Lucky

 

   

On June 15^th at 10:10 AM my dearest companion, Lucky, passed away. He had been diagnosed two years earlier with a tumor in his adrenal gland. I chose not to have any further tests done. AS time passed, symptoms of Cushings Disease appeared. I placed him on supplements to manage the symptoms which worked fairly well. Unfortunately, his age was also working against him. He was  15 years and 8 months old when he passed. He was nearly blind and could not walk or even stand on his own. He did eat and drink well until about two weeks before his death. During his final weeks we would take him for rides in a stroller around Tsukahara. It tore us apart to see him deteriorate so fast. He did not suffer from pain and died peacefully. His last meal was steak. His peace was the best we could all hope for.

   It’s been a week since his death. I’m slowly gathering the courage to face life without my little boy. A fitting tribute about our lives together would take volumes to write. I’ll be brief and say he filled my life with happiness. He was always there to listen to me. When I cried he was there to comfort me. I never felt alone. Our walks, time playing ball, and just sitting together will forever be in my mind and heart. He was my best friend and now I have a huge void in my soul. I mourn his death everyday and I often wonder if the pain will ever pass. I miss you Lucky and I hope and pray you are safe and well with Kiley. Until we are together again, rest in peace my most precious one.

A smarter and better way to live Part 2

 Here's the second part of my plan to get "off the grid". As everyone knows the cost of fuel is skyrocketing. From my experience, the cost of gas easily goes up, but rarely comes down. The oil companies just need any reason to jack the prices up. I also understand that fossil fuel supplies are not endless. One day the world will have to find a better way. I know that to manufacture an electric vehicle requires energy. I'm sure that producing and disposing a lithium car battery isn't all that great on the environment either. Yeah nothing is perfect, but sitting on my hands and not doing anything is the worst thing to do. I beleive the climate is changing because of the garbage we are spewing into the atmosphere. Rather than continuing to be part of the crowd that is causing the damage, Erika and I chose to minimize our carbon footprint by purchasing an EV. Sure electric vehicles are costly, but here's the deal that made it the best time for us to buy one. First, our old car needed to be replaced. We had replaced our transmission a couple of years ago and the used one that we purchased started to make strange noises. Second, Erika's brother was able to get us a generous family discount. Third, the Japan government gave us a 850000 yen rebate. Fourth, the US dollar is at a 20 year high versus the yen. With all that going for us...it was time to make the move. Bye bye Moco, hello Leaf.

Right now we are able to charge the Leaf with our solar panels. That means the sun is powering our car. Pretty cool, huh! Well, what if the Leaf could power our house at night and during power outages? Stay tuned for part three and I'll try to show you how it's possible.

A smarter and better way to live

Ever since we moved to the Japan countryside we have been conscience of our environment. We have been growing our own fruits and vegetables without chemicals. We bought a tiny car to minimize our carbon footprint. We tried to purchase the most energy efficient appliances (still have some work to do). We planted over a hundred trees in our yard. All of our light bulbs have been changed to L.E.D.. The paints and finishes I use are water soluble. We do our best to recycle and separate cans, bottles, plastic, non-burnable, and burnable garbage. We use paper instead of plastic whenever possible. Heck, we even try to stay home to keep our air clean. Still, we found that we needed to do more. 

Ten years ago the price of going solar was outrageous. Today, however, with energy becoming scarce and very expensive in Japan, the government has incentives to make that giant leap into reusable energy cost effective. To make a long story short...we did! We had our 5.5 kw system installed a couple of days ago. Actually due to the supply shipment backup being experienced around the world, we ordered the solar panels and associated parts over a year ago. Well, better late than never. The paperwork for the government and power company took six months to get approved. Once the materials arrived it took only two days to install and a couple of hours to get inspected and powered up. Honestly, I really didn't grasp what we had done until the following morning after the system was up and running. Erika was cooking breakfast and I glanced over at our new power monitor. The sun was out and the panels were fully operational. I said to Erika, "Wow! Isn't this amazing!" 

She asked, "What?" 

I said, "Look at the monitor. Everything we are using is being run by the sun! Not only that, but the extra power is being sold back to Kyushu Power Plant! Amazing!" Erika had a great big smile. We are saving energy and getting paid to do it. Of course it has been raining since that glorious day, but it won't rain forever. We were told that the whole system will pay for itself within 8 years. Well that's the first part of this story. The second part will come next week. Please stay tuned.

Installation day. Ten people showed up in five vehicles.

Installation went quick. These guys knew what they were doing.

A new circuit breaker box was added.

In less than a day the panels were installed.

The power converter takes DC voltage from the sun and converts it to AC for the house.

