Jeanine and I enjoyed a lovely dinner with new friends. Their dog thought he should be allowed to share some of the cheese appetizer plate and eventually, his persistent focus earned him the treat he was hoping for. I apologize for the poor-quality photo but it was impossible to quell my laughter and hold still as I watched the showdown.
Jeanine and I made a major dent in clearing the garage of construction materials and for the first time, I was able to park my car inside AND charge it. The landscape crew has been here all week and finished up with their work for the season. Topsoil placement and plantings will have to wait for the spring but the basic contours on the site have been established and should provide good stormwater drainage. Most importantly, we now have a functional if not attractive walkway to the front door. Also completed today was the final coat of floor finishing which means that we can start moving in furniture early next week.
Among other tasks I worked on today at the River House was the LAN (Local Area Network). Pictured in the middle is the Wi-Fi router. To its right is a 5 port POE (Power Over Ethernet) switch that connects to three Wi-Fi access points located to provide signal coverage for the entire house and garage. On the left is a regular 5-port switch providing hard-wired connectivity to various devices in the house. On the top is a patch panel to facilitate labeling and interconnection. Not shown are the cables that connect six surveillance cameras to an NVR (Network Video Recorder). Once all the equipment was configured, I decided to test the battery backup system to see if the network equipment would stay connected during the transition from grid power to battery power. Our last house had a natural gas powered generator that took about 20 seconds to come on line during which time the router and switches would reset. I was very happy to see that the switchover happened so fast that all the devices remained online. If not for the message sent to my phone, I would not have known there was a power loss.
Earlier this week I posted photos of the new staircase and today, Nico shared some video he shot during the installation process.
Work on the River House walkway commenced today. The rather long path will include a stone slab bridge over a dry stream that will carry water away from the house when it is raining. A large angled boulder top located in the corner where water falls from the roof will direct water away from the siding and into the stream bed. Unfortunately, plantings in this area of the yard will have to wait until the spring.
It has taken more than 9 months to get our battery backup system commissioned. Today, the wait ended. Because the River House is an all-electric home, I thought it was fairly important to have a robust backup capability. Not sure I would make the same decision again based on all the permitting and installation challenges we have faced.
We enjoyed our first fire of the season this afternoon. With plenty of wood pallets for fuel, there was no need to skimp. The 24″ diameter copper cauldron we have used for a makeshift fire pit will soon be replaced with a proper one made of weathering steel and 50% larger. The size is more appropriate to the scale of the patio and the steel will match that used in the adjacent retaining wall. As the sun set we settled into camp chairs and enjoyed the warmth of the fire against the cold November air. A visiting neighbor expressed her surprise to find me relaxing rather than working on the house. Indeed, this may be the first time in two years that I have taken more than a lunch break while at the house.
With the considerable help of Jeanine and Nicolai, we completed the installation of the stairs at the River House today. Once the top and bottom cleats (see photo below for an example of each) were secured to the landings, it took only a matter of minutes to set the stringers and attach the treads. The top cleats are secured with four 1/2″ x 5-/1/2″ lag screws and the bottom cleats with three. What I could not know when designing these stairs was how stiff they would feel once erected. Happily, I can report that they are extremely stable, stiffer than the stairs in any home we have ever lived in. Additionally, the design tolerates movement of the house framing with changes in humidity or aging. In total, I would estimate that it took 80 person-hours of labor and $7,500 in materials for this project. Not bad compared to the quote of roughly $40,000 we initially received (and that did not include installation labor or the 20% markup charged by our builder).
After many days of preparation, it was time to install the first set of stringers and stair treads. Everything fit together perfectly and it took less than fifteen minutes to assemble all the pieces. Even with no fasteners installed yet, the stairs are fully functional with no perceptible flex or bounce. Kyle helped out for the second day in a row making the work go much faster. We completed prep work for the next three flights which I hope to install tomorrow.
