Surprise Visitor

As we were all loitering about in the house and garden, we were suddenly greeted by Kobayashi-san, the 79 Year old builder who thatched our roof last Year.

He walked into the house and was awed by the great changes that have taken place in the meantime. During his young years, Kobayashi-san actually stayed many times in this house as apprentice thatcher to the previous owner's father. Tears were about to fall when he commented that the house was rescued, something he thought not possible at the time.



Later we talked business - envisaged future projects and improvements. However, when it came down to details, I let junior handle it. Perhaps he will be a lawyer when he grows up, or is he giving architectural instructions?

Blue Paint Scrub

Besides making bricks, our second focus today was get started on the cleanup of the metal roof covering entrance, kitchen, toilet and bathroom.

Peter Amor and I got up on the roof and first started scraping off old paint, and going over the roof with metal brushes.



The remnants of the old paint was difficult to get off, so we only tried to clean up around the rusty spots, but even only that was a lot of work.



A great sunny day - but it was very hot on the roof!



The Kunihara's were working inside, and whenever they came out they had to laugh about our effort. We had tea together near the open window, an excellent way to enjoy such a pleasant day.



Back to work, we started putting on paint. The instructions say that you should start with the edges and seams, and then to the space between. As we were two people, Peter used a large sponge for the flat bits, after I painted every seam.



For the Moment we kept the blue colour, so that we can avoid painting the entire roof, and just to quickly finish sealing the roof before the rainy season starts. Maybe next time we will try a darker brown colour on some patches to see how it looks. Because the paint is not so expensive, we could always use a nice day to change the colour later.



We could not complete the entire roof, because there is still some scaffolding for the straw roof in place. In any case we ran out of time, as we still had to drive back to Tokyo. Perhaps next time we can tackle the lower roof, and finish the remaining bit on top.

I don't know how they did it, but for some reason Peter and Victor managed to get themselves covered with blue paint all over the place. This is particularly baffling in Victor's case, as he only spent about 30 seconds with the paint can. And for some reason his hands stayed blue even after the Hot-spring!

Hidden Secrets revealed

Tomo joined us and lifted up floor and ceiling boards to learn about the structure below and above. Its important in order to decide how to apply insulation to keep the house warm in winter.

At that stage we made an exciting discovery: 2 fireplaces were hidden below the floorboards! So this is how the previous inhabitants kept warm in winter. Its difficult to say how old they are, but ash is still contained in them. Its amazing - the round one looks like it is carved into a solid stone. How old may it be?








Looking below the floor revealed that the house is in rather good shape, so no problem from that viewpoint. The question is how to get the place insulated. Tomo suggested to replace the lower layer of floorboards, and then place a layer of insulating board, before adding the wooden flooring.

Now that we had bright daylight it was also possible to better discern the condition of the roof. Pretty ok, but some dusting and cleaning would be advisable. We also found potential problems: 2 beehives. The one on the picture is roughly 30 cm high, so relative small, and it looks deserted.

However, above the bath, Tomo discovered an enormous monster hive, about 3-4 times bigger. It must be the source of the 15 bees that I dispatched inside during my previous visit. I think we need professional help to remove that...