I took advantage of the perfect fall day to replace the vent cap for the island cooktop vent today. The roofers installed an entirely inappropriate cap for our 2:12 pitch roof. It would have prevented venting with the least bit of heavy snowfall. The version I designed and built (see details here) will work with accumulated snow of up to two feet. It also features an insulated pipe within a pipe to improve the thermal envelope and prevent condensation.
Mystery Photo Revealed: If you guessed that the mystery photo from Monday is of a pair of Merino wool socks with symmetrically worn pairs of holes in the toe area, you would be correct.
Most days, I treat myself to an Arizona brand Arnold Palmer (iced tea & lemonade) to accompany my lunch. I normally buy these at a convenience store near the River House. Today, I was in Billerica where I was scheduled to get a Covid booster and flu shot. Afterward, I treated myself to a roast beef sandwich from Mikey’s Famous Roast Beef (truly the finest you will ever taste). I popped into a nearby Cumberland Farms to grab my favorite beverage only to discover that they charge $1.79 for the exact same can that everyone else charges 99 cents for. Here is a company that has contracted with the Arizona Beverage Company to get a special version of the can with the price removed from the labeling so they can charge an 80% premium. I suspect that Cumberland Farms does this with many other products they sell and will not be receiving any future business from me.
Water is the last utility that must be connected to the River House. The Concord Water Department requires that any renovation or reconstruction project of a house older than 50 years must also include replacing the water main. Given that our house is located some 300 feet from the street, this is a non-trivial and expensive undertaking. Step one: Cut an opening in the roadway. Step Two: Excavate with a backhoe to a depth of 4 feet. Step Three: (the most interesting) Bring in the water department to expose the water main using what amounts to a pressure washer and massive vacuum cleaner truck. The high-pressure water is used to cut into the soil which is then sucked into the truck. This approach is used to prevent mechanical damage to the water main during excavation.
When Conantum (our neighborhood) was first established, the residents established and operated their own water utility including means for fluoridation long before it was available from the town. Eventually, our water district joined the town’s. Unfortunately, record keeping was not great and the exact location of the water main in our street was not well documented. It took several attempts to locate the water main and our take-off but eventually, all was exposed. Step Four: Decommission the old water take-off and add a new one using a saddle valve. The saddle valve makes it possible to tap into the main water line without interrupting service. Step Five: Connect the take-off valve to a new underground water meter pit by the side of the road. Step Six: Excavate a 300-foot long, 5-foot deep trench to the house and place the new water line on a base of sand before backfilling and compacting. Happily, all aspects of the work went according to plan and we are now ready to complete the final bits of plumbing work inside the house.
The kids joined us for dinner today to belatedly celebrate my 65th birthday. We gathered at the River House for family photos before heading to the Road House to enjoy a meal of their making. Kyle prepared a smoked pork shoulder, Nico made roasted brussel sprouts, Maya made a chocolate cheesecake with raspberry coulis, and Jeanine whipped up some of her delicious cornbread. We shared the veritable feast with Maya’s boyfriend, Owen, and Nico’s soccer teammate Jovan, who is staying with us for a few nights.
After our family photograph, Maya wanted a photo of herself in the mini-excavator that is onsite for the installation of our retaining walls. Her brothers were quick to join her.
Stair tread construction for the River House is now complete. I will probably finish them with the same product we are using for the floors, Bona Traffic HD Raw. It is a water-based, commercial-grade floor finish that leaves the wood looking completely natural with no sheen whatsoever. Each tread weighs about 25 pounds so I have been getting a pretty good workout just moving these all around the shop.
We are seeing good progress on the outdoor hardscaping as well. We will have a small patio off the great room fashioned from large 2-inch thick stone slabs. These are set on a base of pea gravel and are intentionally placed to have wide gaps. These measures will allow rainwater to be absorbed into the ground rather than running off the top. The large rectangular stone will serve as a bench and we plan to complete the patio with a fire pit.
