the a-team

Suzuki-san (far left in the blue shirt) is the master carpenter for our house, and he'll do all the carpentry from now on with one assistant. For the mune-age (raising the frame) day, however, he had a crew of ten others helping out, plus the site foreman. Four of them were also master carpenters who work for the same contractor, the rest were experienced apprentices. Suzuki-san was responsible for the team for the day, and he had to feed them as well: he brought a huge pot of curry and a full rice cooker that he'd prepared himself.

He spent this day on the detail work that had to be done. First, doing the round wooden pillars that hold up the large eaves over the entrance. They had to be cut the right length, and then he had to cut pegs for both ends--the top to fit into a beam down the eave, and the bottom to fit into a cut stone.

Then he fretted over the spot where the eaves come together. The roof of the wing where m's salon is has a different pitch than the eave over the entrance so it has to be a longer slant. It drove the architect crazy but he finally got it worked out, and now it was Suzuki-san's job to bring it together. Which he did.