The Ogura Mansion

Autumn after the rain

2012-09-24T23:54:00.001+09:00

As I'm sure most of you know, Kyushu was hit with some of the worst rain ever this year. Not only did the traditional rainy season deliver more rain than ever recorded before, but the rain continued throughout summer, finishing up with a couple of wild old typhoon-esque downpours. So, it has been with some relief that we now feel the cool turn of autumn. The weather is so beautiful right now, with sunny, clear days and the autumn colours starting to appear.

Our garden too has been both booming and suffering in the summer conditions. Some plants have hated having their feet so wet, while others - especially the weeds - have loved it. Almost everything has grown like it's on some kind of Chemical X, though, and bit by bit the garden is taking shape.

There's so much more to do though! Now that it's autumn, I will be focusing on the car parking area. You might remember a few months ago we had some terracing and retaining walls made (luckily before the rainy season, otherwise me might not have a house anymore!). The retaining wall around the parking has stayed as is, but this month, I'll be staining the wood, getting a truck load of dirt delivered and planting a garden there. I'm looking forward to it, because that's really what we see out of our tatami room window, as well as our living room window. So manky right now!

Well, below is a mini photo essay of the life of the garden until a few months ago. I might get out tomorrow and take a pic of the tomatoes that have taken over. In a couple of weeks they will all be coming out, and I'll compost them back through the soil, ready to create the new garden. I'm not sure what it will be yet, but the fun is in the planning and plotting!

Until next time...Willie

You can see why I didn't bother planting much in November. This was the garden in January.

This is what the view from the deck looked like in January with no snow, or thereabouts.

And after the rainy season. I haven't done much with this side of the land, except for painting the wall and making the garden beds in front there. More trees have gone in since, and more rocks have been dug up, so this looks a lot messier now! But, of course, it's a work in progress and will hopefully look much better this time next year. The wooden wall around the parking (right) is the next project. Watch this space!

Our massive problem with the mound at the front of our house had to be fixed with terracing. It was really important this was done before rainy season, and little did we know what kind of rainy season we would be in for!


This was taken a couple of months ago, just after I planted the Rose of Sharon tree (top left). Everything has grown a lot since then, especially the tomatoes, which now look like they should be in a South American jungle.

This was the area outside the deck in about April, I think!

This is the same area in July, just after the terracing was completed, and right before rainy season hit. Kaoru and I laid the grass ourselves.

The front area, below the house. Around March or April.

The same area by around early August. It's now packed with flowers and looking awesome. One of my favourite parts of the garden, actually.

White mint.

The view from the front, on New Year's Day, 2012 - complete with Mother in driveway!

The front garden, around Late June/early July, 2012.

And again, in around early August. Becoming quite the wild mountain oasis!

Random garden shot #1 - Salvia and white mint in bloom.

Random garden shot #2 - ground creepers. Eventually, the whole front part of the house will be a mixture of ground creepers. I made all of the rock garden beds, which survived the rainy season no probs!

Random shot #3 - the far front wall, with new rock garden bed. This area is now almost completely covered in ground creepers and looks pretty cool. A tree will eventually go in the middle, but I'm not sure what kind yet. Still looking! Probably a サルスベリ - or Crepe Myrtle.

The tomatoes, before they had a party and went crazy. Okra is in there too.

Rose of Sharon tree, planted in August.

Basil. Soooooo much basil!

The pink flowers at the front are Lemon Bee Balm, otherwise known as Pink Bergamot.

Garden in August.

Green Lavender (left) and Pink Bergamot (right).

Gardening 101

2012-06-02T11:36:00.001+09:00

Hello folks! Long time no post, I know.

Unbelievably, we've just hit the 6 month mark of living in the Ogura Mansion (aka "The Palace"). We love living up here so much, and the house has already stood rock solid through two earthquakes, one of which didn't even wake me up!

The garden has been a bit of a challenge. I'm no gardener, but I'm trying to learn. I go to a gardening class once a month, which has been really inspiring and fun. We've also bitten the bullet and have hired our builder to terrace the mound at the front of our house, and build a wooden wall around the parking. The terracing will be part random/part veggie garden when it's done, and the section around the parking will have some small trees planted soon. Here's a couple of pics:

The wooden border around the parking area begins.

Surveying his work...the landscaper.

Recycled wood. This will eventually be painted dark brown.

The back cinder block wall will also be painted soon (by us). Grey is too depressing, no?!

Here are a few pics of what the garden looks like at the moment - we'll compare over the next few weeks!

Stone stairs down to the compost bins.

Looking towards the house.

The wooden wall, two days later.

WKB!

The wall, two days later.

Materials for the terracing arrive. These are stone from England. Looks like wood, but won't rot.

My precious compost bins.

ooops! How did that get in there? Yummy beer...

This umbrella pot broke, so I turned it into a flower pot.

The first thing I ever made in gardening class.

My little garden outside the Japanese room.

Just bought these little pots today - went to my favourite nursery. Dangerous!

These very old Octapus pots will be filled with something soon. Not sure what yet...

This garden has some more growing to do - one more section will be added later.

Cherry tree.

The start of the bulb garden. These are irises I saved from our last place. One day this will be a thick iris garden, and have loads of other things in it too.

As of next week, the mound of weeds behind this pot will be terraced. Yay! In the foreground is a bunch of stuff I have planted, including Australian paper daisies, a cranberry bush and thyme.

Why we need to terrace - uncontrollable soil erosion and weeds.

In the foreground is the momiji I planted at our old place 5 years ago - now it has a permanent home. But the weeds are getting kicked out!

My attempt to stop the hill sliding down in the rain. A temporary solution!

We love our house, but think the first landscaping people were a bunch of useless "&&@IU F . Enough said.

Retro 1970s kitchen flowers? Ha! I love them.

OK, will report back next week and show you new pictures. Until then!

A remiss blogger!