This is for next weeks post. Shhhh, it's a secret.

An additional power line was added from the house to the garage (panels).

The next day it was raining, but that didn't slow the workers a bit.

Routing for the wires was extra work as we didn't want to see cables inside the house.

My favorite part...the power monitor. 5.1 kw was divided into 4.5kw being sent back to the power company (money in our pocket) and 0.6kw we used.

The utility meter was upgraded to a remote reading system. No more meter readers. 

My mom

 

First I wanted to thank Bettie for taking this picture of my mom. My mother turned 93 years old this year. It was a tough year for her, but she made it through with the help of many kind people. Believe it or not she just passed her drivers test. She wants to go back to work at Costco and work one day a week. She has always been a hard worker and saves every penny for her spoiled sons. Neither my brother nor I are there to help her so we have to rely on the help of friends, neighbors, and total strangers to give her a hand. I can't thank them enough. I am forever in debt to them. Wishing you the happiest of birthdays. I love you.

And so it begins...

It's about time! Let's see, well, this is the wall that will have some stained glass panels installed. One problem though...I have to make some large holes in the wall. OMG!! This wall is in the entry area. It's dark and dark in this area. The glass will add a some color as well as much needed light to the area. I did some probing around to find the existing studs in the wall and any wiring that might bite me later. I don't like surprises. After deciding that the studs were fairly plumb and evenly spaced I did some preliminary sketches for the glass panel sizes. I came up with a four panel scheme that fits well in the space provided.

Here's the living room side. The cutouts were conveniently hidden (and insulated) by the movie screen during the winter months to keep out the cold air. I also placed four layers of blue sheet on the opposite side to insulate the wall. It worked well as the wood stove kept the room nice and warm.

If you look closely the wall is marked for cutting so on with the show!

OMG! It's the dreaded cross bracing. The house will fall down if I cut it. Actually, it's not a big deal. Instead of cross bracing like the Japanese use, I replaced it with 2x6's and treated it like a window opening. I believe in making it stronger than original. It also helps to have the wall boxed in by huge timbers. Time to relocate the wires.

With the wires relocated and the light switch moved, I went ahead and installed my 2x6 headers and framing and blocking and blah, blah, blah. Sorry no pictures as this is top secret information (translation: very boring).

Alrighty then, this guy is still smiling so I guess it went well. Moving right along I installed the painted mitered frames for the stained glass. I decided to make the frames the same size and space them equally. The gaps were filled with spacers and joint compound.

Scary isn't it? It almost looks like I know what I'm doing. Prime and paint comes later. The color has not been determined as I'd like to choose a color that matches the glass.

Here's our favorite addition to the room, a home theater. The plan is to have movies at night and stained glass during the day to let in the light for the dark entry. So, what will the glass look like? Stay tuned.

 

I'm trying, but...

 Just a quick post to those who don't think I write enough blogs...It's cold. I mean it's really cold and crunchy. So much so that I find it impossible to make any progress on my stained glass. When I was younger it didn't bother me so much. I could do creative things in the workshop and pretend the gas heater was enough to keep me warm. Thank goodness for age and wisdom. I don't do that anymore. I find the warmth of our home much more attractive and comfortable for my aging bones. Instead of freezing my butt off, I prefer to practice guitar, or watch a movie and spend time with my dog, Lucky. Yeah, Lucky is getting old. He turned 15 in October. A typical lifespan of a Jack Russell Terrier is 16. He has Cushings Disease. It's a disease that causes him to drink excessive amounts of water and get up every two hours or so to relieve himself. So Erika and I haven't gotten a decent nights sleep since August. I know I'll treasure these moments after he passes, but at this moment, it really sucks. I find myself walking around like a zombie. Time quickly passes and before I know it another day has gone. I was told this is normal. That doesn't change the fact that getting old is a pain. I mean that literally. My neck, shoulders, hands, fingers, lower back, knees and feet all show some degree of discomfort. Complaining sure doesn't help. I'd drown my pain in alcohol, but drinking only causes my gout to flare up. Pain killers only cause my stomach to hurt. I do try to exercise three times a week with a video I downloaded from Youtube. Gosh, I remember when I bicycled a hundred miles and didn't even breathe hard. Those were the days, but those days are why I feel the way I do now. The wear and tear of youth brought despair as I became older. Oh well, such is life. No pictures in this post. Just a bunch of ramblings from an old man living in the Japan wilderness. 

