最近は毎日毎日雨。

ただの雨じゃないくって、すざましい雨。作業場も畑も溺れそう・・・

とにかくお風呂が届いて、早く中に入れたいけど、お風呂場の床ができてない。

まずお風呂場の長さを測って、余った木材を切って、縦に打ち込む。それをまた余った木材で下から支えるように、打ち込む。

こんな感じ。

次に根太を横に何センチかごとに打ち込んで、こんな感じになる。

その上にはリビングの床と同じように合板を打ち込む。周りの壁には断熱材を入れて、床の壁を防水シートで囲む。

あとで排水に繋げるために穴は開けておいて、パイプをとりあえず突っ込んでおく。

仕上げはこんな感じ。

あとはモルタルを引くだけでいいと思っていたけど、(いいのかもしれないけど）、知り合いに防水シートだけじゃなにかと心持たないから、FRPというサーフボードなどを作る素材で床を作ったらとアドバイスしてくれた。余ったFRPのシート（ちょいとぼろぼろ）も貰ったし、あとは材料をMusashiで買ってやってみた。

これがこの家作りを始めてから一番最悪の経験になるとも知らず・・・

まず、FRPの色が大介が間違えてものすごい色のブルーを買ってしまった。返すにはMusashiは遠いし、上にモルタル引けばいいかと思い、その色で作業をすすめた。

そしてFRPはとんでもなく臭い。シンナー(？）の臭いかな。なんか、もう頭クラクラで気持ち悪い。しかもFRPはものすごくベトベトする。そしてすぐ乾いてしまうらしいから、急がないといけない。さらにもらった古いシートはぼろぼろだから、くっついて上手くFRPを塗れない。ものすごい色の青のFRPが体中にくっつき、臭いに頭がクラクラになり、何ともいえない苛立ちと気分の悪さ。

真ん中が凸凹になってしまい、良くないと思いながらも、もうどうしようもない。なんというものに手を出してしまったんだろうと二人で思いながら、とにかくはやく体を洗いたい一心でその日は引き上げた。

そして次の日、3時間で完全に乾くはずのFRPがまだベトベト。そしてまだ臭い。雨が降っているせいか、硬化剤が足りなかったのか、わからないし、直しようもないまま、とてつもない臭いの中家の作業を進める。

そして、あげくの果て、やっぱり真ん中が凸凹なのは問題だ・・・と様子を見に来てくれた知り合い。水がそこで水たまりになって流れなかったら、家の床とか、柱とか、蒸発したら天井とかが腐るらしい。家が一番早く悪くなる理由は水周りの問題。凸凹があるくらいならFRPしないほうが良かったねっと言われた。

あぁーーーーあ。

あの苦しみはいったいなんのために・・・

そもそもあんなに体に悪いものは環境にも悪いに決まってる。環境を考えて建ててる家なのに、なんで使ってしまったんだろう。お風呂の床の防水力をなるべくよくして、お風呂を早く完成させたいという気持ちが焦りを生んだのだろうか。あのFRPの青い色を見るたびに自分に対する腹立ちと、水周りの問題をどうするかで苦悩している。

とにかく、モルタルをできるだけ上手に塗って、床に傾斜をつけるように頑張るしかない。

夢のお風呂を中に入れる日はまだまだ先のよう・・・トッホホ。

Recently, we have been getting a lot of rain, everyday.... everyday.... My garden and our cabin construction site is drowning from it and we are stuck in the house and although we appreciated the break for a while, are getting quite bored of it.

Now that my dream bath has arrived, I am anxious to get it indoors into the bathroom. So, we started working on the bathroom floor. We used left over wood to make the floor as seen in the pictures above. Nothing too complicated, just like the living room floor.

We were instructed to put in the boards and then to cover the floor and half the wall with the water-proof tybec sheets we used for the outer walls. All seemed easy enough and after leaving a whole in the floor for the drain and a pipe that we can cut later, the floor was done quite quickly.