2012-02-02T22:56:00.001+09:00

Hello dear ones! Many, many apologies for dropping off the face of the earth! For those of you who follow other digital media I indulge in, you would have been following the progress of our move and the following two months we have been happily ensconced in our new pad. For those of you who haven't, let's start with the move!

Well, I'm not a fan of moving. Full stop. I have moved house so many times in my life I am no longer counting, and if it's the last time I ever have to do it, I'm a happy camper. Having said that, though, this was one of the smoothest moves we've ever done, even though I took off to Cambodia for four days beforehand (maybe that's why I was a bit more organised than usual!). We also had a LOT of help from Kaoru's parents with the clean up of the old place, for which I am forever grateful.

The moving company was amazing too. We hired the panda people and they were professional all the way. Here's some pictures of what our old house looked like during the chaos:

No wait! That's me, with my friend Ning and her daughter, Anya, in a Tuk Tuk in Phnom Penh.

THIS is the chaos. My old study, all boxed up.

Old lounge room.

Old kitchen/dining.

Hallway, with covered walls to protect them while the removalists did their thing. Tell me, do removalists do this in Australia?

Our first night in our new home was a mixture of feelings, as it turned out. We were exhausted, excited, and, of course, nervous. I was also, amazingly, a little sad to see the back of the old house. It was interesting to note that we didn't realise how small it was until all of our stuff had been removed, and we wondered how we managed to fit all of that crap in there! We threw so much stuff away, I came to conclusion that we had pretty much been living among rubbish. Goes to show you should always find excuses to cull!

Moving in.

Kaoru's Mum, Yaeko, takes care of all the blanket folding for the removalists. My job was primarily to point.

My study. Looks pretty different now!

The kitchen. We got most of those boxes unpacked that night.

First dinner - eating off boxes because the table hadn't arrived yet.

Tired, but happy!

The next day, the table arrived!

The table base and benches.

Here she comes! Our baby : )

Waiting...

It took many people to carry it in, but I'm not sure Kaoru was being so helpful there!

She makes it through the door...

She arrived! She's wonderful, beautiful and magical.

And she loves a party.

So, that was our move. Of course, since then, we've had Christmas, New Years and a few shindigs, curtains have been made, gardens ignored (it's winter, you know) and every day enjoyed. Below is a collection of photos over the last two months. They're in no particular order, but I like that! Enjoy!

A house should have many random cool things to keep you entertained.

Suryavarman II, the king Angkor Wat was built for.

Rat bags in red, Christmas Day.

Matte, Monica and Bianca, Christmas Day

Me, Christmas Day.

Our first Christmas tree. It went right up to the ceiling and was beautiful. It was the top of a large Sugi tree from a plantation forest in the mountains.

Lindsay.

Emiko and growing crowd.

Go and Shige.

L-R: My Mum (Kate), Masaaki and Mark.

Fireworks from the lounge room!

The Natsudas! NYE

Our house, New Years Day 2012.

Me, after a long walk, returning home, New Years Day, 2012.

Front door, complete with Christmas wreath (thanks to Ariana, wo made it as a house warming present for us!), New Years Day 2012.

Mum, in the kitchen.

New Years Eve sake, 2011-12.

Off to get extra material for curtains. Note kimono silk under arm! Is now our bedroom curtains, thanks to Kaoru's cousin, Naoko. Special mention to Mum (and her expletives) for Ben's curtains and my study curtains too!

The resting place.

Bathroom.

With art!

The kitchen.

This old, hand-painted bento box was given to me by Kaoru's aunt, Matsuko. I have it in pride of place, so I can look at it every day.

Before the clutter (already? Yep!)

More art. In my study.

These prints were saved by my sister many years ago, and now finally have a home.

The back kitchen bench.

New kotatsu! YES!


Ben, opening prezzies on Christmas Day.

Sunrise from our bedroom window.

Mu brought her painting with her, which is a house warming present for us. We hung it in the stairwell, where it looks amazing! Good to have talented artists in the family, no?!

First snow in the garden. I like it - you can't see the rubble that lies beneath.

NY mochi

Mum, receiving some New Year Day sake from Kaoru's father.

Curtains in my study, made from kimono silk (thanks to eagle eye recycle shop Queen Ariana!)

I look forward to keeping this blog going over the years, especially as the garden gets underway in spring (or at least the work gets underway!). Until then, then!

Preparing to move

2011-11-14T09:37:00.001+09:00

Hello folks! I know it has been a while since I updated the blog - all I can say is BUSY! While I was away in Cambodia for a few days the house was completed, inspected and locked. We get the keys tomorrow and the house officially becomes ours. We are moving this Friday, so, as you can imagine, our house now is in complete chaos! Although I started cleaning our cupboards, chucking stuff and packing a few weeks ago, the real work began over the last few days. Now I am dutifully procrastinating on finishing the task ahead of me today, which is to finish packing up my study. This photo might aptly describe why better than words ever could...

Boxed chaos. This is the room I have set myself the task of finishing today. I have only to pack what's inside the two cupboards. Easy peasy. er hem.

The dining/kitchen. No cooking happening in there this week!

They have started on the landscaping part of the house now (and when I say 'landscaping' I mean the driveway, front stairs, etc - there won't be much greenery involved - in fact, only 3 trees!).

Car port. This was part of the bargain my mother-in-law struck when we negotiated the house. I had a bigger deck up my sleeve, but actually, we do need this in Beppu. Cars end up quite manky without a cover because of the onsen steam. I plan on planting citrus trees along the left hand side. Food AND cover : )

Front steps, from the front.

Front steps, from the side.

I asked them to use the existing rocks, of which we have many, to make stairs going from the front sliding doors, down into the garden.

These will look cool with loads of fresh herbs growing all around them, I think!

Our friend the rock.

The back of the house gets its concrete. This will mean we don't have weed out the back as well as everywhere else, plus will help stop the dirt coming into the house. It also gives us a place to put the garbage bins at one end and the washing line at the other.