Sometimes I do miss the states, but we won't talk about that now. My dream of having a B&B has all but dissolved due to covid. Neither one of us can even imagine inviting strangers to our home to stay and dine at our cafe. It's just too dangerous and irresponsible. I don't see covid going away anytime soon. So, we have this huge empty house out in the middle of nowhere filled with broken dreams. Maybe it's not that bad, but Home Sweet Home may never become reality. I sure the hell won't give up so easily, but I also won't beat myself up trying to make a dream come true that is just not realistic. 

I just realized this post is more like a letter than anything else. After ten years of writing this blog I've come to the realization that I write this to keep my 92 year old mother updated on the current events happening in my life and I try to let my close friends have a peek into my life as a foreigner living in Japan. I often refer my new acquaintances to this blog to introduce myself instead of repeating myself over and over again. Lazy, yes, but it works (some of the time). I know I promised more pictures of current projects and a ten year past and present comparison of the remodel. It's coming...soon...to a theater near you...stay tuned. Don't you just hate when someone keeps using (...) when they write :O)

Still Here after 10 years

 It's been a tough year all around. I haven't posted in many months...sorry about that. I've had health and family problems...too many to mention. I'm slowly getting back on my feet. I'm working on a stained glass project to get things started for the New Year. It's a four panel sunflower that will be placed in a huge hole that I made between the dimly lit entryway and the brightly lit home theater. Oh did I mention I installed a home theater. Well that's another story. I needed a diversion from my stress and depression I was drowning in. The movies have been a great way to escape reality and Erika and I look forward to movie night each week. Amazon Prime Video is a wonderful thing! Back to the hole in the wall. Yeah it's big and it required some major bracing to keep the house from falling down...just kidding. The hole is about 6 feet by 4 feet. Stay tuned and I'll post some pictures. I just wanted to make a quick post to show that we're still around. Oh yeah, we've been in Japan for 10 years this past October. I wanted to post a bunch of remodeling pictures, but life got in the way. Oh well, what will be will be.

Peacock Stained Glass Project is Finished!

I wrote this post with the intention of sharing some thoughts about what to do with a glass after it's finished. In this case, I made a glass with no place to go. I guess I could have made a frame for it and called it done, but

I chose another route. Erika and I wanted to make something special with this piece. Believe it or not, this is the second time I made this peacock! The first time I made this was in 2002. We were in California and we had a really nice window above the front door that was begging for stained glass. I used copper foil to construct the piece.

Unfortunately, the airline I was working for decided to consolidate. We had to move to Seattle and sell our home. The new owners would only buy the house if we left our stained glass windows. I figured the glasses belonged there and it would have been a real pain to relocate them. So, after 20 years I decided to make another peacock, but this time I constructed the piece in lead. I never liked the face of the original peacock so I redrew it to look more like the real thing. I also added eyes that I painted to give it a more realistic look. So, on with the story.

We decided the best place for the new glass was in the stairwell. The wall needed a makeover. The paint was fading and the wall looked pretty shabby. We wanted something dramatic. Between the vibrant colors of the new paint and the shutters I think we accomplished our goal. Alrighty then...

The best place to start (I figured) was on the wall that would not be seen. I could make a big mess and nobody would know. The back side of the glass is where the wall is part of a narrow passageway on the second floor. A small window facing outside is conveniently placed to give the stained glass some illumination. I carefully measured and cut the hole. I made sure there were no water pipes in the wall beforehand. Only a small electrical wire needed some attention.

Here the wall has been marked making sure the hole would be in the proper position from the front (viewing side).

The hole was cut in the sheetrock. I tried not to remove any excess material as that would require a repair later (more work). Yes, the wall has cross bracing. I probably couldn't have chosen a more difficult wall to make a hole in. All of this bracing will require additional support after it's removed...headache! I removed the back side of the framing making sure everything was supported BEFORE I removed it. Sorry, no pictures of the framing. It's pretty boring stuff anyway and it took a lot of time to do.

It was time to remove the front support framing after everything was secured and stable. To accomplish that, a scaffold needed to be made. The hole is about 10 feet off the first floor. I made a scaffold that was simple and strong from leftover wood used in the remodel. As a matter of fact, the entire project (shutters, trim, scaffold, framing, etc.) was made from reused lumber. This required some extra steps to prepare the wood such as nail removal and planing the wood to size. Somehow I felt more satisfied with the result by using wood that didn't go to waste.

A very simple yet strong and stable scaffold. It only took six screws to hold it together!

After the scaffold was installed it was time to cut a big hole.

It was a little tricky to get the back hole to line up with the front hole. Lots of measuring and double checking.

A carpenters square was very useful to keep things "square". I wanted to keep the cutout drywall piece intact. This was going to be used as a template for the shutters and trim.

