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.
Progress on hardscaping for the River House has been slow but we are finally getting a sense of what the final result will look like. Work on the stairs to the front door began today. A trough in the stone dust base was excavated for a concrete foundation on which the first course of bluestone slabs was set. Subsequent steps will stack on this base so getting the elevation and location right was of utmost importance.
At the rear of the house, we have a full set of steps (half visible in the photo below) from the patio down to the walkout basement level and river bank. These steps are an integral part of the retaining wall which includes two massive stone blocks and two 30-inch high Corten steel panels. The panels are welded to angle iron set in concrete footings and also bolted to the stone blocks and welded to each other. The space behind the steel panel on the second tier is to be planted with an herb garden that will be easily tended from the flat platform in front of it (two additional slabs of stones have yet to be set on that surface). In addition to its functional role as a retaining wall, I suspect that children will find this a very fun area to play in and around.
While the list of remaining tasks to complete before we move into the River House is long, the only remaining major construction item is the stairs. Jeanine is seen here preparing the custom laser-cut stringers for painting. First, she sands the steel to remove any surface rust. Next, she cleans the surface with mineral spirits and then applies a coat of metal primer. She completed both sides of twelve stringers with just four more to go before a final coat of paint will be applied. Each stringer weighs 50 pounds so just moving them around is a workout unto itself.
The New England Revolution Amputee Soccer Team are National Champions! They emerged undefeated from the first US Amputee Soccer Cup tournament held in Columbus, Ohio over the weekend. They faced New York in the finals in a tough match. Nico put away a penalty kick to put the team up 1-0 and a late-game own-goal by NY secured the win. Nico earned the MVP award cementing his reputation as the best amputee soccer player in the United States. We are all very proud of what he has accomplished in the sport both on and off the field.
Maya joined Jeanine and me this afternoon to help us complete finishing the stair treads for the River House. Each tread now has one coat of sealer and two coats of finish. Next, we will move on to prepping and painting the steel stringers that will support the treads. Installation of the stairs and railing is the last major construction project required before we can occupy the house. This will require careful coordination with the painters and floor installers as they will need to do some work after the temporary stairs have been removed and before the new ones go up.
The kitchen island has been the focal point and gathering hub for every home we have ever lived in. It is also the operational workhorse for meal preparation and cooking. We put a lot of thought into the design of the one I just completed for the River House. Pictured above is the business end of the island. It features open shelving that will be used for frequently used spices, cooking oils, etc. and a convenience outlet. The goal was easy access and no line of sight from the entertaining areas ( a principle used for the shelving in the pantry as well). Twelve full-extension, deeper-than-normal, push-to-open drawers provide ample storage. The characteristic bamboo wood grain is matched from drawer to drawer creating a continuous pattern and the lack of hardware further contributes to the clean and calm appearance. Pictured below is the view from the great room which was designed to be more elegant. Not shown is the side opposite the induction cooktop which has space for three tucked-in bar stools where seated guests will enjoy views of the river. Hidden behind one of the columns is a second conveniece outlet with two built-in USB-C chargers.
After months of building and finishing all the cabinetry for the house, the island is the first to reach full completion and I could not be happier with the result.
One could not wish for a more glorious fall day. I stopped work early today and relaxed for a few minutes taking in the natural beauty surrounding me. Color is a week past prime but still quite lovely.
Our plumbing subcontractor has returned to install fixtures and get the water up and running. I asked that they prioritize outside spigots first since we need water to mix batches of concrete for the hardscape installation.
Nico shared this photo he took last weekend during our family drawer box finishing day. It was taken while we paused work to enjoy some very delicious cider donuts that he provided. Tomorrow he leaves for Columbus, Ohio where he will compete in the inaugural US Amputee Soccer Cup. The event is sponsored and presented by Major League Soccer (MLS) and is hosted by the American Amputee Soccer Association in cooperation with the Columbus Adaptive Sports Connection. Teams representing New England – Revolution Amputee Soccer, New York – Metro NY Amputee Soccer, Columbus, and Colorado will compete to become national amputee soccer champions.
Pictured to the left of the stair tread in the photo below is a tool I fashioned to facilitate the movement of treads when wet with finish on all sides. I rather like the whole system I developed for finishing the treads of which we need 29 plus a spare. Before starting, I screwed 4 long screws into the bottom of each tread in a location that will be covered by the stair stringers. These act as feet. The tread is placed feet up as the finish is applied to the bottom. It is then flipped over onto the feet and the finish is applied to the top and sides. Now the entire tread is wet with finish and must be moved to a drying area so the next tread can be processed. The “U” shaped jig has four screw points emerging from the bottom leg. It is slid under the tread and lifted by the handle which captures the tread on top of the screw points. It can now be moved to an open area on the floor where it is set down to dry.
Working with Nicolai, we applied a sealer coat to all 30 stair treads over a few hours. We ran out of floor space in the room we were working and the balance had to be set in another area of the basement. Two more top coats of a protective finish will complete the treads. Pictured on the right are the stair stringers I designed and had laser cut from steel. They need to be finished as well, but that is a job for another day.
When we started the River House project, we wisely chose not to demolish the garage/carport when we took down the house. The garage/carport has served as a storage area for tools and building materials as well as a makeshift office and shelter from inclement weather. Today, it was time to say goodbye. The entire demolition operation took just over an hour.
Having graduated from skid steer operation last week, I was invited to operate the excavator and had 9 minutes of demo action after a 1-minute tutorial (see the video below). I took things slow to start. Still, I had a nice rhythm going before I was compelled to surrender the cab.
The only other excavator I have ever operated is the one shown above. I made this as a Christmas present for Kyle when he was just a boy. Even with 25 years of woodworking experience under my belt since then, I would find this a challenging project today. All of the joints articulate and the tank treads are operational.
With significant assistance from Nicolai, we installed all the drawer boxes in their respective cabinets today. I am pleased to report that every single one fits perfectly. All that remains to be done is adding the bamboo drawer fronts to each box. This may not happen right away because of some higher-priority work that must be completed before the baseboard installers arrive next week. I also need to complete three more drawers; two for the trash bins and one below the double oven that I forgot to build.
Work that would have taken me a week to accomplish working alone was completed in roughly 6 hours with the help of family. Jeanine, her sister Susan, Kyle, and Nicolai all helped to apply a hard wax oil finish to the 68 drawer boxes that will go into the kitchen, pantry, bathrooms, laundry, and mudroom of the River House. Maya was in Vermont for the weekend, otherwise, I am sure she would have joined our work party as well.
We established a production line with Kyle delivering dust-free unfinished drawer boxes to the front end and picking them up from the back end. Nicolai and I were principally responsible for applying the finish. Jeanine burnished the finish into the wood with a ScotchBrite pad, and Susan removed all excess finish with shop towels. Things started slow as we explored ways to optimize our production methods but quickly turned into a well-oiled hard wax oiling machine (pun intended). It is hard to express the extent of my appreciation for all this help.
The time-lapse video above shows the completion of a small fraction of the total number of drawer boxes but gives a pretty good sense of the process. It is shown at 100 times normal speed.
The crew working on our water line installation left their Kubota skid steer parked in front of our dumpster which was scheduled for pick up today. Rather than send someone all the way back, they gave me permission to move it for them. After a 1-minute phone tutorial, I was off to the races with an ear-to-ear grin on my face. Jeanine knew this would be a moment to capture and I have her to thank for this video. Not 2-minutes after I repositioned the skid steer, the dumpster pick-up truck arrived. I think I could make quick work of driveway snow clearing if I owned such a machine. Stay tuned.