How do you drill 4 holes in precisely the same location on each of 29 stair treads? You build a jig. Pictured below is a close-up of the jig I fashioned to aid in this task. The stainless steel sleeves act as guides for the 1/2″ drill bit ensuring that the hole is perpendicular to the face of the stair tread and located in exactly the right position. Not shown is the other end of the jig which has two additional guides and a lip to register the entire assembly to the stair tread. Clamps secure the jig to the workpiece during drilling. Fabricating the jig took longer than drilling all 116 holes but it was meant to ensure precision rather than to optimize speed.
We are thrilled to have a paved driveway again. Installation of the binder coat took less than 2 hours. The eight-person crew worked in total synchrony with hot asphalt arriving by the truckload just in time. We will have a top coat added in about a year once the base coat has settled. Even half done, it is a very welcome improvement to our site. The small turnout serves double duty as a guest parking space and turnaround for cars backing out of either garage bay. Also considered in the driveway/landscape design are two snow push zones to facilitate clearing of the driveway with a snowplow.
For the second Sunday in a row, Jeanine and I traveled into Boston to watch one of our offspring compete in their first half marathon. Today’s event was sponsored by the Boston Athletic Association with proceeds donated to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and the Jimmy Fund. Kyle dressed wisely for the very frigid weather but I have to question the wisdom of carrying his cell phone in hand for 13 miles. He finished in 1:52:44 and when last we heard from him was on his way out to celebrate with other members of his running club.
To date, I have produced nothing but wood chips in my shop. Massive amounts in fact. Today, for a change of pace, I made a nice little pile of steel shavings. I had to drill three 1/2″ holes in each of seven 3/4″ thick steel cleats that will support the staircase stringers. At some point in the future, I think I will fashion a small metal shop in the mechanical room. Mixing woodworking and metalworking in the same space is never a really good idea.
Our driveway foundation of crushed stone has been installed and we are now waiting on the binder course. It was scheduled to be installed today but we were informed that it is now to happen on Monday. We will wait until next summer to install the top course allowing time for the driveway to settle and for the last of the heavy equipment to leave their scars. Once the binder course has been installed, I am going to treat my car to a long overdue carwash since it will no longer be subject to daily dust storms generated by anything driving over the dirt.
I have been diligent about recycling all cardboard packaging that we have amassed during the construction of the River House. I visit the Concord recycling bins every second or third day with a car load of packaging. If I had to estimate, I would say that we have recycled several thousand (not an exaggeration) cardboard boxes of one size or another. I am often amazed at how poorly items are packaged and occasionally by how wastefully. Today’s delivery from Amazon took the cake, however. I ordered a light diffuser for the LED strip lights that will be used to illuminate the art niches in the house. It comes in one-meter-long sections which weigh next to nothing. I was befuddled when this massive box arrived from Amazon only to discover that this was the package they selected to ship the diffusers. I have little doubt that the box cost more than the contents. Tip for Amazon: There is this amazing innovation for shipping posters and tall skinny things called a cardboard tube.
Large slabs of bluestone form the stairs and landing for our front door. We wanted something casual but substantial, a theme throughout our project. The last treads were placed this afternoon and we can now finally enter our house through the front door rather than the garage.
One of these cabinet doors is not like the others, the result of running out of plywood. Throughout the house, I have taken great pains to match grain patterns across cabinet doors and drawer fronts. This can be seen in the upper cabinets in the photo above as well as the left three doors on the bottom. Unfortunately, I ran out of plywood and had to make the fourth door out of a different sheet. I placed an order for additional plywood almost two months ago and we are expecting delivery any day now. Suffice it to say, I will be remaking all four lower doors to achieve that perfect grain (and color) match. Incidentally, this built-in is in my office and will be used primarily to store my photography equipment.
Maya participated in her first half-marathon today. Jeanine and I were there to cheer her on at the half-way point. She finished in 1:49:24 with a pace of 8:21/mi. Twenty-five years ago, her mother completed a half-marathon (2:15:00) with Kyle, Nico and me at the finish line to meet her. Kyle will run a half-marathon next week and we plan to watch him as well. Very proud of our little badass.
When we sold our house on Mattison Drive, we also sold most of our furniture realizing it would not be in keeping with the modern design of our new home. As we are approaching a move-in date to the River House, we have turned our attention to furnishings. After much deliberation, we ordered the dining room table above which will match a set of chairs we purchased last year. The living “room” area of the great room presents an interesting design challenge. To the east is the view across the river, to the south is the dramatic long view of the river, and on the west wall, is a large screen TV. How do you orient the furniture to best take advantage of these options? To solve this we will include two swivel chairs that allow the occupant to pivot in any direction. They will be matched with a small couch to deliniate between the dining and living areas.
Since I have begun doing much of the finishing work on the River House, date nights have become few and far between. After 10 hours of hard physical labor, the only date I am interested in is with a long hot shower. This evening, Jeanine and I had dinner and then went furniture shopping. The second of two stores was in a venue with an iMax theater, restaurant, and large indoor pool equipped with dancing fountains and lights. After coming up empty on our shopping list, we sat down and enjoyed the latter over ice cream allowing us to just barely meet the threshold for a date night.
Except for the sink in my shop, all plumbing fixtures at the River House have been installed and are operational. Even though there is still much work needed to complete the project, this feels like a major milestone. At this point, we could start living in the house if we needed to. The glass partitions for the shower areas arrived today and I hope to install them over the weekend. I am afraid that my shop sink is a low priority and will have to wait until I have had a chance to build the cabinet for it. Until then, the laundry room has a utility sink I can use which is a huge improvement over bringing paint brushes back to the Road House to wash out.
Progress on hardscaping for the River House has been slow but we are finally getting a sense of what the final result will look like. Work on the stairs to the front door began today. A trough in the stone dust base was excavated for a concrete foundation on which the first course of bluestone slabs was set. Subsequent steps will stack on this base so getting the elevation and location right was of utmost importance.
At the rear of the house, we have a full set of steps (half visible in the photo below) from the patio down to the walkout basement level and river bank. These steps are an integral part of the retaining wall which includes two massive stone blocks and two 30-inch high Corten steel panels. The panels are welded to angle iron set in concrete footings and also bolted to the stone blocks and welded to each other. The space behind the steel panel on the second tier is to be planted with an herb garden that will be easily tended from the flat platform in front of it (two additional slabs of stones have yet to be set on that surface). In addition to its functional role as a retaining wall, I suspect that children will find this a very fun area to play in and around.
This website is dedicated to sharing, with family and friends, the day-to-day adventures of the Calabria family.
