Kitchen Floor ALMOST Done!

The kitchen floor tiles have been laid and and glued and will be grouted-in tomorrow! We are very happy with the design the stone cutter developed for us, and the color combination.

The kitchen cabinets will be installed on Tuesday!


The toilet room tiles are done and will be grouted tomorrow as well. The toilet will be installed this week and then this room will be 100% complete!

The hearth is done!

The hearth for the wood stove is finally done! The stone cutters finished the back and side walls with sliced lava from Mount Fuji (see previous post) and cut a mantle from another piece of lava. They finished the floor yesterday with almost black flat stone. We are standing-by for the delivery of the wood stove (it is coming this week)!!!

Chimney is done!

The chimney is finally finished! It was topped off with a stainless steel cap for the stove pipes. It has an screens to arrest sparks and a series of louvers to minimize the effects of the outside wind.
Mount Kintoki is peaking out on the left side of the picture, just above the trees!The double walled, insulated stove pipe has been installed in the chimney shaft. You can get an idea of the color of the visible stove pipe and the wood stove from this picture.