Among other tasks I worked on today at the River House was the LAN (Local Area Network). Pictured in the middle is the Wi-Fi router. To its right is a 5 port POE (Power Over Ethernet) switch that connects to three Wi-Fi access points located to provide signal coverage for the entire house and garage. On the left is a regular 5-port switch providing hard-wired connectivity to various devices in the house. On the top is a patch panel to facilitate labeling and interconnection. Not shown are the cables that connect six surveillance cameras to an NVR (Network Video Recorder). Once all the equipment was configured, I decided to test the battery backup system to see if the network equipment would stay connected during the transition from grid power to battery power. Our last house had a natural gas powered generator that took about 20 seconds to come on line during which time the router and switches would reset. I was very happy to see that the switchover happened so fast that all the devices remained online. If not for the message sent to my phone, I would not have known there was a power loss.

Earlier this week I posted photos of the new staircase and today, Nico shared some video he shot during the installation process.

Work on the River House walkway commenced today. The rather long path will include a stone slab bridge over a dry stream that will carry water away from the house when it is raining. A large angled boulder top located in the corner where water falls from the roof will direct water away from the siding and into the stream bed. Unfortunately, plantings in this area of the yard will have to wait until the spring.

It has taken more than 9 months to get our battery backup system commissioned. Today, the wait ended. Because the River House is an all-electric home, I thought it was fairly important to have a robust backup capability. Not sure I would make the same decision again based on all the permitting and installation challenges we have faced.

We enjoyed our first fire of the season this afternoon. With plenty of wood pallets for fuel, there was no need to skimp. The 24″ diameter copper cauldron we have used for a makeshift fire pit will soon be replaced with a proper one made of weathering steel and 50% larger. The size is more appropriate to the scale of the patio and the steel will match that used in the adjacent retaining wall. As the sun set we settled into camp chairs and enjoyed the warmth of the fire against the cold November air. A visiting neighbor expressed her surprise to find me relaxing rather than working on the house. Indeed, this may be the first time in two years that I have taken more than a lunch break while at the house.

With the considerable help of Jeanine and Nicolai, we completed the installation of the stairs at the River House today. Once the top and bottom cleats (see photo below for an example of each) were secured to the landings, it took only a matter of minutes to set the stringers and attach the treads. The top cleats are secured with four 1/2″ x 5-/1/2″ lag screws and the bottom cleats with three. What I could not know when designing these stairs was how stiff they would feel once erected. Happily, I can report that they are extremely stable, stiffer than the stairs in any home we have ever lived in. Additionally, the design tolerates movement of the house framing with changes in humidity or aging. In total, I would estimate that it took 80 person-hours of labor and $7,500 in materials for this project. Not bad compared to the quote of roughly $40,000 we initially received (and that did not include installation labor or the 20% markup charged by our builder).

After many days of preparation, it was time to install the first set of stringers and stair treads. Everything fit together perfectly and it took less than fifteen minutes to assemble all the pieces. Even with no fasteners installed yet, the stairs are fully functional with no perceptible flex or bounce. Kyle helped out for the second day in a row making the work go much faster. We completed prep work for the next three flights which I hope to install tomorrow.

The River House project is nearing completion. The last major component of work is to replace the temporary staircases with the final design including the handrails. Today, I began that work in earnest with Kyle assisting me all day. We started by removing the first two flights of the temp stairs which did not take that long but required great care to avoid nicking the newly painted walls. The remainder of the day was spent doing many small but time-consuming tasks; installing the nosing to complete the flooring on the landing, completing the wall below the landing, caulking and spackling the edges and screw holes, painting it to match the walls, locating and installing the stair cleat on the side of the platform, and securing the lower cleat to the basement floor with concrete screws. Tomorrow, we will install the stringers and stair treads and hopefully move on to the stairs from the first to the second floor.

Our Thanksgiving holiday included two gatherings. The first was for brunch after the kids, their friends, and Jeanine completed the Concord 5K Turkey Trot. I skipped the event this year to work on the River House but joined the post-race celebration.

Joining us this year for Thanksgiving dinner were my sister Alissa, Heloisa (Kyle’s friend), Owen (Maya’s friend), and Jeanine’s friend Barbara and her mother Cathy.

