竣工 - The End :-)

Greetings from our new home! It seems crazy to be saying that but we have finally moved out of our small apartment and are now officially (paperwork submitted and stamped!) living on our little slice of mountain in suburban Osaka. 

First of all, another huge thank you to everyone who has helped us over the last almost 3 years. We genuinely couldn't have done it without you. Thanks also to those of you reading this blog and keeping us going with your comments and suggestions. Writing this has been an invaluable experience and has contributed in no small way to the wonderful house we are now living in.

And what a house it is. I don't think I will ever tire of the view over Osaka from the living room or the roof deck. I hope the wood smell lasts forever and the white walls stay pristine (I know that's not going to happen). Though we are still surrounded by boxes and have a million and one tasks still to complete, the house is already starting to feel like a home. Our home.

In an ideal world, I'd like to report back in a few months or a year and say how things are progressing but I'd rather not make any promises. For now, we want to simply enjoy living in the new space and get ready to move onto the next challenges that life throws at us. So, this may be goodbye for this blog or it may not be. If it is, once again, thank you so much for reading. I'll still see comments and be able to reply to them so if anyone has any comments or questions, you can still reach me on here. For now, here is the final installment of pictures of the house. It was and is the best thing we ever decided to do.

Tom and Yuko


The House

Garden

Views & Balconies

Decks

Bedrooms

Corridors and Storage

Study

Bathroom

Laundry

Toilets

Living Room

Kitchen and Pantry

Japanese Room

12 hours

12 hours to go until we get the keys! Sorry for the lack of updates in the last week - we’ve just been too busy.

Lots of photos to follow :-)

A different kind of delay

I'm writing this from Incheon Airport in Korea as I am heading back to the UK for a week. Bad news - a delay! Thankfully, this time, it's not the house that is delayed but me! The incoming aircraft is arriving late so I have an extra 6 hours to kill at the airport and hopefully 600 euros of compensation heading my way. Thanks to the European Union for that one.

This gives me more than enough time to put up some photos from when Yuko went over to the house last week. Apparently it was absolutely teeming with contractors, so much so that it was quite hard to take decent photographs, though I think she's done a pretty good job!

Yuko informs me that there were a number of people there doing the "Feather Feel" finishing to the walls. This is a finishing technique originating from a German company that is supposed to make the walls look especially beautiful and is pretty common in Japan these days. Basically, the wallpaper is primed using Paper Fleece (like this) and then a final coat is added (such as with this marble-based paint). More information available in Japanese here for those of you in Japan.

We have also had a few final decisions to make as yet more items we had chosen have gone out of stock or been replaced by newer versions. Mostly this has been easy but choosing two new toilet sinks at short notice with pretty strict dimensions was rather tricky. We are also still debating whether or not to put a handrail around the top of the car parking area for safety. That's something we don't immediately have to decide and may depend on how sturdy the roof is over the car park but I'm minded to just put a rail there anyway to be doubly sure.

There's not much else I can add other than to put up the photos below. It sucks being away from the house at a crucial time but being busy (Conference in Cambodia was excellent by the way) certainly helps to take my mind off the slowly ticking clock. Less than 2 weeks to go!

The stone stairs and rocks have started to go into the slope garden. Looks awesome!

Roof going over the parking area

Feather feel finishing of the walls. The new handrail is beautiful and likely to make getting our fridge upstairs VERY tight

The base of the bar. Now under construction. The LHS big gap will house a mini fridge. I designed this!

The shokkidana for our kitchen stuff. Yuko designed this!

Loft ladder waiting to go into the attic above the Japanese room

Moss green wallpaper in the tatami room. I'm pretty sure the screen doesn't do the color justice. Yuko says it is very nice

The tatami room from the other angle

Small problem. One was brushed and the other shiny so mix and match didn't really work. I went with the long handle type for all fixtures on the bar as a result. It's the same as the handles on the kitchen cabinets