Since I will be building all the kitchen cabinets, vanities, and built-ins for the River House, getting my shop operational is a very high priority. At this time, it looks like the shop will be ready for move-in by mid-June. When we sold our last house, I decided to also sell most of my 25-year-old woodworking machines so I could upgrade to larger capacities for my new shop. Unbelievably, I sold my 8″ Delta jointer for more money than I paid for it new. Today, I ordered its replacement, a unit with 16″ capacity which does double duty as a planer. It is being shipped from Canada and should arrive in 2 weeks. With this purchase, I now have all the basic equipment I will need for proper cabinetmaking except for a router table which I should be able to live without initially.

We have taken to calling Jeanine’s future office the Aviary. Our first architect gave it this name, possibly because he did not like “the Perch”, the name we initially chose for it. Today, it became the last room on the second floor to be finished with plaster as the team works their way through the house. They are roughly 20-25% done with plaster at this point. The drywall board hangers have completed 100% of the house and are about 60% done with the garage.

We have several large trees that are growing near the river just in front of the house we are building. They all lean out over the river so that they do not have to compete for sunshine with the trees further inland. One such tree lost its top many years ago and the 30-foot tall remaining trunk base has turned into a mecca for all manner of birdlife. Sometime during the last week, the rotted roots gave out and the trunk fell towards the river only to become wedged in between two living trees. For the moment, it does not appear to be a danger to anyone on land or water so we will not intervene. It is like having a bird feeder that you never have to put food in.

Kyle hosted the immediate family and Susan at his place for a Memorial Day weekend party. We picked up ribs, brisket, pulled pork, and chicken from Blue Ribbon BBQ on the way which made for a most yummy minimal effort dinner. Kyle picked up a strawberry shortcake and fresh berries for dessert. Joining us were Marissa, pictured below, who has been renting a room from Kyle since December, and her dog Bailey. Kyle’s friend Oly, who has been his guest for the past few weeks joined us as well.

Kyle was proud to show off his renovated basement and we spent a few minutes completing the finishing touches. He has already entered a verbal agreement with a nice couple who will begin renting it in mid-July. While Bailey has been a most welcome guest he did inspire what is now being called the Bailey clause, an addition to the lease agreement that covers excessive barking, something the otherwise very quiet Bailey took part in whenever Marissa left the house.

A former colleague reached out asking me to share product photos I have from our Truevision days. I created an online archive that includes both the products and many of the early prototypes that I built.

The entire collection can be found here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/DyUiuNQAVFgbfSSq6

After testing five different paint colors on the side of the River House, Jeanine and I have arrived at a final choice. It is a Sherwin Williams color named Peppercorn. We visited the site twice, once while the paint was in shadow and again when it was fully sunlit. It is a dark grey with no undertones, in other words, a true shade of grey. Of the final three candidates we both gravitated to this color. I went back and repainted all the test areas to match. All that remains to be done on the color front is to paint the trim boards surrounding the windows and rust-colored horizontal siding in a matte black. I will do so over the weekend.

During nearly four decades of working, I do not believe there exists a single picture of me doing my job. Certainly, there are some in which I can be seen posing with colleagues or with products or accepting an award. None, however, capture me doing my actual work. Today, while at Formlabs for my regular consulting gig, I decided to capture a picture of Maya at work. She was unaware of me taking this photo. I reached my cell phone over the divider which separates her desk from a hallway for the shot.

In a nice bit of synchronicity, I bumped into her on the stairs at lunchtime and we were able to sit and eat together. I was heading down to invite her for lunch while she was heading up for the sunnier cafeteria on the 3rd floor.

I painted a small section of the house with a provisional color this afternoon. Neither Jeanine nor I think we have the right one yet and I will be doing additional test areas later this week.

Jeanine was feeling well enough to venture out of the house today. First to pick up the mail and again with her sister Susan for a car excursion. Susan arrived on Sunday. Officially, she is here to help Jeanine, but I am the real beneficiary of her visit. Jeanine is getting quite good at maneuvering the knee scooter but her crutch skills leave me holding my breath every time she tries to navigate the stairs. I decided she would be much safer with a ramp to the front door and fashioned one out of remnants from the house project.