We planned to put some cement in on top of that, and call it a finished floor. But our recent friend advised that we could put in FRP to make the floor more water proof, since cement alone tends to leak. He had some old sheets of glass wool sheets for the FRP which were pretty worn out, but we had no idea what we were getting into, and were grateful for his advice and bought the materials and got to work.

The first shock came at the color of the FRP. Daisuke was tired or something, and bought a bright neon blue color FRP. FRP is often used to fix up surf boards, but I wouldn't have chosen this color even for a surf board. But, it was too far and too much trouble to exchange it at the store we bought it and we figured we can cover it with the cement that we had bought anyway, and got to work.

The second shock was the horrendous smell. I am sure this stuff is pretty toxic, cause after a few minutes of laying it down, I was feeling all dizzy. Plus the old sheets that were given to us kept sticking to the roller and things weren't going well at all.

But, there was no stopping since the instructions said this stuff hardens very quickly, and we were anxious to get finished with the awfully stickly and smelly job. Hard as I tried, I could not get the FRP to become completely flat, and so in the end, we had a bumpy finish in the middle. That, and a very dizzy, sticky, pissy, and probably high wife (that would be me) made us both want to be finished and out of the house.

I have never been high in my life, but this was probably as close as I have ever gotten to it. As much as my head hurt from the foul smell, I was obsessively fighting the little bumps that kept coming up no matter how much I fought it and no matter how much Daisuke told me to leave it.

Of course, the bumps mean trouble, and our friend who suggested it said that maybe it was better if we hadn't done it at all... which was disappointing after going through all of the horror mentioned above.

All we can do is make the cement cover as best we can and put a solid slope to it so the floor won't be full of puddles. That and hope for the best I guess.

I don't know why we decided to use such a thing that is probably bad for our health and the enviornment, but in our haste to finish the floor and to make it as best we could, we took the advise that is probably very good advise for people who know what they are doing. I don't know if I would try this again, but next time I do think I could do a better job... that and I would prepare a gas mask to do it.

窓 Windows

冬もキャビンを使えるように、窓は断熱性の高い二重になっているものをTres Homesを通してアメリカから輸入した。

キャビン作りの計画中に窓は輸入に時間がかかるから、去年の秋から決めて、一番最初の買い物だった。それが先日窓枠も完成して、ちょうどいいタイミングで届かれた。そしてこの窓が重いのなんの！どうしようと思っていたけど、大介父も手伝ってくれて、窓の片方を外すと随分軽くなって、3人で持ち上げることができた。

窓枠にスッポっとはめるとインパクトでサッシに付いてる穴を通して窓枠に繋げる。あとは防水テープで周りをタイベックに貼って、水の浸透を防ぐ。

気をつけるポイントと言えば、あんまりないけど、サッシの周りの外側にタイベックが乗るようにしたほうがいいから、はめ込む前にタッカーで止めた部分を外して(以下の写真)、入れる時に上手くタイベックを外に出す感じかな。

窓を入れてさらに家らしくなってきた。

外からの写真：

壁も着々と進んでるでしょ？

中はこんな感じ。

窓も入って、大介が目標としている、カマドウマが入ってこない家にもう一歩近づけたかな。：）

We imported our windows from the US, since the windows are better winterized and prices are reasonable. We ordered them last fall, and after we finished the window frames, the windows were delivered to us. To enjoy the outside green, we have a lot of windows in our small cabin ;)

Putting in the windows is not so hard, but the windows are reallllly heavy. We managed to put them in by taking one of the glass sides out, and also getting the man-power help from Daisuke's father. After we heave them into place, all we had to do was drill them in with the impact driver, and put water proof tape around the sides to keep the rain out. We were able to put most the windows in, but the ones for the upper section of the house need some more work with the framing, and we are going to wait for some professional advise on that.

Now that the windows are in, the cabin is looking more and more like a livable house. Although the windows seems larger and more open before the windows went in, we are very happy with our windows and the fact that they will keep the bugs out and the warmth in once the cabin is done.

