Photo Diary: The Main House Renovation

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The renovation of the tea house and the main house was launched at the beginning of June and finished on August 21. The construction company called Rinwa Kensetsu gave me some batches of pictures as progress reports. I posted them on tea house, now here are the pictures on the main house. For the cost estimates, please see the previous post.

Unlike the tea house, the renovation of the main house was very simple: mainly to renew the floors. Wooden floorboards rapidly deteriorate in the warm and humid climate, particularly when the house is vacant and the air inside is stagnant.

First, let me explain the structure of Japanese traditional houses. Under floor boards, the foundation of buildings usually consists as shown in the picture below. They are basically wooden materials except stone bases.

For reference, here are the pictures before the renovation.

Before renovation

REMOVING THE FLOORBOARDS

The company tore off the floorboards, sleepers and floor joists, if they are rotten. Such heavy labor looked very easy in the hands of professionals. The renovation started on June 1, and here are the pictures as of June 5.





INSTALLING NEW FLOORBOARDS

Yoshino is famous for Japanese cedar lumber, but unfortunately beyond our purse. We use affordable woods.
 








SHEET CURING TO FINISH

The floors were protected until adhesive materials become dried and hard.






AND FINALLY...






THE YOSHINO FORESTRY INDUSTRY

By the way, Yoshino is famous for cedar tree. It’s said that Japan’s forestry industry was born 500 years ago there when Hideyoshi TOYOTOMI built a castle. As many other traditional industries, it has faced with the population outflow and the shortage of successors. However, deliberately cared forests still have solemn beauty and conjure images of a vast garden using the whole mountain.

Just recently, an American journalist living in Japan released a short documentary film on the Yoshino forestry industry: “YOSHINO RINGYO The Lumberjacks of Japan”. Here's the trailer with English subtitles: https://youtu.be/S5pIie2X69I　



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