After weeks of delay, the bamboo plywood I have been waiting for finally arrived. Unfortunately, the convoluted journey it was subjected to because of the failure to arrange for the agreed delivery method in the first place, took its toll. A close look at the photo reveals that the shipping pallet was damaged leaving one corner of the stack unsupported. As a result, the core of the bottom sheet was fractured. The top sheet bears the scars of a forklift suggesting that something was carelessly stacked on top at some point during the transit. Finally, the entire load was left in the rain at some point resulting in water staining on every sheet. Even though each sheet was individually wrapped in plastic, at some point the plastic was sliced along one edge leaving an opening to every panel. It is possible that I will be able to remove some of these stains by sanding them out but that remains to be seen. At $300 a sheet, this damage represent a costly issue. I have started to work with the vendor to make things right. Part of the process was careful documentation. Over the course of 5 hours, I unwrapped each sheet one at a time, photographed the water stains on both sides and placed it onto a new stack. At nearly 40 pounds a piece this was quite the workout. The good news, is that even if I have to cut off the damaged ends, I still have enough material to get started with cabinet making.

When a new home is constructed to replace one that is more than 50 years old, Concord Water Department regulations require that the main water line be replaced from the street to the house. Given our heavily wooded lot, the only option is to run the new pipe below our driveway. The new pipe must be buried deeper than 4 feet, requiring a rough trench depth of 5 feet. The company that will do the excavation made it clear that the root systems for the large pine trees adjacent to the driveway would be compromised and that they would not survive. They strongly recommended we remove the trees ahead of excavation so that the root balls could be removed as well. With trenching set to begin early next week, we had to scramble to get town approval to remove the trees (Concord has a Tree Preservation bylaw) and to find a company able to schedule the work on short notice. Fortunately, we were successful on both fronts. Today, a four person crew and 110 ton crane showed up to harvest the 100+ foot tall trees. The straight trunks will be picked up tomorrow and milled into lumber.

I had planned to start cabinet fabrication today but another snafu with the bamboo plywood forced me to refuse delivery. More on this later. Instead, I turned my attention to the installation of four medicine cabinets. Although not a difficult task, I proceeded with great care so as not to damage any of the four mirrors (front of the door, back of the door, back of the cabinet, and adjustable magnifying mirror) or four glass shelves on each of these Robern units. Everything went smoothly.

Back to the bamboo. I will be fabricated all of the cabinetry throughout the house from bamboo plywood. 36 sheets to be exact from a company called CALI floors . After weeks of delay, it finally showed up today but on the wrong type of truck. Had I accepted delivery, it would have meant carrying one sheet at a time down the 300-foot driveway. This is precisely why I specified and paid for delivery on a flatbed truck with a piggyback forklift so that the entire pallet could be offloaded in one fell swoop and placed neatly in the new garage. Unfortunately, with driveway excavation for our new water main scheduled to begin Monday, any delay beyond then would now be measured in weeks since the driveway will be impassable during this phase of the work. Furthermore, the driveway will be blocked by a 110 ton crane all day tomorrow due to tree work. This means that the plywood has to be delivered on Friday. After I was unable to speak directly to anyone who could help me, I reached out to the President of the company and pled my case. To his credit he immediately got the right person working the issue and she very quickly sorted things out with the shipping company. Knock-on-wood, the plywood will arrive on Friday.

The last of our interior doors was installed today. The two-man team doing the work are both from Ukraine. I have been extremely impressed with their attention to detail and craftsmanship. I am equally pleased with the doors themselves and particularly with the hardware. We selected concealed hinges and magnetic latches. Operating the doors is a real pleasure and the sound of the latch engaging is both muted and confidence inspiring.

Although we are still scrambling to determine our interior color pallet, the outside color scheme is now finalized. The body of the house is a color called Peppercorn (a dark grey), the trim will be black, and the horizontal accents and soffits are Rust. It took a while to reach closure but Jeanine and I are equally happy with the final look. Now if we can just close out the interior color choices we will be off to the races.

Guess where the 12″ high, black house numbers will go.

TMI Warning

My efforts to drink more water throughout the day have dramatically reduced the number of kidney stones I produce. During the last few weeks, however, I have worked very long days at the River House. Combined with very high temperatures, I have been more dehydrated than usual. Predictably, this has given rise to a new batch of kidney stones. This one, the largest of eight I have passed over the last two days, measured 3mm and has a composition I have not observed before. Kidney stones are composed of combinations of calcium, oxalate, urate, cystine, xanthine, and phosphate. When I have more free time, I will try to figure out what the reddish addition is to my normal calcium oxalate stones.

