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Color dependencies
Although there are no interior walls yet, it is time to start thinking about surface finishes. That means wallpaper, paint, & tile. If you have ever seen the scene in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House, where Myrna Loy describes her preferred paint colors to the builder, this is what is playing in my head…
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Irimoya Windows
I have been waiting so long to see how the light inside the house would change once the windows were mounted in the irimoya. Yesterday, my long wait was over. Sasaki-san and the sash man finished installation. Aside from some hours during preparation work, the irimoya has been boarded up since December. With each successive…
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Cats on a Spring Morning
Maura turned 4 on April 2nd. He’s my big sweet lap cat. His routine is everything: my lap first thing in the morning; a patrol around the area in the afternoon; more lap time if at all possible; and cuddles at night as long as Beryl isn’t in the bed. He loves me and Tod…
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Scentless
For the past couple of days, I have been sick with a fever and yesterday lost my sense of smell. I sort of expected a clinical, sterile scent or some kind of tingling to accompany the utter lack of this smell. But there’s just nothing. Neither positive nor negative. It’s odd but not nearly as…
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Lighting plot twist
Months ago, I started considering the lighting plans for the house. The lofted ceiling in the dining/kitchen space is a complicated shape, crossed with beams and posts, 4 meters tall, has a window, will have a ceiling fan, etc. It’s a real challenge to figure out how to create enough ambient light at night (a…
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The Heinz Birthday
Heinz, makers of pickles and ketchup, proclaim on their label that they have 57 Varieties. Now I have caught up with them in years. I enjoyed a birthday weekend in the city. While Tod attended Asia BSDCon for the first time in pre-pandemic, I met up with friends and walked a LOT – 40,000 steps…
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Shikoku Ranma
We have known Elizabeth and Atsunori Andoh for over 20 years; I have lost count. I took Elizabeth’s pickle workshop at A Taste of Culture in 2000, maybe? Shortly after that, Tod & I built her a website. And now we are all friends. Our wedding anniversaries are 20 years apart, and we celebrate the…
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Tobukuro
In Japan, storm shutters are a standard feature on homes. With typhoons an annual occurrence, it’s wise to protect the windows – especially the big expanses of glass in patio doors. Most people buy aluminum shutters along with their windows and doors. But in our case, that mass market option wasn’t even considered. From the…
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Pole Position
It’s been some weeks now that the location of the electrical pole has been under discussion. The existing pole is smack in the middle of the “Upper East Side” and it’s not entirely sightly. More importantly, it’s not to spec. The cable run from the main pole to the service pole is over 25 meters,…
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Designing built-ins
When we got the quotation for the house build, it didn’t include everything we’d need because I hadn’t decided yet on details like the bathroom sink or what I wanted for a kitchen island. Well, now’s the time to make those decisions. I opted to do it at 555 upstairs in the loft where I…
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