Kitchen Pantry

It’s been hot…real hot. Tsukahara usually has much cooler temperatures than the lower elevations. The temps have been hovering around 35-41C in Oita City which means Tsukahara has been reaching highs of 34C. Couple that with 70% humidity and it feels like a steam bath. The uncomfortable conditions make it difficult to get any work done on the house.

Look closely, a gazillion dragonflies!

A ray of hope for a cooling trend appeared this morning. A gazillion dragonflies in all their glory were buzzing the skies of Tsukahara. That’s a good sign that autumn is quickly approaching. The weatherperson on T.V. also mentioned that autumn-like weather may arrive in a couple of weeks.

Okay, enough with the weather report. Here’s what I have done since the last time I posted. 

This is a view of the pantry from the kitchen. The pantry door has not been installed. The sliding glass panel that provides ventilation to the pantry is installed.

The pantry has been painted with Keisodo paint. We chose this paint because it absorbs moisture and odors. 

After the shelves are installed there will be lots of room for storage.

This is the view from the front door looking at the glass slider to the pantry. A glimpse of the kitchen is in the background. Up next, kitchen cabinet doors and drawers.   George

Lucky is a hot dog...literally.

In anticipation for the construction to begin on the observatory, I took a panorama of the yard to paste on an astronomy program I will be using. The program places the stars with pinpoint precision onto the screen using the panorama in the foreground. This will be a very convenient and accurate way to determine the night skies viewing possibilities. All I have to do is point to what objects I want photographed for the night and the program does the rest…opens the observatory, moves the telescope, takes pictures, parks the scope, and closes the observatory. All this is done while I sleep. In the morning, I have a hard drive full of images ready for processing. Sounds pretty cool, but to get to that point it will take an incredible amount of work and perseverance. I can’t wait for the show to begin!

Kitchen Floor

We finally completed the installation of the kitchen floor. If you remember, the original floor was covered with pine flooring. Erika hated the cracks because particles would collect between the boards making it impossible to clean. I planed the pine flooring flat and added sheets of ½ inch plywood on top of it. The ply was glued and fastened to the top of the pine bringing the thickness of the floor to 1 1/8 inches. The tile requires a very solid base to prevent cracking. Then I routed grooves for the floor heat wires.

Next, we installed the floor heat. Then carefully measured and cut the tiles. All that was left to do was the installation. It took all day, but the finished floor came out pretty good.

Up next, finishing up the pantry area.        George

The floor heat was installed before the first tile was installed

The tiles were cut and temporarily placed for proper spacing

After I was satisfied with the placement it was time for installation

Tile installed and grouted. The grout requires sealing after a couple of days.