The River House project is nearing completion. The last major component of work is to replace the temporary staircases with the final design including the handrails. Today, I began that work in earnest with Kyle assisting me all day. We started by removing the first two flights of the temp stairs which did not take that long but required great care to avoid nicking the newly painted walls. The remainder of the day was spent doing many small but time-consuming tasks; installing the nosing to complete the flooring on the landing, completing the wall below the landing, caulking and spackling the edges and screw holes, painting it to match the walls, locating and installing the stair cleat on the side of the platform, and securing the lower cleat to the basement floor with concrete screws. Tomorrow, we will install the stringers and stair treads and hopefully move on to the stairs from the first to the second floor.
Our Thanksgiving holiday included two gatherings. The first was for brunch after the kids, their friends, and Jeanine completed the Concord 5K Turkey Trot. I skipped the event this year to work on the River House but joined the post-race celebration.
Joining us this year for Thanksgiving dinner were my sister Alissa, Heloisa (Kyle’s friend), Owen (Maya’s friend), and Jeanine’s friend Barbara and her mother Cathy.
The Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Index is the industry standard by which a home’s energy efficiency is measured. New homes built in Massachusetts must meet several criteria for energy conservation that are part of the index. The extent to which conditioned air leaks from a home is measured in Air Changes per Hour (ACH) when the pressure differential between the inside and outside of the house is 50 Pascals. The building code requires 3 ACH(50) or less. To meet the Passive House standard it must be less than 0.60. Today, the River House was tested by a certified rater using a blower door test. Our result was 0.36 ACH(50) which is the best score our tester has ever recorded. This means that we have a very air-tight home and since air leakage is the largest contributor to energy loss this will translate to significant energy saving over time.
Nico is very good at many things. That list does not include letting his parents know when he is featured in a video interview. Today he directed Jeanine to the video above. It only took him 3 years to mention it. I am always amazed by how inspirational he can be.
I decided to see what other videos might be out there that we have not yet seen. Didn’t take long to find the one below from a year ago.
Reminder to self: Box Nico about the head until he agrees to make his parents aware of such videos.
On the home building front, we passed our final electrical and fire department inspections today. These do not cover our battery backup system which has to be done on a separate permit and looks to be the long pole in the tent.
Each year, Verrill Farm offers fresh, natural turkeys from family-owned, Stonewood Farm in Vermont. These birds are raised and processed on-site in open-sided barns free of antibiotics, hormones, and animal by-products. Demand is so high that traffic logistics are required to facilitate distribution. Click on the photo to see the full extent of the car queue. According to Jeanine, the line moved quickly and it only took her ten minutes to secure our turkey.
Today, I decided to do a Google search on myself. The last time I did this was about a year ago, my LinkedIn profile was the first result. This time, I was pleased to see that this blog was at the head of the list even though that has never been a goal.
While searching for the name Calabria, I also happened upon this video, the first minute of which paints a different picture of the one I imagined for this part of Italy. Despite having visited the country three times, I have never traveled to the region that bears my name, a situation that must be rectified when I am finished with the River House project.
I recently discovered an error in my design for the River House stairs. The lag screws anchoring the cleats that will support the upper section of each flight are too close to the edge of the framing members that they are secured to. Even though they would most likely hold as located, I would prefer to have a massive safety margin for something this important. As such, I redesigned the cleats to use a much higher anchor point and added some alignment features while I was at it. While at Formlabs this week for my consulting work, I had lunch with Maya. When I explained the delay this would introduce to the project she offered to help me fabricate them on the company’s waterjet (a machine that cuts sheet metal using a thin stream of high pressure water infused with abrasive particles). Luckily, I had the perfect size sheet of leftover steel from the retaining wall so did not even have to purchase new material. Maya and Owen took my new design file and setup the machine to cut 9 identical pieces and I babysat the operation for the 2.5 hours it took to complete. I have now added a waterjet to my list of machines I would love to own. It is so amazing to go from a CAD file to finished parts in a couple of hours. The stair construction is now back on schedule.
