plastered

The Darth Vaderesque black facade is gone, replaced by a basic gray. The sakanya, or plasterers, have finished two applications of the mortar on the outside of the house. There are three of them, a father and two sons, and they get along so well that they work twice as fast as other teams. When we were there, they finished the entrance, the sea side wall and the bottom of the L where M's studio will be (above), and only had half of the side wall to go.
The first application just covers the asphalt felt and screen--and you can still see the screen pattern through the mortar layer. The second time they go over it results in a smoother, more finished look.
The next step is the rough, off-white, or cream final layer that goes over this gray. It should be done in the next few working days. It won't be too long after that that the scaffolding will come down, and we'll find out how reality meets with what has been in our imaginations all this time.

I've taken my summer vacation days over the last week, and M and I spent most of one day at a lighting showroom choosing fixtures. LEDs are still way too expensive to consider, so we ended up with all fluorescent lighting, which isn't quite as efficient as LEDs. We have very few ceiling fixtures other than downlights, unlike most Japanese houses, and we'll be using a lot of floor lighting, but it was still a shock to see how many lights we use: 41 fixtures, and it wasn't until the next day I realized we'd skipped a few. Still, the fluorescent downlights, for example, are all 15 watt fixtures, instead of the 60w or 100w halogens.