You've seen photos of down-stairs. Upstairs our room is "Bed 1" and the flowers are on the landing and in the bay window half-way up the stairs.
Over the coming days I'll put up more photos of the house from various angles. Today I've posted photos from our bedroom.
Out the window on the left of the first photo is where we go to hang out our washing. It is not a wide balcony, but quite functional for washing.
The wall is like a loose sandpaper. Kind of annoying for housekeeping, because it tends to shed!
Can you see where things are hanging from? This board has a gap behind it at the top from which hooks can be hung. Very useful as you don't really want to stick things into the wall.
The window coverings are the same as the ones in the lounge room. Wooden frames covered in paper. Thankfully on the outside of the house there are large window-sized metal shutters that slide into place and help us to sleep past the early sunrise (before 5am at present).
This style of room is called a "Washitsu" or Japanese style room. We call it a "Tatami room" which refers to the floor, a thick rice straw matting. Below is a close-up of the floor. It has a distinctive scent that takes a little time to get used to.
Tatami matting (cannot be lifted up for cleaning) |
Then we have the cupboards along one wall. Deep Japanese cupboards designed to stack the bedding in during the day, but we're not using it for that, so there is lots of room for other things. Down the bottom on the right is our new linen cupboard, or part of it anyway. We found this lovely set of plastic drawers at a second hand shop and they are very useful. Japanese houses don't come with hanging space, but thankfully someone had previously put up rails inside the cupboards that we can use. The cupboard on the left has them too. I've taken it over and my sewing machine is in there too.
I love house plans - I think I'm a frustrated architect (although not as frustrated as my clients would be, I'm sure!). I love seeing how you're adapting the house to suit your needs. Oh, and I love your chook timer from the previous post :)
ReplyDeleteHi Millie,
ReplyDeleteI love house plans too, but I don't think I'd be a great architect. It is kind of fun figuring out how to make it work for us and it is working very well at present.
Well, looking at these plans make me think I don't know how to read house plans - I can't work out how you must get into the bathroom, except by jumping up into the room marked "vanity" from the stairs! Presumably there must be some way to get in though, and I just can't work it out.
ReplyDeleteAha, I was concerned about the labeling of that room too, but didn't want to complain as I was so happy my husband had finally drawn the plan. This deserves a blog post to explain because it is much more than a "vanity" room.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the clarification - I did realise soon after writing that the bathroom must be part-way up the stairs, or no-one could get into it. Your descriptions of Japanese homes and ways of doing things are really interesting, particularly as I'm very keen for my family to realise that not everyone does things just like we do, and that there's no "right" way that everything must be done. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteNo worries, Caroline. Keep reading, I'm sure you'll find plenty of fodder for teaching your family as you follow ours.
ReplyDelete