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I made the most beautiful post box
The other day, Tod got a call from the water company. They had noticed that we had a new service at a different address and wanted to know where to send the bills and put the meter reading slips. Clearly, it was time to mount a mailbox somewhere at 555. But we don’t have a…
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Ujiko
There is art as well as science to creating a good drainage ditch. Along with the retaining wall, we are having the site drainage reworked. Old ujiko (U-shaped concrete forms) have been removed and will be reused behind the barn and new ones arrived for the house surround. At 30kg, they are too heavy for…
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Burning down the (out)house
Today we took down the outhouse and burned it, creating more space for a usable patio & workspace at the side of the barn. It was a sturdy thing, built in Showa 53 with beautiful carpentry joins. Shimizu-san and I expressed our admiration and respect for the builders, mixed with frustration at how challenging it…
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The houseplans
When I was a girl, I dreamed of building a house with a 2nd floor library, a turret, a secret staircase, and an interior garden. None of these features made it to the house I am actually building. What we are going to construct is a modern re-imagining of a traditional Japanese house. It’s 92…
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Sankaku Road
Heavier work began yesterday with the arrival of the breaker yumbo. Today the crew spent the day cracking up slabs of concrete. We are reusing old concrete from around the property in the back of the gabion cages. I feel really good about this. It’s ecologically sound. We’re repurposing materials already on site, so keeping…
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Brush cutting
Yesterday we ended the “brush cutting” phase of 555. For about a week, I have been helping the Monaca Construction crew to trim back the wild overgrown sections of the property. It is amazing the difference once the trees are trimmed and all the bamboo removed. There are views I didn’t realise. Lots of space…
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Contract signed
Well, it’s done. The contract for construction happened yesterday. I signed the papers and Tod transferred first payment to Sasaki-san. The contract isn’t the beginning or the end. It’s sort of in the middle of the process. It’s been about a year in the planning and it will be 10 months in the making, more…
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Pitchfork memories
This week, I have been using this hay fork to shift wood chips from in front of the chipper to a farther pile. And every time I secure the fork back into the pile, I can’t help but remember my first encounter with a pitchfork. I was six or seven years old and my next…
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Inhabitation
Yesterday, something shifted in my way of thinking about 555. With the yumbo on site and the all-star team cutting bamboo and brush, this place is now a site of continuous habitation. Someone will be around most days. From August 19th, 2022, there will be activity of all sorts, life lived, and stories created for…
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Cats on the prowl
Our neighborhood has a lot of indoor-outdoor pets and a few truly feral cats. The ones in this house are free to come and go; they have schedules around meal times and naps, so I usually know where to find them. More or less. Cats are very territorial, but the territories might not be quite…
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