Another house demolished. Let there be light!

In the end of April our good Australian neighbor friend...  I mean, mate,  around the corner texted to tell guys were stripping roof tile off the house across the river.

So I stopped by when out for a run and sure enough...

Windows and doors removed, inside stripped bare and...

Whoa! Look't that! 

I've seen enough old houses get destroyed here to know it'd go quick, so went early the next morning to see if I could take it.  A worker I asked pointed over to a truck.  

The shyacho was there! Awesome!

 Shyacho is  company president.

Loose translation of our conversation:

"You're destroying everything in there?" 

"Yes"

"Mind if I take a light fixture?"

....

“Isogu, chansu!” (Hurry now’s your chance).

I'd gone prepared with folding saw in pocket so ran inside, climbed up in the attic and cut the ceiling joists around the light. It was a bit of a struggle to keep from crashing to the floor with it but old California framer skills saved me. I thanked the shyacho and asked if I could have some of the wood they'd already pulled loose. He replied the same as before so after a few more hasty trips in and out I had a nice big pile on the side of the house. I jammed home on the electric scooter only to find the crusher already tearing into the entryway when I returned to haul it all home in the car a few minutes later.

I thanked the shyacho again and asked if I could pick through the rubble after they were done for the day. He agreed with a bemused smile. Apparently a foreigner excited to take stuff that he pays to dispose of at the dump  isn't something that happens every day. If ever!

Here's that first load of salvaged loot

But that's extra. This light was the main thing I wanted.

I wired an old cord to it, plugged it in and "Hai-YAA!"  It was as if the light didn't even know it was supposed to be trash! I've since found similar ones online that range from 10,000 to 40,000 yen ($100-$400). Most have covers made of plastic. This one's Panasonic and wood. It just lacks remote control that most new ones come with.

It's made to be recessed into the ceiling but when I poked my head up in the crawl hole I realized "Yep! that beam's right in the way."

Oh well. I'd grabbed some nice 1x6" finish boards to build a box so I could mount it straight to the ceiling if need be. Putting in backing was a chore since it's a super tight squeeze between our tatami room ceiling and the upstairs floor, but thanks to two extra me-made crawl-holes I got that done by and by and did it all with salvaged wood so was still on course to install a light for the mere price of the screws and nails. 

Goodbye old hanging light fixture

Alas I ended up deciding to get new wiring instead of trying my chances with recycled wire torn loose by the crusher. The old fixture in our tatami room was constantly getting juice and had a pull string switch. The replacement needed a wall switch so I ran a cable down to the box in the hallway and added one there. 

Our tatami room triples as guest room, classroom, and dojo. A duct tape-wrapped futons and clothes homemade 5' tall heavy bag is a permanent fixture in the corner. At eight tatami mats It's big enough for karate kata, but trying to swing a sword around a hanging light made iaido (swords martial art) kata difficult; thus wanting one like this. I'd looked at buying one but nah,  hold off one will come in time. And so it did.  This is the light that was meant to be.

Installed and looking pretty with ranma (transom) over the window
salvaged from another demolished house.

light switch in the hall outside the door 

I spent the rest of the week salvaging what I could—multiple trips back to the house supplied me with everything from shoji door frames

to stair treads, 4x4 or larger posts and beams and on and on. Haul it home by night, pull nails and cut off splintered ends by day. 

Go over on the scooter and set out pieces to take home. 

 

That first light success was motivation enough to finally replace the one over the sink in the kitchen. It had a short in it and I had some lights that a neighbor widow who I help out from time to time gifted us when she had her kitchen remodeled, so....

Lightbulb!

I cut down one of the shoji doors and rebuilt to fit in the recessed area above the sink with one of the neighbor's old kitchen lights in the center.  By putting a thin piece of plywood painted white on back I was able to hide the wiring and outlet box for the switch (old light was fluorescent tube with pull string switch). And since on a roll I figured it high time to install the lights over the kitchen table that my wife had been wanting. Wiring those was a bit trickier, however, so I was grateful to have an all things electrical guru Italian friend stop by to be sure that went smoothly. The original plan was to put the neighbor's old kitchen lights there too (there were four total) but my new friend recommended can lights and had two to give us. Since he's forgotten more about lighting than I'll ever know I agreed--wife loves it so obviously that was best choice! Pictured below is shoji door light fixture over the sink (left) and can lights over dining table (upper right)

The house across the river is gone now. My scrap wood pile on the side of the house is restocked, and Henry Estates in Kannami has a dandy new/recycled ceiling mounted light in the guest room that you won't hit with your sword if ninjas attack when you stay here.  

