My cousin Heather sent this photo of Chacala Beach with the following message.

Hi Chowbee,  Buppy and Carlos —We are having an excellent first day on our retreat, starting with yoga at 7a, breakfast, and a walk along the beach to explore Chacala beach and harbor. Then lunch, yacking, inability to decide what to do next….nap, pool, hot tub, hammock, reading,  painting, more  yacking…..before yoga at 5 and then dinner. I am trying to lure Jeanine and Carol away from attending a rather fruity sounding program tonight—“self care sanctuary”—to drinking cocktails and playing gin instead. Let’s see if I can prevail over the better angels of their natures, etc. Please send news!

Jeanine shared this photo she took of what she calls her Happy Stairs. I am left to wonder where they lead.

On the home front, Kyle and I continued working diligently preparing his basement renovation project for the drywall crew coming later this week. We had hoped to avoid strapping the ceiling to preserve another 3/4 inch of headroom but upon further investigation, it became apparent that this addition would be necessary to compensate for imperfections in the floor joists. This has added another day and a half to our work and we hope to complete the remainder tomorrow.

Jeanine traveled to Chacala, Mexico today where she will be spending the next week at a yoga retreat with my cousin Heather and cousin-in-law Carol. Located about 90 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta within a small and remote fishing village on the Pacific Ocean, Mar de Jade was founded by Dr. Laura del Valle and two of her siblings.

Back at home, Kyle and I worked hard to put the final touches on framing, plumbing, and HVAC vents in his basement prior to the start of drywalling which will be done by a contractor starting next week.

Starting on Monday drilling begins for two 300-foot deep geothermal boreholes that will support our ground source heat pump. The crew arrived today to set up the rig and excavate a slurry pit. I am glad I was onsite because they were going to locate the boreholes using Massachusetts state setback regulations rather than the more stringent ones mandated by the town of Concord. It would have been a very expensive mistake had I not intervened. Ideally, we would like to hit bedrock quickly and not find any water but Murphy’s Law suggests just the opposite will be true. Drilling is expected to take three days so we should know the answers by mid-next week.

For some time now, Nicolai has been working to promote the development of regional amputee soccer teams in the US. Next month will kick off with a match between his New England Revolution squad and the New York Metros. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and the teams will not have to contend with frigid or snowy conditions.

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.