This side of the house (north side) will have the gravel you can see on the right, but needed extra concrete to join the wall, so the dirt doesn't come down in the rain from the wall.

The front of he house. This will eventually be a herb garden, but I think (!) will also have grass.

The deck.

There are stairs in the far corner that are being filled in, and the rock wall at the front is being extended to cover them.

The front door.

Outside light.

Containment!

These next pictures were taken up at the house yesterday while the open house was on. Quite a few people cam while we were there and asked us questions about the builder and the house. It was nice to see people coming in and enjoying the house!

Well, I guess that's all the procrastination I'm allowed this morning! Time to get packing.

The last few days...

2011-11-01T19:51:00.000+09:00

It's amazing to think that in a few short days our house itself will be completed, with only landscaping to be done. Now that it's drawing near it seems like only yesterday that the land was first broken, but it still feels as if we have to wait an eternity to move in. It's all very abstract!

Today, the tatami matting went into the tatami room. It has such a distinctive smell when it's new and reminds me of when we first moved to Japan. It's green at first, but over time turns golden coloured. Here are today's pictures - the tatami room is further below.

One of the cleaners, putting the sliding door back in. You can see through it now!

The kitchen loses its cover.

Kitchen and tatami room. You can just see the green of the new tatami.

The kitchen island.

The 3D sink, still in its protective wrapper.

The kitchen view.

It's nice to be able to see the floorboards!

The tiles...hmmm

The tatami, all new, green and smelly.

SINKS! TOILETS! (cleaners...shh! Don't frighten them away...)

2011-11-01T00:02:00.003+09:00

Well, I've decided to take the good with the bad. I lament the front tiles, but plan on covering them up as much as possible with plants and more plants! But, the sinks went in today and they're beautiful! So, I'll take that!

The cleaners arrived today too, and the house is getting what will be its most thorough clean. I asked them to come back once a week, but I don't think they understood. Or perhaps they were pretending not to. Hmmm...

Sink, with tap (aka Bubble Boy).

Twins.

Sink, tiles, tap, wallpaper. A mad woman's vision comes together.

The toilets are in now too. What's that? Is that one of those Japanese toilets that warms the seat and washes your bottom with warm water? You bet you little bum it is! No more winter bum freeze for us!

My study, with shelves. Can't wait to put my beautiful books in there!

Boy and sink. The upstairs version.

This sink only cost 15,000 yen. I'll let you do the maths. I love Japanese pottery.

The floor boards, as clean as they're ever going to get!

Thank you, come again (please).

I didn't really mean to get a picture of this poor woman's bottom, I just really wanted to document the fact that at least once someone got down on their hands and knees and cleaned Ben's floor. I'm eternally grateful to her, but I'm not sure I'll be following her fine example. Steam mop anyone??

Bye Bye Wallpaper san!

2011-10-31T11:30:00.000+09:00

Hello everyone! Welcome to Monday!

This is the last week of house building per se, although the landscaping will follow in the next few weeks (not to mention years of gardening projects...). The final official inspection will take place on the 4th November (when I will be in Cambodia), then the builder will hold an open house. I hope I'm around for that!

So, progress - well, all of the wallpapering is now complete, and the tiling is being done. I haven't been up since Saturday, but at that time all of the handles of the doors were going on. I hope he's not quite finished when I go up later so I can say a proper thank you to Kitakuchi san, the door maker. He's done an amazing job.

Following are the latest pics. Back to packing for me!

The blue bathroom tiles are added. These will have dark grey grout.

Pretty! Can't wait to see them with the sinks!

Only two things missing - the sinks and the barber's mirrors. And our toothbrushes.

The dining/living, all wallpapered.

Door and wallpaper.

More doors and wallpaper. The combination of the beams, doors and textured walls makes me happy.

Wallpapered dining/kitchen.

The Shoji is fitted. These will have washi paper. The bottom section slides up.

Window shoji, which will also have washi.

I was trying to remember what I was thinking when we chose these tiles for the entry. I think we thought that lighter tiles would be better because then the entrance would be lighter, but damn! Ah well. No biggie. I hope.

Inside, they look fine, I guess!

On the upside, one of my favourite things about the genkkan (entry) is the light that shines through the doors. Once the perspex is put in, I'm sure there will still be some of this effect.

The kitchen. The door to the right now has an iron red feature.

The back cupboards are almost complete. They just need all of their handles added.

I'm sure this will grow on me too. Hmmm....it will have an interesting perspex inset here, which I'm sure will bring it together. Watch this space!

The free space, now complete with wallpaper, shelves and light.

The stair light.

Free space and stair light together.

Ben's light. Kind of reminds me of a hot air balloon.

Drifting through the clouds : )

Kaoru's study with light.

Our bedroom fan. Only down lights in here.

Fan and two tone wallpaper.

I leave you with a picture of Beppu. Saturday was a very rainy day, and on those days you can really see Beppu's hot spring steam better.

Hot spring steam - what Beppu is famous for!

Hand made doors make my day

2011-10-29T00:30:00.003+09:00

One of my favourite parts of being a designer is seeing designs go from computer-based images (and sometimes more tactile media) to real life pieces - which is I guess why I love print design. Today topped it all, when I had the wonderful moment of walking into our house and seeing one of my designs in the shape of a door. Could NOT have made it myself if my life depended on it, and so I will be eternally in awe of the man who did, Kitakuchi san (in the photo below). There are four of these doors in total - as explained below...

This door goes from my study into the bathroom area. It will have white washi type of perspex inside, but you will still be able to see a tint of the red behind it. Cool.

This door will also have the white perspex - this is looking from the dining/living room towards the genkkan (entrance).

And this is what you will see when you walk in the house, except the white perspex part.

Kitakuchi san, installing the double doors of my study. Yay!

The first lot of tiles go in - the upstairs sink area.

And track lighting above the kitchen.

Lights! Kitchen! Action!

