First Aid Repair

So we have a rotting problem. In the roof to be precise. It's something we've been aware of but never made it a priority to fix until now.

It all started when I painted the toilet ceiling and noticed the wood was moist and not fit for painting. So we got up on the roof and took a look around and this is what has been going on. Most probably during a typhoon, strong rain and winds the some roof tiles just flew off or may have been struck by a flying object.

Traditionally, the roof has a layer of clay laid onto a wooden frame and then the tiles are placed on top of them. It gives the home a very....well...earthy smell. I first noticed something was going on when I saw a tall weed proudly standing up high on the roof. At the time I didn't know that the clay was suppose to be there, so I started pulling it off and then realized my mistake.

So, dear husband did a temporary first aid repair until we can fully re-make the wooden frame at a later stage, but preferably before next summer hits again. He simply cut some timber from an old crate we had and placed it over the hole and then relaid the tiles. Unfortunately the corner tile was worse for ware and broke. Looking at that wooden frame, I honestly don't know how it can hold up all those tiles.

Here are some snaps I took around Obachan's local town. The roof below is of a converted kimono shop that is now a restaurant. 

 

 Here is the visitor's centre....

.....and a beautiful kura (storage building).

Here is a side view of Obachan's roof tiles. Notice the detailed pattern on the tiles? I came up with an idea that I will share with you later to highlight this craftsmanship on a recent project at Obanchan chi's. Considering how long this little old farmhouse has been sitting here through sunny days, typhoons, heavy rain, heat and cold it is still showing no signs of leakage. But "touch wood" that our luck so far lasts until we can do a proper job on repairing this little old roof.

 Now off to that onsen....

Tokonoma

This area in a traditional Japanese house is known as the Tokonoma. It is typically dressed with a scroll that expresses some wise words or a painting and a beautiful ikebana flower arrangement for artistic appreciation. However in Obachan chi's she used it to house her butsudan a decorative wooden display box, which she used to pray to her dearly departed husband and ancestors. 

Being respectful to his Obachan, my husband thought about it a lot before removing the butsudan. We both felt that the best way we could pay our respects was to give this little area some love, as you can see it was pretty overdue for a paint and the spiders liked living high up in the dark corners. Our idea is to freshen it up, put in some lighting and some fresh flowers....to remember Obachan, even though I only met her once on my first trip to Japan. Our assistant has also made the suggestion of placing a photo of her Obachan, her great-grandmother in a frame. But first things first...painting!

I went for white because it blends with the rest of the main living area.The area doesn't typically have a cupboard underneath, but we found that if we removed it, it would cause the mud wall to crumble. So for now we are going to leave it.

So once I had finished painting we started researching what type of lighting we could install. Keeping to a tight budget we found these black stick on battery operated lights, since we really didn't want to get into rewiring. All we need to do is just push them in the middle to switch on. They'll do the trick for now!

Pulling from the garden what we have on hand, the vibrant red higanbana brought an autumn flavour indoors! 

But the small vase was looking a little pathetic, so I changed it for something I have wanted to buy for awhile now. Behold......

                           

My sansaikago or small harvesting basket!  My assistant was happy to model how it is traditionally tied on the hip to collect wild vegetables collected from the mountain. There is also a much larger one that you wear on your back that has colourful straps, which would look great as a larger vase at the entrance to our genkan, but slow steps first. We need to beautify the front a bit more before I can buy that one ;) But here is my small harvesting basket in all its glory and I love it!

It's a big improvement from this......

To this..........

I feel it could do with a beautiful scroll or some printed Japanese material, so I'm on the look out and will share when I find it. The white and yellow flowers found a new home before we left Izu. On our way to Obachan chi's we pass her grave and it is our tradition to pay our respects when we leave; to thank her for looking over us as we give her little house some love and to take care of us as we travel home. She gets us home safely every time! Our assistant also loves to pray to her great-grandmother.

One more photo...just because! 

Oops! I must fix up where the roller brush got away from the wall and landed on the cupboard!

What lurks below.....

The area between the kitchen and front entrance has always been a little shaky, meaning that every time we walked or even just stepped on the floorboards it felt unstable. It is also the area that has our small fridge sitting directly on it, so we stopped procrastinating and started doing some investigating. We had to pull the old platform away that is in the kitchen so that we could take a good look from the side. 

It was the best thing we could have done because what we found was really unsafe. I know what you're thinking...the kitchen isn't looking too good. I agree...I plan on showing you great before photos in another posting. I affectionately call it, "The black hole."

            

             But back to the support joists that had been eaten away by termites.....

Once we pulled the side off, we flashed our torch underneath from the side, and again another unsafe situation. The support joists had fallen down completely on side and there was nothing holding up the floorboards!

So we rolled up our sleeves and started pulling up the floorboards. We joked about what we might find underneath or what unwanted guests we might discover, but in the end to our surprise we just found dirt, dust and not one creepy crawly! We also loved that the area was amazingly dry, since we have issues with flowing water as you know if you've read the blog from the beginning.

One by one each floor board was pulled up, and like I said, just dirt and nothing much else.

Look at this! Our fridge was sitting directly opposite to these support joists.

I know this isn't a good photograph, but can you see that the support post sits on a blob of concrete, which was how they did things in the day.  

We basically secured the support joists to the frame again with screws and all was well again in the little old farm house. 

I plan on giving the boards a sanding and gloss, but that it for another day. Off to the onsen to wash away the dirt and dust and recharge the muscles!