Friday 21 March 2008

A meeting of minds in Yushi Cafe

On the way back from visiting the house I found a nice looking Cafe along the route 142, called "Yushi Cafe"



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Maybe it aroused my interest because it was in an old house - of course much younger than inaka home's, but maybe Showa period. Upon entering, I found it was filled with so many old Showa era goods: old kerosene heaters, radio, books, ...


The inside was lovingly restored, but using purely basics. Actually very similar to what I originally had in mind with Inaka Home. Clean up beams and wood, put in wooden flooring, simple paint jobs. As it turns out, our house will be a much more luxurious affair, but then people don't sleep in a cafe.


What I also found great, was that the owner is a young guy, perhaps a bit younger than myself. He repaired the house - his father's place - by himself and started a good business. This raises my hope that there are more people like that out here, who can take a risk and create something new - real entrepreneurs!


I and Takakuwa-san from Eco Transfer Japan (shown on this photo enjoying a cafe au lait), will definitely come back.

Termite's Dinner

Kunihara-san made a shocking discovery - most of the beams we well chewed through by termites, and retained hardly any tensile strength. He was truly worried about the roof coming down.

Kunihara-san, pointing out termite damage.


Buggers!


Not exactly sound...


There are plenty of left overs, but they didn't ask for a doggy bag.

Carpenter magic

Kunihara-san did an excellent Job last week. When I visited there yesterday, I found all the dodgy wooden beams and posts replaced with shiny new ones. He also poured concrete to create many small bases all over the ground. They are leveled so that he can place new supporting beams for the flooring, without touching the potentially moist ground. At that time, he also already finished the concrete floor in the kitchen.

After replacing the beams and posts, only simple scaffolding remains.



The entire structure was secured with temporary bracing, to ensure the house won't crush our heads:


The replaced beams and posts in their full glory. On the left near the window a vertical post, carrying all the weight. Also two horizontal beams running along the window front. Also of course the main beam going from left to right through the room. Finally, beams resting on the new concrete bases on the ground, had to be put in place.


The window view. Please note the new beam on the top, already has all the grooves needed for Shoji sliding doors.


Centre of the room.


Kitchen floor is already cured. The things sticking out are outlets for hot & cold water, waste water, gas and electricity. This may be the last view of the kitchen as it was. Next window in the back will removed and closed up, and the doors to the left replaced by a wall.

Monday 10 March 2008

Floorboards cleared

The mission this weekend was to clean up the place to allow Kunihara-san (Carpenter) and his fellows to work freely. When I arrived, I found that they had already started, by removing all floorboards and old pieces of wood, that supported them.

The Main room really looks nice and large now. The fire places are clearly visible too.



This shows the future bedrooms in the north:

A hint of spring

As I arrived in Ueda, I felt quite comfortable wearing a short sleeved shirt, because it was sunny and temperatures hovered around 14 degrees C. In front of the house, the snow has largely disappeared except for a few patches in the shade.

The results of our first cultivation effort finally bore fruit: Tulips raise their head carefully and tentatively out of the ground.





In another part of the garden I found some other signs of life (sorry I am botanically challenged so cannot offer a name for these).





It was lovely to work outside thanks to the mild air and warm sunshine!

Sunday 2 March 2008

Eco Membrane for the house

Inaka Home is to become a model house to demonstrate a new ecological high tech membrane, that is used to finish off building insulation on the inside. The name of the product is "intello" manufactured by a company called "proclima" in Germany (see pdf file at bottom of this page). It is a kind of membrane that regulates humidity exchange between the inside and the outside of the house, thereby not only preventing condensation and related mould issues, but also keeping warm in winter (no loss of heat) and cool in summer (reduced air conditioning cost). This product is new in Japan, and is now being actively promoted by Eco Transfer Japan to architects and other builders.

Our home, is of course not completely air tight due to its traditional Japanese construction method, but nevertheless it will help to conserve heating and cooling energy, and demonstrate how such a high tech component greatly enhances other natural building materials, like breathing insulation (wool/recycled cellulose/wood chips) and mud walls.