Remodel Part 2

Here's the floorplan I promised to post. As you can see, the remodel is extensive. To help with orientation, match the small circles on both diagrams. The circles represent vertical logs.

I'm not an architect by any means, but I think my design is functional and it gives our home a western style feeling. This is vitally important for our future plans.

Before

After

The remodel serves several purposes. The second most important purpose is to enlarge the kitchen. Erika has been struggling with our current kitchen. Compared with the kitchen we had in Seattle, this kitchen is tiny. I would like to start baking again. It's not possible with our current kitchen. The remodeled kitchen will be as large as our kitchen in the U.S. and there should be enough room for all of our kitchen appliances. We won't have granite counters, but I have a few ideas for an acceptable substitute.



Our kitchen in the U.S.

Another reason for the remodel is to provide storage space. Currently, we have only one small closet for the entire house. Three closets plus an additional closet on the second floor should provide plenty of places to hide things, I mean "store" things.

Our bath area is made of stone. I think it looks great, but in the winter the stone floor and walls make the shower area feel like a freezer. The new unit bath is insulated and heated so that won’t be a problem anymore. An important factor to consider is when we get older. If we were to slip and fall on the stone floor, we could be seriously injured. The new unit bath has a floor that is padded and textured to prevent slippage.

You’ll notice two toilets/ sinks instead of one. The reasoning behind this is that our ultimate goal is to create a bed and breakfast atmosphere. We want our guests to have their own toilet for downstairs and one for upstairs. This brings up another reason for the remodel. The master bedroom is currently located on the second floor. We don’t want to climb any stairs to go to bed when we get older. By moving the master bedroom downstairs, the worry of accidentally falling down the stairs is reduced. Plus, the dogs are getting older and it’s harder for them to climb up the stairs. However, I don’t think Kiley will give up her view from the upstairs bedroom.

Another nice feature of the remodel is the utility room. The utility room entrance will probably become the main entrance because of the dogs. I purchased a huge utility sink in the U.S. This will be used to wash the dogs before entering the house. During the winter, the water line to the washer freezes so we can't use the washer. The washer will be placed inside the insulated utility room to prevent this problem.

I saved the most important reason for the remodel…to keep the house from falling down. There are several logs that have extensive rot caused by a poorly designed roof. During typhoon season, several of the logs are soaked because of a cutout in our steep pitched roof. The remodel will eliminate the cutout section, extend the roof, and remove the damaged logs. The foundation will be extended and additional vertical support timbers will be added.  

Future Master Bedroom

The poorly designed roof allows rain to soak the foundation logs. A rain gutter would be useless with the steep pitched roof.

These logs are soaked with water from each typhoon

This area of rot was treated with epoxy as a temporary repair. It's been three years since the repair.

The frog likes the gaps in the rotted logs. Sorry frog, but these gaps have to go.

The heavy upper beam is resting on the rotted logs. I hope it doesn't fall down! The next photo will show what I mean.

Look closely. Do you see the gap between the vertical post and the diagonal post? The gap has been slowly widening. The diagonal beam has sunk and pulled away from the vertical beam because of the weight of the roof. This has created an area of great concern.

The remodel will occur in three stages. The first stage will include a master bedroom, two bathrooms, unit bath, utility room, and a kitchen. Installation of a new roof over the entire house will be part of the second stage. A sunroom will be installed in the third stage along with possible solar panels. The projected time frame is three to five years. To help keep the costs down, I'll do most of the finish work including the floors, walls, and cabinets.

The first step is to pour a foundation for the new addition. This will occur within the next couple of weeks. Winter will be here soon so there is not much time for delay. A possible stumbling block is that the water and septic pumps are located under the future guest toilet. The pumps will have to be moved. I have no idea how that will be accomplished. Stay tuned...     George

The water and septic pumps are located here.

Note: No interior photos are provided because of a censor (Erika). She doesn't want to have any photos of our "messy" house on the internet. I think that's understandable.

Telescope Pier and Remodel Part 1

The big day!

 

The concrete for the telescope pier has been poured. The concrete will cure for a few months before I install the telescope. I’ll try to frame the observatory floor before the house remodel begins. This will free up precious floor space in the garage to make room for kitchen cabinets. I don't have room in the garage for the materials to build an observatory so further construction will have to wait...for now.

 

Ready for concrete

Beautiful day to pour concrete

Used a bamboo pole to tamp out any bubbles

Floated the concrete until it hardened enough for the pier.

About 45 minutes later, the form was added and additional concrete was shoveled into the tube

 

Filled the tube with concrete. Added the pier plate. Carefully leveled and aligned the plate with "true north".

Woo Hoo! Leveled and aligned. NICE!

How's that for a view?

Dedication

Close enough!

