Chapter 90b & 91 - The Step Tansu Chest, The Left Part of the Roof Base

 August 17th - 18th 2014

I decided to put together the first part of the tansu chest because this chapter had the second set of pieces and to avoid mixing them up, I just put the first part together.  It was pretty easy.  The pieces fit well together and I took the time to sand those that didn’t.  I also stained the chest and tried to make the sliding cabinet doors work as well which, as usual, was not easy.  But I did have some success.  Once that was done, I could start work on the roof piece.

Part A of the tansu step chest put together.

This piece also went together quickly.  The fit was a bit tight so I used my hammer and coaxed the pieces to fit.  I am watching carefully that the pieces fit as correctly as possible as I have a feeling the roof is going to be one big piece and I need to be sure it all matches up in the end.  There was some painting involved in these pieces.  I guess they may be visible on one side... we shall see.  After finishing this first part of the left roof base, I went back to the tansu chest.

Gluing the two halves together.

Adding a bit of paint to the parts to be exposed.

Finished roof section. Just the beginning.

The remaining steps to the tansu were a little more complicated because again, there were two sliding doors to install.  The kit had me putting them together in sections but without glue so I could paint them.  It just didn’t seem the best method so I decided to paint the pieces I had assembled then put them together with the glue.  I managed to insert the doors and place the other pieces around them gluing everything into place.  I did the necessary sanding to make the tansu look as clean as possible.  Painted it some more then varnished it.  I think it’s very cute and I can’t believe the doors slide! I guess practice makes perfect!

Finished tansu.

And now...another small disaster I had to fix.  The firepit room floor was my pride and joy making a wonderful reflective surface to place different objects on.  When I was working on adding the firepit, I noticed the back of the floor was bowing.  Both sides.  Crap! The heat had caused the floor to bow! I knew I had just put superficial glue there thinking the weight of the wood and the sides of the walls would keep it in place.  I didn’t count on more than one day of +30°C temps outside which meant that probably the temp up in the attic room reached a good 35°C a few times.  I found my kotatsu table bowed first and now the firepit floor.  I don’t turn on the AC unless I’m working in the room so now I know I will need to turn it on when the temps get that high even if I’m not working.  My husband gets pretty upset considering the costs of the electric bill.  Oh well.... 
So anyway, now with the tansu chest which gets installed in the corner of the room, I had to fix the room’s floor.  I managed to rip out the front part of the room and remove the floor.  I then had to “break” it as a point where the varnish was and then reglue the whole thing into the firepit room.  I had rediscovered (after two years of building!!!) that I had an old scale that had cast iron weights so I used the 1kg weight and a 500gr weight to weigh down the floor while I reglued it into place (I’d be using books and such up until now...what a gumby).  So now I just had to wait until the floor was reattached before completing the room. 

Ripping out the floor.

You can see how warped it got.  I bent it at this point as I didn't dare to do it at another one.

Weights! Why didn't I think of them before?!

 












While waiting, it did give me the chance to better photograph the irori pit with the roasted fish.  I really wanted to get them in detail to show how I ended up using two normal fish from Angie Scarr to make some bbq’d food! I’d eat them.

Detail of the irori.  Angie Scarr fish made into skewers.

When the floor was glued as flat as possible (without ruining the overall look of the floor) I added the tansu and some little objects and replaced the irori and furniture.  I added a small fern plant too.  I still want to make a lamp for this room and am still debating whether or not to put a LED in it.  Will wait and see.

Tansu in situ. I found a half scale teaset and set it there.

Chapter 70 - The Sliding Doors, Wall Finishings and Floor of the Second Floor Left Hand Room

October 23rd - 28th 2013

Real life has invaded my mini-ing time.  There is always something to do.  We have an enormous pine tree in our front yard and when finally we had a Saturday without rain, the gardner came to prune it.  It took around 4 hours total but the work was done by Saturday afternoon.  There was lots of clean up.  In the meantime, I had a bookcase whose wheels broke so I had to make an Ikea wheel pick up and empty a book case (!!), re-install the wheels and reload the bookcase.  It had to be done as the bookcase was blocking my work bench where I am building the house.  What a pain.  And also, my beloved Red Sox are in the World Series so I was staying up late to see the games and too tired to actually do any mini-ing.  So, by the time I had some energy, 10 days had gone by.   But I am back ! ;-)

First thing I had to do was to paint all the wooden embellishments as usual.  Then I worked on painting the sliding doors.  There are extra inserts in the doors that needed some sanding attention beforehand.  After that, I fixed some of the wooden decorations of the walls so that the floor area was prepped for installation.  I painted the wood frames and internal areas and then decided it was time to attach the flooring.

Cleaning the internal grill areas to the sliding doors.

Adding the wall beams.

The kit came with a series of planks.  I had thought about painting them all black beforehand but rejected that idea when I realized that the best bet was to create the floor, paint it in a few coats of black, sanding it, varnish it, sand it, etc. but without actually installing the floor in the room.  I stumbled upon someone’s suggestion to attach the wooden flooring to a cardboard backing which then can be installed into the room.  So, after measuring and cutting, that’s what I did.

Flooring planks.

Measured piece of cardboard backing.

Some of the planks were not a perfect fit.  So I did have to sand some to size.  Once that was done, I painted the floor black, sanded and then varnished it.  Obviously over a day since the varnish needs a good day to dry between coats.  I even managed to touch it and leave a print so had to varnish it again! That meant more drying time before waxing and installing.  What a pain.  But in the meantime, I did manage to create the doors and varnish those as well.

Selecting the right side and position of the boards.

Checking the fitting for the last two.

Meeasuring and slowly sanding down to size.

Final fit before painting and varnishing

Sanding the floor and using the sanded dust to fill in the small gaps.

Sanded and ready for painting.

Coats of pain and varnish.

Assembling the doors and sanding the grill to fit.

Fitted grill.  Door before varnishing.

The door grill in the middle was supposed to be covered with some kind of rice paper, but honestly, I like the open space where you can actually peek into the room from the outside.  The way this room is decorated it doesn’t really convince me that it is also a bedroom (like the other rooms).  When I did do the research, I only found one pic of folded futons in the same room with a fire pit.  So, I am going to have to work out how to resolve this.  Maybe using the porch as the actual sleeping area?
Once the door jambs were dry enough, I installed the sliding doors and all the wooden decorations around the frames.  Course they all needed sanding for fitting but not so much to be difficult.  With the doors in, I really must say I like the strong contrast between the ochre and the black.  I couldn’t wait till the floor was actually dry enough to install!  That took another 24 hours.

Installed sliding doors and wood decorations.

Inside view of the room with decorations.

Floor varnished and ready for waxing.

Trimming the cardboard edge, waxing the floor.

Finished floor and doors. 

Finally I could wax the floor, trim off the extra edge and and install the finished floor.  But of course, waxing turned out to be a hassle.  The wax is fine but the floor being black shows every streak of wax on it.  May have been that the varnish wasn’t 100% dry but I did leave it on extra time.  Whatever.  I installed the floor and the final front piece.  Ready for the next chapter which may have to wait anyway as I’m a little busy with real life again.  Just wish I could devote my time to this build all the time.  Welcome to the real world.

Floor inspiration.