Abandoned 'Ryokan' Garage: Antiques, Trash, and Treasure

We’ve been spending most of our time getting ready for springtime, and putting most of our energy into the honeybees and farmland. But we also managed to find the time to completely empty and clean this garage! Among a small amount of trash, we found seemingly endless amounts of really cool “new” in box items from many, many decades past. Almost everything we found was in good condition! Incredible!

After careful consideration, we decided that Evan’s honeybee workshop would be better suited in this garage, at the forker ryokan, instead of the garage at Benton Guesthouse. It just makes a lot more sense to have his workshop in this space, so he doesn’t have to worry about interfering with guests, or making saw mill noise by the guesthouse and neighbors. I bumped up this garage to top priority!

Below, you can see the series of four videos sorting through all the items in the garage. Keep scrolling to see photos, and the beginning of the next step: repairing water damage.

Our YouTube video, unpacking the first section of boxes in the abandoned garage ⌄

Our YouTube video, unpacking the second section of boxes in the abandoned garage ⌄

Our YouTube video, unpacking the third section of boxes in the abandoned garage ⌄

Our YouTube video, unpacking the final section of boxes in the abandoned garage, and cleanup! ⌄

That brings us up to date! Moving forward, we are working diligently to get this garage transformed into our honeybee workshop. The means it will very soon be set up with woodworking equipment for Evan to build our own beehives and expansions, and also it will be sanitary for honey processing.

Now clearly, we have water damage to address. It’s mind-boggling to think all this damage was caused simply by two rain gutter downspouts not functioning properly! Thankfully, the garage is a cinder block structure which has no structural issues, so the repair will be primarily cement, plaster, mold killer and barrier, and paint. My dream is to eventually paint a mural on the outside. Imagine a scene with blue sky, flowers, honeybees, and a map of the Shimanami Kaido islands. Some day it will be the cutest little garage and workshop!