A note on kitchens, balconies and the river between heaven and earth

Well, it's Obon here this weekend - a time when the dead travel back over the river between heaven and earth to visit their relatives. It also marks the first day of being locked out of the house! Noooo!!! I remember once being locked out of the house I was sharing with my Mum, her husband and my sister Jussie in Rose Bay in Sydney - yet again, I had lost my key. It was about 5am and neither my mum, her husband, or my sister could hear me knock. So I crawled up into a little ball on the front door mat and went to sleep. Every now and then, I would give to door a bit of a kick. Nothing. At about 9 am, I stood up, gave to door one more try with a very quiet knock, and all three of them woke up and came to the door. I haven't lost my keys since (touch wood!), so today was the first time I had experienced a lock out in quite some time!

The builders are also taking the next 3 days off for Obon, so I guess that's why they have locked all the doors and boarded up the front (because there's no front door there yet). Gutted!

Well, so anyway, I did get some shots of the balcony, and I even climbed up to the top part of the scaffolding. I thought I might regret it if I don't take a look at the view from the roof at least once. It was a bit wobbly up there, and I might have regretted going up instead, but all is well!

The balcony upstairs - waterproofed. The white and blue paper is what goes under the exterior siding, which will be added soon.

The balcony, looking up to the mountains. Nice place for a morning coffee, what?!

Yama!

The four front windows, with glass. These open out on side hinges and look very nice when open.

The view from the roof. Kinda scary actually!

Locked out, I am reduced to peeping through the window. I am a peeping Willie.

I also thought, as we can't get in to show you other things that are progressing, that I should at least show you the kitchen. We went to almost every major kitchen manufacturer, from the very bottom of the range to the exceedingly expensive and ridiculous (and there was more web surfing and cataloging done that was merely pretend. There is no way we could even afford them, so we just dreamed).  At any rate, we drove all the way to Fukuoka (2 hours away) to check out the Toyo kitchen showroom, because I liked them best from the start. My friend has one, and having spent many an hour eating, cooking and drinking in her kitchen, I believe it was not only strong, easy to use and keep clean, but that it was also the most beautiful. Toyo used to be a stainless steel manufacturer, so it was obvious, after going to almost every other kitchen showroom in Oita City, that Toyo had it all over the competition. The steel gauge was thicker, making them stronger and quieter than any of the others - and they are just stylie!

Also, one thing really bothered me about every other kitchen we looked at: where the FLUB do you put your dishes? As dishwashers in Japan are pokey little silly things, you really need somewhere to put large pots, etc to dry. It's all very well to have a beautiful looking kitchen in a showroom, but once you're at home, with pots, pans and the whole shebang, you really don't want them all over your precious little amount of bench space. Toyo kitchens were the only one to have thought of that - they have a 3D sink, and a thick plate of stainless steel that goes over it, so not only are your dishes hidden, but you also get extra bench space. Genius!

OK, enough of my rave - someone will start to think I'm being paid. But seriously, if you do live in Japan and are thinking of building, I recommend you take a look at Toyo. There's one more reason why I like them - they support designers. They have an amazing line up of furniture as well that perhaps one day I'll be able to get my hands on!

This is the Bay model. We are getting a 270cm-long island version, a little like this one:

Toyo Kitchens - Bay Island

 We are getting the dark wood version, which looks like this, but with the long handles above:

Click here to watch a video on the 3D sink. It's only in Japanese, but is still interesting if you can't understand Japanese.

We are only buying the island. The back wall of the kitchen will be cupboards made by the builder's carpenters.

Well, happy holidays everyone. We're off down the coast on Monday to a place that's reportedly just like Okinawa. Can't wait! Must get back to my dissertation so I deserve it!

W; )