The top priority when we moved into the Road House was to get internet access and wi-fi. In this day and age, trying to get anything done without this service is next to impossible. The second priority was to get a Level 2 charging station setup in the garage for my car. This required adding a new 50 amp breaker to our electrical service panel and running 6 gauge wire out to the garage. Code requires the outside wiring to be inside steel conduit. The entire project took about four hours to complete and I am very pleased with the outcome.
While traveling to North Billerica for my Covid booster and annual flu shot, I spotted a small pocket of remaining fall color on the Concord River. So far, my reaction to the booster has been much milder than my second dose of the vaccine. I spent the remainder of the day beginning to install a Level 2 charging station for my e-Tron and hope to finish up tomorrow.
Maya has become quite the proficient climber. She started the sport during her internship with Rivian last summer. I have never seen her opening upside-down move before and can’t believe how quickly she is progressing in the sport.
Maya is pictured here with her capstone project team. They decided a little team-building activity was in order and decided to go ice skating. This will be Maya’s last major project before graduating this spring. I will try and update this post with the details of her project when I have had a chance to quiz her about it.
Yesterday, I learned that my soccer game scheduled for this morning had been canceled. Our opponents forfeited due to an injury-decimated roster, a not uncommon issue in our age bracket at this stage of the season. With the unexpected free weekend day, I decided to rent a U-Haul truck and move the remaining contents of our River House to the Road House. I enlisted Kyle’s help and we managed the task in just over 5 hours. During his return home, Kyle captured this rare image of a complete double rainbow. Later in the evening, he returned with his new housemate Min (he is renting out his spare bedroom), joining, Nicolai, Jeanine, and me for a Halloween fire pit celebration.
Our moving POD was picked up this morning. It is the first time I was present to see how the unit is transferred from the ground to the truck. Podzilla is a completely independent hydraulic lifting system that is carried on the transport truck. Once its wheels are lowered it is a totally independent machine that can be driven over the POD. Chains are then connected to lift points and the POD is raised high enough so that the truck can be backed underneath it. Although the operation is efficient, it is anything but graceful and the POD gets jostled around rather aggressively. Had I known this in advance, I would have packed a few items differently. In the end, we had damage to three items; a marble tabletop, a fish tank, and a dog crate, all of which were the result of poor packing (by me).
Today we closed on a second house. We will live here while our River House is being demolished and then rebuilt. Then, we will probably make it available as a rental property. The POD we used to store the majority of our belongings from our first move was delivered this morning. I received keys to the house by 2:30 and had the contents offloaded into the garages by 4:30. The empty POD is scheduled for pickup tomorrow. I also set up internet access which we have learned is an absolute precursor to moving. In the near future, I will rent a truck and move the remaining contents of the River House to what we are now calling the Road House.
Fall color has been later and perhaps a little more muted than in years past. Even so, our river view was quite beautiful this evening. When we moved in last year, we had just missed peak color so it has been a real treat to watch the progression this year. We are all set to close on our second house, hereinafter referred to as the “road house,” tomorrow. We will live there while our current home, now called the “river house,” is demolished and rebuilt. I suspect this will take from 18-24 months. My day was spent wiring funds in advance of the closing, setting up insurance, internet service, and transferring utilities.
Until our new house is built, I will not have a permanent shop for some time. With another move on the immediate horizon and the renovation work I am helping Kyle with, I decided to invest in portable storage for my collection of cordless and hand tools. This stackable, rolling system by DeWalt is just what the doctor ordered. I found it on sale on picked up the full kit this afternoon.
Despite very inhospitable weather conditions, I spotted this pair of swans bobbing for breakfast in front of our house this morning. We are getting hit with the front end of a Nor’easter which is expected to deliver an onslaught of rain in combination with very high winds over the next 72 hours. Fortunately, temperatures are still high enough that the threat of snow is not a concern.
I happened across this tiny structure while running errands today. It appears to be a detached office or guest quarters for a nearby home. For all its simplicity, I think it is very beautiful and would love to discover the story behind it. On the home front, I interviewed our ninth potential builder and feel like we finally have the right match. It has been challenging trying to find a company that has the right mix of experience building high-performance homes, a culture of building right the first time, and an openness to allowing me to participate in aspects of the construction work. Assuming their contract terms are reasonable, I think we have found the right partner.
I spent the morning in Haverhill where my soccer team faced the local club. We won handily bringing our record to 7-0-0. I notched my second goal of the season when I found the ball on my foot during a scrum in the box and punched it in with my right. Our team has scored 25 goals this season and only conceded 1. After the match, we enjoyed an Irish breakfast at the Peddler’s Daughter (an Irish pub and restaurant) where I also found this dramatic mural in the adjacent parking lot.
I followed the flight of this Monarch butterfly into the high branches of a pine tree where I was able to photograph it. Had I thought to take one, I would have liked to post a picture of Kyle, Maya, and the demolition project we are working on in his basement. While the kids moved lumber and removed drywall and ceiling tiles, I installed a heat pump water heater to replace the gas-fired unit there now. It is more efficient than either a gas or electric water heater and will be easier to relocate later when Kyle has a new HVAC system installed.
This website is dedicated to sharing, with family and friends, the day-to-day adventures of the Calabria family.
