Bye Bye Wallpaper san!

Hello everyone! Welcome to Monday!

This is the last week of house building per se, although the landscaping will follow in the next few weeks (not to mention years of gardening projects...). The final official inspection will take place on the 4th November (when I will be in Cambodia), then the builder will hold an open house. I hope I'm around for that!

So, progress - well, all of the wallpapering is now complete, and the tiling is being done. I haven't been up since Saturday, but at that time all of the handles of the doors were going on. I hope he's not quite finished when I go up later so I can say a proper thank you to Kitakuchi san, the door maker. He's done an amazing job.

Following are the latest pics. Back to packing for me!

The blue bathroom tiles are added. These will have dark grey grout.

Pretty! Can't wait to see them with the sinks!

Only two things missing - the sinks and the barber's mirrors. And our toothbrushes.

The dining/living, all wallpapered.

Door and wallpaper.

More doors and wallpaper. The combination of the beams, doors and textured walls makes me happy.

Wallpapered dining/kitchen.

The Shoji is fitted. These will have washi paper. The bottom section slides up.

Window shoji, which will also have washi.

I was trying to remember what I was thinking when we chose these tiles for the entry. I think we thought that lighter tiles would be better because then the entrance would be lighter, but damn! Ah well. No biggie. I hope.

Inside, they look fine, I guess!

On the upside, one of my favourite things about the genkkan (entry) is the light that shines through the doors. Once the perspex is put in, I'm sure there will still be some of this effect.

The kitchen. The door to the right now has an iron red feature.

The back cupboards are almost complete. They just need all of their handles added.

I'm sure this will grow on me too. Hmmm....it will have an interesting perspex inset here, which I'm sure will bring it together. Watch this space!

The free space, now complete with wallpaper, shelves and light.

The stair light.

Free space and stair light together.

Ben's light. Kind of reminds me of a hot air balloon.

Drifting through the clouds : )

Kaoru's study with light.

Our bedroom fan. Only down lights in here.

Fan and two tone wallpaper.

I leave you with a picture of Beppu. Saturday was a very rainy day, and on those days you can really see Beppu's hot spring steam better.

Hot spring steam - what Beppu is famous for!

Hand made doors make my day

One of my favourite parts of being a designer is seeing designs go from computer-based images (and sometimes more tactile media) to real life pieces - which is I guess why I love print design. Today topped it all, when I had the wonderful moment of walking into our house and seeing one of my designs in the shape of a door. Could NOT have made it myself if my life depended on it, and so I will be eternally in awe of the man who did, Kitakuchi san (in the photo below). There are four of these doors in total - as explained below...

This door goes from my study into the bathroom area. It will have white washi type of perspex inside, but you will still be able to see a tint of the red behind it. Cool.

This door will also have the white perspex - this is looking from the dining/living room towards the genkkan (entrance).

And this is what you will see when you walk in the house, except the white perspex part.

Kitakuchi san, installing the double doors of my study. Yay!

The first lot of tiles go in - the upstairs sink area.

And track lighting above the kitchen.

Lights! Kitchen! Action!

Just when I thought I couldn't get any more excited, BOOM! More groovy things happen in a day that see me running all over the house taking photos with a big smile on my face. Here's today's latest developments...

Hello Kitchen! Who knew a kitchen took just one day to install? Have to love that!

View from the bathroom.

Look at that! Lights AND a kitchen! Holy Toledo! Shiny and new. Still in the wrapper.

What's under the wrapper.

Two would have been beautiful, but let's face it, three is just AWESOME! The big black dome lights finally take their rightful place.

The Genkkan (entrance) lights. These are made of wood.

And there's two!

One of the two ceiling fans is up. This is the loungeroom, the other will be in our bedroom.

Again, the bathroom photo is a bit dark - sorry 'bout it! But you can see the lights anyway!

One of the two wooden fans are up.

The tatami room light looks nice, but is a bit of a mistake. When we had to reduce the lighting budget I didn't realise this has round fluorescent tubes, D'oh! Looks like we'll be using the down lights a lot!

Kaoru's study - completely wallpapered. This will have a smaller version of the light above.

The bookshelves in the free space with wallpaper.

The upstairs gets its paper on...

The wallpaper - a new installment!

The tatami room has been completely wallpapered now. It was really nice to see that last few sheets of paper go up this afternoon and look at all four papers together. One little special moment was the beautiful afternoon light that came in through the window.

This is the spot just above where the couch will be. I envisage being a very lazy cat here on a Sunday afternoon! Or will that be in the hammock on the deck...or the second floor balcony? Or the (sooner or later to be) lawn under the cherry tree? Choices choices!

Git some colour, will ya! The red joins the tatami room.

The ceiling and more subtle walls of this room are slightly different to the rest of the house - they are a more grey/blue tone (because of the couch that will go in this room).

The "Quiet Achiever" puts the last panel on the tatami rooms walls.

A slightly better picture of the sink area of the bathroom. I can't wait to see it with the sinks, tiles and wooden doors under the sink.

The back kitchen wall. This is the same paper as one wall in the gekkan (entrance). 

I didn't get any good shots of the toilet walls yesterday - this is the slightly darker shade of the two papers. The other lighter version is also on the ceiling.

The Two Tones.

View without the scaffolding out of our bedroom windows.

Two of our bedroom walls are in this paper. You can't see the flowers unless the light catches them. Tricky!

The other wall.

Kaoru's study has also received the red treatment, and is getting its three sliding wooden doors.

And here's some good news - the lighting arrived. In a few days I'll finally get to see those big dome lights. Sweet.

It looks like a little van, but once the sales woman had unloaded all the lights they took up most of the tatami room. Is it a tardis?

And I'll leave you today with the view again. I always end up there around the same time of day, so once we move in, I promise I'll show you some sunrises and those amazing nights when the full moon rises over the sea.

How we'll always be able to find our way home - the sun setting in the west.

Another day ends in Beppu.