After cutting out the drywall, I proceeded to remove the rest of the framing. I added more bracing and supports to make the structure stronger than original. Curved framing is a real pain. To keep things close to the size of the stained glass was even harder. This step took the most time and required lots of patience and measuring. A small shelf was added to create the look of a window.

Here you can see the wall cabinets I made a few years ago. If you are interested, I wrote a post about the construction of those cabinets in an earlier post. 

Sorry about the sideways view...I used a piece of thin scrap plywood to make a template of the stained glass. This is a critical step! It's very important to make sure this template fits the hole in the wall. If it doesn't, you need to redo the hole. I made sure the template had enough gap (1/8") for rubber spacers. I like to mount the window on rubber spacers just in case of an earthquake or expansion/ contraction of the lumber. Since this is a log home the walls tend to move a little during summer and winter. Take your time and get this right! The glass is heavy and you don't want to be taking it in and out because of an error in measuring. Once I was sure everything fit properly it was time to make some shutters.

Again, these shutters were made from some scrap cherry wood that was used to trim the upstairs doors. Too bad I had to cover the cherry with paint. Nothing special with the construction. The shutters are only going to be viewed from one side. This allowed me to be a little sloppy with the assembly. However, the shutters are very strong and could be used for the real thing. I had to remind myself these were for decoration only. I spent way too much time making these.

I don't have those fancy router bits for making the face inserts in the panels. I ended up using the router bits I do have and filling with epoxy. Lots of creative sanding too. Did I say I spent way too much time making these shutters?

The slats sit in a channel I routed. Make sure you paint this BEFORE you assemble. It's difficult to paint otherwise. I know from experience with the air conditioner covers I made a few years ago. Just search the blog for that post.

I routed a lip for the face panel to rest in. Yeah, these panels sure took a lot of time...

more pictures of the routed channel for the slats.

Speaking of slats, I used this piece of scrap lumber for the slats. Nothing a table saw and band saw couldn't handle.

Here's the jig I had to make for the face plates. I learned the hard way that you can't do a good job routering curves without a proper jig. My first attempt was a disaster. After a lot of epoxy repairs I made the jig and fixed my careless mistakes. Boy, did this take way too much time.

All's well that ends well. Finished face plate ready for primer.

Here's one of the router bits I used. Speaking of tools...it's hard to believe how many power tools I used for this project. Not counting the stained glass tools, let's see: two different routers with several bits, tablesaw, compound miter saw, bandsaw, reciprocating saw, planer, drills, orbital sander, bench sander, oscillating sander, and a partridge in a pear tree.

Remember that piece of drywall I needed for a template? It worked perfectly for making the trim. 

Before you glue, draw your cut lines and take the piece to another tool...a scrollsaw.

Glue the pieces together. I wanted an edge that matched the existing trim around the house. Time to use the router again.

After some finish sanding the pieces were ready for primer and paint, but first...

make sure the pieces fit!

After the paint dried, it was time to install the slats for the shutters. I chose to install the slats facing down (Erika said it looked better). I know the slats should be facing up since it is the back of the shutter, but this is supposed to be art and no one is supposed to notice.

After a little math, I determined an even spacing. Place all the slats in first BEFORE gluing or you'll never get the last couple of slats in!

The finished shutters. Did I say this took way too much time?!

The finished trim with shelf.

Ready for the big install. Woo Hoo!!!

Meanwhile back at the wall... I installed a flexible moulding on one side to hold the stained glass in place. The other side just had a couple of screws to hold the glass in place. I did this just in case I needed to remove the panel at a later time for repairs.

This moulding wasn't available in Japan, so I had to have my mom ship it from the states. Thank you, mom. After some primer and paint, the next step was final assembly. I sure hope everything fits and we don't crack the glass trying to install it.

Here's the trim and shutters going in. I attached the shutters first before installing the whole thing on the wall. I also predrilled the mounting holes in the wall and trim to help make the installation go smoother.

Ta da! Piece of cake. Oh I forgot to mention that the wall was painted before the shutters were installed. What do you think of the blue? We love it!

No more curved stained glass projects. Too much work for an old man.

These are the "H" hinges I used for the shutters. I guess it's showtime. Bring on the peacock. Let's wrap this up!

It fits!!!!!

It really fits! Never had a doubt...hah!

Well, that's about it. I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe you learned something like..."Man, I'll never do that!" 

I promised Erika I would do some small glass projects before starting my last and biggest project (stay tuned for that). For the moment I'll be doing some stuff in copper foil for a mirror we have in the entry area.

I just drew this today. It will be attached to the mirror. We had one of these in California that we sold with the house. So, it's time to make a (better) replacement. Please stay tuned for that. Cheers!