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.

A neighbor was kind enough to share this photo of a fox and her kits taken one house down the river from us. If I were not so busy with the house construction, I would be making an effort to photograph these cuties myself.

Pictured above is the apparatus for conducting a blower door test. An outside door is removed and this device is installed in the open frame. Fan speed is increased until a pressure differential, inside to outside, of 50 pascals is reached. Then the amount of airflow is measured. This is the amount of air that is leaking from the house. Knowing this number and the interior volume of the house, simple math will provide the number of Air Changes per Hour at 50 pascals (ACH50). Code for new construction mandates a maximum ACH50 of 3.0. Passive House certification requires 0.6. This morning we did an initial blower door test to determine if we had any major issues to address before drywalling. We measured 0.65 which is an excellent result considering that we have loosely fitted sheathing where our front door will go. I fully expect that we will hit the Passive House target when the house is finished.

Today, family and friends participated in the Bionic 5K in solidarity with Nicolai who has become involved with the sponsoring organization. Not pictured is Jeanine, who took the photo nor several of Maya’s colleagues from Formlabs. Nicolai finished in 28:14 placing first in the disabled men’s division. The race attracted 700 runners and took place in the area of Harvard Square in Cambridge.

I was unable to attend since the event conflicted with my soccer match. Had I known we would have been beaten so badly, I might have opted to join the running crew.

What I have learned after building two full-size home theaters, is that 98% of the time it is just Jeanine and I watching TV. Our new home features what we are calling a media enclave, a small room with a big TV and seating for three (or one seated adult with a second reclined adult having his head rubbed by the first adult). It is located just off the kitchen so it can be watched from there and for nearby access to food and beverages. While shopping for rear surround speakers, I came across the image above and decided to add a niche similar in size to this one to our mini-theater. I had to make the framing additions today with drywalling set to begin this week. I also completed the last of the low-voltage wiring and marked the location of all studs and ceiling lighting fixtures on the sub-floor.

A second large-screen TV will be in the living room area for when we host viewing parties (World Cup matches, Super Bowl, etc.)

Jeanine and I attended Chopped for Charity this evening, an event that she introduced to Open Table when she was its Executive Director. Each year, the fundraiser has grown bigger and more polished. This is the first time we could enjoy the event as guests rather than participants. I was particularly pleased to see Jeanine recognized in remarks by Massachusetts Senator Jamie Eldridge (pictured above), the retired Chair of the Board and honoree of the event, Jill Block, and the current Executive Director, Alex DePalo. All acknowledged the successful transformation of the organization under her leadership to become one of the premier food relief organizations in the state.

Jeanine suggested I bring my camera even though I was no longer responsible for documenting the event as I have done in years past. Instead, I was free to capture special moments as they appeared before me. My favorite, pictured below is a portrait of celebrity judge Tiziana Dearing, the host of Radio Boston on WBUR.