2011-10-27T20:00:00.000+09:00

Just when I thought I couldn't get any more excited, BOOM! More groovy things happen in a day that see me running all over the house taking photos with a big smile on my face. Here's today's latest developments...

Hello Kitchen! Who knew a kitchen took just one day to install? Have to love that!

View from the bathroom.

Look at that! Lights AND a kitchen! Holy Toledo! Shiny and new. Still in the wrapper.

What's under the wrapper.


Two would have been beautiful, but let's face it, three is just AWESOME! The big black dome lights finally take their rightful place.

The Genkkan (entrance) lights. These are made of wood.

And there's two!

One of the two ceiling fans is up. This is the loungeroom, the other will be in our bedroom.

Again, the bathroom photo is a bit dark - sorry 'bout it! But you can see the lights anyway!

One of the two wooden fans are up.

The tatami room light looks nice, but is a bit of a mistake. When we had to reduce the lighting budget I didn't realise this has round fluorescent tubes, D'oh! Looks like we'll be using the down lights a lot!

Kaoru's study - completely wallpapered. This will have a smaller version of the light above.

The bookshelves in the free space with wallpaper.


The upstairs gets its paper on...

The wallpaper - a new installment!

2011-10-26T22:27:00.001+09:00

The tatami room has been completely wallpapered now. It was really nice to see that last few sheets of paper go up this afternoon and look at all four papers together. One little special moment was the beautiful afternoon light that came in through the window.

This is the spot just above where the couch will be. I envisage being a very lazy cat here on a Sunday afternoon! Or will that be in the hammock on the deck...or the second floor balcony? Or the (sooner or later to be) lawn under the cherry tree? Choices choices!

Git some colour, will ya! The red joins the tatami room.

The ceiling and more subtle walls of this room are slightly different to the rest of the house - they are a more grey/blue tone (because of the couch that will go in this room).

The "Quiet Achiever" puts the last panel on the tatami rooms walls.

A slightly better picture of the sink area of the bathroom. I can't wait to see it with the sinks, tiles and wooden doors under the sink.

The back kitchen wall. This is the same paper as one wall in the gekkan (entrance).

I didn't get any good shots of the toilet walls yesterday - this is the slightly darker shade of the two papers. The other lighter version is also on the ceiling.

The Two Tones.

View without the scaffolding out of our bedroom windows.

Two of our bedroom walls are in this paper. You can't see the flowers unless the light catches them. Tricky!


The other wall.

Kaoru's study has also received the red treatment, and is getting its three sliding wooden doors.

And here's some good news - the lighting arrived. In a few days I'll finally get to see those big dome lights. Sweet.

It looks like a little van, but once the sales woman had unloaded all the lights they took up most of the tatami room. Is it a tardis?

And I'll leave you today with the view again. I always end up there around the same time of day, so once we move in, I promise I'll show you some sunrises and those amazing nights when the full moon rises over the sea.

How we'll always be able to find our way home - the sun setting in the west.

Another day ends in Beppu.

The making of a red washi wall and more.

2011-10-26T00:29:00.001+09:00

We had a lot of fun today watching and discovering the whole wallpapering process. Very glad Ariana came up with me to check out the wallpaper (she was just as excited as me!), because then I wasn't so shy to stand and watch as one of the walls of my study went from having the chicken pox to just being dead sexy.

The amazing glue applicator. Man and machine.

Little look to the left, just a slight calibration here and there...

And we're ready to roll! OK, bad joke.

The first sheet goes up.

Note quick draw to tool belt.

He slices the edges like a master.

The second section.

Joining the two panels.

Third panel. This one was trickier - he actually had to get his measuring tape out, do some quick maths, and work out how to use the paper in the most efficient way. Might have taken me an hour. Took him all of 2 minutes.

This is what he came up with - he used one strip of paper to do the top, inside the door and the left hand side, he just cut away where the door frame goes. Nifty!

Wood and washi is awesome. I'm excited.

The last panel.

Sorry - we were so transfixed watching him that I didn't take a photo of how he got the joins so PERFECT. Don't worry, we locked it in, Eddy!

The final trim.

After cutting where the paper joins, he uses a roller to flatten it completely. You have to look very closely to tell where the joins are. Brilliant!

Ben's room is complete, and we're not only happy to report that it's made the room really nice and light, but it also has a slightly blue glow from the ceiling which makes me think a spaceship has already taken up residence. Kinda cool!

Now all it needs is his bird curtains and the floor boards, which are currently being protected by all of that cardboard on the floor, and it will be smashing! Ben is planning his "cushion corner" complete with an electronic massage cushion. The biy has style!

I designed these curtains for Ben, based on some that I saw and liked, but were the wrong colour.

It's was a bit dark to see the bathroom and toilets properly, but they are also being done or have been completed:

Sorry, the picture is a bit too dark. This is a different kind of washi paper to the one we chose for the Japanese room.

Two-tone toilet. This paper has a rendered texture. Goes with water, I thought.

The Genkkan (entrance area) has had one of its walls done too - the other walls will be different to this:

A bit of a close up, so you can see the pattern. It's subtle, but very nice, I think! This paper will also be on the back wall of the kitchen, behind the wooden back cupboards.

And, as you can just spot above, the tatami (Japanese) room has also received its feature wall, which I'm especially excited about! The dark blue washi has a lot of texture in it that catches the light and makes it perfect for that spot - and it contrasts beautifully with the wood in the room.

How cool is THAT?!

As you can see clearer in this picture, the washi has a great texture. The red one above has the same texture too.

We couldn't decide what to watch - the guy wallpapering or the dude making the doors.

Kaoru and I immediately liked this guy. He's just one of those people that's too cool for school.

These doors will be covered in the red washi.

Watching him work on our way out the door.

Love this photo.

We now have only 3 weeks until we move in. I can't seem to get any packing done, but I'm sure it will happen. He! Well, until tomorrow!

Ceilingpaper.

