Still Waiting

Three months on, and the house is nearing completion. But we are still waiting for a few important things -- like the windows!

So what's going on? Why is it taking so long?

We are struggling to piece together the story. First, our builder seems to have lost his ability to organise -- if he ever had one. It seems he only starts thinking about something when it is needed; and since arranging deliveries is a fraught business here, this leads to considerable delays. Second, the builder has cash-flow problems. We don't think they are serious enough to jeopardise our work, but enough to give pause to his suppliers. Hence our visit to the window manufacturer last Saturday -- we had to give the builder a cheque as an advance on our final payment, and we made sure he immediately made it over to the window man to ensure he continued work for us!

And to prove that things are moving forward, here is one of our window frames. We've chosen an unusual material for these parts-- a brushed aluminium finish that is more common in Japan. And that pretty much guarantees that these windows are for us. The fact that nearly all windows here are custom made to order means that once the frames are cut, they are really only good for the house they were designed for. Seeing that the work had progressed this far made us fairly confident that this time the builder is right -- the windows are on the way!

We also have attic stairs in place. As expected, this is a very steep ascent -- more like a ladder than a set of stairs. But don't worry, we're arranging for some ropes to ease the way up...

At the end of last week, the interior partition walls were installed. Here's how the first floor of the old stone section looks now:

And the latest schedule? Megumi is the expert on that at the moment. In order to keep things moving forward, she's been preparing a weekly 'agenda' for the builder to make sure he keeps to his side of the most recent bargain -- that the house will be ready at the end of March. We've already slipped a little from that schedule, but both of us are now reasonably confident that the end is in sight. It may take a while to get the small details completed, but it does in fact look as if the windows will be delivered this coming Friday. We can't wait!