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.