2011-10-24T23:08:00.001+09:00

Well, we can't quite call it wallpaper yet, as it's only made it to the ceiling, but it's exciting nontheless, specially for Ben. When we were up at the house today his room was in the middle of having its roof papered, and he was so excited he ran back downstairs and said "Mummy, come and look at this!"

Looking into Ben's room from the freespace.

Over halfway done!

I was wondering how strong this guy's arms must be to be wallpapering ceilings all day.

A slight flicker of the stars which come out at night. Can you see them?

Ben found an off-cut of his wallpaper and brought it home with him. He took it to bed with him tonight, and popped it under his blanket so he can see the glow-in-the-dark stars. Awww, little guy! On another note, he has decided against the whale curtain fabric, because he no longer has dolphins on his roof, but stars and clouds. I told him he could still have the whales, or fish, but he said "But they can't fly - it needs birds!" Smart cookie that one!

Ceiling of Kaoru's study.

Our bedroom ceiling - the colour on the inside of the pop up is the one going on most walls. A wooden fan will go in here.

And a close up - why not?!

The dining/living ceiling. How I love those beams.

The tatami (Japanese) room ceiling, with slight dip.

Here are our lovely hand-made doors, ready to be fitted into place.

The ones near the kitchen are solid wood, like this.

And the kitchen pantry.

The wood is very smooth and lovely!

"Hello. I'm a door." "Really? That's funny. I'm a door frame. Come here often?"

Almost forgot to add this in for my Mum - yes, we have a bath, and I will be sure to fill it for you upon your arrival!

The bath! Really nothing fancy, but nice enough.

The house is still getting plastered. I'm not.

2011-10-22T22:06:00.001+09:00

Disappointed! I waited until this afternoon to go and pick up the curtain material swatches and then take them to the house to put them up against the wallpaper, but it was getting MORE plaster. These guys are so thorough! Maddening!! : )

WHY, pray tell, is the wallpaper STILL in its wrapper...hmmmmm????!

On another note, the preparation for the large front tiles has begun, with an extra layer of concrete below where the deck will be and in the entrance (genkkan). So, no complaints from me afterall!

The genkkan (entrance) gets a new coat of cement before the tiles are laid.

A section of the new layer of concrete, under where the deck will be.

Well, how can one get antsy with a Saturday afternoon view like that?! The ocean was beautiful today.

One bonus to our new location - you can see the rain coming before it hits!

Looking out to Hiji in the distance.

There's loads of things for kids to do. There are weeds to kick...

...immaculate roads to play on...

And hot onsen water in every gutter. Ahhhhh, the good life ; )

The house got plastered...

2011-10-22T12:10:00.000+09:00

Look! Our house has Chicken Pox!

Nah, just kidding (really, Willie?!!). Yesterday the plastering of every screw, corner and join began in prepapration for the wall paper (which is apparently being done today, so watch this space for an afternoon edition of The Ogura Mansion!). The photo above is our bedroom.

Looking towards the kitchen.

Kitchen and storage cupboard.

Storage cupboard and dining/living room.

Every corner has this strong plastic tape put on before plastering.

My study - the shelves have been temporarily removed for plastering and wallpapering.

Looking up the stairwell.

Looking from Ben's room, across the free space, into our room. Chickenpoxarama.

The living room. It was such a dark, rainy day yesterday.

Mr Plasterer.

The shelves inside the kitchen back cupboards have also been added.

No way! Space!!!

The plumbers have also started putting in pipes for the sinks.

Mr Plumber.

I like it! We should leave it just like that.

So now I will pop up to the house with some little cakes for the builders and check out where they're at, before heading down to the annual Beppu Agricultural Festival - this year includes a whole heap of Open Gardens at houses all over Beppu. There will be plenty to talk about later tonight (as I make up for the fact that I can't go to Beppu's gig of the year tonight - DON'T MENTION THE GIG!).

More surprises! Of the good kind...

2011-10-19T23:38:00.004+09:00

I went up to the house with Ben today, and it was only because I was with monkey-boy-scaffold-climber that I became aware of the fact that the scaffolding is now gone from the outside of our house. For the first time, we can see it without it's metal casing. It was very exciting.

I apologise for the quality of photos - I've been taking my old, small camera up there of late, but I really need to take my other camera up and do it some justice!

Anyhoo, do you notice anything else about it? No? Try looking up at the gable....that's right! It was such a nice surprise to discover they have hung the antique roof tile in the gable.

I think it gives it a certain summin' summin'! It does look a tad croooked to me, but I even like that about it (and I don't think I'm about to ask the builders to get back up there while I say "ah, a little higher on the left!"). I can't wait to show my mother-in-law this - I hope she likes it! (recap: the roof tile comes from the old house she grew up in. Two of them were saved when the house was bulldozed about 3 years ago. We have one tile and my sister-in-law has the other - nice, huh?!).

I found a little kangaroo in the house today. Is anyone missing a kangaroo? He's missing a few teeth, but otherwise in perfect health.

What's in the boxes? Ah ha! Something that I have been waiting for!!

The sinks! The top sink (x2) will go downstairs, and the bottom will go upstairs.

On another note, the plasterer arrived today and has started preparing the walls. This means that we're in the final stages, and that once the plastering is done, on goes the wallpaper and in goes the kitchen, sinks, toilets and other exciting plumbing goodies. I plan on being up there every day from now on the charter this exciting stage, which will thankfully be very photogenic I'm sure.

now, on another matter, I did actually take some other photos yesterday, but didn't get a chance to upload them here, so here they are:

The bathroom sink area is coming along, now with a bench and cabinet. Looking much better than it was a few days ago, which is huge relief, as I was slightly panicking about my decision to use an old antique cabinet. Phew! No worries!

All of the adjustable brackets and shelves have been added, here to Kaoru's study...


...and to the free space.

Oh, and the sunset yesterday was pretty nice too!

Along with all of the wood in the house (door frames, window frames, trim, skirting boards, etc) the back kitchen bench has been painted with a clear protective coating.

