Maya shared this rather funny photo taken last December. Masked out of the picture is the couch and pillow on which I was taking a nap.

Napping, in fact, was how I spent much of the afternoon today after my second colonoscopy in as many months, this time in a more advance hospital setting, to remove a large polyp that was identified during the first procedure. The resection was successful and I was back at work before the end of the day.

It will not be long now before we are ready for siding on the River House. This evening I spent several hours working out some of the final trim details for the windows. Our house has nine pairs of windows that are vertically aligned. Five of them will be “connected” visually by a flat panel located between them. The remainder of the siding will use a vertically oriented 6-1/4″ wide shiplap profile. The 2D view above is from a 3D model that includes the 26 framing and trim components required for each window pair.

Jeanine and I met our nephew Johnny at the Weston Reservoir for a lovely 2 mile walk this morning. It has been some time since we have seen him and it was nice to catch up.

Located adjacent to the reservoir is the 27,000-square-foot, 22-room home of Jim and Kim Pallotta located on 28 acres. A billionaire hedge fund manager, Pallotta is a co-owner of the Boston Celtics and by many accounts a nice guy and generous philanthropist. Born in the same year I was to a father from Calabria he grew up in the North End.

We learned today that a good friend of the family died suddenly on Thursday. Sarah Doherty co-founded SideStix, the company that makes the carbon fiber crutches that Nico uses. She reached out to us in 2007 to congratulate Nico for becoming the first person ever to climb Mount Kilimanjaro on crutches. She would become the second and was hoping to learn from his experience. She lost a leg at age 13 while biking when struck by a drunk driver but never let that stand in the way of leading a very athletic life. She worked with her husband, Kerith, an engineer and inventor, to create the world’s most comfortable, light-weight, high performance forearm crutch. Nicolai would become an early beta tester and brand ambassador for the fledgling company which we later became seed investors in. Nicolai spent a portion of his high school gap year living with the couple on the Sunshine Coast in British Columbia and working at the company. Sarah showed us how passion can overcome adversity and was a beacon of hope for all that were lucky enough to know her.

Although we have endured our fair share of weather delays on the River House construction project, thus far, we have been spared major snowfall. This evening we got little more than a dusting after a day dominated by light rain. Now that the roof has been sheathed, it was possible for the crew to work on interior framing. Kyle spent the day working from the Road House while his basement is being insulated with closed-cell foam. He joined Jeanine and I towards the end of the day for a tour of our newly completed work. It is so exciting to be able to walk through the various rooms and to start to get a real feel for what life will be like in the new house.

We are hoping that the River House will be weather tight by the end of the month. At that point, my first priority will be to set up a provisional shop so that I can begin building all of the cabinetry for the house. When we sold our Mattison Drive house, the sale included most of my major woodworking machines (to avoid the hassle and cost of moving and storage). I kept my miter saw, bandsaw and planer and have since replaced my table saw, air compressor, and dust collector. Today, I ordered the pictured drill press which should arrive within 3-5 weeks. All that remains to reestablish my shop is a jointer which I hope to identify and purchase within the next few weeks.

The best security system is one that recognizes and averts a potential threat before it becomes a real one. The River House will be fitted with high resolution (8 mega pixel) cameras at each corner and another integrated with the door bell. These will be hard-wired using POE (power over Ethernet) and have the ability to distinguish between human motion, vehicular motion, and general motion within the filed of view. Each is fitted with infrared illuminators which allow for night vision. The high resolution video streams are constantly recorded to hard disk and an alarm, push notification or e-mail can be sent based on selected trigger criteria. Should an intruder manage to get passed the outside cameras, they will face 36 motion sensors located throughout the inside of the house. I spent several hours testing the cameras and video recorder to make sure everything worked as expected. I found several bonus features and learned how best to program the system.

This lovely arrangement of flowers arrived today. A thoughtful and most appreciated gift from Formlabs where I continue to consult on a monthly basis. We are grateful for the splash of beauty and brightness at an otherwise grey time.

We will remember 2022 as the year of the River House. A life long dream, to build our own home, it has been both a joy and a massive undertaking. We spent a full year living in the old house to experience every season so we could make the most informed design choices. The next 6 months were spent developing our plans and obtaining the necessary permitting for the project. During the last 6 months the actual work of demolition and construction commenced in earnest. With any luck, we hope to be “finished” in the next 6 months.

Jeanine and I tried to recreate a picture taken 2 years ago after we had just moved in. I think we did a good job on matching the clothing. but construction materials made it impossible to position my camera to get the same perspective. Consequently, the new house appears much taller compared to the old one. In fact, it is only slightly taller.

Behold the perfect Zeppole ball. Normally, our family prepares this traditional Italian treat on Christmas Eve. This year that did not happen so we decided to add it to the menu this evening. The kids arrived early afternoon and joined us for dinner. Maya prepared an exquisite mushroom risotto while Jeanine made a delightful salad and collard greens and red bean soup (for prosperity in the new year). I decided to tackle the Zeppole and must say that they came out very well. I used a new technique for cutting the dough which produced less of a ball and more of a tiny pillow shape. A nice bit of innovation with which to start the new year.

Good weather this week has resulted in great progress on the River House project. We are under a roof now, albeit just the sheathing. Still, it is a big milestone and means that work can progress inside even during inclement weather. Much of the building supplies have been moved under cover to protect them from the elements and most of the temporary internal reinforcements have been removed which makes it far easier to visualize the final space.

Before leaving Minnesota on my recent visit, I helped my brother to clear out my mother’s effects from the senior living center where she spent the last few years of her life. Among them was her Certificate of Naturalization, the only document I found which had both her picture and signature. The later is worth close inspection, as it demonstrates both her artistic expression and precise execution, characteristics that were present in every aspect of her life.

In order to finalize plans for electrical and plumbing infrastructure at the River House, I had to select a washer and dryer. We will be using a heat pump style ventless dryer. This type of machine runs off a 120V 15amp circuit compared to our last dryer which used 240V 40amp circuit (roughly five times less electricity). More importantly, the unit does not require an outside vent. Conventional dryers exhaust approximately 200 cubic feet of conditioned air every minute. This is a an additional huge waste of energy, especially during the summer and winter months not to mention an additional penetration through the building envelope. In a matter of a few years, I predict that heat pump ventless dryers will be a requirement for all new homes if not all new appliance sales.

I could not help myself with the title of today’s post even though Boxing Day was actually yesterday. Kyle is taking this week off for vacation and I worked with him this afternoon to box in the HVAC trunk line that feeds conditioned air to the house. We used 3/4″ stock and pocket hole screws to minimize the encroachment into his living space and were both quite pleased with the results. By midday, I was overcome with a severe headache and body aches and opted to return home. I tested negative for Covid and believe I might be suffering from food poisoning based on my other symptoms.