I took advantage of another temperate day to do some landscaping work. We have incorporated an elevated herb garden bed as part of our retaining wall. Two sides are fabricated from weathering steel and will eventually have a rust patina. I moved excess clay from the upper section into the bed, lined it with filter fabric, added crushed stone to the sides, and filled it partially with topsoil leaving room for compost to complete the bed. The garden will be about 12 feet by 4 feet in size with a massive flat stone serving as a platform from which to tend it.
Last year at this time, I was working with a half dozen clients in my consulting practice. Ever since I started working on the River House full-time, I have dropped all but Formlabs where I have a one-day-per-month commitment. In some ways, that day feels like a vacation even though it is a very exhausting 10-hour day with the commute. That said, I enjoy the work a great deal because I get to use a part of my brain that does not get much of a workout in the shop. Today, one of the people I met with asked if I had any parts to print. He wanted to show off the new product he and his team have been working on. As it happens, I had a part designed for use as a building code-required safety device for one of the windows on the second floor of our new house. I am not at liberty to disclose any attributes of the new product but I can tell you it includes some very exciting capabilities.
A Window Opening Control Device (WOCD) is required on any operable window with a sill lower than 24″ from the floor and an outside drop greater than 72″. We have one such window and the limiter must prevent it from opening more than 4″ unless a 2-stage release is activated to allow for egress in the event of fire.
I had planned to add the house numbers to our garage as the final project before moving into the River House. Although that day is rapidly approaching, I decided to take advantage of the warm weather to complete this task before winter weather arrives. The numbers are made from aluminum and are 12 inches tall. It was Jeanine’s idea to add this design flourish to the house and I really like the way it turned out. Originally, we had planned to backlight the numbers but then realized that anyone visiting us at night would have to pick the right driveway based on the address on our mailbox before getting close enough to see the house numbers. We have also been very thoughtful about minimizing outside lighting to help preserve dark skies in our area.
How do you drill 4 holes in precisely the same location on each of 29 stair treads? You build a jig. Pictured below is a close-up of the jig I fashioned to aid in this task. The stainless steel sleeves act as guides for the 1/2″ drill bit ensuring that the hole is perpendicular to the face of the stair tread and located in exactly the right position. Not shown is the other end of the jig which has two additional guides and a lip to register the entire assembly to the stair tread. Clamps secure the jig to the workpiece during drilling. Fabricating the jig took longer than drilling all 116 holes but it was meant to ensure precision rather than to optimize speed.
We are thrilled to have a paved driveway again. Installation of the binder coat took less than 2 hours. The eight-person crew worked in total synchrony with hot asphalt arriving by the truckload just in time. We will have a top coat added in about a year once the base coat has settled. Even half done, it is a very welcome improvement to our site. The small turnout serves double duty as a guest parking space and turnaround for cars backing out of either garage bay. Also considered in the driveway/landscape design are two snow push zones to facilitate clearing of the driveway with a snowplow.
For the second Sunday in a row, Jeanine and I traveled into Boston to watch one of our offspring compete in their first half marathon. Today’s event was sponsored by the Boston Athletic Association with proceeds donated to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund. Kyle dressed wisely for the very frigid weather but I have to question the wisdom of carrying his cell phone in hand for 13 miles. He finished in 1:52:44 and when last we heard from him was on his way out to celebrate with other members of his running club.
To date, I have produced nothing but wood chips in my shop. Massive amounts in fact. Today, for a change of pace, I made a nice little pile of steel shavings. I had to drill three 1/2″ holes in each of seven 3/4″ thick steel cleats that will support the staircase stringers. At some point in the future, I think I will fashion a small metal shop in the mechanical room. Mixing woodworking and metalworking in the same space is never a really good idea.