Update and a note on storage!

2011-10-17T00:06:00.002+09:00

One of the things we are looking forward to most about our new house (aside from Ogura Cocktail Hour...goes without saying) is all the storage space we will have. When we planned the storage, we looked at how we live now (yikes!) and thought about how we can simplify our lives through the act of giving everything a home. Our current living situation includes a range of ad hoc set ups that really don't work for us: food is stored in boxes on the floor, a collection of shelves make up for a complete lack of kitchen space, as does another collection of shelves in the bathroom/laundry/hole in the wall, not to mention the chaos that lives in our entry way - what with everyone's shoes, umbrellas, coats, hats, sports gear, etc etc etc, or the slightly annoying but persistent presence of everyone's (clean!) laundry that hangs out on the stairs waiting to be put away by those who own it. So, here is how we solved our little problems...

The gekkan (entry way) storage cupboard. This is for all shoes, sports gear, coats, hats or whatever, which are now all hanging out in the entry way of our house. This doorway will have a noreng (Japanese door curtain) instead of a door, so that the air circulates all year round - big time winner in the Japanese rainy season and summer, when everything goes mouldy.

This cupboard's got it covered to the left...

...and to the right!

To the left is the back kitchen counter, which is being made by the carpenters, and to the back is another large storage cupboard - this will be our food pantry (just to give you an inside scoop on how excited we are about this cupboard - not only will we be able to fit more than a day's supply of food in it, but we can also give a home to the box of rice that lives on the floor!)

Looking from the front to the back.

This is the top of one half of the storage cupboard for clothes near the bathroom. This half is for hanging, the other half has shelves.

This little beauty is a late addition. Right next to the cupboard under the stairs that will house the washing machine, this is the perfect place for the washing basket. NO MORE CLOTHES ON THE FLOOR! Hmmmm....in a perfect world, that is.

The washing machine cupboard, complete with back shelf for all the washing stuff.

And speaking of the stairs, here they are with their railing and side wall complete.

Looking upstairs.

Looking down the hallway towards my study - stairs on the right with cupboards underneath.

Along with the antique cupboard (which has only recently been installed), there will also be a large cupboard under the two sinks which will be here soon.

This is the upstairs sink area. Along with the cupboard underneath, the oak mirror is also a cabinet, and there is one more set of shelves on the right hand side.

These shelves are in the walk-in closet off our bedroom. The other day, these shelves looked very different. There was just two, and the bototm one was almost 1 meter deep, so it was hard to open the window. The carpenter fixed it within a day for us, and hence we have a much more useful stack of 3 shelves and will also be able to open the window. Hats off to him that he pointed it out and asked if I was OK with it!

The other side o the walk-in closet has two strong hanging pipes and one more shelf.

Nice and roomy!

Hello! Where's that ladder going?

To more storage, of course! I was so chuffed when I saw that not only was the ladder itself pretty good looking, but also the whole storage area has Japanese oak floor boards too.

Storage in Ben's room. Sorry about the picture - bit fuzzy!

So, while we know that years of not moving will inevitably lead to all of these storage areas being overloaded and somewhat of a fire hazard, we're excited to have them. For me, I'll just be glad to get so much crap off the floor and off shelves where it all gets dusty and gross (and leads to more cleaning, which is never a good thing).

It was a beautiful day today, and the light in the house was streaming in. By the time I took these pictures it was almost 5pm, so I was surprised how light the house still was.

Ben's room (right), Kaoru's study (left).

I don't know why, but when I saw this photo, I thought it looked like we already live there. Perhaps it's all the stuff on the floor.

The railing has been added to the balcony too.

This is the view from one of the windows in our walk-in closet. We have only been in our next-door neighbour's house once, but I LOVED it - complete with loads of velvet, it's like a 1970s porn star pad. Not at all what I expected from the lovely couple next door who used to tend the veggie patch our house is now on. These roof tiles remind me I'm in Japan! Not that I could forget.

This week we would like to ask the builders if it's possible to put a hook into the ceiling of the free space for a single hammock. Wouldn't that be awesome! Oh, and last week we received our other, brightly coloured Mexican hammock, which is so big it will fit the whole family. Tops.

Big Mexican hammock for Ogura cocktail hour ; )

The chair hammock I'm hoping to get for the free space. Pluck a book from the shelf, relaaaaax!

What do you think?!!!

Curtains and being knee-deep in it!

2011-10-15T23:20:00.002+09:00

Well, no more procrastination for me! Uni is done and dusted, and now all I have to do is write25storiesfinishdesigninganexhibitionstartpackingupthehousegotocambodiacomebackfromcambodiapackupthehousechoosecurtains...

Today my friend Ariana and I went off to a few shops to look at curtain fabric. I didn't really see anything that made me go "oh yeah! THAT!", but after we got back to Beppu I trudged off to one more shop that had a lot of MASSIVE sample books, so I began to look through them. I found one that I think would be fantastic for downstairs. It's a nice, sturdy fabric, and a nice weave, plus it has a bit of the blue in the house, a bit of the red and the beige of the other walls. All in all, I think it's a winner! I also like the flowing feeling of the design and the fact that it's so colourful. I've ordered a sample of this and a few others.

This is the wallpaper with the curtain.

And this is what the fabric weave looks like closer up, Hard to tell in a photo, but it feels nice to touch! That's the main thing!

I've also been looking a bit further afield. I'm probably going to just make a lot of the curtains for the smaller windows. For Ben's room I've decided to bite the bullet and let him trawl through Spoonflower to choose a design he likes. I think this one would be pretty cool:

I also like this one too - I think the light would look beautiful coming through this. It's 45/55 cotton/linen...

Ben's windows aren't so big (which is a mistake on our part, but now that I'm thinking curtains, perhaps not!), so I estimate it would cost about $50 for two really cool curtains AND we support designers. Can't say fairer than that!

