, I would happily just have a completed unit delivered.

At the northernmost point of Nantucket within the Coskata-Coatue Wildlife Reserve, you’ll find the most powerful light in New England! Officially named the Nantucket Light, it was first erected in 1784 as a wooden tower. A fire destroyed the little wooden lighthouse in 1816, and so a second tower – this time made of stone – was built in 1818. The stone tower fell over in 1984 and was replaced by the existing lighthouse, a 60-foot replica of the original. Jeanine is staying on Nantucket for the weekend with friends from her book group. They visited the site by way of a 7-mile drive along the beach after having reduced the air pressure in their tires to facilitate traction on the sand.

After weeks of delay, the bamboo plywood I have been waiting for finally arrived. Unfortunately, the convoluted journey it was subjected to because of the failure to arrange for the agreed delivery method in the first place, took its toll. A close look at the photo reveals that the shipping pallet was damaged leaving one corner of the stack unsupported. As a result, the core of the bottom sheet was fractured. The top sheet bears the scars of a forklift suggesting that something was carelessly stacked on top at some point during the transit. Finally, the entire load was left in the rain at some point resulting in water staining on every sheet. Even though each sheet was individually wrapped in plastic, at some point the plastic was sliced along one edge leaving an opening to every panel. It is possible that I will be able to remove some of these stains by sanding them out but that remains to be seen. At $300 a sheet, this damage represent a costly issue. I have started to work with the vendor to make things right. Part of the process was careful documentation. Over the course of 5 hours, I unwrapped each sheet one at a time, photographed the water stains on both sides and placed it onto a new stack. At nearly 40 pounds a piece this was quite the workout. The good news, is that even if I have to cut off the damaged ends, I still have enough material to get started with cabinet making.

When a new home is constructed to replace one that is more than 50 years old, Concord Water Department regulations require that the main water line be replaced from the street to the house. Given our heavily wooded lot, the only option is to run the new pipe below our driveway. The new pipe must be buried deeper than 4 feet, requiring a rough trench depth of 5 feet. The company that will do the excavation made it clear that the root systems for the large pine trees adjacent to the driveway would be compromised and that they would not survive. They strongly recommended we remove the trees ahead of excavation so that the root balls could be removed as well. With trenching set to begin early next week, we had to scramble to get town approval to remove the trees (Concord has a Tree Preservation bylaw) and to find a company able to schedule the work on short notice. Fortunately, we were successful on both fronts. Today, a four person crew and 110 ton crane showed up to harvest the 100+ foot tall trees. The straight trunks will be picked up tomorrow and milled into lumber.

I had planned to start cabinet fabrication today but another snafu with the bamboo plywood forced me to refuse delivery. More on this later. Instead, I turned my attention to the installation of four medicine cabinets. Although not a difficult task, I proceeded with great care so as not to damage any of the four mirrors (front of the door, back of the door, back of the cabinet, and adjustable magnifying mirror) or four glass shelves on each of these Robern units. Everything went smoothly.

Back to the bamboo. I will be fabricated all of the cabinetry throughout the house from bamboo plywood. 36 sheets to be exact from a company called CALI floors . After weeks of delay, it finally showed up today but on the wrong type of truck. Had I accepted delivery, it would have meant carrying one sheet at a time down the 300-foot driveway. This is precisely why I specified and paid for delivery on a flatbed truck with a piggyback forklift so that the entire pallet could be offloaded in one fell swoop and placed neatly in the new garage. Unfortunately, with driveway excavation for our new water main scheduled to begin Monday, any delay beyond then would now be measured in weeks since the driveway will be impassable during this phase of the work. Furthermore, the driveway will be blocked by a 110 ton crane all day tomorrow due to tree work. This means that the plywood has to be delivered on Friday. After I was unable to speak directly to anyone who could help me, I reached out to the President of the company and pled my case. To his credit he immediately got the right person working the issue and she very quickly sorted things out with the shipping company. Knock-on-wood, the plywood will arrive on Friday.

