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.

A number of crane flies appear to have taken up residence in our newly painted garage attracted, no doubt, by the bright white color. As they do not bite and only live for about two weeks they seem like an innocuous guest and we are happy to share our space with them. I had the River House to myself today due to the holiday and spent most of my time installing recessed lights. A trip to the Home Depot in Watertown placed me close to Kyle so I dropped in to assist him with the finishing touches he is making on his renovated basement before his new tenants move in next week.

The Pemigewasset Loop is a 31-mile hike in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Maya completed the loop this weekend with her boyfriend, Owen, and another friend from work. Her flatmates, Fiona and Grace were originally planning to make the hike but came down with Covid days ahead of the adventure. In total, the group summited 14 peaks – Flume, Liberty, Little Haystack, Lincoln, South Lincoln, Lafayette, South Lafayette, Garfield, Galehead, South Twin, Guyot, West Bond, Bond, and Bondcliff. Maya reported sleeping for 10-1/2 hours the night of her return.

Pictured above are the batteries for the energy storage system that will power the River House in the event of a power outage. They can also be used to shift the time of use for grid power (charge from the grid during off-peak times, supply the house during peak hours) that will allow us to purchase electricity when it is cheapest. Mounting these to the garage wall was no small feat given that each weighs more than 500 pounds and that I did so working alone using levers and blocks to lift the units an inch and a half at a time. Mounting and connecting the batteries took the better part of the day, a task that could have been easily completed in half the time with the aid of a forklift and a couple of really strong assistants. Even so, there is something very satisfying about moving really heavy things alone using the principles of mechanical advantage.

The turnout this afternoon at our neighborhood summer picnic was quite good; enhanced no doubt by the perfect weather, a nice respite from all the rain we have been having. Our community seems to be composed primarily of really young families or retirees with little else in between. After a rather unproductive morning working at the River House, relaxing for a few hours was nice.

Kyle has graduated from apprentice to novice carpenter. He created this video to document his first major solo woodworking project. With new tenants about to rent his newly renovated basement, he decided to add much-needed storage to his garage in the form of 2-foot-deep shelves. It fills me with great joy to see him using the skills he developed while we worked together on the renovation.

Jeanine joined me at the River House to check out the build progress. We used the opportunity to model what our house number will look like at scale. Maya 3D printed these numbers for us at work and even though I could not hold them up with the proper spacing, we are very pleased with the size. Initially, we thought we would buy backlit numbers and I provisioned for the power to do this. Upon further reflection, however, I think we have decided that we would prefer not to illuminate the numbers. Visitors looking for our house at night will be more likely to rely on the reflective numbers on our mailbox than peering through the 300 feet deep forest of trees separating our house from the road.

Last weekend I ran over a turtle with my car when I arrived at the River House to work. It would appear to be a female snapping turtle and measured about 7 inches in length. I did not see the turtle nor did I realize I had driven over it. I only noticed it when I got out of my car and immediately felt sick to my stomach, not at the sight, but because I had caused the death of this wonderful creature. I suspect the turtle had come from the river in search of a place to bury her eggs. This only compounded my feelings of guilt. By the time I had completed my work for the day, all that remained of the turtle was its shell. I take a small measure of consolation knowing that the other wildlife we share our yard with gained nourishment from this tragedy. Over the course of my life, I have helped to save a handful of wayward turtles. I hope this history of compassion and care will help me to forgive myself.

My new jointer planer has 5 rows of 15mm x 15mm x 2.5mm square four-sided convex edge carbide knives for a total of 80 knives. When an edge of a knife gets dull or damaged you simply remove the locking screw and rotate the knife to a new edge. The helical arrangement of the blades results in a smoother cut and less tear-out on difficult grain. I spent some time doing the final tuning of the infeed and outfeed tables today as well as sealing all the joints on my dust collection system.

While it is far from complete, my new wood shop at the River House is officially open for business. As of today, all of my major machines are operational and I have access to most of my tools and building supplies. The automatic dust collection system is up and running on my table saw, jointer/planer, and bandsaw. Jeanine stopped by to see the garage doors that were installed today and found me working in my shop for this photo. Just ten days ago, this was an empty room and now I am ready to start building cabinetry for the house.

Nicolai returned to the soccer pitch this afternoon playing in a showcase match to kick off the month-long Boston Unity Cup. He played with and against many of his teammates from the US national team as well as several exciting new players who have recently joined the sport. The tournament is meant to reimagine the power of soccer to build community, connect people from diverse backgrounds, and promote equity. Nico had 2 goals and 2 assists in a tight 4-3 win. Photos from the match can be found here.

I spent the morning moving tons (literally) of shop supplies and hardware from the detached garage where it has been stored for the last two and a half years into the new house’s basement. A constant light rain only added to the drudgery of the task. Currently, the mechanical room and shop are the only two rooms that are ready for occupancy, all others have yet to be painted. As I have yet to create any permanent storage solutions in the shop it is getting quite crowded so I opted to temporarily store much of what I moved in the mechanical room.

Having successfully tested my first pneumatic blast gate earlier in the week, I moved on to the assembly and testing of the remaining units during the afternoon. I still have to fabricate and attach the arm that connects the pneumatic cylinder’s piston to the blast gate.

The dust collector in a wood shop is a shared resource. In the simplest systems, you connect a single hose to whichever machine you happen to be using. This stops being fun on your first project. The next step up incorporates an array of ducts that connect all machines to the dust collector. This requires “blast gates” at each machine so that only the one being operated is open thus maximizing air flow. This is what I have used in all my previous shops. Whenever you move to a new machine, you close the blast gate of the last machine and open the blast gate of the next machine. Over the years, this too becomes tiresome. The ultimate solution is an automated system that detects which machine you are using and opens only the blast gate connected to it and turns on the dust collector. A couple of years ago, I design such a gate fashioned from an off the shelf blast gate coupled to a pneumatic actuator and control valve. This afternoon, I connected the first of seven to my bandsaw. Open and close times are fully adjustable. I plan to slow the close enough to allow the dust collector to clear the ducts before shutting down.

