Our new house will feature remote thermal sensors for temperature control of the various zones. Instead of a traditional thermostat placed on the wall, we will have thermal sensors embedded in the drywall. We have eschewed most wall-mounted controllers and devices in favor of using voice control or phone-based apps to control the home. “Hey Siri, set the temperature to 68 degrees.”

The pictures show the installed 3/4″ diameter sensors. I documented distances to adjacent walls and took the photos should I ever need to locate the devices in the future.

Progress on the siding has been slower than I would have expected but the results have been better than I imagined. The main material is a product called TruExterior. It is made with fly-ash, a by-product recovered from coal combustion. The fly-ash is combined with polymers to create an inorganic material that is resistant to moisture and that offers no food source to carpenter ants, termites, wood-boring bees, and other insects. It is being installed as a rain screen (3/16″ open gaps between boards) which promotes drying of the backside. Five different board widths are being used in a random pattern to mimic the different size tree trunks which surround the house and will be painted a shade of grey. Areas that currently appear black will be sided with a product made from rice hulls using horizontal 4″ boards in a contrasting rust color. In total, about 70% of the siding is made from recycled or rapidly renewable materials. Still to be completed are the north side and riverside facades. These should go a little faster since they are not as high and do not require any board splicing.

This past weekend marked the 18th anniversary of the start of this blog. At times, I have questioned the investment of time needed to keep up with the daily postings. Just when I am about to let go of the routine, one of the kids or a friend, or even a random stranger will send me a note letting me know how much they appreciated something that I shared.

I should also like to apologize that the blog has become very new home construction-focused over the last year and will likely remain so through the completion of the River House. The simple fact is that the project consumes my every waking moment and I have suspended my normal travel adventures which were the source of my most interesting material.

Perhaps the best way to illustrate the age of this blog is to compare pictures of the kids when it started to today. According to the program I use to post with, this is entry number 8,588.

After yesterday’s memorial celebration for my mother, we enjoyed a family reunion at my sister’s house. I was too busy enjoying the event to take a lot of photos and was pleased to find myself in one taken by Maya.

Additional photos can be found here.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QT9gWAoAbTcfDkNC8

It is hard to be objective, but the memorial service for my mother was a truly special affair. We were joined by family far and near in the UUI church where she was a member for over 50 years. The eulogy by the co-ministers told the story of her life. I shared my experience of the final days of her life and the slideshow above. Alissa recounted the list of things for which she thanked my mother and performed a tango medley in her honor. Mark let us know what he would miss most about her and Mayela delivered a humorous and poignant short story that captured the essence of Angela. Her nephew Edward, delivered a message from her brother-in-law, Bob, and his own touching remembrance about his “wing man.” Her nieces, Anita and Jackie described the profound impact their beloved aunt had on them. Grandson Rory closed the service explained how Angela lives on in those she loved. Profound thoughts from someone so young.

Her grandchildren lit the chalice to start the service and the spouses of her children extinguished it.

A family reunion followed the ceremony at Alissa’s home and I will share those pictures tomorrow.

In advance of my mother’s memorial service tomorrow, I drove to Albany, NY with my nephews, Rory and Mario this afternoon. There, we were joined by Jeanine, my siblings, and some of our extended family for dinner at Cafe Calabria. The Italian cuisine was world class and the gathering lasted for over four hours as we all caught up with each other. It is not everyday that you find a restaurant that shares your last name and the owners were ever so gracious and accommodating of our ever so boisterous group.

Jeanine took the train to New Your City this morning to join a group of friends for the premiere of an off-Broadway musical co-written by our good friend Stefanie Cloutier (yellow/green top). I can’t wait to hear the reviews.

