Rafter Fest - Sunday the 9th of March 2008

On Sunday the 9th of March, several people turned up on our site in Komagane to help us with the installation of the rafters (which is kinda' tricky, verging on just short of impossible, with only two people).

Eto-san (husband and wife) took part in the same self-build school as we did in the spring of 2007. They brought with them Koike-san (husband, wife and youngest son) and Nakamura-san. Everyone worked extremely hard during the course of the day to get the whole roof area completed, but in the end we were thwarted not by lack of effort or time, but by a lack of usable rafters. During the course of the build, we came across rafters which were so warped out of shape, or damaged, that they were unusable. So, by the time we got to the end of rafter-fest day (and despite having been shipped a couple of spares in the kit) we were stuck with some great firewood, but crappy rafters. We'll need to make a trip to one of the bigger DIY centres in the neighbourhood before we can complete the rafter installation and finally make a start on laying down the roof.

The whole team on Sunday made a very valiant effort, with everyone working extremely hard throughout the day (no tea breaks allowed), so it was especially galling not to be able to finish off the whole thing.

Many, many thanks to Eto-san, Koike-san and Nakamura-san for giving up their Sunday to help us out. As the people who have seen these latest photos have commented, it's finally starting to look like a house, and this is due mainly to their efforts. Hontoni, arigatogozaimashita!

Preparing for the installation push	The crew sits down for lunch	North-end rafters going in
The topping-out team	Fixing the rafters to the central beam	End of day

This page created on 2008-03-10.