From Construction Site to Space

Day ten. Somewhere in today’s work, the site crossed a line: it stopped feeling like a construction zone and started feeling like a place.

Exterior plastering, 70% done. We worked mortar into the outer wall around the eave rafters — the face of the house that takes rain and wind head-on, so no voids allowed. Two full 40 kg bags of plaster mortar went in today alone. Slow, rhythmic, oddly satisfying work.

More rafters, more light. The kitchen–corridor demolition from yesterday freed up working room, so four awkward rafters that had been trapped in that corner finally got ground clean. We also mapped the remaining bays needing foam board and kept the insulation moving.

Another wall down. In the annex, one more non-load-bearing wall — confirmed structurally idle — came out for openness, circulation, and daylight. The before/after difference is almost comic. Demolition is the cheapest interior design there is, when the structure allows it.

The stone run. Weeks of accumulated stone and rubble left in one truckload: ₩50,000 transport, ₩60,000 disposal — ₩110,000 total. Stone is deceptive; a load that just fills the truck bed is already at the weight limit. With the pile gone, the whole site breathes and every walking path got shorter.

Design decisions on the ground. A working meeting with the interior contractor produced three concrete directions: 3-meter bamboo planted along the exterior; the bath dug ~80 cm down so the tub sits sunken into the floor; the toilet split off as a dry room with the washbasin moved outside the door. Design, buildability, maintenance — in that order.

And the color is: pine. After the too-red rose-wood test, we re-tested and confirmed pine (Samhwa World Master oil stain) as the closest match to the original timber. The runner-up, light pine, taught us the testing rule above — wet color and dry color are different colors.