For the second time this week, I rented a trailer from U-Haul. This time it was to pick up 780 pounds of laser-cut steel stair stringers that we will be using in the River House. Pictured above is a photo from earlier this month depicting my final design. Below are the fabricated stringers loaded onto a utility trailer. On and offloading these was quite a good workout with each of the twelve averaging 65 pounds.

As if I needed more exercise, I decided that today was the day to move my very heavy jointer/planer from the garage into my shop. The ground was relatively dry and weather predictions are calling for on-and-off rain for the next several days. Using a bunch of blocks and levers, I single-handedly got the machine off its shipping pallet and onto the dolly I built yesterday. I was grateful that Kyle was able to join me after he finished work to assist with the difficult task of getting it down to the basement level and up a home-built ramp onto the shop floor.

I have decided that the best way to move my nearly 600-pound jointer/planer from the garage where it is currently stored into the shop is with a dolly and a couple of strong helpers. I looked at purchasing one but was put off by the price. Cheap ones with a 2x safety factor are around $300 and from their appearance do not seem up to the task. Really well-designed ones are almost twice that much. I decided to pick up a set of swivel casters rated for an 1100-pound load each ($60 for the set) and built the base out of left-over framing lumber. The wheels are 4 inches tall and 2 inches wide. I plan to use scrap sheets of OSB for a smooth surface over which to roll the loaded dolly. Only time will tell if this plan works out. Of one thing I am certain. This dolly will definitely stand up to the load.

Side Note: My shop is now largely operational. I used my miter saw, table saw, bandsaw, and planer in the construction of this project which features lap joints at the corners.

I put an extremely long day in working at the River House. I am racing the clock to have my shop operational so that I can immediately start building cabinets when the bamboo plywood from which they will be made arrives. Imagine my delight when I returned home to this lovely meal.

Our house builder has been making slow and steady progress on the soffits. They are using a man lift to position themselves under the eves to facilitate the work. Before moving it to a new section of the roof, I hitched a ride to install the downlights that will illuminate a future patio. Beats the hell out of a ladder.

We enjoyed a visit today from our nephew, John Quinn. He met us at the River House for an extended tour followed by a late lunch in West Concord. It was great to catch up with him and learn about his plans for the future.

I spent the balance of the day moving into and beginning to organize my new shop. Tomorrow, I plan to install provisional dust collection and will be very nearly ready to start cabinet making once the bamboo plywood I ordered arrives.

Today, we celebrated both Father’s Day and Maya’s birthday, one and two days early respectively. We attended the Verrill Farm Strawberry Festival in the morning and were fortunate to miss the rain that fell for much of the rest of the day. Jeanine suggested the event and I thought it would be great fun. After noticing the very large number of small children in attendance, Kyle suggested this was a planned attempt to accelerate the timetable for having grandchildren. No such subterfuge was at play but if it had that effect, I will be choosing to attend the festival again next year. I feel very fortunate that the kids all live close by and that we can be together so often.

In the afternoon, Kyle helped me to collect a three-piece recliner that will go in the mini-theater of our new house. While we had the U-Haul trailer we also returned the recliner that Jeanine has been using while recovering from her foot surgery and moved a bunch of shop equipment from the Road House basement to the River House.

This morning, I installed lighting for my new shop. The setup includes 7 rows of 20-foot-long linear LED lamps. Each 20-foot section is made up of five 4-foot-long sections (four rows are visible in the photo). The total light output is 75,000 lumens. The arrangement provides shadow-free very bright illumination over the entire shop. When full brightness is not required, only half the lights can be turned on but still cover the entire floor space.

In the afternoon, I moved my table saw and bandsaw from the garage into the shop. I managed the effort single handed but will need help with the jointer/planer which weighs twice as much at 572 pounds. Once I lock in the location of each machine, I will connect each to my dust collection system and will declare my shop open for business. That business will include making all the kitchen cabinets and vanities for all the bathrooms.

It has been 4 weeks since Jeanine had foot surgery to correct a previously botched bunion procedure. Her doctor has given her the all-clear to start putting up to 50% of her weight on the foot. Although her knee scooter is still the most comfortable way to move around, the process of loading and unloading it from the car has kept her from driving anywhere. Now that she is up on crutches, she is back on the road again.

The beauty of nature never ceases to amaze me. I found this cactus growing inside a large pot outside a U-Haul rental center of all places. The responsible gardener notice me taking a picture and was happy to explain how he had found one little stem years ago and had been dividing them ever since. The photo only shows a few of the several hundred that now completely fill the 30-inch-wide pot. Stopping to smell the roses might be fine for people whose dominant sense is olfactory. For someone who is more visually oriented, I find it more satisfying to pause and look at the cacti.

The 16″ jointer/planer I ordered arrived today. At 572 pounds (660 pounds as shown) it is the heaviest thing that will reside in our new house. I am still contemplating the best approach to getting it from the carport where it now sits into my shop. The motorized pallet jack that brought it down the driveway is only good on hard surfaces and would have sunk in the rain-soaked clay soil had we tried to get any closer to the house. I will probably uncrate it and disassemble it into lighter components (motor, beds, cutter head, fence). The extra work will be worth the riskier challenge of moving such a heavy object. You can count on a blog post once it reaches its final resting place.