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.
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.