A traditional Japanese welcome- Let's clean up the genkan first!

Remember this sad picture of the front entrance of Oba chan chi's? Well if you have been following along with our progress you will know that we have cleaned up this front area. But come on wouldn't you like to see inside the front sliding door? Yeah, of course you would! We did a bit of cleaning up, but boy have we got some ideas for this area. We want to keep things pretty authentic and in keeping with a traditional Japanese farmhouse.

So, what do you think? Nothing much now I know, but I can tell you that we have been eagerly waiting to get started on this front entrance or in Japanese know as the genkan. This little area has so much potential. You can see that there are paper screens or shoji on either side of the genkan which need the rice paper replaced. The step or rather seat that you sit on to remove your shoes needs a good clean and a varnish to bring it back to life. The plan is to break up the concrete and perhaps lay some large flat rocks to create this....

What do you think? The rock pavers are so natural and what about that sliding door-hikido.

We are thinking about creating the same look of the hikido to cover over the outside of the aluminum door frames on the extension area. 

This is another idea with large and small paver rocks, very traditional indeed.

Like I said, ideas are going around in our heads. The thing that brings us back to earth is budget and learning to be creative with what is on offer in nature and also being mighty thrifty. 

I'd love to be able to show you the progress with this area, but the truth is we haven't even touched it, because we need to concentrate on the drains. The next major project is to replace the ceiling in the extension room and repair the side area of the roof, which will probably happen during the summer months. I just wanted to show you the little genkan and the potential it possesses. But now its time for another onsen!