Tōrō 灯籠 Evolution

Tōrō  灯籠 is "lantern". 

Apparently it's any kind of lantern, but I first learned the term to describe the standing stone lanterns that line paths in Nara, and have since heard it mostly to describe similar large stone lanterns at shrines and temples. You don't usually see them in people's yards, at least not big ones, but gosh darn it I wanted one in ours. 

Unfortunately they're expensive, like at least $100 for a small decorative landscaping one--three to $500 or more one over a foot tall.  Between that and the fact that my wife thought our yard just fine without it there was no way I was gonna get one. Or wasn't there? 

Here's how it began, evolved, and is today. 

As with most projects the lightbulb began flickering in my head long before I did anything about it. I spent many long moments looking on at ones I'd come across, all the while imagining construction method and design. Then one day last year it just happened. A day later I was stripping the form off my first attempt at making the lantern section of a standing Japanese stone lantern. 

The cost was minimal. I didn't even use half a bag of Portland cement, which is only about $4. The scrap wood and screws for the form I had in abundance. In time I tried making a base for it only for it to break, then the lantern itself broke after I accidentally left the candle burn in it all night, picked it up (it wasn't attached to the base) felt the heat and dropped it. So rebuild that, redesign then reattach to base, find a stone for the "roof" of it and call it good effort that resulted in a Frankenstein Tōrō. It sits in the backyard now and looks like this. 

For the record my wife doesn't think we need so many wood creatures in our yard either. But that's another story so back to the stone lantern. I learned a few things while making, repairing, rebuilding, redesigning, and remaking that one, so just had to try again.

This time I had a clearer image in mind before starting and built the form accordingly. I used two 1000 ml (1/4 gallon) milk containers attached end to end to keep it hollow in the middle, which makes it lighter and used less cement. The milk cartons are in the center of an old piece of Yuki the guinea pig princess's home that I used for reinforcement. She has no more use for it in guinea pig heaven.

Next up was fill with cement and wait...

I cut shapes out of foam floor square tiles and attached to the inside of the form for designs on the base

Next I built the form for the lantern section on the top of the base itself, which proved easier and stronger than attaching it afterwards. First was the bottom section. The X shaped metal pieces there is for reinforcement--it's part of an old kerosene stove that I cut and attached to the base with a stainless steel screw 

I also used parts of the stove for reinforcement inside the lantern itself. In the prototype I used wood but this time opted to go with styrofoam for the hole in the middle and sides. It was far easier to cut than wood to get the shapes I wanted for the openings and far, far easier to remove after the concrete dried.

After that I attached the lantern form to its lower section that I built around the base, filled with cement then back to waiting...

I went with a rectangular opening for the front and crescent moon for one of the side holes, but wanted to try a different design for the hole in the other side. I asked my wife what would be a good shape to try. 

"オタマジャクシ" she replied.

Really? A tadpole? Like a pollywog in a bog? Sure! Why not?

She swears she didn't say that but I know she did because we were talking about me taking the girl child to catch newts (and pollywogs, frogs, etc.) and she did so say it! I went directly downstairs, searched out a good pollywog shape, printed it out and traced it to foam, cut it and the rest is history. Only I meant to have its tail pointing up but put it in upside down. Oh well. There's your otamajyakushi honey. I like it! 

And finally, the roof! As noted I used a large stone for the top of the Frankenstein lantern prototype, but I wanted to try to make a roof for this one. I figured it easy enough--just build a frame same width as the bottom section and cut four baby hip rafters then fill in the holes with pieces of plywood, turn it upside down and fill with cement. It ended up looking like this:

The rafters there are pieces of a sofa I remodeled into a bed. I'll finish the entry about that project one of these days. Like said all the wood used is scrap. The only cost in all of this is cement and it I did it all with one $4 bag. So basically it's a $4 stone lantern.

The screw sticking up inside the form is so I can attach a round top to it. I ended up going with an old hard rubber baseball. I might change that to solid concrete or cover the baseball with a thin layer of concrete in the future.

And so we now have our very own Tōrō--this one for the quasi-zen stone garden in the front of the house. Silly wife thinks we don't need one there either, but I sense she secretly likes it.  ;)