I spent the morning installing the last 16 of almost one hundred recessed lights in the River House and am happy to have that rather tedious task in the rearview mirror. In the afternoon I turned my attention to shop organization. Few items get more use in my woodworking than clamps. It is said that you can never have enough but I would add that they also need to be close at hand and quick to deploy. My solution for this, based on my experience with two prior shops is shown above and the reason I chose to make my shop walls from plywood. I can grab or stow a clamp in one second. They are located two steps from my assembly table. Each clamp is supported by two cleats. Each cleat is fastened to the plywood wall with one screw. It took me less than two hours to make all the cleats and hang all the clamps. Not one to ever waste good wood, I made the cleats out of what used to be the rails of the bunk bed I built for the boys when they were small. Other remnants of those beds can be found elsewhere throughout the shop.

Arguably the biggest chip and dust producer in my new shop is the combination jointer/planer. It has also proved to be the most difficult to connect to my dust collection system. The machine uses a non-standard size dust port. Once again, 3D printing saved the day. It took me ten minutes to design the required adapter and Maya was kind enough to print it at work. The fit was perfect and I am very pleased with this solution. I also managed to solve the other big challenge with this machine. When converting from one mode to the other, the entire dust collection plenum makes a 180-degree flip. To address this, the dust collection hose is often disconnected and reattached after the switch-over. My brother developed a clever solution for his shop that employs a dedicated blast gate and hose for each mode making for a much more streamlined transition. I eventually arrived at a solution which provides just the right amount and orientation of flexible hose that allows for operation in either position without having to ever disconnect the hose.

The bamboo plywood I will be using to build the cabinetry for the River House has still not arrived. It has made it to Massachusetts from California but needs to be picked up by a freight carrier with a flatbed truck and forklift to facilitate delivery. With any luck, it will arrive tomorrow. After spending the morning installing recessed lights, I decided to give myself a break and build an assembly table in the afternoon. I have now installed about half of the roughly 100 lights and find it best to do a dozen or so at a time. The work is not difficult but my hands and fingers get very sore if I do too many at once. The table top is from the desk that Maya used during her high school years. The base is made entirely out of plywood remnants left over from the shop wall paneling. It is not pretty, but it will sever the purpose until I can devote more time to building a proper base. I will be adding leveling feet and retractable casters to complete the project.

Installation of our interior doors commenced today. Bedrooms and offices will feature 5-panel frosted glass doors while others will get a flush panel. This photo is in silhouette but I will be sure to publish a properly lit one when I get a chance. We anticipate that all the doors will be installed this week. Curious to test out the magnetic latches, I shut the door behind me only to discover I was trapped inside my office. Too embarrassed to call out for assistance, I escaped by way of the window.

A number of crane flies appear to have taken up residence in our newly painted garage attracted, no doubt, by the bright white color. As they do not bite and only live for about two weeks they seem like an innocuous guest and we are happy to share our space with them. I had the River House to myself today due to the holiday and spent most of my time installing recessed lights. A trip to the Home Depot in Watertown placed me close to Kyle so I dropped in to assist him with the finishing touches he is making on his renovated basement before his new tenants move in next week.

The Pemigewasset Loop is a 31-mile hike in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. Maya completed the loop this weekend with her boyfriend, Owen, and another friend from work. Her flatmates, Fiona and Grace were originally planning to make the hike but came down with Covid days ahead of the adventure. In total, the group summited 14 peaks – Flume, Liberty, Little Haystack, Lincoln, South Lincoln, Lafayette, South Lafayette, Garfield, Galehead, South Twin, Guyot, West Bond, Bond, and Bondcliff. Maya reported sleeping for 10-1/2 hours the night of her return.

Pictured above are the batteries for the energy storage system that will power the River House in the event of a power outage. They can also be used to shift the time of use for grid power (charge from the grid during off-peak times, supply the house during peak hours) that will allow us to purchase electricity when it is cheapest. Mounting these to the garage wall was no small feat given that each weighs more than 500 pounds and that I did so working alone using levers and blocks to lift the units an inch and a half at a time. Mounting and connecting the batteries took the better part of the day, a task that could have been easily completed in half the time with the aid of a forklift and a couple of really strong assistants. Even so, there is something very satisfying about moving really heavy things alone using the principles of mechanical advantage.

The turnout this afternoon at our neighborhood summer picnic was quite good; enhanced no doubt by the perfect weather, a nice respite from all the rain we have been having. Our community seems to be composed primarily of really young families or retirees with little else in between. After a rather unproductive morning working at the River House, relaxing for a few hours was nice.