Foundations

We went up to the building site yesterday for the first time in two weeks and, from the road, it didn’t seem as if there had been much progress. All we could see was that an electrical cable was now running from the main pylon on the road to the North West corner of our site. Next to the parking area, the temporary wooden steps were still in place, still waiting to be replaced by their future concrete counterparts. As we ascended the (more rickety than we remembered) wooden stairs, we were wondering to ourselves if anything had changed at all.

The top part of the plot told a very different story. The foundations are almost complete! It was quite a shock to see our entire house laid out in front of us like that – it was much easier to appreciate the size and shape than it was with just the string. First impressions were that the house is pretty big but the individual rooms and the garden look small. The latter is is probably partly due to the piles of earth and rubble that can be found near the edges of the plot and are eating into the garden space.

The concrete base for the foundations has been laid and there is some kind of plastic or polyethylene sheet covering it. If anyone knows what that is for, please let me know as I have no idea! Some kind of vapor barrier? Sticking out of the base layer are hundreds of vertical pieces of steel rebar, creating the cage into which the concrete will be poured. Using rebar helps to increase the tensile strength of the concrete, which is kind of important in a country where there are regular earthquakes. Apparently, bamboo can also be used but I’m more inclined to trust steel than something that can be taken down by a koala.

We’re pretty happy with how the house is situated on the site. There’s reasonable space on all sides, although traversing the space between the north wall and the parking space is a bit scary since currently there’s no roof over the car park and it wouldn’t be too difficult to fall off it into a crumple of bones below.

It’s also not only the house for which we can see the foundations but also the wood deck which will wrap around the master bedroom and the study on the ground floor. It also has a number of “mini-foundations” with a spray-painted line on the earth indicating where this will be. The deck is quite a lot bigger than we had envisaged, especially the part which extends out from the study. In hindsight, it might have been nice to have a bit more study and bit less deck but I still don’t think we would have changed anything – building deck is a lot cheaper than building house!

We’re still not sure what to do about the slope, although a friend who is staying with us for a few days and came to see the land with us came up with an interesting suggestion of planting bamboo there. This would need to be managed carefully, since it grows powerfully and quickly but it might be an interesting option and would certainly provide some additional strength to the land. Something to speak to the builders about I guess. Maybe we can get a pet koala after all.

I’ll try and get over to site later on this week so expect another update in a week or so. We’re booked in to visit the bathroom showroom at the start of June so expect to start seeing some more posts about interior stuff and more cosmetic things from then. Thanks to the new blog followers and for those sharing this thing around and talking about it with us. It’s great to have so many people experiencing this with us. Until next time!

Our house!

The narrow walkway separating the house and certain death in the car parking space.

The rebar frame. I think they were making the concrete riser blocks onsite - they look like those plastic Dominos pizza box tables.

East side of the house. Nice access for meters, air con boxes etc.

The walkway along the north side again. It's not that narrow really. Will be much safer with a roof on the right hand side.

You can just see the plastic sheeting in this picture. If you know what it's for, please tell me!

Double kids bedroom which can be split into two. Looks quite small. Sorry in advance, hypothetical children.

The mini-foundations for the wood deck, complete with ominous looking spikes. Kept well clear of these.

House Walkthrough 9 - Deck, Balcony and Roof Terrace

This is the final chapter in the walkthrough of the house. There are a few other small things that will no doubt appear in future posts but I think we’ve covered the main elements throughout this series. I hope it has been interesting to read about!

For this entry, I’m collating together what I might call the “connected” outside spaces. What I mean by that is the balcony, wood deck and roof terrace. Although we will have a garden at some stage, we currently have no idea what it is going to look like or whether there will be enough funds left in the budget to complete it soon after finishing the house itself. It’s likely something that we will have to come back to months (years?) after finishing the building. I’ll be sure to write a blog about it at some point!

As for the wood deck, it is a kind of L-shape surrounding the master bedroom and the study, wrapping around the North West corner of the house. It will be about 1.5 meters deep which should allow for a couple of outside chairs and a small table. In one of the meetings we talked about putting some hooks up for a hammock underneath the sloped roof. I’m not sure if that is still on the cards, though to be honest, if I can’t start shifting some of this Christmas excess, I’d end up pulling the whole house down if I tried to get into a hammock.

The wood deck

I’m not sure yet exactly what function this deck is going to perform but we both really liked it in the model house that we saw. Being able to transition between rooms via a covered outside walkway is kind of cool and it’s nice to be able to sit outside looking at the garden with a cup of coffee. We also like the idea of a gentle transition between the indoors and outdoors which is found in some traditional Japanese homes. I remember walking on such a deck in one of the old houses in Kyoto and enjoying the feeling of wood on shoeless feet whilst looking at the garden. Hopefully we can recreate something similar.

Upstairs, there is a large balcony (4mx2.3m) connected to the living room by a really cool custom-made sliding door. Again, we saw this in the model house and it really adds to the light and space, making the living room itself feel much bigger. Since the doors open to be completely hidden in the wall, again there is this neat connection between inside and outside.

The balcony

The most important thing for this balcony is that it can be used for something practical. Most Japanese balconies are small and used only for drying washing. However, at around 10m2 ours is big enough for a table and chairs so we will probably endeavor to have dinner out here when the weather is nice (and the mosquitos are on holiday). Its proximity to the kitchen should make this very practical. To the North West we will have mountain views over the road and we may even be able to see Osaka over the house to the West.

May be able to see Osaka? What do you mean may? Surely you know for certain and have planned this intricately?! Actually, no. The reason we haven’t put huge amounts of thoughts into the geometry of the views from this balcony (other than situating it in the best possible position for the view to the North West) is that our house has a really interesting and rather unique feature - a roof terrace!

The roof terrace sits about 7 meters above the foundations and is accessed via a continuation of the stairwell from the living room, almost like an additional floor. Like the balcony, it measures about 10m2 and will give 180 degree views of the surrounding landscape. This was really important to us as one of the most impressive things about where we have decided to live is its location, on the side of a mountain. From the roof terrace, we will be able to look out over the house in front to see the vast expanse of Osaka city to the West and the mountains to the north. On a clear day, it is possible to Kobe 50km to the west.

The roof terrace from above

Where the roof terrace sits

The intention is to have some comfortable seating and a small table or two up there so that we can enjoy watching the sunsets with a drink and some snacks. Since the weather in Japan almost always comes from West to East, another advantage is that we should be able to get a live weather forecast at any time just by heading up there and looking into the distance!

Most importantly, the roof terrace gives us security for the future. As I mentioned, one of the best things about where we have chosen to live is the view and this roof terrace protects that. The house to the west is old (and seemingly unoccupied) so we have no idea how long we have until someone decides to knock it down and build something new. Though there are protections about sunlight and proximity, there are no protections for a view so it’s possible that a new full-height building could block some of our view on the upstairs floor. It is true that the foundations of that house are a few meters lower than ours so they cannot build a house as tall as ours but having a roof terrace mitigated a good deal more of that risk and so we decided to go ahead with it. We cannot wait to stand up there for the first time and take in the view!

That about wraps up this series. From now on, we’ll mostly be featuring photos and updates on the development (which as I mentioned last time has now started) as well as any other interesting stuff that comes up. For those that have been following so far, thank you so much for doing so. We’re looking forward to sharing the next stage with you and showing you some real-life progress. Stay tuned!

Our lovely house!