Bookshelves and trim

So sorry I have been remiss in my postings of late! Just busy...

Yesterday I popped up to the house to meet up with Ariana and Keizo, who now have a van full of wood offcuts for the impending winter freeze. Here they are now!

The bookshelves up stairs are being made at present. All of the shelves, except for the major structural parts, will be adjustable, so as you can see in the picture below, Kaoru's shelves are all but done, they just need to add in the components for the adjustable shelves (metal strips down the inside of each shelf, then the wooden shelf fits into those).

The big floor to ceiling bookshelves in the free space are also being made. Again, the main structural part at least. Here they are, being made...

Chiselling precision!

This is 2.5cm thick composite pine (so it won't warp).

The bench for the upstairs sink is also on its way, and they have added a nice shelf in there too!

what's also underway is the wood trim that line the top of each wall and also the door frames. Here's the door frame from our room into the closet. The little bits of wood around it will be removed later.

The next stage is the plastering. Apparently this will take some time, because they go around and do every nail and screw first, then plaster the walls to make them flat. Then the wallpaper will go on.

Well, that's it for today! For me, the really exciting part is coming up, when all the good looking stuff will start going in. Shallow, I know!

More carpentry begins

We popped up to the house to measure all of the windows yesterday (time to get quotes for curtains and blinds - that's going to HURT!), and found that the desks and cabinets are underway. The bookshelves won't be far behind!

This is part of the cabinet that is being built to go under the TV. It's a LOT bigger than we imagined, which is quite tops!

The cabinet under the TV - this will have sliding doors also, so take that dust piles!

The desk in my study. This will also have four bookshelves above it that run the width of the wall.

My desk - it's made from composite wood, so it won't warp. It's very nice wood, though!

The door frame for the sliding doors that will lead into my study.

I just don't think I'm ever going to get tired of looking at the wood in our house!

Our bedroom - the square is space for a wooden fan.

The view. Not too shabby.

Ben and the balcony.

A sneaky post : )

OK, this is quite naughty, as I'm supposed to be studying, but it has been too long since I updated you all (well, in my mind anyway, and I figure if I can procrastinate from studying by scrubbing the toilet, I can at least procrastinate doing something fun as well).

We had a meeting with the builder the other day to decide on which lights need to be be (*gulp*) cut from the budget. I managed to keep most of the lights I really like, but sadly had to replace that nice roof light in my study with track lighting. Not so bad, though, as I figure I can also use the track lighting to highlight artworks, so no biggie.

One bummer is that we will only have two of the big black lights over the dining table instead of 3. If anyone has work for a maverick designer in the range of 53,000 yen worth, I'll be happy to talk to you! In the meantime, I must be happy with two and not be greedy (HUMPF!).

We did mange to keep a lot of other cool lights, though, and actually I think some lights that were in the plan we're better off without. I put my foot down with the ceiling fans though - I love them. That's that!

We will be meeting with the people who will be making the doors next week. This is the idea I have for the double sliding wooden doors going into my study:

And this is the design for the two doors leading into the bathroom area and the stairs:

I struggled a little over this door - we have a window in our house now that has this type of wood design around it, and I've always loved it. Ariana has something similar in her house, so I really did struggle (in vain) to come up with other ideas, but in the end I just kept coming back to this because it was somehow always in my mind. Anyway, it's slightly different to hers, and quite a common design in Japan, so I just went ahead! Sorry Ari! The white part will be a perspex type of washi - looks beautiful, but doesn't rip like the paper versions, and also makes the doors easier to clean (I'm always putting holes in them!).

Here are some photos of the house:

Painting the underside of the roof.

More painting.

Looking from just outside the Japanese (tatami) room door, through to the kitchen and bathroom area beyond.

And back the other way.

The double wooden doors above will go on the left, where my study is.

This is the kitchen pantry cupboard. The wood is Hinoki, which stops mould from growing.

Looking upstairs.

It's official - I'm a dag

Today was the first time I really looked at the house from the road without the scaffolding mesh around it. I admit I'm a little shocked how big it it! I think it also looks bigger because it sits so high up from the road.Oh, and by the way, I have been feeling slightly sorry for our new neighbours, with all the construction noise, etc. In some kind of weird karmic payback, a house is now being built across the road from us. Today they are putting up the frame and it's REALLY noisy!

View from the road.

Eventually we will have to cement in between the rocks of this wall, but not today.

I also went to ask about putting up the roof tile, but I need to ask some higher powers that be, so I'm not sure if it can be done yet or not. At any rate, I have done a very rushed photoshop stitch job, just to see what it might look like. I almost hear the collective groan of designers the world over...and admit I'm not just a little bit of a dag.

Antique roof tile predicament

And further to my last post, here's a quick question for you all. Below is a roof tile that comes from the house that Kaoru's mother grew up in, which was in Hita City. It's estimated to be between 100-150 years old. Originally my plan was to add it to our house, and so now, as the exterior is being done, my thoughts are turning to it. Here's a pic, so you can see what I mean...

My question is, should this go in the gable above the four windows at the front of the house, or should it perhaps find a place inside the house? It's quite heavy - I estimate it weighs at least 5kgs. Thoughts anyone??

Front views

In a daring bid to procrastinate on dissertation writing, I bring you a new Ogura Mansion update! Well, it's a good one, I think, because finally the siding has now moved its way around to the front of the house, and finally we can take a peek at how the house will pretty much look (minus the hammock, trees and other spectacular, colourful objects d'jour that will grace out lives...eventually!).

The balcony above will also have a railing installed later.

That ain't no McMansion, that's an Ogura Mansion!

Look at it, waiting for its family...such personality!

Second floor balcony, now with most of the siding done.

The genkkan (entrance). This will tiles on the lower part.

This is the inside of one of the storage cupboards. The wood is called "hinoki", and is used on the inside of cupboards to get rid of mould. Most housing companies would change a lot of extra money for this - with San Tanaka, we didn't even have to ask for it! And it smells beautiful. Hinoki is Japanese Cypress. Check here for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamaecyparis_obtusa

OK, back to uni work : (

Nature, music and naked houses

Yesterday was San Tanaka's annual shindig out in the wilds of Aso, where the president of the company has a little house and a big organic garden. We enjoyed Sri Lankan dancing (after some Sri Lankan curry), a huge line up of music and some great people. I didn't get many pics - sorry. Was too busy watching the music!

Classical guitar and flute.

Ben, watching the music.

Guitar!

After the party, we headed back to Beppu, stopping at my favourite road-side restaurant on the way.

View from the garden of the road-side restaurant.

When we first moved to Japan, Ben was just under two years old. He swung on this very swing seat with a girl, holding hands with her the whole time.

Horsey!

And then, of course, we stopped off at our house on the way back. On the way...

Looking down to our house and a big rainbow!

Our house, without the scaffold cover!

The view from the second floor balcony.

A nice Sunday all in all!