This should be a seperate post, but so much is going on that I'll combine two posts into one. Part one of the remodel will begin shortly. Many of the large items (unit bath, windows, doors, etc.) have been ordered. I’ll post a diagram to give you a general idea of what will be accomplished. It’s going to be a very extensive remodel. Log walls will be removed to gain access to the new addition. Several of the foundation logs are rotted and will require removal. The new addition will include the removal of a section of the old roof and an extended roof installed. Erika and I have been spending our spare time thumbing through home improvement catalogs. The process is exhausting since neither of us enjoy shopping. Currently, I’m trying to select light fixtures from a 1000 page catalog.

I’ll be using local materials to build the kitchen cabinets. The problem is that I’m not familiar with some of the materials I’ll be using. I’m hoping a paint store in Beppu will answer some questions I have about sealing plywood for paint. Fortunately, the cabinet doors, drawers, faceplates, hinges, and sliders were purchased when we were living in the states. After three years, I still haven’t inventoried any of those items. The building process is backwards as I have to build the cabinets to fit the doors and not the other way around. This was the only way I could have the style I wanted plus make it affordable. I’m sure there will be lots of compromises that will have to be made. Stay tuned…    George

Our Third Year in Japan

October 6^th marks our third year in Japan. My first impression is that time goes by fast. I find that I have fewer complaints and fewer compliments. I guess that’s a good thing.  Everyday life is just that…everyday life. The biggest change since moving to Japan (drum-roll please), I have my weekends back. What does that mean? Well, sit back and have a listen.

When I was living in Washington, my weekends would start by complaining about how much I disliked my job and that I was glad it was the weekend. In other words, I was working for the weekend. Sound familiar? I would often begin thinking that I was only two days away from the beginning of another workweek. I actually dreaded Sunday because it meant I had to go back to work the next day. These negative thoughts clouded every weekend. In essence, I gave up my weekends and chose to be negative. Erika had to endure my sour attitude and eventually we both had enough. If you have ever spent any time with a negative person then you know that nobody want to be around that kind of person. Even I didn’t like being around myself!

It did take some effort to change things around. It was a matter of attitude. I found that a change in my environment was the solution to changing my attitude. Three years later, I’m positive almost EVERYDAY. I no longer dread going to work on Monday. Friday's are nice, but so are most of the other days. It’s great to have my weekends back. I can go places and do things on Saturday AND Sunday and not worry about being mentally exhausted on Monday. Being negative is mentally exhausting for everyone.

I made a choice, with the help of Erika, to change my life. It’s been three years and I can honestly say, “It’s nice to be home". Now, if I could only speak Japanese…       George

Progress

I think I need another wood shed

The wood pile consists of maple, cherry, oak, and mystery wood

We are finally finished cutting, splitting and stacking firewood for this year…yeah!! Erika thinks this amount will last about 5 months. Staying warm in the winter is a lot of work!

Not sure if he knows what he's doing

Ready for concrete

 

On another note: the rebar cage for the telescope pier is complete. I just need to compact some gravel in the bottom of the hole and build some wood supports for the concrete-forming tube. It looks like pouring the concrete pier in October is a real possibility. I have my fingers crossed for some consistently good weather.   George

Fun Time with the Dogs

We took a day off this weekend to spend some fun time with the dogs. We went to a beach in Higi and to a park in Beppu. The dogs loved it! We had the beach in Higi all to ourselves.



Lucky is making sure the beach is clear of any debris. He loves barking at the waves.



Kiley can still run fast for a dog that's almost ten.

 

The palm trees reminded me of California

 

 

The beach park in Beppu is huge, but there wasn’t much sand to play in for the dogs. It was a good place to meet other dogs and to go for a long walk. It was a nice break from the household chores and I think we'll do this again in the near future.    George

Door and Rot Update

Just a quick update…the door has been repaired, refinished and reinstalled. The stonework around the door came with the house. I’m going to change the color of the grout to blend in with the stone. That project will have to wait until I start tiling our new floors.

 

The rot repair is almost complete. The damage has been removed and the surface has been treated with Shell Guard and filled with epoxy. The epoxy clay is easy to mix and apply. A couple of coats of sealer and stain will finish up the job.

 

 

I’ve been busy removing oxidation from the logs and paneling in the former garage. The area will be renovated and turned into a downstairs master bedroom. The master bedroom on the second floor will be used as a guest bedroom. Erika and I believe that when we get older, climbing the stairs will become difficult. Relocating the master bedroom will solve that problem.   George

Cleaning the wood stove and pipe...it's fun!

 

The clear plastic tarp(included) taped to the front of the stove is not pictured.

 

During my previous trip to the states, I purchased a really cool product that is used to clean a wood stovepipe. Instead of climbing a ladder (30 feet) to clean the pipe, the stovepipe can be cleaned from the front of the woodstove. Not only is this a safer method to clean, it’s less messy. Interested? Take a look…

 

Spinning whip trimmed to fit a six inch diameter pipe

The spinning whip is trimmed to fit the stove pipe. The 3 foot sections of rod are snapped together to achieve the desired length. The whole thing is slowly inserted into the stovepipe. When it reaches the top, connect the assembly to a drill motor.

