New Porch

新しいポーチ

English is below.  上の写真の人々と他の人も新しいポーチを作ってくれました。 日本の働く人の方法はすばらしいです。とても玄人です。皆は念入り仕事をして、良い一緒に働きました。ごめんなさい。私の日本語は十分じゃないだので、話を欲しいの説明をできません。

  しばらく前に私のビルで一つずつ他のポーチは新しくなると気につきましたが、いつも借家人は引っ越した後で全部改造させた。私たちは大きいポーチがあったので、状態を分かりました。でも、新しいポーチを欲しいでした。前のポーチは非常に掃除しにくいでした。植物は溶岩石が囲まれていました。それで、雨が降ったら、たくさん土は零れました。いつも汚いし、タイルは掃除しにくいでした。

春で私はマンションの経営と話しました。 彼たちはとても親切で、訳のわかった。私の興味を聞いた、家族のタイミングを世話をしました。それから、早い夏で、色々人は私と相談しました。庭の人は植物の推薦をくれて、私の考えを聞きました。新しいタイルを置くために全部植物を取り去られらなければなりません。でも、前のきれいな小さい桜 木とツパキ木が好きだので、それを取って戻しました。いいな。

タイルを乗せる前に全部タイルと物を取り去って、防水加工をするを要りました。その仕事は難しくて、悪い匂え、汚れた事です。親切な家主はタイミングをやりました。家族は夏でアメリカに行きながら、それをできました。帰ったとき、タイルを置いて、新しいプランターを作って、新しいと前の植物を植えました。

もちろん、パーチは終わった時、友達たちに招待をする欲しいです。そして、９月一日に小さいポーチワーミングパーティーをやりました。そして、先週末に大きい秋のすけーたのポーチパーティーを行ないました。家族はそのような友達とパーティーをするが好きです。

下の英語は上の日本語よりちょっと長いです。時々私の頭は正しい言葉を見つかれません。その時に、英語は {これ括弧} の間に書きました。

The people in the above picture, as well as others （ who had left before I thought to grab the camera,） ronovated our porch.  It was very interesting for me to watch this happen, as the Japanese workers approach their work in a very methodical way.  They were very professional and careful, and worked well together.  My Japanese is not sufficient to explain it well, {but what I want to say is that they were very organized, absolutely stuck to their timetable, kept everything clean, coordinated with a great number of factors, and carried out quite a complicated project.  For example, at least twice, they had to hire a crane to lift things down and off or up onto the porch from the street below.  In the course of having a crane down there blocking traffic for several hours, they have to deal with traffic control effectively, communicate with the people several stories up, and I'm sure many other issues that I haven't a clue about.}

This year, I started noticing that porchs on some of the other apartments in our building were being remodeled one by one.  Always when the tennant moved out, {which happens fairly often due to frequent relocation among ex-pats} the porch would be renovated, with the old tile being removed and replaced and with new planters being built and new gardens being planted.  Our porch is rather large, so I understand the situation and wasn't surprised that their plan was to wait until we move out.  But we have no plans to move immediately, and when I saw these other new porches, I definately wanted ours to be renovated.  Martin has complained for years about how difficult to clean the porch is.  The style of the tile makes it hard to clean, but also the fact that the gardens are surrounded by lava rock, which, when it rains, spills dirt out all over everything, everytime. 

So, in Spring, I spoke with the building management about this.  They agreed to do it, and were very kind about the timing of the long job.  The first part of the job, removing the old tile, all the dirt, and everything off the porch, including the plants would be a very dirty, heavy job with lots of people running in and out of the apartment all day long through to the porch.  The laying of the waterproofing after tha t, would be a bad smelling job.  So I had the idea that they would do that part of the job during our month when we went to America in the summer. 

In early summer, several people came and consulted with me about  various aspects of the layout of the porch and the plants.  The garden person was very understanding when I said that I wanted to keep the lovely small weeping cherry tree, and the camella tree that were already part of the porch flora.  She listened to my ideas of other plants that I wanted in the boxes, choices I made to enhance privacy without disrupting view, and she gave me the benefit of her experience and training about which plants would survive best in which places on the porch due to wind and sunlight and shade. 

So when we came back, the porch was ready for tiling and the finishing work which included revised plumbing and electrical, and planters to be built and the plants to be moved up and planted.  This took some time, and I enjoyed watching them make huge progress every day.  My cherry tree and camella returned along with many other beautiful plants.  It is quite lovely.

So, of course, when it was finished, we wanted to invite our friends over to share it with us.  So September 1st we had a small porch warming party with a few family friends.  See Porch Warming Pix.  That was very fun, and then, this last weekend, we held our Fall Skater Porch Party, and that was a blast.  {It was actually a two day party, with Saturday for baking cookies, shopping and preparing food, and the Sunday was a City Run then the party.  It rained in the morning, so our family didn't attend City Run, which was a good thing, as I realistically had too much to do. With 60 people coming, we couldn't have done it without the porch.}  Please see the pictures from the Skater Party.

What's with the { } in the English part written above?  Well those are the places where I didn't compose a Japanese quasi-equivalent.  Sometimes I can't find the words to start how to express an idea, so the English part of the post is a little longer and more complete.