The countertops in Maya’s tiny house were installed today. It is one of the few jobs that she subbed out since it requires specialized tools to cut the Quartz material. Once the faucet and sink plumbing is completed and the induction cooktop is connected, the kitchen will be officially open for business. Pictured at the very back of this photo, provided courtesy of Maya, is the vanity counter and bowl style lavatory sink. Yet to be built is the vanity cabinet that will sit below and cover the on-demand water heater and associated plumbing. There still remains much work to be done on the interior, but the day is rapidly approaching when she will be able to start living in her very own tiny home.

Since the arrival of Covid-19, I have increasingly taken to having outdoor “walking meetings” in lieu of using my office or a conference room. This trail is located just a few steps from our building and offers a natural and shaded setting for conversations with members of my team. Born of the pandemic, it is a practice that I hope to continue when life returns to normal.

The cornfield behind our house has grown nicely and I imagine it will only be a few more weeks before it is harvested. The plants are approaching 10 feet tall and the corn cobs are generally about 6 inches long. Regrettably, this variety of corn is destined for animal feed and not the sweet corn we enjoy so much. That said, you can rest assured that I will be doing a taste test in the coming days.

Maya is scheduled to give a presentation at work about her tiny house later in the week. Her recent work on it has been centered on the kitchen cabinetry which she designed, fabricated, and finished entirely by herself. Her design exploits every cubic inch of available space including the toe-kick area and is a masterpiece of execution. At full extension, the alignment and 1/8″ reveal between drawer faces is perfect. In all honesty, I do not believe I could have matched this level of precision despite my many years of experience in the shop. On Wednesday, the quartz countertop is scheduled to arrive. Once in place, the sink, faucet, and induction cooktop can be installed rendering the kitchen open for business.

Tonight’s dinner featured tomatoes grown by Jeanine. Placed on Italian bread with a slice of mozzarella, basil, and balsamic vinegar, this is one of my favorite foods, made all the more delicious when prepared with fresh ingredients. It was a nice treat after spending much of the day working to replace the weather stripping on the front doors of our house. I also joined Jeanine for a 3 plus mile walk to visit what she described as a murder scene. It was indeed a gruesome sight, the result, I believe, of a Great Horned Owl killing and eating a Barred Owl. The meal took place on a horizontal tree limb and one could see feathers littering the ground everywhere beneath it.

Working in high tech can be both thrilling and terrifying especially when you are developing a product or process that has never been done before. Above you are looking at the result of years worth of effort and a major breakthrough for my team at Digital Alloys. We successfully printed the pyramid pictured above in H13 tool steel. More importantly, it was printed with a closed feedback loop and no human intervention. Today, we crossed the threshold of believing we could print with metal to proving we can print with metal. Over the course of my career, I have enjoyed perhaps a dozen or so such monumental milestones. I have learned to recognize them for what they are and pause to enjoy them.

Sadly, in a week where we were poised to purchase one of two properties, neither deal has come to fruition. The cliff house in Nahant went to a higher bidder and the final Kent Cottage price was just too high to make a proper renovation financially prudent. While we will keep our eyes open for new opportunities, in all likelihood we will put off buying a new home until next year when most experts believe it will be a buyer’s market rather than the seller’s market we are in now.

Pictured is the Ellingwood Chapel, a Gothic Revival structure built in 1920, located in the Greenlawn Cemetery on Nahant. I did a practice commute this morning before putting in our final offer.

The painting of the exterior of our house was completed today. The workmanship was excellent and we are very pleased with the outcome. Regrettably, when I made a final inspection, I noticed that significant damage had been done to the slate tiles at the edge of the roof. This damage was caused by incorrectly placed ladders. The owner of the company, Union Painting, was quick to acknowledge responsibility and discounted our price to offset for the repair work that will now be needed. Despite this admitted significant issue, we would still strongly recommend this company to others.

Nicolai has been working his way across the country on a combination vision quest/traveling amputee soccer training camp/golf outing/family and friend reunion/vacation/camping adventure. We are thrilled every time he checks in to let us know where he is and what he is up to. By the time you are reading this post, he will probably be in southern California with plans to work his way up the coast and thru the national parks. We look forward to the photos he has been posting on his Instagram account which are every bit as good as any photos I have ever taken.

After 2 years of looking for a smaller home for our retirement years, we have arrived at two choices that could not be more different. Last night, we put an offer in on Kent Cottage. It is located in Burlington, walking distance from my office and includes 22 acres of beautiful wetlands. The home requires a top to bottom renovation and is located in the center of an otherwise commercial area. This home only makes sense at the right price given home much investment will be needed. Still, it is oozing with potential and the thought of doing a full restoration is very appealing to us. If our offer is not accepted, we will put an offer in on the Nahant home we visited over the weekend. It is situated on 1 acre and overlooks a beautiful ocean cove. The house would need extensive updating but the “bones” are good. The downside here is that access to the island is through Lynn which is hard to get to from just about anywhere.

Earlier this week, our yellowwood tree, pictured in the background, was struck by lighting. Approximately 1/3 of it was laying in our front yard with the remainder of it seemingly unaffected. I spent the better part of two hours this morning lopping off branches and making a very dense pile of them in the driveway. I used my cordless chainsaw to make quick work of the larger limbs which are stacked in a different pile. If the root system was not damaged, it is possible that the tree will survive, and if it does, a good chance that it will fill back in the lost areas. Only time will tell.

Nahant is an island just north of Boston connected by a causeway to the mainland. Before the roadway was constructed, it was only accessible at low tide, when a natural land bridge emerged from the water. Jeanine and I spent the better part of the day touring the island after revisiting a home we are thinking about purchasing trying to get a sense of what retirement would feel like in this tiny community. The house we are looking at is in major need of renovation but priced as if move-in ready. As we prepare to make an offer, it is unclear if we will be able to negotiate a more realistic price or if we would be better off putting a bid in on Kent Cottage.

For almost 2 years now, Kyle has been renting a posh apartment in Boston’s very chic Seaport District. While working at Cengage, it was literally across the street from his office, a 1-minute commute. When he took a new position at Touchplan, his walking commute increased to just under 20 minutes. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck and we encouraged all the kids to come back home and shelter in place with us. With his lease expiring at the end of this month and Touchplan’s decision to encourage working remotely, it made no sense to renew his lease and Kyle is now in the process of looking for a home to buy. The only question is where.

This evening after work, Jeanine and I helped Kyle pack up all his furniture and other belongings into a small U-Haul truck demarcating another new chapter in his life. Meanwhile, Nicolai continues the westward leg of his road trip/vision quest. When we checked in with him, he had just entered Arizona on his way to California. A future post will be devoted to his grand adventure.

When Maya returned from work this evening she entered the house inquiring why one of the trees in our front yard had fallen over. At first, I thought she was joking but a quick excursion and close inspection revealed that it had been hit by lightning and split in two. What I don’t understand is why this tree was struck and not the pines surrounding our house that are easily four or five times taller. Jeanine was particularly upset because this tree was her favorite, planted only a few years ago when we relandscaped the front yard. It is the only tree on our property whose leaves turn yellow in the fall.