Bathtub Time

We started work on the bathroom today. First up was putting the insulation into the wall behind the were the tub will go. I suited up in my 300 yen paper suit for the job. Or as I like to think of it, my James Bond ski-henchman suit. The suit did a reasonable job of protecting me from the glass wool, but it was still an itchy afternoon. In an unprecedented event, I managed to cut the insulation to the correct size on the first try. Then, defying all odds and expectations, I cut the plywood to fit exactly. Hopefully, this trend will not be short lived. 

Once the plywood was up we put in string lines to mark the center of the feet on the bathtub. They are only faint lines in the photograph but tomorrow we will be centering the support bricks where they cross. Then we find out how off our measurements are when we put the tub in. 

Sayonara Glass Blocks - Hello Bathroom

We spent the day doing the final touches on the glass blocks. Now we never have to to touch them again. It is a great feeling. Only matched in intensity by the growing fear about the next project. I have planned out the bathtub framing on paper and we know what we need to do. The scary part is that if we are off by a few millimeters at this stage, we will be in a world of trouble a month from now when we start tiling. But what are the odds of that happening.....

Meanwhile, the professionals continue to put us to shame. They have started the siding and are cruising along like, well, like professionals. Damn them. The siding is Japanese cedar and will be stained a bit darker once it is up. Once they finish the siding, we will be completely on our own for the rest of the build. Expect progress to slow noticeably.

Busy Weekend

It was a very productive weekend for both us and the builders. The house is fully covered in Tyvek and all the windows are in. The siding has been stained and will start to go up next week. Meanwhile, we finally managed to complete the two glass block windows and even had time to put three glass block windows in next to the door. The glass blocks seemed like a great idea on paper, but in real life it is a messy, fairly difficult endeavor. Now that we have done it and made almost every mistake possible along the way,  I could throw up 50 of them in no time. I have a feeling that the rest of the DIY projects are going to go the same way. Just when we figure out the easiest way to do things the job will be over. Which will work out well in a few years (months perhaps) when we have to redo our less than perfect first attempt. The next mission is building the frame for the bathtub. We should have that done in a little under a decade.

Foiled By Rain

We arrived at the house early this morning to start our DIY project. First we wrapped the framing in water proof material and I got to use an electric staple gun. Good fun when I was in control, but watching my wife hand it to me with her finger on the trigger was a bit unnerving. No puncture wounds resulted and I can safely say we have achieved a new level of trust in our relationship. Next up was the angle grinder. I had to cut the the horizontal supports for the blocks with the angle grinder. My wife's father was reluctant to even send this tool to me because he feared for my fingers. However, I skirted certain injury once again and completed the job. A word of warning to other amateurs out there: don't touch the metal after you cut it with the grinder. Despite my background in science, which included such novel concepts as friction and conduction, I felt the need to grab the metal rod just after I cut it. A slight burn later and we moved on to the mortar.

8 blocks into the job and the skies opened up. We hastily erected a makeshift tent and called it a day. The forecast is not looking good for tomorrow so it will be Thursday before we can complete the glass blocks. 

A Lot of Progress

The framing is nearly complete and it is actually starting to look like a house. It is really exciting to see it start to take shape after months of planning. The roofing guys were here today and finished about half of the roof so that should be completely done this week. Windows will go in once the plywood bracing is finished and then we will have a water tight structure. Tomorrow we start our next DIY project. We will be installing glass blocks in the bathroom wall. We have all the materials we need, just none of the experience. It seems like a simple matter of mixing, spreading, and stacking so I am feeling cautiously optimistic. We will see how it goes tomorrow.

Circus Tents

The framing has started and the floor beams and a few sections of the wall are now in place. Work will continue for the next few days and by next week the frame will be done. While the framing was going on, we attempted the much simpler, but no less important job of preparing storage for the materials that will start arriving soon. Normally, you would just rent a pre-fab storage unit and be done. However, we opted for a more creative (cheap) option. We bought a large red tent on auction and some blue plastic sheets to wall it in.  All should be fine unless the typhoon season arrives early this year.  And we have the added benefit of being able to rent it to the local carnies on Sundays to earn a bit of extra cash. 

Lumber Has Arrived

The first shipment of lumber arrived today and the rest will be here tomorrow. The framing will start from tomorrow afternoon so we will finally get an idea of how our house will look. I am looking forward to getting my hands dirty, but it will still be a few weeks before I really have a chance to mess things up. In the meantime I can sit back and watch the pros in action before the reality of what we are attempting arrives with a vengeance. 

Scaffolding Erected

Without notice the scaffolding for our house has been erected. As we are managing the build, it is a testament to our organizational skills that things progress without us lifting a finger. Or we are woefully unaware of what is going on. The former is much more flattering but the latter is much more likely. At any rate, everything is in place for the framing to start on the 16th.

Most houses in the States are framed with 2X4's or 2X6's, which do not require scaffolding from the start. In Japan, it is common to build a house with large, pre-cut beams of wood. This requires the scaffolding to be erected before the framing can start since the walls are not lifted after completion. The beams are lifted into place once the vertical supports are installed. We will not be involved in this process (much to the delight of the carpenters), but I will be on site periodically to get in the way. 

On an unrelated note, our dog (pictured below) is spending the night with an award-winning Border Collie (in agility). If all goes well, we will have an apartment full of puppies in two months. Just to add a little more stress to the mix.

A Brief Delay

Now that the foundation is finished we can move on to framing. However, the framing has been pushed back until around the 14th of July. We had originally planned to use some local carpenters for the framing of the house, but they were unavailable so we lined up carpenters from a nearby town. Due to another project being delayed, the local carpenters are now available for our house but not for another week or so. It is worth the wait though since the local carpenters have more experience building in this area and they are cheaper. 

We have used this downtime to make final decisions on the roof color, the interior flooring, doors, and interior wall designs.  I have had to leave most of the decisions to my wife, since I have absolutely no interior design skills. She will be leaving most of the hands on work to me, even though I have absolutely no carpentry skills. There may be a slight flaw in this arrangement.

Foundation Finished

I have been a little lazy with posts lately, but I will try to update more regularly from now on. The final pour for the foundation is finished and we even had enough concrete left over to concrete the base of our power pole. Since the professionals were handling the foundation, it was done perfectly the first time around. The electric pole is my domain (or nemesis at the moment) so it took me nearly as long to do my part as it did for them to pour the entire foundation. 

I dug a hole with the intention of building a wood frame for the concrete. Since the plywood was too large, I fired up the circular saw for the first time on this build and managed to cut the wood and not my fingers. Impressed with myself, I strolled over to the hole and started to screw the boards together. For this I used my handy electric screwdriver/drill, a wedding present that makes an appearance once every 4 - 6 months and has a fancy laser-like light that points right at the screw head allowing you to use it in total darkness. Designed for nocturnal carpenters, I should have known better than to use it in broad daylight. 

I managed to slip the screw driver off of the screw head and shove it right next to my thumbnail. It made it in about a centimeter before I had the presence of mind to release the trigger. But the blood seemed to grease the screw a bit and it went right in after that. Job done.