I'm thinking for my study to go and buy a couple of old kimonos and make my own curtains. I could mix and match fabrics, and would probably be a lot cheaper than buying blinds (they're tall windows - 195cm tall!). I might also do that for Ben's room, but we'll see. One second hand kimono costs around 2000-5000 yen (about $25 - $60 Australian dollars) and with one kimono I could curtain a lot of windows!

The 100 yen shop has adjustable rods, so installation will cost about $1.

The real question is - do I trust my sewing ability? Surely I can't go wrong?!!

Keep calm and Carry on

2011-10-08T20:24:00.002+09:00

Thanks to our good friend John for giving me this stellar, very British mug to help me through the last throws of university and the house move. I have been using it every day, repeating its message like a mantra (or perhaps like a mad woman...). In true student style, I am updating this blog instead of writing the last 2000 words of my dissertation. What's with that?!

I went to meet with the builders this morning, finalising the wall paper decisions and checking what they had. One that I wanted is no longer available, but thankfully the ones I really wanted are. Soon these walls will no longer be mustard yellow! Below are some of the choices, but missing is our bedroom, Ben's bedroom and the Japanese (tatami) room, which we changed in the meeting today. Ben's room will have a light blue ceiling by day and pods of dolphins by night. I tried to convince him to get stars, but he was determined to have the dolphins. I don't mind, except he might get sick of them in a year or two. We're still in discussions : )

The sink area - the white is for the walls and ceiling, and the blue will go behind the wooden antique cabinet. I just found two stainless steel barber mirrors to go here as well, which should arrive any day!

Three walls will be the right hand side beige and one wall the red washi in both Kaoru's and my study.

The wallpaper on the right will be on the back wall of the kitchen as well as one wall in the entrance. The rest of the walls will be in the left hand side paper. The ceiling is a slightly lighter shade, which makes the ceilings higher and the space lighter.

This is for the toilets. Ceiling and walls the left, feature wall the right.

Also, the stairs are almost complete - it was a shock to walk in this morning, after not having gone up yesterday, to see how much work had been done. This is what it looked like 2 days ago:

The first few steps.

The underside of the stairs 2 days ago.

To the left, you can see the underside of the stairs has been enclosed and the cupboard made.

And they even added a cheeky monkey! I love how they encased the underside of the stairs in Hinoki wood as well.

In the meeting this morning we discussed the extra space under the stairs here, next to where the washing machine will go. A floor will be put in (left, under stairs) and it will become a nifty little space to keep the laundry basket. Sweet!

The most beautiful boy in the whole world. Full stop.

The view from the 2nd floor balcony today. It was foggy in them thar hills!

Kitchen and stairs!

2011-10-04T23:47:00.003+09:00

Hello everyone!

I really shouldn't be doing this - my uni work calls, but then, so does the Ogura Mansion! OK, then just a quick one!

Work has progressed very quickly on both the stairs and the back cupboards of the kitchen. It's all very exciting really. Here are today's photos. Sorry they're pretty poor quality. I can't seem to make it up there unless it's almost dark these days.

Under the stairs - this will be a storage cupboard.

Looking down from the top step.

No more climbing up and down the ladder!

The free space bookshelf main frame. Yet to be added are all the adjustable shelves.

They have added some think timber to this wall so it will be strong enough to mount the TV onto, and added a shelf into the cabinet below.

Looking down the back kitchen counter.

The back kitchen counter and top cupboard.

the thought of having enough space to keep things off the floor is quite exciting! Each of these cupboards will have a shelf added and then hand made wooden doors.

October Review!

2011-10-02T16:48:00.000+09:00

Hello again, one and all! I thought, as this is the last month of building (we have been told the house may be ready in as little as 3-4 weeks!), it might be time to look back on the last few months. Following is a selection of photos from this blog that highlight the journey so far. Enjoy!

One page of the architect's plan, showing the front (top) and the back (bottom) of the house.

The house gets marked out in string.

The driveway and rock wall begin.

One half of the rock wall.

Stage 1 of the foundations.

The concreter, working out how the hell he is supposed to concrete that much land (ha ha).

Foundations, stage 2.

Looking to the land, foundations, at stage 3 (gravel)

Foundations, stage 3.

I remember we got pretty excited when we saw this! It was finally happening!

Concrete, the day after pouring.

No house!

The wooden frame is removed from the foundations.

How's the concrete?!

The wood arrives.

Looked on the the local boyzzzzz...

Start of the frame and scaffolding goes up.

The day before most of the frame went up, these first planks were set.

The frame.

Mochi Maki day arrives! This was about 8.30am.

One by one, the frame was put together.

With big hammers...

...and even bigger hammers.

Some jobs were easier than others.

After lunch, the frame had progressed a lot.

And by sunset, it was almost complete.

Getting ready to throw mochi.

The first throw - this photo still makes me laugh!

The house, before it got it's curtains.

The frame, from the inside.

Looking to the house from the garden.

And from the road.

The roof one day...

...an the roof the next.

The window frames go in.

And door frames.

Looking to the kitchen.

Upstairs.

Craftsmanship!

The house gets some clothes on.

Secret business.

The inner lining of the walls goes on (the blue and white stuff) - the 2nd floor balcony.

Our first look at the siding. Outside the kitchen window.

The wood trim inside all the windows and doors.

Flooring begins.

And the walls and ceilings are put in.

More flooring.

And the longest floor.

The top half of the siding goes up.

And the walls continue.

The siding is almost complete and the curtains are opened.

Looking towards the front door from the garden.

The beloved balcony. Siding almost complete.

Painting the underside of the roof.

Pretty house!

Looking to the lounge room and my study off to the left.

Looking to the Tatami room from the kitchen.

Our bedroom ceiling, where the wooden fan will go.

The desks and bookshelves begin. My study.

Cabinet to go under the TV in the tatami room.

Cabinets and shelves, upstairs sink.

Kaoru's bookshelves and desk, in his study.

