We'll hold them here in Ome until the tatami mats are delivered down at the shop, and then truck them over.

And finally - finally! - I'm done with the electrical preparation. I've added six new circuits to the building, running cable back to this location - where the new breaker panel will sit.

I'm of course not going to do that part of the work myself; we've arranged for a professional electrician to take it from here. He'll install a new 12-breaker panel, connect up my new lines, then arrange with the supply company to kill the source while he moves the old three circuits over. And we'll get an upgrade of the supply to 60 amps from the current 20.

While I was busy with that work, Ioan has moved on from his bathroom construction and has attacked the front stairs. A previous reform left these in terrible shape - they jackhammered the lower third of the flight to reduce the width of the staircase in order to give more room to the 1st floor shop.

We can't change that back, but we can clean up the ragged mess they left behind. Ioan is pouring new concrete to rebuild the steps ...

... building a form for each one in turn ...

While he waits for the concrete on each one to dry, he puts on a different hat and gets busy with something else. Here he is painting one of the walls of the Print Party room.

Look at that ceiling - left behind from the time that this was an upscale Japanese restaurant in times gone by. We have no intention at all to tear that down, but it took quite some time to find a long and thin lighting unit that would fit there.

Lee-san has been busy back in the shop area; the past couple of days he has been building a kind of hanging 'box' with spotlights to shine down on the counter area:

We're thinking that this will add a lot to the ambiance of the place ...

For the last three images in this set today, it might be worthwhile reading the 'A Story A Week' that is also being published today ... because this is the location of that action!

Here's the new vanity ... Unfortunately there won't be much room left under it for storage, as the water heater eats up most of the space ...

And as we mentioned in that story, "We have water, plenty of water!"

This final photo was taken after the story was written, and the toilet all wired up. It works perfectly! (We've tested it ... no photo available ... )

We just have to fix the control panel to the wall, and this little room will be 'open for business'.

Do you think we should prepare an English translation of the controls, or let people figure it out for themselves? :-)