2010 YAHOO! I finally finished the Teahouse!

After three arduous years of continuous back-breaking labor, my epic backyard project is FINALLY complete.  The Taj Mahal and Sistine Chapel can step aside, there's a new cultural icon on the block, the Tea-House/lawnmower shed.

When we moved into our house in 2001, the old potting shed in the corner of our backyard was a quaint, cute little space where we stored the lawnmower and wheelbarrow.  Eventually, it became engulfed in Coral Passionflowers transforming it into a lush, beautiful, (quaint) storage space.














Suzanne and Gizmo lounging by the shed, circa 2005.



 
The legendary freeze of '07 turned our lovely storage space into a disgusting eyesore.

Right about that time, my dearest friend Joal upgraded his woodshed into this magnificent Saloon in Astoria, OR.  The Saloon, and the aforementioned Taj Mahal became my inspirations, along with Suzanne's love of Japanese teahouses.  Thus was born the great Tea-House lawnmower shed project.


It took me a couple weeks to raze the old shed and make new foundation footings before Joal came to visit for JUST ONE WEEK, September 2007.  In that week, we rented a truck, purchased all the materials, including enough lumber to replicate the Empire State Building, and essentially built the Tea-House.  Somehow, inexplicably, Joal did this with almost no written notes;  Zeus H. Houseguest! how DO people do that?!?



This photo shows one of the difficult set-backs.   Suzanne's been working her guts out (like us) for the last three days, (the first week of the new school year), and just before leaving for work, she has come out to see our progress in the light of day.  Naturally, she's shocked and frightened to see the Empire State Building in our backyard and requests a size reduction.  Joal and I had performed the Herculean task of installing the rather sizable main cross beams the evening before, but we resolutely and cheerfully took them down and cut off 1 1/2 feet from the support beams.  No problemo, onward and upward! (or downward, in this case).  Of course, everyone except Suzanne will now have to duck to come through the doors of the Tea-House.
 
I was nothing more than an apprentice to the great master architect/designer/carpenter. That's him in the background, trying to figure out what to do with that 2x4.  Right after this photo was taken, I told him where to put it. 

My dirty little secret is that Joal built the Tea-House, I just did the finish work.



Day 5, that comical look on Joal's face is because we've just suffered a devastating visit from a neighbor threatening to sic the dreaded Santa Cruz planning department on us.  So, we 'postemptively' visited them ourselves, and found out how to make the Tea-House legal, (DANG! why didn't we think of doing that in the first place!).  He's holding a brand new reciprocating saw, (the ULTIMATE in destructive woodworking tools), and we're chopping the walls off and moving them in about 4 feet from the back and side to comply with county code.  The decking on the outside can stay, and that will fulfill the ostensible purpose of the shed:  lawnmower and wheelbarrow storage.

The task of chopping walls down and moving them struck me as insurmountable.  Heretofore, I had learned volumes about carpentry from Joal, but I feel grateful and privileged to have witnessed his grace and optimism (not to mention skill) in meeting this absurd challenge.  It was truly a thing of beauty.  Wish I could do that. 

Then Joal left.  For the next year, with many helpful emails, phone calls and even faxed full-size paper templates, I managed to finish putting up the complicated roof.  My left foot is almost touching one of the four corner up-turned "hip-rafters."  To conform to that distinctly Asian curl, I'm installing redwood bender boards, usually used for separating curving flower beds or gardens from lawns.  Ultra-labor-intensive;  each and every bender board required at least three trips up and down for measuring and sawing.  I discovered all over again how much fun it is working in high, difficult places.  If only I knew what I was doing!



I also learned how to put in a cedar shake roof.  So far, no leaks.



Exquisite wood-shavings.  Over the course of the following year, I learned how to use a plane.  For my first of seven Shoji screen doors, I worked with this classic American Stanley bench plane (given to me by Pops, Suzanne's Grandfather).  Then I stepped up (WAY UP, $200, the most expensive hand-tool I've ever IMAGINED, let alone purchased), to a "kanna" the traditional Japanese plane.  According to my Shoji "bible" by Jay van Arsdale, "the smooth shear of the wood fibers by the razor-sharp blade combines with the friction heat of the gliding surface to burnish and seal in the wood's natural oils."  Consequently, no need for shellac or finish of any kind.  Woodworking with that creamy white Port Orford Cedar is heavenly, because the grain is so clean and even, and the scent is like an overwhelming evergreen forest, AHHHH!



Employing a combination of Japanese hand-tools and modern electric tools, I continually struggled to improve my nascent "joinery" techniques. Pictured is an embarrassingly sloppy version of a "suicide" (one-way trip) wedged mortise and tenon.  Those hand made wedges alleviate the need for glue, nails, screws or other fasteners.  As I've said before, it's old-school, real old.

VICTORY IS MINE! She LIKES it!  (Since this photo was taken, I've covered all of that metal hardware with nice warm wooden valances). 

I am not a serious tea-aficionado, so during these 3 years, I've often wondered what this space was REALLY going to be used for.  A hot-tub? a second office?  From the git-go I was confident that it was, at the very least, a "sculpture" to my love for Suzanne.  Plus, I'm quite fond of woodworking, heh, heh.

At the end of the Tea-House project, I had the delightful pleasure of designing and building this small piece of "furniture."   It is based on the Shinto torii symbol, which "marks the transition from profane to sacred."  Though it reminds me of a high-school wood-shop project, that level of simplicity seems quite appropriate.  I just haven't figured out where the profane stops and the sacred begins!   Note the serendipitous echo between the handle of the tea-pot and the curve of one of my earlier projects in the distance, the arbor-bench.

As I've half-jokingly (and 3/4 SERIOUSLY) said before, "now we have a place to drink tea the way Zeus intended!"All silliness aside, I'm happy to have a beautiful place to store the lawnmower, (in back and on the side, out of sight).  More importantly, the Tea-House is a place to sit, and just be, a sanctuary from the storm of everyday life, with Suzanne, and with each and every one of you, whenever you can join us.  Slowly but surely we're perfecting our tea ceremony skills.  Please come on by.

To see Joal's masterpiece short-film compilation of the first week of construction:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcWRPIMnMwY

Thanks for watching, and if you're at all interested, here are a few more photos:  http://picasaweb.google.com/107161978117607741609/TeaHouseEmail#

Love mas