Nicolai is now working as the Lead Educator for the Bionic Project. The organization brings its message of inclusion and community to schools nationwide through educational programs that combine disability anti-bias classroom teaching with on-field adaptive sports clinics. Since starting he has worked with over 1,000 students in the Boston and San Francisco areas. Click the link to learn more about the Bionic Project.
In a welcomed respite from stair tread and cabinet building for the River House, I spent the day in Somerville doing consulting work for a client. While taking a break for lunch, I encountered an employee who was wearing a sweater that was very similar to the one I had on. A colleague who was watching us compare patterns was quick to grab a photo. The sweaters are both from the Long Wharf Supply Company SeaWell Collection. They are made from a soft blend of recycled oyster shells, recycled water bottles, and natural lambswool. The company reseeds up to 30 oysters with the sale of each sweater providing up to 1,500 gallons of naturally filtered seawater every day.
For the second day in a row, Nicolai has helped me with work at the River House. Today, we started refining the stair treads. I put a rounded profile on the edges with a router and Nico followed up with the sander to produce a very smooth surface. We completed all 29 treads and then began the process of adding end caps. I will be tied up with consulting work tomorrow but hope to have the treads ready for finishing by the end of the week.
For weeks I have been putting off the installation of the third Wi-Fi access point in our new house. This is because it is mounted on a very high ceiling located over the stairwell. I chose the location to maximize signal coverage on the second floor using a computer model and did not pause to think about the challenges of mounting it. I finally came up with a simple if somewhat sketchy-looking solution to gain access to the ceiling. I was also able to install the smoke/carbon monoxide detector using the same setup.
With the flooring completed, it was possible to finish the assembly and installation of the kitchen island and induction cooktop. The left side of the island has a recess for stool seating and a hidden outlet with two USB-C charging ports. The far side endcap has several shelves for commonly used spices and cooking oils and an easy-access outlet. On the cooktop side, there are twelve extra deep drawers. The aisles are wide enough for someone to walk past the open dishwasher or refrigerator or to accommodate multiple cooks in the kitchen.
Tile work throughout the house is largely complete and I have now installed the wall controls for the digital shower mixer valves. The photo above is of the main bathroom and the one below is in the guest shower. We really like the riverstone tile that our interior designer recommended.
Nico was among 13 in his ROMP expedition group of 20 to summit the Cayambe Volcano in Ecuador yesterday. We have yet to hear about the details of the climb but we can expect a full download when Nico returns to the States on Monday. This is his second successful high-altitude summit only a few hundred feet lower than Kilimanjaro which he climbed with me when he was 13. At these elevations, you are literally above the clouds and the views are awe-inspiring. I believe the distant peak in the photo below is of the Antisana Volcano some 35 miles away.
UPDATE: We have now learned that Nico was the first on the team to reach the summit. The guides referred to him as “The Machine.” He waited at the top for the rest of the group for 45 minutes but then became so cold he had to begin his descent. Unfortunately, the professional photographers on the expedition kept pace with the main contingent and this left Nico with only the photographs taken by his guide. While on the summit, he released a small portion of my mother’s cremains. She was born and grew up in Ecuador and would have been so proud to learn of Nico’s exploits in her homeland.
Had it not been for some unexpected distractions, Jeanine and I would have completed the primary assembly step for all the stair treads to be used in the River House. As it stands we glued up 22 of the required 29 treads. They still need to be trimmed to length and to have end caps added.
In the evening, we enjoyed our first dinner at the River House to celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary. Jeanine picked up gourmet takeout from Woods Hill Table and grabbed a couple of camping chairs from the Road House on the way over. It was the perfect way to end a week of working together. In Jeanine’s words, a couple that glues together sticks together. I have now spent half of my life stuck to the best partner I could wish for. My hope is that we can spend another 33 years together in our new home.
This website is dedicated to sharing, with family and friends, the day-to-day adventures of the Calabria family.
