As planned, our new septic and pump chamber tanks were delivered and installed today. Offloading and placement of the tanks took less than 30 minutes, a testament to the careful preparation work. Since septic systems are based on gravity flow, any discrepancies in elevation will result in compromised function and must be corrected at this stage. Happily, the tank heights were perfect and the remainder of the day was spent connecting the tanks and beginning the backfill work.
Excavation for a new septic tank and pump chamber took place today at the River House. The addition of our attached garage forced us to relocate the existing ones because they no longer met the setback requirements. The tanks are due to arrive on site tomorrow and we are hoping to have the septic system operational by the end of the week. That leaves water as the last service we need to connect to the house. We may choose to put this off for some time since it will involve tearing up the driveway and we still have many trades coming and going on a daily basis.
One of my favorite things about living in Concord is that we have our own electric utility, the Concord Municipal Light Plant (CMLP). Today, the line crew above connected our new underground lines to the grid and we now have power throughout the house. All the folks at the CMLP are extremely customer focused and it is such a pleasure to work with them. Trying to get anything done with Comcast, Verizon, National Grid, or any other major utility by contrast is an exercise in total frustration. These guys arrived exactly when promised and 30 minutes later we had power to the house. 15 minutes later they had removed the overhead wires that have been providing temporary power for almost two years.
Jeanine could not bear to chop up these carrot lovers for the dish she was preparing and set them aside for me to photograph.
The bamboo plywood I am using to build the cabinetry for the River House is available in a natural or carbonized version. We selected the darker carbonized color for our project and I was befuddled when the first shipment arrived with a few sheets of natural mixed in with the carbonized. I even found two sheets that were natural on one side and carbonized on the other. Earlier this week, I received a make-up shipment to replace the product that was damaged during the initial delivery. To my dismay, the color did not remotely match the material I have been building with. I sent the company a detailed e-mail expressing my frustration and asking them to explain what was going on. They insisted that the replacement sheets were carbonized even though they looked like the natural version to my eye. Fast forward one day and I happened to turn over a sheet of plywood I was about to cut. The mystery was solved the instant I saw the outline of the hard core foam insulation slab that I used as a sacrificial base when cutting sheets with my track saw. It was apparent that the plywood changes color dramatically when exposed to air, presumably as moisture is absorbed.
Hardscaping for the River House will make extensive use of natural stones. Jeanine and I visited a stone yard yesterday where we reviewed the inventory and learned all about how large boulders are cut into slabs. Slabs can be 7 inches thick for stairs or 2-3 inches thick for patios. We will be using both types. Pictured below is the saw used to make the cuts. It is conceptually similar to a bandsaw except it is oriented horizontally and uses what looks like a rope instead of a band. The rope has diamond-impregnated beads every few inches.
I have been working on the new house 7 days a week for several months now. Today, I took the afternoon off to go stone shopping with Jeanine. Our patio area will feature some massive stone steps, all to be cut from a single ginormous boulder. It was very fun checking out all the possibilities and learning how the stone is cut. Later we joined friends on an evening birdwatching walk through Great Meadows. We were hoping to see Night Hawks but they never showed up. Instead, we were treated to a very beautiful Green Heron.
The pantry in our new house will feature open shelving from floor to ceiling on one side. In total, there will be six shelves, each 8ft long. Jeanine likes the look of thick shelves so I am laminating two pieces of plywood together faced with a 1/8″ thick veneer. Pictured here is a glue-up of three shelves at once.
The front door to our new house is sheltered by a small portico. Today we installed a single 5-1/4 thick slab of bluestone as the floor for that area. Working with a stone that weighs over a ton was no easy feat but in the end, it fit perfectly into the opening which was lined in a copper pan and sloped downward to shed water. Jeanine was on hand to film the installation which took about an hour in total. Our past homes have all incorporated smaller stones set in mortar which are much easier to install and significantly less expensive. Over time, however, the constant freeze-thaw cycles experienced during the winter lead to the failure of the joints. The slab we installed today should last for hundreds of years.
Last week the Flexzilla air hose I use with my portable compressor developed an internal bulge for no apparent reason I could ascertain. The hose, manufactured by Legacy Manufacturing, carries a 5-year warranty and naturally, I purchased it nearly 6 years ago. The fact is that I have used the hose more in the last month than since I acquired it. I decided to file a warranty claim given how little use the hose has seen and was pleasantly surprised when I received a prompt reply stating that they were sending me a replacement. This is an example of a company doing the right thing for its customers. They can now count on my business for life and I can highly recommend Legacy products to others.
Jeanine assisted me today as we installed 36 smart light switches throughout the River House. Each switch is a programmable dimmer with an occupancy sensor that can be accessed over the Wi-Fi network for home automation functions. She prepped them while I installed them which made the job go twice as fast as it would have had I been doing the work alone. Towards the end, the skin on my fingers was starting to blister from tightening so many twist-on wire nuts (4 per switch) and she took over that job as well. Next, I taught her how to apply the hard wax oil we will be using on all the cabinetry and she finished one of the panels that will surround our freezer. We wrapped up the day by making a catalog containing the QR code for each light switch to facilitate future programming once we have Wi-Fi enabled. It is really the first time we have worked on the new house together and I really enjoyed working with her.
Jeanine returned today from a week-long visit with her sister Susan who lives in Burlington, Vermont. They had all kinds of fun including a visit to the Happy Bird Poultry Farm. I have been so busy working on the River House that time has passed quickly. Even so, I missed her and am glad she is back. I guess that would make me the happy bird.
Kyle shared this photo of his blender which was not up to the task of making his morning smoothie. Fortunately, the company has offered to replace it for free.
I completed the tall kitchen cabinet carcass for the double oven today. So far it has been the most time-consuming to build. All but one of the front faces required veneering, the “shelf” which supports the ovens had to be designed to support a 350-pound load, and the cavity had to be dead plumb, level, and square. It is also the heaviest single item I have built so far which made it difficult to move and install. There will be a drawer below the ovens and a cabinet with two doors above it. Still needed is a filler strip on the left to close the gap to the wall which is one of the few in the entire house that is not perfectly plumb; argh. Even though it fought me almost every step of the way, I am extremely happy with the finished product.