The last of our interior doors was installed today. The two-man team doing the work are both from Ukraine. I have been extremely impressed with their attention to detail and craftsmanship. I am equally pleased with the doors themselves and particularly with the hardware. We selected concealed hinges and magnetic latches. Operating the doors is a real pleasure and the sound of the latch engaging is both muted and confidence inspiring.

Although we are still scrambling to determine our interior color pallet, the outside color scheme is now finalized. The body of the house is a color called Peppercorn (a dark grey), the trim will be black, and the horizontal accents and soffits are Rust. It took a while to reach closure but Jeanine and I are equally happy with the final look. Now if we can just close out the interior color choices we will be off to the races.

Guess where the 12″ high, black house numbers will go.

TMI Warning

My efforts to drink more water throughout the day have dramatically reduced the number of kidney stones I produce. During the last few weeks, however, I have worked very long days at the River House. Combined with very high temperatures, I have been more dehydrated than usual. Predictably, this has given rise to a new batch of kidney stones. This one, the largest of eight I have passed over the last two days, measured 3mm and has a composition I have not observed before. Kidney stones are composed of combinations of calcium, oxalate, urate, cystine, xanthine, and phosphate. When I have more free time, I will try to figure out what the reddish addition is to my normal calcium oxalate stones.

I spent the morning installing the last 16 of almost one hundred recessed lights in the River House and am happy to have that rather tedious task in the rearview mirror. In the afternoon I turned my attention to shop organization. Few items get more use in my woodworking than clamps. It is said that you can never have enough but I would add that they also need to be close at hand and quick to deploy. My solution for this, based on my experience with two prior shops is shown above and the reason I chose to make my shop walls from plywood. I can grab or stow a clamp in one second. They are located two steps from my assembly table. Each clamp is supported by two cleats. Each cleat is fastened to the plywood wall with one screw. It took me less than two hours to make all the cleats and hang all the clamps. Not one to ever waste good wood, I made the cleats out of what used to be the rails of the bunk bed I built for the boys when they were small. Other remnants of those beds can be found elsewhere throughout the shop.

Arguably the biggest chip and dust producer in my new shop is the combination jointer/planer. It has also proved to be the most difficult to connect to my dust collection system. The machine uses a non-standard size dust port. Once again, 3D printing saved the day. It took me ten minutes to design the required adapter and Maya was kind enough to print it at work. The fit was perfect and I am very pleased with this solution. I also managed to solve the other big challenge with this machine. When converting from one mode to the other, the entire dust collection plenum makes a 180-degree flip. To address this, the dust collection hose is often disconnected and reattached after the switch-over. My brother developed a clever solution for his shop that employs a dedicated blast gate and hose for each mode making for a much more streamlined transition. I eventually arrived at a solution which provides just the right amount and orientation of flexible hose that allows for operation in either position without having to ever disconnect the hose.

The bamboo plywood I will be using to build the cabinetry for the River House has still not arrived. It has made it to Massachusetts from California but needs to be picked up by a freight carrier with a flatbed truck and forklift to facilitate delivery. With any luck, it will arrive tomorrow. After spending the morning installing recessed lights, I decided to give myself a break and build an assembly table in the afternoon. I have now installed about half of the roughly 100 lights and find it best to do a dozen or so at a time. The work is not difficult but my hands and fingers get very sore if I do too many at once. The table top is from the desk that Maya used during her high school years. The base is made entirely out of plywood remnants left over from the shop wall paneling. It is not pretty, but it will sever the purpose until I can devote more time to building a proper base. I will be adding leveling feet and retractable casters to complete the project.

Installation of our interior doors commenced today. Bedrooms and offices will feature 5-panel frosted glass doors while others will get a flush panel. This photo is in silhouette but I will be sure to publish a properly lit one when I get a chance. We anticipate that all the doors will be installed this week. Curious to test out the magnetic latches, I shut the door behind me only to discover I was trapped inside my office. Too embarrassed to call out for assistance, I escaped by way of the window.