The bookshelves for the free space being made.

The stairs begin.

Freespace bookshelves completed, minus the adjustable shelves which will be added.

Sunrise, yesterday morning, from the tatami room.

It has been quite a journey so far! We're really looking forward to the next few weeks (well, not the packing and moving part...).

Stairway to Heaven!!!

2011-10-01T19:38:00.000+09:00

Hello all! After a long day of being a (mostly) dedicated dissertation writer, I've decided to reward myself with an Ogura Mansion blog posting! You lucky people! : )

Actually, today was Ben's first big soccer trip, so I dropped him off at the bus at 6.30am, after which I decided it was too lovely a morning not to see what it might look like from the Ogura Mansion. I wasn't disappointed!

The stairs have begun also...

The wood of the stairs is composite Japanese oak, making it very strong and won't warp.

Looking up through the stairs, you can see the main frame of the upstairs bookcase has also been finished...

And just for good measure, the view looking out to Takasaki Mountain from the Japanese (tatami) room...

We obviously have a lot of gardening to do.

That'll do, bloggers. That'll do.

W

Bookshelves and trim

2011-09-28T09:41:00.000+09:00

So sorry I have been remiss in my postings of late! Just busy...

Yesterday I popped up to the house to meet up with Ariana and Keizo, who now have a van full of wood offcuts for the impending winter freeze. Here they are now!

The bookshelves up stairs are being made at present. All of the shelves, except for the major structural parts, will be adjustable, so as you can see in the picture below, Kaoru's shelves are all but done, they just need to add in the components for the adjustable shelves (metal strips down the inside of each shelf, then the wooden shelf fits into those).

The big floor to ceiling bookshelves in the free space are also being made. Again, the main structural part at least. Here they are, being made...

Chiselling precision!

This is 2.5cm thick composite pine (so it won't warp).

The bench for the upstairs sink is also on its way, and they have added a nice shelf in there too!

what's also underway is the wood trim that line the top of each wall and also the door frames. Here's the door frame from our room into the closet. The little bits of wood around it will be removed later.

The next stage is the plastering. Apparently this will take some time, because they go around and do every nail and screw first, then plaster the walls to make them flat. Then the wallpaper will go on.

Well, that's it for today! For me, the really exciting part is coming up, when all the good looking stuff will start going in. Shallow, I know!

More carpentry begins

2011-09-19T22:04:00.000+09:00

We popped up to the house to measure all of the windows yesterday (time to get quotes for curtains and blinds - that's going to HURT!), and found that the desks and cabinets are underway. The bookshelves won't be far behind!

This is part of the cabinet that is being built to go under the TV. It's a LOT bigger than we imagined, which is quite tops!

The cabinet under the TV - this will have sliding doors also, so take that dust piles!

The desk in my study. This will also have four bookshelves above it that run the width of the wall.

My desk - it's made from composite wood, so it won't warp. It's very nice wood, though!

The door frame for the sliding doors that will lead into my study.

I just don't think I'm ever going to get tired of looking at the wood in our house!

Our bedroom - the square is space for a wooden fan.

The view. Not too shabby.

Ben and the balcony.

A sneaky post : )

2011-09-16T14:07:00.000+09:00

OK, this is quite naughty, as I'm supposed to be studying, but it has been too long since I updated you all (well, in my mind anyway, and I figure if I can procrastinate from studying by scrubbing the toilet, I can at least procrastinate doing something fun as well).

We had a meeting with the builder the other day to decide on which lights need to be be (*gulp*) cut from the budget. I managed to keep most of the lights I really like, but sadly had to replace that nice roof light in my study with track lighting. Not so bad, though, as I figure I can also use the track lighting to highlight artworks, so no biggie.

One bummer is that we will only have two of the big black lights over the dining table instead of 3. If anyone has work for a maverick designer in the range of 53,000 yen worth, I'll be happy to talk to you! In the meantime, I must be happy with two and not be greedy (HUMPF!).

We did mange to keep a lot of other cool lights, though, and actually I think some lights that were in the plan we're better off without. I put my foot down with the ceiling fans though - I love them. That's that!

We will be meeting with the people who will be making the doors next week. This is the idea I have for the double sliding wooden doors going into my study:

And this is the design for the two doors leading into the bathroom area and the stairs:

I struggled a little over this door - we have a window in our house now that has this type of wood design around it, and I've always loved it. Ariana has something similar in her house, so I really did struggle (in vain) to come up with other ideas, but in the end I just kept coming back to this because it was somehow always in my mind. Anyway, it's slightly different to hers, and quite a common design in Japan, so I just went ahead! Sorry Ari! The white part will be a perspex type of washi - looks beautiful, but doesn't rip like the paper versions, and also makes the doors easier to clean (I'm always putting holes in them!).

Here are some photos of the house:

Painting the underside of the roof.

More painting.

Looking from just outside the Japanese (tatami) room door, through to the kitchen and bathroom area beyond.

And back the other way.

The double wooden doors above will go on the left, where my study is.

This is the kitchen pantry cupboard. The wood is Hinoki, which stops mould from growing.

Looking upstairs.

It's official - I'm a dag

2011-09-07T16:54:00.000+09:00

Today was the first time I really looked at the house from the road without the scaffolding mesh around it. I admit I'm a little shocked how big it it! I think it also looks bigger because it sits so high up from the road.Oh, and by the way, I have been feeling slightly sorry for our new neighbours, with all the construction noise, etc. In some kind of weird karmic payback, a house is now being built across the road from us. Today they are putting up the frame and it's REALLY noisy!

View from the road.

Eventually we will have to cement in between the rocks of this wall, but not today.

I also went to ask about putting up the roof tile, but I need to ask some higher powers that be, so I'm not sure if it can be done yet or not. At any rate, I have done a very rushed photoshop stitch job, just to see what it might look like. I almost hear the collective groan of designers the world over...and admit I'm not just a little bit of a dag.