Timber and Trees

For those of you who were keen to know about the wood being used in the house here's a little run down of what I know so far - but first! A note on the dining table. It's made form a single piece of keyaki wood. Keyaki is prized in Japan for making tansu - or Japanese cabinets - like this one:

Photo: Kraig Donald

According to a friend of Kaoru's who is a biologist and specialist in trees and timber, keyaki normally grows straight, so a piece of wood that has multiple cores means that the tree probably had some kind of stress during its life that made it stronger. 

From Wikipedia - ""Noma Keyaki", a 1,000-year old keyaki in Nose near Osaka in Japan, 25 m tall, 11.95 m trunk circumference; second-largest known specimen."

Onto another type of wood, there is one that is particularly interesting. "Hinoki" is used to line the storage areas of the house - mould hates it. Very smart! Hinoki is a Cypress tree native to central Japan, often called Japanese Cedar:

Photo: 陳炬燵

The floors will be "ナラ" (Nara), which is Japanese Oak. The trees look like this:

A Nara, or Japanese Oak, tree. Source: http://www.shirakabanosho.co.jp/meisho.htm

The 'donguri', or acorns. Source: http://www2.city.kurashiki.okayama.jp/musnat/plant/bungakusakuhin/issasyuu.htm

Another Nara tree. Source: http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/sakanablog2/diary/?ctgy=6

Flooring:

An example of Nara flooring. Source: http://www.maedamokuzai.com/nara_list.html

An example of Nara floor boards. Source: http://item.rakuten.co.jp/manmoku/100027/

One more type of wood that will be used is Sugi, is also a species of cypress. This is a softer wood, but much thicker slabs of it are used, so it is perfect for staircases. Here is a picture of a very old and rare piece of sugi - very beautiful!

Sugi, or Japanese Cypress. Source: http://www.burgesswoodworks.com/gallery/JapaneseWood20060514/images/SugiBurl2.jpg

This is the oldest known specimen of a Sugi. Source: http://www.burgesswoodworks.com/gallery/JapaneseWood20060514/images/SugiBurl2.jpg

I hope that is useful for the wood buffs out there! When I find out more about other types of wood being used, I'll add to this post.

Downstairs sink area

Thank goodness for Photoshop is all I can say! Being able to put samples of things together is really helpful - even if the colours aren't quite the same on screen as they are in real life, the jist is the same.

Thanks to one of my best friends and her family, I was able to buy this antique cabinet a while back - maybe two years ago? Wow, time flies. It was a wedding present from her, her husband and Mum and Dad, who, mind you, have always been some of my favourite people.

This is a little composite I've done of what the cabinet will look like when it is in the bathroom. Not to scale, mind you! I could keep going and add the lights and the barber mirrors, but then I might have just tipped over the house building edge, right over into crazy land. We wouldn't want that, would we kids!

Windows, exterior, interior and new sofas...

Hello all!

Exterior first! We've decided on the siding - this is what we chose for the bottom half of the house (sorry - it's a bit of a small sample, but you get the picture...)

Bottom half - large stone block siding.

The two together - dark wood and stone.

Since my last post we have gone out and bought a new sofa. We wanted one for the Japanese room, but have decided to put the one we have now in that room and this new one in the lounge room...AND it was one sale - almost 50% off! Score!

Long enough to have a good lounge around on...

The boys.

Ben's lounging demonstration. Very helpful.

So, unwittingly, we have solved the wallpaper dilemma of the last post. the majority of the house will have a woven wallpaper, like this:

The Japanese room will have the same textured paper, but a slightly different colour - a bit more blue/grey:

The Japanese (tatami) room will have the same weave/texture, but a slightly different colour, to go with the sofa in there. It will also have a blue washi wall behind the TV. The two together will look like this:

By the way, this blog has some amazing fusuma paintings. http://www.traveljournals.net/pictures/112977.html Worth checking out, just for fun! This one is my favourite: http://www.traveljournals.net/pictures/112972.html

So, anyway, back to reality! Here's a few pics of today's progress. I wanted to climb the ladder and take some of the balcony, which has been waterproofed and looks amazing, but the house was full to the brim with plumbers, electricians and carpenters. Next time!

