And another one bites the dust

Another work weekend. The objectives for this weekend were to remove the ceilings below the two main rooms, so that the thatched roof can be seen from below. I went up Friday night by Shinkansen, and took sleeping bag etc with me. The utilities (except Electricity) were sheduled to be connected, but of course the place is a little dirty. I therefore used the 2nd floor room in the Kura as my residence. That evening though, I walked over to the Onsen, took a nice long soak and Sauna, and then opened a well deserved beer. It was nice to hear all the farmers talk about the harvest in the spa.

The night was pleasant, with insect music coming from outside all night long. Not long before falling asleep, reading a book by torch light. I woke up once (2 am) - probably not used to such a quite environment for sleeping. The house made small cracking noises occasionally, as the wooden beams contracted as the night temperature dropped to a pleasant 19C degrees, fortunately no sound of rats!

Next day, an engineer came to fix the electricity. He was so kind, he even helped getting the bath heater working, and took a big interest in the old Toshiba TV we found. Around lunch time all utilities were online, thanks to my father-in-law's phone calls and thorough preparation during the week - Thanks so much!

I started by cleaning out the storage space in the Kura, and then moved our treasures from the main room there. I also had a go at the garden, tidying up a bit, while waiting for other members to come. It turned out that Tomo was delayed (and had only a little time in the evening), and Peter had to cancel because he caught a cold. So I went ahead with the removal on my own.

As Peter has already warned me I was prepared for the dirt coming down, unfortunately that didn't mean that I could escape getting dirty. Specially the dust was an issue - thick clouds of dust, lingered in the air for minutes... I finally worked out how to alleviate the problem. I used water liberally on the surface. The dust was so dry that it looked as if it reacted magnetic to water. So by doing that, at least the dust already on the ground didn't fly up again when ceiling boards crashed down, and the new dust quickly settled.

I also took a video of the process. In the first part I try to capture some of the atmosphere of this house and its tranquil location. At the end, you can see me covering up the floor of the second room, sprinkling it with water an then knocking out some boards:



I did the second room on Sunday, after buying a few tools and equipment. Also started attacking the Garden once more. The main issue with the latter being the clinging parasitic vines that nearly overwhelmed the Ume-tree. I cut it off in 100s of place, but it was so tough to untangle the tree's branches, from these intermingled vines! There is still another days work in this tree alone.

Chatted with a neighbour, and he commented that the field will die if we don't work it. Furthermore, the weeds growing on it are bad for the surrounding fields, as the wind blows their seeds around. Need to address this issue soon.

Sunday night I was pretty tired and sore when back home. But because I finished the tasks I set out to do, I feel very good and look forward to the next steps of repair.

First Deconstruction

Jun took the following shots during his visit this weekend. Basically the two most northerly rooms were stripped of the ceiling. We may consider using them as bedrooms, however, we haven't moved to the interior design yet.

Tomo and Peter did an excellent Job at knocking out the ceiling in those two rooms. They consisted of light boards, that were partly damaged from a previous (and now fixed) water leak from the roof. According to Peter:

"...This was very dirty work as the ceilings are filled with dirt, wood, bees, rat poison etc. I definitely recommend you wear protective clothing including gloves and goggles and be very careful of overhead falling debris - including large blocks of wood which can be quite dangerous (if you have one a hard hat would not go astray...)..."

Surely the debris on the floor attests to this statement and makes their achievement even more valued!

This is a closeup on the roof under belly. These rooms are actually contained in an widened extension to the main building. Clearly we must find some space to insulate the ceiling to make it nice and cozy, however, we will keep the sloping ceiling to give more height, and allow viewing of the beautiful wooden beams.

Here you can see a closeup from the other side. Note the original building's mud/hay wall that shines through on the right! It would be nice if we could keep it visible somehow...

Jun's Journey

Jun paid his first visit to the house. Instead of using the normal options that Tomo and I use to get to the house (car, or shinkansen / rental car), he went by motorbike, taking the scenic route.

As it was a lovely day, he was astonished with the fantastic views and vistas on the way to our house. Blue skies, lush green forests, and winding and quite mountain roads. He went there to check on the progress of the Tomo and Peter's work last weekend.