The Old Windows Come Home; the Wall Campaign Begins

Day twenty-eight. With the roof secured overhead, the project pivoted inward — and downward, from ceilings to walls.

Thirty bays, four hours. The annex ceiling’s first-coat finish went to production: trim the protruding urethane foam, trowel on X18 cement (one bag), press in the mesh. Thirty bays completed — including the two awkward ones above the main beam — in about four hours, two of us working. We note the rate deliberately: after weeks of this system, we finally know our own speed, and a known speed is what makes the remaining schedule plannable instead of aspirational.

The windows come home. The original sliding wood windows (changho) — removed and stored when the shoring work needed clearance — were reassembled and rehung today. This was a choice, not a default: new windows would be tighter and easier. But these frames, with their proportions and their decades of handling, carry the atmosphere that no reproduction quite manages. Where the original fabric can serve, it stays.

Clearing the way for flat walls. The rest of the day was preparation-by-demolition in the annex: the old kitchen wall tiles came off, the brick course along the main beam came down, and the door frame leading out of the annex was removed entirely. That last one surprised us — one absent door frame, and the space opens up dramatically. All of it serves one goal: bare, honest wall surfaces ready for insulation board.

The big order. And the opening move of the next campaign: 55 sheets of GCS insulation board, ordered for us to install ourselves. The stated purpose is insulation; the equal, quieter purpose is flatness — hanok walls meander, and a consistent board layer establishes the unified plane that every finish after it will depend on.

Ceilings taught us the system. Now the walls get it.