The doors and windows now have their glass - double glazing all the way! This is - thankfully - the last time we have to get through a Japanese summer with single glazing and no insulation!

Plumber on the left, electrician on the right.

The plumber, running pipes to the second floor.

Head carpenter, Yamada san (aka Santa). I think he has a pretty nice office.

The back kitchen window - this will be in between the top and bottom cabinets that are being made by the carpenters on the back wall of the kitchen.

We added a lot of these windows on the back half of the house, because you can leave them open in the rain. Very important in Japan's rainy season, when everything goes mouldy in a lickety split! Air can circulate, but the rain can't get in.

Two of the 3 windows in my study.

One of the carpenters (he's also in the pictures above). It was amazing watching him work this afternoon. Such skill!

Where the front door will be.

View from the road.

How to be your own stylist?

When our friend, Ariana, built her house, she had an interior coordinator. Unfortunately for us we didn't get one of those, but fortunately that means I get to do it instead (and I have Ariana, so who needs an interior coordinator anyway?!) I just wanted to show you a little something that I think will look so cool when the house is done. You'll just have to imagine these all together later on - but first - here's a picture, just for Webby, without the pool table green floor. Sorry about the rush photoshop jobby!

With a gold background...

And the two together - why not?!

My Mum's amazing pomegranate and hummingbird painting, that I have been (not so) secretly coveting for some time now.

This is a closer view of the wood grains. I don't consider this table furniture. It's art. I'm in love with it and can't wait to share my food with it!

The dining table. This is one piece of solid wood, that is having legs made for it, along with two long benches. Once this puppy is delivered and put together, it won't be going anywhere. Heavy!

The lights. These will go over the table much like in this picture. I think they're so groovy! Baby!

So, interior coordinators - do we need them? We'll just have to wait and see, I guess!

Windows and the surrealists

When houses are built in Japan, they put a cover over the scaffolding, which means you can't really see in from the outside, but you also can't really see out either. Trying to peel back this layer to see the view the other day made me think of surrealist photographer Lee Miller, and his photograph "Portrait of Space" -

"A Portrait of Space" by Lee Miller. Taken near Siwa, Egypt, in 1937.

Beppu 2001. Is there an original thought left?

I liked this one better though.

OK, enough connecting with with my subconscious. And Lee Miller's.

But it does seem appropriate, all this looking out of frames, because this week the window and door frames have been added.  There's no glass yet, but this too seems quite apt.

The house frame is coming along too, with lots more being done to it, as well as the floors, which now have an insulation layer and boards. Over the top of these will be the final layer (to come later) of solid oak. Can't WAIT for that!

We had a long meeting with the builder this afternoon, which entailed lots of going around measuring stuff very precisely with marking pens on the floors. When I say precisely I mean not really. We had to measure out the size of the kitchen and dining table and work out what position enables you to walk through the house from all angles without developing crab-like tendencies (which is pretty much how we've been living since we moved to Japan, mind you). We also figured out the best place for the big black lights that will hang over the dining table, which was very fun!

On another note, I realised that a painting my beautiful Mum is giving us for a house warming present (that she painted) will be able to fit in the dining room. It was very difficult to get the smile off my face this afternoon!


Here's some general pics of progress.

Sunset. I'm just chucking this in the mix because it's beautiful!

Standing in the middle of the living room, looking back to the dining and kitchen area. Underneath the boards on the floor if 10cm thick foam boards. No drafts getting in our place in winter!

This is the frame for what will be the large sliding door going out onto the deck. So glad I fought for that tree to stay!

The other sliding door frame in the living room, surrealist style.

Lever windows - these are awesome. You can keep them open all through summer so that mould doesn't grow. This window will open out to the deck, but is actually the window for the storage room in the entrance.

Looking up through where the stairwell will be.

View from the second floor. It's actually pretty high! Could abseil that!

Looking into the second floor from the scaffolding. I admit it: I like to sneak up there when the builders have gone and climb the scaffolding. SHHH!

The view to the mountains from the balcony. Sorry the tarp got in the way on the top left corner there.

What will be our bedroom, then the free space, Kaoru's study and the balcony. Out of view is Ben's room, a small storage room off our bedroom, and an upstairs toilet and wash basin space at the top of the stairs.