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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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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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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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Cladding
Sasaki-san just started installing it yesterday, but I am already delighted with the exterior material of the house. It’s Japanese cedar, sugi, just like most of the house. I am happy to be using the trees that cause me so much allergy drama every spring. I hope these were chopped down and not replanted. The…
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Insulation
Traditional Japanese houses are not insulated. They are built to allow air to flow through them which ventilates and helps to prevent mould, allows smoke to rise into the thatch, and all of that. The focus of traditional buildings is managing summer heat and humidity, not the hypothermic chill of winter. However, most people in…
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Kobayashi Mikan
Mrs. Kawasaki introduced me to the Kobayashi mikan tree on one of our early walks around 555 in spring of 2021. It’s a compact tree with low branches that sits to the west of the house. This was clearly a fruit she liked, because she lingered a while to admire it. “It’s good for jam,”…
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