How do you move a 500-pound battery stacked on a second battery from a horizontal position to a vertical position on the ground 2 feet below? Very carefully! To accomplish this without assistance, I stacked blocks of wood to support the weight as I pushed the battery off the edge of the box underneath it. I then used a lever and fulcrum in between the supports to carry the weight as I removed one pair of blocks at a time gradually tipping the battery to an upright position. It took about an hour to complete the task and I was very pleased with the outcome. All this effort was necessary so I could expose the back side of the unit to confirm how it will be mounted and where the wiring needs to be located.

Last week, inspired by this photo, I framed in a nook located in the media enclave behind where the couch will be located. I set the height based on our current couch. Unfortunately, the new couch that we just ordered has considerably higher backs (due to the headrests for the reclining function) that will cover the nook. Rather than re-frame to a higher height, I opted to abandon the idea altogether. Two steps forward, two steps back.

Compressed air is very handy for any woodshop. Pneumatic nailers can be run from very small portable air compressors but tools like sanders and HVLP (high volume, low pressure) paint guns consume a lot of air and require a large tank and powerful motors to sustain the airflow. Pictured above is the unit that will service my shop. I located it in the mechanical room right next to my dust collector so that the sound from these rather loud machines will be highly damped before reaching other parts of the house. Both the shop and the mechanical room walls are filled with sound-attenuating insulation and the air compressor is an ultra-quiet model. Pictured on the wall to the right are the four thermostats for each of the HVAC zones in the house. All use remote temperature sensors and can be adjusted/programmed from a phone app rather than a traditional wall mounted device.

I set up a temporary shop in the River House kitchen today in order to fabricate the pockets into which window blinds we be installed. Because European-style windows open inwards, it is necessary to locate the roller blinds in a pocket above the window opening so as not to interfere with the operation of the window.

We were invited by our neighbors and good friends, Dave and Sarah for on outing to the Quabbin Reservoir today. We enjoyed a 5-mile hike to the Dana Town Common, a preserved archaeological landscape reflecting the 19th-century organization and land uses of a Swift River Valley town before the development of the Quabbin Reservoir in the 1930s. Although no buildings remain at Dana Common, extant foundations and cellar holes, granite steps, fragments of paving, stone fenceposts, walls, and a metal safe too big and heavy to relocate survive, all reflecting a world that is now gone.

Dana Common was formerly the institutional center of the once-vibrant town of Dana. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts acquired the town of Dana along with three adjacent central Massachusetts towns—Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott—to create the Quabbin Reservoir, which, by the mid 20th century, would become the major source of drinking water for about two million people in and around Boston. Dana was among the four towns disincorporated, leveled, and flooded by the damming of the Swift River in 1939. The Dana Common area, on the East Branch of the Swift River, was above the reservoir flow line in the watershed and so was never inundated. Today the Quabbin Reservoir is the largest inland body of water in the Commonwealth, and said to be one of the world’s largest domestic water supplies. Dana Common is the best-preserved and most easily accessible of the former villages that made up the pre-Quabbin, Swift River Valley towns.

We then drove to “Fishing Area 3” where we enjoyed the glorious spring weather before heading to Harvard for lunch at the General Store. This is the first day in weeks where I have not worked on either the River House or Kyle’s house and the break was much needed.

Jeanine’s tulips and pansies were in full bloom today at the Road House. Spring in New England feels like the shortest of the seasons but makes up for that with the beauty it brings.

Having tested many reclining sofas with Jeanine earlier in the week, I returned to the store today to select an appropriate color and place the order. I choose the patterned charcoal grey pictured below. The sofa is for what we call the media enclave, essentially a home theater for two people located just off the kitchen. Delivery is expected in July, when we hope to be ready for it.

This morning, drywall was delivered to the River House and strategically positioned throughout. A special lift was used to hoist the product from the delivery truck up to various windows where it was offloaded by the crew. I spent the morning finishing up low-voltage wiring for the powered window blinds and caulking all remaining penetrations in the building envelope. On the way to pick up lunch, I spotted one of our resident bald eagles perched majestically in a tree at the edge of the river. He was kind enough to remain there until I could drive to the Road House and return with my long lens.