Our View Saved!

We kept our eyes on the height of the rooftops of the new houses waiting to see if they were going to block our view of Mt. Fuji. They don't! The clouds lifted for a while this morning and we saw we still had our view.

Houses Going Up

The houses are going up fast.

We're hoping the rooftops will not reach to the top of those poles!

Our View

Four houses will stand where the community gardens were. See the new fences? And the portable potty? Our view of Mt. Fuji from the roof garden may be gone. It depends how tall the houses are.

Concrete Slabs

The crane also lifted concrete slabs. The worker directed them over to the pile.

These concrete slabs will be the outside wall of the house. Typically, houses are made of wood here.

This netting is to protect workers from falling tools, etc.

Building the Neighbor's House

A crane was brought in to do the heavy lifting.

It lifted metal sections of the frame. Workers fitted them into place.

Our vegetable stand man watched from below. Can you see him at the corner of his stand?w

Setting Up

Yesterday, a workman set up a tent and then tables and chairs on the spot where the new house will be built beside the vegetable stand. Today, a Shinto priest performed the ceremony for blessing the ground. The family sat in chairs and watched. Then they went up one by one to put a leaf branch on a table of offerings. We did the same thing 11 years ago when our new house was built. The same is done for companies and commercial buildings, too.

P.S. Though it was out in the open, it was a private ceremony so I didn't take photos.

Tearing Down the House part 2

Usually workmen hang a heavy curtain around the property line before they tear down a house. That keeps the dust from spreading. These workmen put the poles but didn't put a curtain. We can see the laundry hanging from the line on the balcony of a neighboring apartment.

Also, note how thin the walls of this house were. That is an outside wall of the house. There was a piece of wood on the outside of that slatted piece. Then plywood with wall paper on the inside of the house.

The machine that broke the house also loaded the pieces onto the back of a truck. In this photo, pieces of the tin roof are being loaded. See the man standing in the bed of the truck? Click to enlarge the picture and you can see the vegetable stand man standing by. Dangerous!

The pieces of tin were crushed with the crane and then wood from the house was stacked on top.

They tore down the fence and the trees, too.

Tearing Down the House

Work at the vegetable stand continued as they tore down the house. The vegetable stand man's wife just finished washing leeks. A workman held a hose on the house as the bulldozer tore into the house.

Getting Ready to Tear Down the House

This is the house next to the vegetable stand in our parking lot. Our vegetable stand man doesn't live here. His sister-in-law lives here. Her son is building a new house for her and his young family.

Usually, a curtain is draped around the property line before the house is torn down.

This workman is bringing an old blanket out of the house. He put it on a junk pile.

Junk is sometimes piled up to be thrown away with the debris of the old house.

Open House

This young man was sitting on the street near the fields behind our house all day. He was pointing the way to these:

the new houses that were built across the field from our house. Over the weekend there were several men standing outside to talk to people.

Click on the label below to see more posts about building these houses. Scroll down and start from the post on June 2nd.

House Report

Today they were ready to build the frame of one of the houses. A crane was brought in to move sections of the house into place.

Sections of the frame were already nailed together. Plyboard was then nailed to the outside of the frames.

Here's what it looked like at the end of the day.

Next Steps of Building a House

A few days ago, I posted a picture of this field. Houses will be built here. Tape was put to show where the houses will stand.

A big drill was brought. It will drill spaces for the foundations of the houses.

New Housing Site

That used to be a grove of trees. It was owned by a nursery. The trees were moved. The land was cleared and a small "street" was built. Four or five houses will be built around this street. Each will have entrances or gates that will open to the small street.

These pictures were taken from our roof garden.