We are back and blogging!

All,
Sorry for the brief pause in our blog! We had a few challenges including a very busy end of the summer at our work, an unexpected trip to the states, the final days of the house build, moving into the new house, an Internet blackout for more than a month while we waited for the Internet service to run lines, and more 'excuses'!

The next few blog posts will try to catch everyone up to where we are now. Enjoy!

Outside A/C & Heater units. These are the second part of the split-unit types we have. They produce a/c for the extremely hot days in the late summer (about a week), the very humid spring (3 months), as well as back up/quick heat to supplement the wood stove.


Here are the genkan (front entrance) tiles we picked. We are very happy, sorry the picture is not better!

The front door comes out of the cardboard!!! Here it is!

The new driveway (thanks to Yuko's brother for removing the several dump loads of material!). Look at that kool monster truck in it's new parking spot!

The foundation for the wood decking is being set. More to follow!

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.

Wood Stove Stonework

The much anticipated stonework for the walls around the wood stove has begun! Yuko's brother Shigeru located a huge piece of lava from Mount Fuji on a job site and gave it to us. Our stone cutter sliced it into slabs of varying thicknesses and this is going to be the back walls behind the wood stove. They will absorb a good amount of heat and radiate it back out for hours after the stove cools. The mason who has been subcontracted to lay the stone is awesome! He has done many noteworthy projects, most impressive is when he installed marble in the residence of the Prime Minister. We are counting on him to do a great job!

Step 1: A layer of grout over the concrete blocks and fireproof board.In accordance with Japanese Fire department regulations the 3 inch concrete block bust be filled with concrete and rebar, then installed leaving a 1 inch air gap between the blocks and the fireproof wallboard. Our mantle will also be Mount Fuji lava and is being cut now. It will be installed on top of the blocks in this picture.
To achieve the 3-D effect we are using black grout and the slabs of lava have been cut in various thicknesses.

Close-up of the stone. It looks somewhat like soft pumice but is very hard!
Event the overhead smoke containment wall (Japanese Fire Regs) is being done in lava. The actual ceiling will be done in black sheet metal over the fireproof board. We wanted a copper ceiling but cannot have it due to fire regs, but that is another story in itself!

Clouds and views!!!

For our readers who have not yet been able to visit Gotemba, here are a few pictures to let you know what is is like here. Enjoy!

From our current house, 2nd floor balcony, overlooking Hakone.

Approaching our new house with Kintoki Yama (Mount Kintoki) in the background, upper left corner. The clouds often form at/below the elevation of our neighborhood!
Mount Fuji caught peeking while I was checking out the chimney work.
Front view of our house with Mount Fuji in the background.
The great colors of Mount Fuji, even on a cloudy day!

Air Vents, part 2

The two way air vents have been installed. These are the mandatory air exchanges required by building code to help prevent "sick house syndrome". The outside plates were custom ordered (we hated the generic off-white ones the contractor wanted to use) so we waited the 6 weeks for these. On the other hand, there is simply no color option for the interior unit so this is the best we could do. Fortunately these are mounted about 9 feet off the floor and are hardly visible.

The electrical drama continues...

Progress is being made with the electricians, albeit slowly. Here are the outlets, switches, and cover plates that took 5 weeks to get:

Stucco...the final step

The stucco is complete! The final coat of fireproof sealant and color coat were applied and have now dried. This texture was achieved by adding a lightweight texture powder. The color came out a little bit more red than the small color sample but we are very happy with it since it accents the wood well! The scaffolding should come down in a few days!!!!

Toilet Room Stonework, part 2

The red marble has been installed on the walls of the toilet room. Final grouting will be done in a few days.

Wall heater for localized, on demand heat in the toilet room. FYI, Most toilet rooms in our area are unheated!!! Pretty cool hot water temperature controls. Unlike hot water systems that use boilers and hot water storage tanks, we are able to use a very efficient on-demand hot water system that provides almost instant hot water. A key feature of this is that we can control the water temperature of the hot water using this control board. No more scalded hands! This also helps save heating expense by allowing you to chose very low settings (such as 104 F. or 40 C.) that we currently use in the summer.

The last of the doors is in!

Front Hall Closet and shoe locker doors: Entrance to the senmenjo (tooth brushing sink area), laundry room, and bath tub room:
These are the "pocket door" sliding doors we chose to minimize wasted floor space. These also help with natural ventilation in the summer since they will not blow shut in the wind like standard hinged doors.

Master Bedroom Door and Window

Our master bedroom door has finally been installed. Here is the handle/lockset we chose.

This is the ventilation window we installed to assist ventilation from the vaulted ceiling area above the living room into the master bedroom. This will allow us to keep our room locked and still allow for ventilation in the summer, and for our room to be heated by the wood stove.

Kitchen Floor has started!

The first floor tiles have been installed in the kitchen! We chose the darkest of the three grout samples shown. Our stone cutter came up with a great design for the edges so please check back for a photo once it is installed.

Toe-Kick heater for the kitchen. We were introduced to these in Boston and were able to find a similar model in Japan. We are installing one in the kitchen and one in the senmejou (sink room) to proved localized, instant heat at very reasonable costs.