The Home Energy Rating System (HERS) Index is the industry standard by which a home’s energy efficiency is measured. New homes built in Massachusetts must meet several criteria for energy conservation that are part of the index. The extent to which conditioned air leaks from a home is measured in Air Changes per Hour (ACH) when the pressure differential between the inside and outside of the house is 50 Pascals. The building code requires 3 ACH(50) or less. To meet the Passive House standard it must be less than 0.60. Today, the River House was tested by a certified rater using a blower door test. Our result was 0.36 ACH(50) which is the best score our tester has ever recorded. This means that we have a very air-tight home and since air leakage is the largest contributor to energy loss this will translate to significant energy saving over time.

Nico is very good at many things. That list does not include letting his parents know when he is featured in a video interview. Today he directed Jeanine to the video above. It only took him 3 years to mention it. I am always amazed by how inspirational he can be.

I decided to see what other videos might be out there that we have not yet seen. Didn’t take long to find the one below from a year ago.

Reminder to self: Box Nico about the head until he agrees to make his parents aware of such videos.

On the home building front, we passed our final electrical and fire department inspections today. These do not cover our battery backup system which has to be done on a separate permit and looks to be the long pole in the tent.

Each year, Verrill Farm offers fresh, natural turkeys from family-owned, Stonewood Farm in Vermont. These birds are raised and processed on-site in open-sided barns free of antibiotics, hormones, and animal by-products. Demand is so high that traffic logistics are required to facilitate distribution. Click on the photo to see the full extent of the car queue. According to Jeanine, the line moved quickly and it only took her ten minutes to secure our turkey.

Today, I decided to do a Google search on myself. The last time I did this was about a year ago, my LinkedIn profile was the first result. This time, I was pleased to see that this blog was at the head of the list even though that has never been a goal.

While searching for the name Calabria, I also happened upon this video, the first minute of which paints a different picture of the one I imagined for this part of Italy. Despite having visited the country three times, I have never traveled to the region that bears my name, a situation that must be rectified when I am finished with the River House project.

I recently discovered an error in my design for the River House stairs. The lag screws anchoring the cleats that will support the upper section of each flight are too close to the edge of the framing members that they are secured to. Even though they would most likely hold as located, I would prefer to have a massive safety margin for something this important. As such, I redesigned the cleats to use a much higher anchor point and added some alignment features while I was at it. While at Formlabs this week for my consulting work, I had lunch with Maya. When I explained the delay this would introduce to the project she offered to help me fabricate them on the company’s waterjet (a machine that cuts sheet metal using a thin stream of high pressure water infused with abrasive particles). Luckily, I had the perfect size sheet of leftover steel from the retaining wall so did not even have to purchase new material. Maya and Owen took my new design file and setup the machine to cut 9 identical pieces and I babysat the operation for the 2.5 hours it took to complete. I have now added a waterjet to my list of machines I would love to own. It is so amazing to go from a CAD file to finished parts in a couple of hours. The stair construction is now back on schedule.

I took advantage of another temperate day to do some landscaping work. We have incorporated an elevated herb garden bed as part of our retaining wall. Two sides are fabricated from weathering steel and will eventually have a rust patina. I moved excess clay from the upper section into the bed, lined it with filter fabric, added crushed stone to the sides, and filled it partially with topsoil leaving room for compost to complete the bed. The garden will be about 12 feet by 4 feet in size with a massive flat stone serving as a platform from which to tend it.

Last year at this time, I was working with a half dozen clients in my consulting practice. Ever since I started working on the River House full-time, I have dropped all but Formlabs where I have a one-day-per-month commitment. In some ways, that day feels like a vacation even though it is a very exhausting 10-hour day with the commute. That said, I enjoy the work a great deal because I get to use a part of my brain that does not get much of a workout in the shop. Today, one of the people I met with asked if I had any parts to print. He wanted to show off the new product he and his team have been working on. As it happens, I had a part designed for use as a building code-required safety device for one of the windows on the second floor of our new house. I am not at liberty to disclose any attributes of the new product but I can tell you it includes some very exciting capabilities.

A Window Opening Control Device (WOCD) is required on any operable window with a sill lower than 24″ from the floor and an outside drop greater than 72″. We have one such window and the limiter must prevent it from opening more than 4″ unless a 2-stage release is activated to allow for egress in the event of fire.

I had planned to add the house numbers to our garage as the final project before moving into the River House. Although that day is rapidly approaching, I decided to take advantage of the warm weather to complete this task before winter weather arrives. The numbers are made from aluminum and are 12 inches tall. It was Jeanine’s idea to add this design flourish to the house and I really like the way it turned out. Originally, we had planned to backlight the numbers but then realized that anyone visiting us at night would have to pick the right driveway based on the address on our mailbox before getting close enough to see the house numbers. We have also been very thoughtful about minimizing outside lighting to help preserve dark skies in our area.