Our driveway foundation of crushed stone has been installed and we are now waiting on the binder course. It was scheduled to be installed today but we were informed that it is now to happen on Monday. We will wait until next summer to install the top course allowing time for the driveway to settle and for the last of the heavy equipment to leave their scars. Once the binder course has been installed, I am going to treat my car to a long overdue carwash since it will no longer be subject to daily dust storms generated by anything driving over the dirt.
I have been diligent about recycling all cardboard packaging that we have amassed during the construction of the River House. I visit the Concord recycling bins every second or third day with a car load of packaging. If I had to estimate, I would say that we have recycled several thousand (not an exaggeration) cardboard boxes of one size or another. I am often amazed at how poorly items are packaged and occasionally by how wastefully. Today’s delivery from Amazon took the cake, however. I ordered a light diffuser for the LED strip lights that will be used to illuminate the art niches in the house. It comes in one-meter-long sections which weigh next to nothing. I was befuddled when this massive box arrived from Amazon only to discover that this was the package they selected to ship the diffusers. I have little doubt that the box cost more than the contents. Tip for Amazon: There is this amazing innovation for shipping posters and tall skinny things called a cardboard tube.
Nicolai just posted a highlight reel of his amputee soccer exploits. Super cool.
Large slabs of bluestone form the stairs and landing for our front door. We wanted something casual but substantial, a theme throughout our project. The last treads were placed this afternoon and we can now finally enter our house through the front door rather than the garage.
One of these cabinet doors is not like the others, the result of running out of plywood. Throughout the house, I have taken great pains to match grain patterns across cabinet doors and drawer fronts. This can be seen in the upper cabinets in the photo above as well as the left three doors on the bottom. Unfortunately, I ran out of plywood and had to make the fourth door out of a different sheet. I placed an order for additional plywood almost two months ago and we are expecting delivery any day now. Suffice it to say, I will be remaking all four lower doors to achieve that perfect grain (and color) match. Incidentally, this built-in is in my office and will be used primarily to store my photography equipment.
Maya participated in her first half-marathon today. Jeanine and I were there to cheer her on at the half-way point. She finished in 1:49:24 with a pace of 8:21/mi. Twenty-five years ago, her mother completed a half-marathon (2:15:00) with Kyle, Nico and me at the finish line to meet her. Kyle will run a half-marathon next week and we plan to watch him as well. Very proud of our little badass.
When we sold our house on Mattison Drive, we also sold most of our furniture realizing it would not be in keeping with the modern design of our new home. As we are approaching a move-in date to the River House, we have turned our attention to furnishings. After much deliberation, we ordered the dining room table above which will match a set of chairs we purchased last year. The living “room” area of the great room presents an interesting design challenge. To the east is the view across the river, to the south is the dramatic long view of the river, and on the west wall, is a large screen TV. How do you orient the furniture to best take advantage of these options? To solve this we will include two swivel chairs that allow the occupant to pivot in any direction. They will be matched with a small couch to deliniate between the dining and living areas.
Since I have begun doing much of the finishing work on the River House, date nights have become few and far between. After 10 hours of hard physical labor, the only date I am interested in is with a long hot shower. This evening, Jeanine and I had dinner and then went furniture shopping. The second of two stores was in a venue with an iMax theater, restaurant, and large indoor pool equipped with dancing fountains and lights. After coming up empty on our shopping list, we sat down and enjoyed the latter over ice cream allowing us to just barely meet the threshold for a date night.
Except for the sink in my shop, all plumbing fixtures at the River House have been installed and are operational. Even though there is still much work needed to complete the project, this feels like a major milestone. At this point, we could start living in the house if we needed to. The glass partitions for the shower areas arrived today and I hope to install them over the weekend. I am afraid that my shop sink is a low priority and will have to wait until I have had a chance to build the cabinet for it. Until then, the laundry room has a utility sink I can use which is a huge improvement over bringing paint brushes back to the Road House to wash out.