Since I have begun doing much of the finishing work on the River House, date nights have become few and far between. After 10 hours of hard physical labor, the only date I am interested in is with a long hot shower. This evening, Jeanine and I had dinner and then went furniture shopping. The second of two stores was in a venue with an iMax theater, restaurant, and large indoor pool equipped with dancing fountains and lights. After coming up empty on our shopping list, we sat down and enjoyed the latter over ice cream allowing us to just barely meet the threshold for a date night.

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.

While the list of remaining tasks to complete before we move into the River House is long, the only remaining major construction item is the stairs. Jeanine is seen here preparing the custom laser-cut stringers for painting. First, she sands the steel to remove any surface rust. Next, she cleans the surface with mineral spirits and then applies a coat of metal primer. She completed both sides of twelve stringers with just four more to go before a final coat of paint will be applied. Each stringer weighs 50 pounds so just moving them around is a workout unto itself.

The New England Revolution Amputee Soccer Team are National Champions! They emerged undefeated from the first US Amputee Soccer Cup tournament held in Columbus, Ohio over the weekend. They faced New York in the finals in a tough match. Nico put away a penalty kick to put the team up 1-0 and a late-game own-goal by NY secured the win. Nico earned the MVP award cementing his reputation as the best amputee soccer player in the United States. We are all very proud of what he has accomplished in the sport both on and off the field.

Maya joined Jeanine and me this afternoon to help us complete finishing the stair treads for the River House. Each tread now has one coat of sealer and two coats of finish. Next, we will move on to prepping and painting the steel stringers that will support the treads. Installation of the stairs and railing is the last major construction project required before we can occupy the house. This will require careful coordination with the painters and floor installers as they will need to do some work after the temporary stairs have been removed and before the new ones go up.

The kitchen island has been the focal point and gathering hub for every home we have ever lived in. It is also the operational workhorse for meal preparation and cooking. We put a lot of thought into the design of the one I just completed for the River House. Pictured above is the business end of the island. It features open shelving that will be used for frequently used spices, cooking oils, etc. and a convenience outlet. The goal was easy access and no line of sight from the entertaining areas ( a principle used for the shelving in the pantry as well). Twelve full-extension, deeper-than-normal, push-to-open drawers provide ample storage. The characteristic bamboo wood grain is matched from drawer to drawer creating a continuous pattern and the lack of hardware further contributes to the clean and calm appearance. Pictured below is the view from the great room which was designed to be more elegant. Not shown is the side opposite the induction cooktop which has space for three tucked-in bar stools where seated guests will enjoy views of the river. Hidden behind one of the columns is a second conveniece outlet with two built-in USB-C chargers.

After months of building and finishing all the cabinetry for the house, the island is the first to reach full completion and I could not be happier with the result.

One could not wish for a more glorious fall day. I stopped work early today and relaxed for a few minutes taking in the natural beauty surrounding me. Color is a week past prime but still quite lovely.

Our plumbing subcontractor has returned to install fixtures and get the water up and running. I asked that they prioritize outside spigots first since we need water to mix batches of concrete for the hardscape installation.

Nico shared this photo he took last weekend during our family drawer box finishing day. It was taken while we paused work to enjoy some very delicious cider donuts that he provided. Tomorrow he leaves for Columbus, Ohio where he will compete in the inaugural US Amputee Soccer Cup. The event is sponsored and presented by Major League Soccer (MLS) and is hosted by the American Amputee Soccer Association in cooperation with the Columbus Adaptive Sports Connection. Teams representing New England – Revolution Amputee Soccer, New York – Metro NY Amputee Soccer, Columbus, and Colorado will compete to become national amputee soccer champions.

Pictured to the left of the stair tread in the photo below is a tool I fashioned to facilitate the movement of treads when wet with finish on all sides. I rather like the whole system I developed for finishing the treads of which we need 29 plus a spare. Before starting, I screwed 4 long screws into the bottom of each tread in a location that will be covered by the stair stringers. These act as feet. The tread is placed feet up as the finish is applied to the bottom. It is then flipped over onto the feet and the finish is applied to the top and sides. Now the entire tread is wet with finish and must be moved to a drying area so the next tread can be processed. The “U” shaped jig has four screw points emerging from the bottom leg. It is slid under the tread and lifted by the handle which captures the tread on top of the screw points. It can now be moved to an open area on the floor where it is set down to dry.

Working with Nicolai, we applied a sealer coat to all 30 stair treads over a few hours. We ran out of floor space in the room we were working and the balance had to be set in another area of the basement. Two more top coats of a protective finish will complete the treads. Pictured on the right are the stair stringers I designed and had laser cut from steel. They need to be finished as well, but that is a job for another day.

When we started the River House project, we wisely chose not to demolish the garage/carport when we took down the house. The garage/carport has served as a storage area for tools and building materials as well as a makeshift office and shelter from inclement weather. Today, it was time to say goodbye. The entire demolition operation took just over an hour.

Having graduated from skid steer operation last week, I was invited to operate the excavator and had 9 minutes of demo action after a 1-minute tutorial (see the video below). I took things slow to start. Still, I had a nice rhythm going before I was compelled to surrender the cab.

The only other excavator I have ever operated is the one shown above. I made this as a Christmas present for Kyle when he was just a boy. Even with 25 years of woodworking experience under my belt since then, I would find this a challenging project today. All of the joints articulate and the tank treads are operational.

With significant assistance from Nicolai, we installed all the drawer boxes in their respective cabinets today. I am pleased to report that every single one fits perfectly. All that remains to be done is adding the bamboo drawer fronts to each box. This may not happen right away because of some higher-priority work that must be completed before the baseboard installers arrive next week. I also need to complete three more drawers; two for the trash bins and one below the double oven that I forgot to build.

Work that would have taken me a week to accomplish working alone was completed in roughly 6 hours with the help of family. Jeanine, her sister Susan, Kyle, and Nicolai all helped to apply a hard wax oil finish to the 68 drawer boxes that will go into the kitchen, pantry, bathrooms, laundry, and mudroom of the River House. Maya was in Vermont for the weekend, otherwise, I am sure she would have joined our work party as well.

We established a production line with Kyle delivering dust-free unfinished drawer boxes to the front end and picking them up from the back end. Nicolai and I were principally responsible for applying the finish. Jeanine burnished the finish into the wood with a ScotchBrite pad, and Susan removed all excess finish with shop towels. Things started slow as we explored ways to optimize our production methods but quickly turned into a well-oiled hard wax oiling machine (pun intended). It is hard to express the extent of my appreciation for all this help.

The time-lapse video above shows the completion of a small fraction of the total number of drawer boxes but gives a pretty good sense of the process. It is shown at 100 times normal speed.

The crew working on our water line installation left their Kubota skid steer parked in front of our dumpster which was scheduled for pick up today. Rather than send someone all the way back, they gave me permission to move it for them. After a 1-minute phone tutorial, I was off to the races with an ear-to-ear grin on my face. Jeanine knew this would be a moment to capture and I have her to thank for this video. Not 2-minutes after I repositioned the skid steer, the dumpster pick-up truck arrived. I think I could make quick work of driveway snow clearing if I owned such a machine. Stay tuned.