Hedge no more

Many, many years ago this pathway was actually the main street that cars drove up and down past Obachan's house. We are guessing that with all the cars and people going by this hedge was used as a screen. That was until the local council decided to close over the stream flowing on the other side of the farm house to create a road. There was therefore no more need for this hedge in our opinion.

Time and water logged shrubs have caused this hedge to look as it does now. Ugly right!?

So we set to work and started digging up the roots but they weren't coming out without a fight! 

One more stubborn tree and we were done!

What a job! I'm here to say we did it and it looks so much better, but that onsen was calling our names.

The next phase is to.....balance things out. I'll show you what I mean next week!

Namakokabe - Community Spirit

I want to share an experience I never thought I would ever do while living in Japan. I love namakokabe on any building I see and I also love how it is preserved and maintained on many houses and community buildings.

One Sunday afternoon after we had eaten lunch at the local community centre and were walking back to our car, we saw all these men standing up on scaffolding.  

Initially I was consumed with excitement and then just mezmorised as I watched how this traditional design was being applied. All this time I thought the white crisscross lines were applied to large black slabs, but in actual fact they are just black tiles.
  

Here is the  tiler applying the tile and then....

....here is me applying the white grout!

I still can't believe it!  I could have grouted the whole wall if they had of given me some prior notice, but we were heading back to Yokohama. However, I'm here to say it was fun!

Then my treasure gave it a go and he was hooked too!

So there you go a cultural experience I never thought I would be involved in and because it was to maintain the community information centre in town, it made it all the more meaningful for us.

Sadly it was time to leave Izu and head back to Yokohama but.....

......here is the building all finished a couple of weeks later! And we were part of maintaining its history in Obachan's little town!

My oh my...what do we have here?

This project has been a long time coming. Have a look at this post here to see what we started with after more than ten (10) years of being left alone. The extension area was originally built for extra sleeping when family came to stay. The original kitchen sits at the back of Obachan's but it's pretty dark and we wanted to capture and enjoy the sunshine and bbq's at the front of the house. So it was time to transform this room into the new kitchen.

Extension area-  right-hand side with aluminum doors

So we started lifting up the old carpet which was laying over the top of tatami mats which were very old. We are going to recycle the tatami mats outside in the garden, which I will share in another post when we do. We are all about recycle here at Obachan's!

Behind the laminate panelling we found to my delight, wooden boards.

We also found a crumbling mud wall, which we are thinking of removing to make a door way that connects to the main tatami area.

Now comes the messy work and a scary discovery......

What did we find........?

.............but a giant killer bee nest!!!

Apparently, you can sell these things for a sum of money because they are considered lucky! Any takers?! A strange but interesting discovery was that the nest was full of leaves. Maybe after the bees moved out, something else moved in.

We had to saw the nest off which was pretty secured to the timber ceiling!

My oh my! Something we weren't expecting in our ceiling.

Another baby one was found nearby, but its occupants had abandoned it.

So we pulled up old carpet and tatami, found and removed a killer bees nest! I think with all  the dust and dirt we deserve an onsen tonight! 

The intersection

This small area within the little farmhouse is like the intersection to the main living area; old kitchen; extension area and front door. Once we had freshened up the walls with some white paint and redone the shoji screens the floors were crying out for their turn to shine. I must also mention here that when we initially opened the doors to renovating (after being closed up for a long time), we discovered that a fox type animal, hakubishin had sadly crawled into the house and died on this floor, leaving it's mummified skeleton behind. 

In true Japanese tradition, we paid our respects to this little creature by placing salt on the area where it ended it's days. So, really it was another good reason for this area to be refreshed!

So let's reminisce about how tired these floor boards looked before their make-over! 

Try to imagine that just in front of that pine track are shoji screens, which I removed in order to sand and paint.

Using my best friend, aka my handy sander, I set to work sanding back years of old varnish.

Almost done...!

My assistant always appears when we reach this stage of the process!

So let's look again at the before.....

And now the after.....!

So now this area is able to hold its head up high. It also now houses the antique sewing machine and refrigerator for now. If you are a new reader take a look here to see what was happening underneath the floors boards before we reached this stage.

Piece by piece we are slowly pulling the flooring together with some elbow grease, varnish and love!

Unexpected finds!

One early morning I was awoken and told that there was a road side pick-up, where the locals were disposing their unwanted furniture. When I heard there were a couple of items I might like, I literally jumped out of bed and was down the road in record time! 

Now one of the items I will be sharing with you today, I must confess is not my kind of style, but I looked past their present state and saw their potential with a lick of paint. After all, it was free! 

Does anyone remember these iron chairs with the rosebuds set into the legs that usually came in white? I think they actually still make these outdoor settings. Well, I thought they would be perfect to sit and rest outside between DIY jobs, so that's why I scooped them up. When I got them the back rest was missing on one chair and the other was snapped off, so I just removed it to make stool type seats.

My stylist created a shop front type of set-up, notice the "Open" sign!

To get started on this simple project I initially started peeling off the larger and easier pieces of flaking paint and then used a wire brush. 

After picking and chiseling at the paint work I switched to a sanding bit which made the job all the more enjoyable and quicker! These are the moments I love about being in the countryside. Just sitting outside with the wide blue sky above, sun shining and the fresh morning air. I'm in my element!

Once I felt I had removed enough of the flaking paint I moved to priming the chairs. Simple and easy!

My assistant was very eager to help with the spraying, so I obliged just for a second because the paint smell was pretty toxic. Maybe a mask for our next spray painting job would be a good idea!

While the process was most enjoyable the end product came up just as I had hoped. I am thinking of using one of the seats with the antique sewing machine that I featured here. 

You might be wondering what the other freebie was that I picked-up. All I can say at this moment is that its something I have wanted for a very long time and again I got it for free!

I haven't done a make-up over to spruce it up yet, but when I do I will definitely share, but for now I'm keeping secret about it. Gomen ne! Sorry....

Historical treasure

Recently when we visited the city of Shimoda to look at some recycle shops we stopped at this beautiful place for some lunch. I've shared the black and white pattern known as namakokabe on another visit here. I just can't get enough of this traditional architectural  design that can be seen on many buildings and homes throughout the Izu Peninzula. 

This family run business was a Japanese Inn but has since changed to a cafe.

Of course I just had to take a photograph from every angle!

Here is the entrance as you walk in with large flat rock pavers and gravel. Beautiful!

It was quite busy inside with every table taken, so it seemed inappropriate to be flashing the camera around like a crazy foreigner while everyone was eating! It's quite the tourist attraction in the area that's for sure! It has the typical exposed wooden support beams that are impressive to see holding up this building which is more that 100 years old. 

In an upcoming post I want to share with you something that I never thought I'd get a chance to experience and it is something to do with namkokabe. 

More next week....