open house

THE ELECTRICITY IS on. And it highlights the house in all kinds of ways that we've never seen before. (This is the light fixture for the genkan entrance, the one that we insisted on having even after the architect and electrician said it couldn't be done.) It could, and we think it represents the house exactly, the smooth lines of the design and the rough image of natural materials.

We were in a hurry to get down to the site today. Today and tomorrow are open house days, which the contractor uses to bring potential house builders and others who are in the midst of their building process to come by and see what the results might look like. We had to go down anyway, because not only were the refrigerator and washing machine being delivered, and the air conditioning people and cable TV/internet/phone person coming by, but we had to empty the car of all the cut firewood that M's father had given us so we can pass on the car to its new owner.

Because it was open house day, this was the first time they removed the covering of the wood floors. They also had cleaned the whole place and put up several displays, including posters showing how the wood was harvested in a sustainable way and how the wood is cut using old joinery techniques. They had laid out a display on the floor of all the types of wood posts that were used in the construction and the president of the company was there showing people who dropped by what had gone into making the house. It was a very laid back, relaxed kind of salesmanship, and the president had a great sense of self-deprecating humor that had us appreciating once again our choice of contractor.

It was a long day with a lot of things happening, and we were lucky to have dropped m off at her friend's place. But with the electricity and water and everything working (M was the first to use the toilet), and the warmth that we felt from the setting sun even long after it had receded into the Izu peninsula's horizon, it was very, very hard to leave.