Often combined with a supply run to Home Depot, I usually pick up a fast food lunch on days when I am working at the River House. Eating while driving on the return trip is a good way to get back to work 15 minutes sooner. This is not a practice I can recommend to others. On one such lunch run, I managed to spill a cup of Coke into the center console of my Audi. I could have grabbed it immediately preventing most of the spillage but would have done so at the expense of a collision with oncoming traffic. When it was safe, I pulled over and soaked up as much of the Coke as I could. Another day would pass before I broke out the wash cloth to get rid of the stickiness. I thought nothing more of the incident until today when I learned that a small amount of Coke had entered through the USB charging port in the console and pooled at the base of the charging module where it shorted out the components shown above. I am familiar with these components and I estimate their cost to be in the neighborhood of 12 cents. A replacement for the module from Audi is $250. Labor to take apart and reassemble the center console to access the module is $1150. I love my e-Tron but I am no fan of Audi repair prices.

Earlier this week, Nicolai delivered the closing keynote at the 2023 Move United Education Conference held in Louisville, KY. The conference theme was, “Disability Inclusion in Sport: Transforming Intent to Action.” The event was billed as a forum for sports providers, professionals, and athletes to unite over a mutual interest in elevating sports opportunities for athletes with disabilities.

He then traveled to Los Angeles where he conducted an amputee soccer training camp for women and participated in a Teqball tournament. Teqball is a cross between soccer and table tennis. Check out the videos to get a better sense of the sport.

Kyle photographed his newly renovated basement apartment so that he can begin advertising for tenants. The project took the two of us a little over a year working one day a week; Saturdays or Sundays. It included the conversion from a fuel oil furnace to an electric heat pump. This change added air conditioning to the whole home. We replaced the natural gas-fired water heater with an electric heat pump-style unit and replaced the upstairs gas cooktop with an induction range. The home is now all electric. The two-bedroom apartment has a separate entrance, a fully furnished kitchen, a living room, and a laundry area. If you know of anyone looking for something like this in Medford please reach out.

Jeanine has begun the long road to recovery from her bunion surgery yesterday. Pain management has been a big challenge. Thus far she has had very dangerous reactions to the prescribed narcotics. Her release from the hospital was delayed by three hours when her blood pressure dropped precipitously after being given Hydromorphone. They sent her home with Tramadol instead. When she tried this she had the same reaction, this time without the benefit of a half dozen doctors racing to her side. We have switched to a mix of Motrin and Tylenol on an alternating three-hour schedule combined with near-constant icing. We have a recliner set up in the living room and a knee scooter for mobility. Jeanine gets a single peanut M&M for each lap she makes around the kitchen. I slept on the couch so I could be immediately available to provide assistance when needed.

“The Creative” by Simon Donovan and Ben Olmstead is a free-standing, stainless steel sculpture installed in front of Boston Arts Academy. The sculpture is a depiction of a young woman with her eyes closed and head tilted upward. The “head” is composed of dozens of laser-cut stainless-steel shapes. They are held apart to create a skin of perforated stainless steel. Each 5/16” thick plane is welded together in a stacking fashion by small rods that create a 1” distance between sheets. The effect is that of an ever-shifting nature as you move around the piece. You go from perceiving the appearance of clearly defined topographic planes to seeming almost invisible when looking straight-on from the front or back.  I had the occasion to photograph the sculpture while waiting to pick up Jeanine from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center after she underwent foot surgery to correct a previously botched bunion surgery.

Our new house will feature remote thermal sensors for temperature control of the various zones. Instead of a traditional thermostat placed on the wall, we will have thermal sensors embedded in the drywall. We have eschewed most wall-mounted controllers and devices in favor of using voice control or phone-based apps to control the home. “Hey Siri, set the temperature to 68 degrees.”

The pictures show the installed 3/4″ diameter sensors. I documented distances to adjacent walls and took the photos should I ever need to locate the devices in the future.

Progress on the siding has been slower than I would have expected but the results have been better than I imagined. The main material is a product called TruExterior. It is made with fly-ash, a by-product recovered from coal combustion. The fly-ash is combined with polymers to create an inorganic material that is resistant to moisture and that offers no food source to carpenter ants, termites, wood-boring bees, and other insects. It is being installed as a rain screen (3/16″ open gaps between boards) which promotes drying of the backside. Five different board widths are being used in a random pattern to mimic the different size tree trunks which surround the house and will be painted a shade of grey. Areas that currently appear black will be sided with a product made from rice hulls using horizontal 4″ boards in a contrasting rust color. In total, about 70% of the siding is made from recycled or rapidly renewable materials. Still to be completed are the north side and riverside facades. These should go a little faster since they are not as high and do not require any board splicing.