樽風呂 Barrel Bath

お風呂は最初からこだわりたかったからいろいろ探した。五右衛門風呂とか、木のお風呂とか、ドラム缶まで考えたけど、やっぱり木のお風呂がいいと思っていた。ヒノキのお風呂はとても素敵だけど、とても高い。なら樽のお風呂なら安く手に入るかなーと思っていたけど、ネットで探してもあまりないし、しかもあるものは20万以上する。どうしよう、どうしようと考えている時に、家族で山梨に旅行に行った。辺りにはワイナリーが沢山あり、お店にはワインの樽をテーブルなどに使っていた。もしやと思い、その樽家具はどこで手に入れているのかを聞いたら、近くに樽職人がいると言う。さっそく尋ねてみたら、ガラス工房の裏に樽に囲まれたおじさんが一人、小松さんがいた。

樽をお風呂にしたいと言う話をしたら、大丈夫だよと言ってくれて、値段も聞いてみたら、これがまたびっくりするくらい安くって、その場で売ってくれるようお願いした。でもこれは去年の秋で、まだまだ家作りも始めてないから、また春に来るということになり、ものすごく素敵な出会いにワクワクしながらその場を去った。

そして家作りが開始してから、また小松さんに連絡をして、今はワインだけじゃなく、ウィスキーの樽があると知った。ワインのお風呂もいいけど、一人で入るのが精一杯。ウィスキーなら二人で入れるくらい大きくって、しかもワインの樽と同じ値段で売ってくれるという。早速山梨に行って、樽を見に行った。それがまためっちゃカッコいい樽で、いい香りで、もう、大興奮。小松さんといろいろお話して、長野には業者に頼んで送ってもらうことにして、お金を払って、ついにお風呂をゲットした。小松さんは本当に素敵な人で、またぜひ会いたいと思う。家が完成したらお風呂入りに来てくれるといいな。

長野に戻って2週間後くらいに樽が家に届いた。

綺麗に加工されて、樽の部分と切った上の部分を両方が届いて、周囲がウィスキーのいい香りがただよって、わたしは嬉しさで爆発寸前。水も入れて、最初はちょっともれたけど、すぐに木が膨らみ、まったく水漏れしなくなって、想像以上に素敵なお風呂になりそう。早く浴室を完成して、水道工事しなきゃ！！

I knew from the start that I wanted a nice bath for the cabin. Not just any bath, but something special and unique. I thought of traditional Japanese wooden baths, or even drum cans, but as a researched around, I really liked the idea of using a wine barrel. However, I found that wine barrels are hard to find in Japan, and are very expensive, so I was half given up and was pondering other ideas. Late last year, we went to Yamanashi (near Mt. Fuji) and visited a few wineries in the area. I noticed the wineries had a lot of furniture made out of old barrels and asked where they get them. They told me there is an old man who fixes up barrels in the area, and we quickly went to go visit him. Behind a glass factory, was a small section with piles of old barrel pieces and barrels and an old man working alone. We asked him about the possibility of making a barrel into a bath and he said it should work fine and he has made them before. I was so excited I almost jumped out of my skin. I was also worried about the price, especially since this barrel bath would be hand made, but the price was much much much cheaper than any other wood bath I looked into.

Since it was fall, and the cabin building hadn't started yet, we told him that we will contact him again in the spring, and left the site. A few months ago we called him, and he remembered us, and he told us that not only did he have wine barrels, but he also had a few whiskey barrels that would be bigger and make a nicer bath. The price (surprisingly) was the same, so without hesitation we asked for the whiskey barrel, and stopped by his workshop on the way back to Tokyo one weekend. We talked to him for a while, decided on shipping methods, paid for the barrel, and two weeks later it arrived in Nagano. I can't be more happy with how incredibly amazing this barrel looks and what a great bath it will make. It still smells like whiskey, I could get drunk just by taking a bath.