Putting up the new kitchen ceiling in a day.

Our kitchen will receive a "band-aid" facelift for now. Just a new ceiling covered with suitable washable wallpaper, plus new walls with original (Very thick!) beams exposed. The plan is to live with this space and slowly note where improvements should be made to finalise a design, so we can implement it in a year or two. With new walls, all cleaned up it should become quite a nice kitchen, albeit not to totally modern standards - yet.

Arnie's son Abe, a professional house builder had a day off work on 21st September due to expected serious typhoon weather so he came to join us and I got to meet the man who has been donating all sorts of high quality materials to our project!



Arnie had mentioned that Abe was a whizz at framing & plaster boarding, so this was a great opportunity to get the ceiling in the kitchen replaced, including framing - since the ceiling surface was uneven (There had been horrible tiled glued to the plywood previously).

So we first cleaned off the glue and wood chip residue from the previous tiles so the framing could begin.

It was interesting to see Abe at work. Obviously very experienced, his techniques saved a lot of time and it soon became clear he was on a mission to complete the entire ceiling within a day, which would include two layers of 9mm plaster board (As opposed to 12mm), to help insulate against noise.

First the overhead cupboards came off, then framing around the perimeter, making use of the framing above to secure onto. This was then marked, so they'd know where to screw the first layer of plasterboard. This first layer only needed basic holding up, as the 2nd layer would sandwich this.

Here's the first layer completed:



And working on the 2nd layer.



In the meantime, Arnie had framed the wall between the kitchen and pantry and built that up, ready for wallpapering...

At about 4pm the typhoon came to Chiba. Serious rain and winds...!



I stood at the entrance looking out and praying no damage would be done. The trees swayed violently, but nothing came down around the house.



At the back of the property about 3 trees were destroyed, one falling on the old cemetry for ancestors who'd lived here. Shinobu & I cleared it the following week using my recently purchased old Stihl 62cc chainsaw!



The ceiling was completed a little later than the usual 5pm knock off time, then as it continued to rain outside we sat in the kitchen drinking beers and chatting till Arnie's wife called and demanded to know why they still weren't home!

Next day Arnie and Shinobu begin the day by filling all the holes in the plasterboard with GL putty, ready for wallpapering... To be completed later, as there were more pressing engagements to be getting on with...