Yuko and I went over to the house on Sunday, still suffering the after-effects of England's terrible defeat to South Africa in the Rugby World Cup final. Despite the pain in my heart and my head, we soldiered on to check up on the week's progress.
First impressions were...wow! The entire house was covered in horizontal wooden boards on the outside, making the whole thing look like a kind of odd Swiss chalet. It took us a couple of moments to remember that we were not in fact building a mountain hut and that these outside walls will mostly be covered in mortar. Indeed, closer inspection of the wooden planks revealed the insulation and weather-proofing material still visible in between. The more we looked at it, the more we started to think that it was actually pretty neat and I wondered whether we should just keep it as it is, before thinking better of it. It's a shame it will soon be covered with mortar perhaps but I guess mortar is a lot more hard-wearing than planks of wood and visible insulation.
That is not to say that the entire house will be mortared though. Around the study and the master bedroom, we have a stained cypress wrap and this is repeated over the balcony on the upstairs floor in the area which houses the sliding doors. Though none of this was in place downstairs, some of it had been installed on the balcony and it looks great. It's very bright at the moment but will likely weather with age and become a bit more muted. Either way, it looks pretty awesome. Yuko said it was 'bold' and everyone knows that 'bold' is synonymous with 'brilliant'.
Inside, there weren't any radical changes (I imagine cladding the entire house took quite a while) although more construction has taken place in the ceilings and there are a whole host of new electrical wires and plug socket housings. We have a meeting at the house on Saturday to discuss various things so hopefully we will be able to see some more changes then.
It's pretty crazy to think that we are likely to be moving in less than 3 months. Although the house and preparing to move is now taking up pretty much all of our spare time, it's sad in a way that this process is soon going to come to an end. Although there has been a huge amount of stress at times, we have really enjoyed doing this and sharing it with you all. I'll try and keep the updates coming at least once a week as we get towards the final stages.
Best wishes to all and speak soon!
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| Our cladding, ready to be transported to site |
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| Cladding in place over the balcony |
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| Wooden paneling by the door |
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| Paneled walls - will be covered in mortar |
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| Will also be covered in mortar |
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| Study wall - will be clad in cypress. One piece is already in! |
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| As above but from a different angle, showing the study doors |
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| Wood deck - wall (currently white sheet) will be clad with cypress |
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| Electrical cables everywhere |
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| Ceiling construction has begun |
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| More ceiling construction |
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| Plug socket housing |
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| View up the stairway to the roof terrace area |
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| View from about 2.5m up. You can see the loft space above the Japanese room on the RHS |
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