 

Drill motor adapter is included

 

Vacuum, drill motor, light

 

Before turning the drill motor on, tape a plastic tarp to the front opening of the stove and feed the tube through the tarp. Insert a vacuum hose into the stove opening to catch any dust that may fall down the pipe. Turn  the vacuum on. Turn the drill motor on and use an up and down motion to remove any creosote. 

 

Keep the bend in the rods gradual.

 

It was a good idea to cushion the sharp metal edge from damaging the plastic rods.

 

To clean a 24 foot section of pipe took about 10 minutes. The hardest part of the whole procedure was removing each 3 foot section of cleaning rod. The snaps require a little effort to unlock. This is important because you don’t want the sections to come apart inside the chimney. Continue cleaning and removing the rods until you reach the bottom. Turn off the vacuum, remove the tarp, and be amazed at how clean your stovepipe is. It’s really that easy!

The darker material is creosote

 

 

The tool works well even if there are bends in the stovepipe. Just make sure to keep the bends gradual. Any sharp bends can break the rods.

 

I waited almost 3 years to clean our stovepipe. It was so easy to do (and fun), I might clean the stove every year.      George

Constructing the Telescope Pier

          Here’s a drawing I found on the internet. It’s close to what I’m trying to build. The 3’x 3’x 27” block will require about 1222 kgs. of concrete and the tube will require about 166 kgs of concrete. The total is about .70 cubic meters. If I could, I would pour the footing then wait an hour before pouring the pier. This would prevent the concrete in the tube from sagging. The concrete is coming from Yunohira (closest vendor) which is about 45 minutes away. Figuring about an hour to deliver, I’m calculating I have about 1.5 hours to do both pours. If we pour the footing in 15 minutes and then wait 1 hour, then I have 15 minutes to hand shovel and tamp 166 kgs (six 80lbs bags) into the tube…not much time. Adding to the difficulty, I have to accurately align a pier plate in the concrete with true north once the tube is almost filled, finished and leveled.

 

          Why not just mix the concrete yourself? I would if the materials were available. I can’t find a supplier for a large quantity of bags of premixed concrete. The bags that are available are only 10 kgs at about 1000 yen a bag. The bags would require gravel to be added to strengthen the mix. The cost would be close to 120000 ($1200) yen. Having the concrete premixed and delivered only cost around 16000 ($160)…big difference! The weather will play a huge factor in the curing process. The pour will have to wait until the weather is cool and dry…maybe in October.    George

Watermelons, Door and Rot Repair

 

 

Here are some pictures of the watermelons from Erika’s garden. They aren’t the largest melons, but they are delicious.

 

On another note, the front door has been needing a makeover for some time. Over the years, the joints have shrunk and separated. The door has become impossible to open and close. I took the door off its hinges and removed all of the hardware. I removed surface rust from the hinges and painted all of the door hardware a satin black. The black hardware blends in well with the mission-style motif we are trying to create in our home…more on that later. The door is solid and heavy. Erika and I carefully placed the door in the bed of the k-truck. BTW, the truck bed makes an excellent portable workbench. Unlike the pickup trucks in the states, three of the sides fold down.

 

I removed most of the oxidation from the wood and glued the joints. Pipe clamps were used to hold everything together. I also added some long stainless steel screws to secure the joints. The screw heads were concealed with epoxy putty and stained to match. After the glue cured, I reinstalled the door to determine what needed to be trimmed and shimmed. The door required about 1/8” of material to be removed with a skillsaw. Once everything fitted properly, the door was stained to match the exterior logs. The front door assembly consists of a side window door which needed to be adjusted and refinished. In all, the project took about two full days. At a later time, we will make a stained glass for the window door. I drew up a design right after we purchased the house. I can’t wait to get that project started.

 

On another note, I continued staining the logs on the front of the house. I preferred to start at the top of the house and work my way down. Unfortunately, I don’t have the scaffold to accomplish this. To continue making progress, I decided to start on the bottom and work my way up. I know this will be a problem at a later time. Power washing the eaves will make a huge mess on the newly stained logs. Stain and paint drippings will add to the problems. I’ll have to cover the logs with tarps and hope for the best.

 

While staining the lower logs, I encountered some severe rot on one of the vertical supporting beams. I knew that the rot existed before we purchased the house. I was glad to be finally taking care of it. The rot had eaten away about a quarter of the diameter of the log. I removed the rotted areas and was relieved to find that I could shape the area to form a flat surface. Imagine turning a round log into a square. The flat surface was treated with an insect and rot preventative and then stained. I’ll have photos of the completed project in a later post.

I’m into the third year of the remodel and I still have a very long way to go.        George