I did a Podcast!

Hi all. Just a quick entry to note that I was interviewed about this blog for a Japanese real estate podcast. You can listen here!

https://podcast05d680.podigee.io/62-building-a-home-in-osaka-japan-real-estate-construction-property?fbclid=IwAR1LSXgzRzUIOPAaE88DwxIlsMNhxmnBCIfC95w26y5dCmpl5X8zU-xohls

Many thanks to Ziv for taking the time to talk to me! You can find his website here! http://nippontradings.com/

A huge hole!

I went by the land on Saturday afternoon as it was a nice day and I wanted to go and visit a used car dealership not too far from where we are building. Yuko was working so I went alone, which is good because it gives me the opportunity to practice talking about cars for ages in Japanese. It's a tactic I would recommend for anyone thinking about paying for Japanese lessons. Don't waste your money!

The express train from Namba, which is kind of the main downtown area in Osaka and quite near to where we live now, only takes 18 minutes with no changes so, in no time at all, I was exiting the station at the top of the mountain and very quickly rewarded with a fantastic view of the city. In the distance, you can see the Osaka skyline (around 15km away) and the mountains between Osaka and Kobe. Here's a picture:

The view westwards from the station

It's about a six minute walk from the station to the land, the first part being flat along the top of the spur before a left turn down some relatively steep steps. At that first corner there is a very large old house with an overgrown garden and some animal posters on the fence. The house is unbelievably smelly, especially in summer. I have no idea what kind of mad zoo there is on the other side. Yuko and I usually just hold our noses and pick up the pace a bit.

A couple of minutes later and I was standing in front of the plot and, frankly, rather pleasantly surprised at the progress. There is now an even bigger hole where the parking place was, the steps have been completely removed and there is earth everywhere! The construction workers were discussing the back wall of the parking area, which it seems is now almost completely formed and ready to be concreted in.

What struck me on Saturday was what a massive operation this actually is. In Japan you see building plots everywhere but they are usually the sort of cookie-cutter flat plots with foundations being dug and neat piles of earth around the sides. Our builders looked more like they were relocating the actual mountain itself! 

It was a bit of a weird feeling to think that we instigated all of this. Even though we basically have no idea what we're doing, because of decisions we made and papers that we signed, now these men are digging a gigantic hole. Awesome!

Drilling Holes

Is it March already? It seems like just last week we were sitting down to Christmas dinner and yet already the weather is starting to warm up and everyone is getting ready for a new working year (the calendar of which runs from April 1st here in Japan). Updates have been a little thin on the ground over the last few weeks and there are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, Yuko and I spent a couple of weeks in northern Spain eating all the ham and drinking all the wine we could lay our hands on. Secondly, due to schedule conflicts, the groundwork discussed in the last blog took forever to get started...but started it has.

Late last week, the contractors arrived to begin drilling the huge deep holes that will house the heavy steel pilings that will be supporting the land and forming a retaining wall around the steps and parking space. In total there will be between 6 and 8 pilings and a heavy metal 'sheet' that will be used to hold back the earth. It's quite a complex procedure that requires some pretty serious equipment and some very deep digging.

Since we were away when they commenced with the drilling, we weren't able to head to the site to watch, which was something we had been quite keen to do. Luckily, the building company had offered to take some photos of the work so that we could document it on the blog. I've put the three photos below for you to see.

We're hopeful that this is the last of any major deviations from the schedule and that we can get on with the more enjoyable task of actually building the house itself. Since neither of us is especially technical, it's really difficult to go into much detail about these complex engineering tasks other than to marvel at the huge machines and big pieces of metal. I think we should be able to provide a bit more interest and insight when we can get back to talking about things inside the house.

The pilings viewed from above

The big drill!

First pilings in place

  

Progress and Land

Hi all. Just a quick message to say that we had a meeting last week and received the quote for shoring up the land in the area where the wall fell down. Again we were pretty tense before the meeting but the quote came in around what we were expecting and, although it isn't cheap, at least it will alleviate any future worries about the stability of the ground next to the parking area and we are still well within out contingency for overall land improvements.

The work is expected to take an additional 4 or 5 days, after which we can resume building properly. I think we will both be pretty relieved when the frame is up as the likelihood of expensive surprises should be greatly reduced at that stage. For now, fingers are crossed for a smooth few weeks of construction. I've asked the builder for some photos of the planned land improvements so will post these when we receive them.

In other news, I was perusing the various land and property portals the other day and found a nice, flat, ready-to-go piece of land a couple of minutes walk from our plot. It's unlikely to have the same impressive views and is slightly further from the station. The price per square meter is 3x what we paid for our land so even after the modifications and improvements we have chosen (and in some cases had no choice but) to make, we are still very happy with what we bought. In fact, at those prices, we would never have had a chance to buy such a good sized plot. Full marks to us for having a vision I guess!

Finally, I know there are a lot of folk reading this in Japan who are building or who are thinking about building here. A really useful resource that I think I have mentioned once before is the land registry website where details of land purchases and prices can be found. Amazingly, it is available in English!  

(http://www.land.mlit.go.jp/webland_english/servlet/MainServlet)

The Waiting Game

We're good at waiting. We've become quite accustomed to it over the last couple of years - phone calls, checks, paperwork, meetings, money transfers, exchanges, completions. In fact, it sometimes seems that we spend more time waiting than doing. Today marks the beginning of February which makes it 2 years since we started seriously looking at land in the area where we are building. Now, there have been a number of self-imposed delays along the way - we bought the land in the summer of 2017 and didn't start speaking to builders until well into the following year because of planning our wedding.

Fast-forward to December 2018 and not only are we still happily married (!) but we'd started building too. It seemed that the waiting was finally over and we were getting really excited about seeing our house shoot up out of the ground, as they tend to do here. Alas, the universe has a sense of humor when it comes to such things. As you'll know from the last post, we encountered our first minor setback when the wall fell down a couple of weeks ago.

On top of that, as it turns out, the company who were quoting to shore up the land close to the steps have looked at their availability and decided that they're not able to do the work so the builders have had to reach out to a different company for a quote. The head architect called me this week to explain the reasons for the latest delay and to offer his very sincere apologies. I was at the pub at the time (with my friend, the real estate agent, who helped us source the land) which was less than ideal since it was rather noisy and I'd had a couple of beers. Whilst I wasn't able to understand everything, it was clear that the architect was indeed very sorry and that they were doing everything possible to expedite the process. There's not much that they can do and it's a bit frustrating for everyone involved.

It seems, therefore, that work on site is currently stalled but we are hopeful of restarting in the next couple of weeks. Whilst we've become used to waiting, we really are pretty keen to get this thing built so we can go and start the next phase of our lives. I'll post again when we are back up and running!

Not sure what this is for but needed an unused picture and it looked a little despairing! 

Oops. The wall fell down!

We've been to the land a few times recently to check on progress and things are moving on at a pretty fast pace. Unfortunately, it's a bit tricky to get there with work schedules being what they are and the fact that it takes around an hour on public transport from our current apartment. We are looking at buying a car in the next couple of months, assuming we can find some local parking, as this will help us to go to site more often and to the various showrooms and furniture shops that invariably are situated in the middle of nowhere.

The most recent trip was at the request of the builders. We have a shared private Facebook group through which we can communicate, share documents and photos and keep a log of progress. It's a really effective (and surprisingly modern for Japan) approach to doing things and has been working really well. We received a message on the group to ask if we could come to site as there were a couple of things to discuss.

Invariably, this leads to a certain element of worry and uncertainty as past experience has shown us that "things to discuss" have a tendency to be "things which will cost more money" and so again we left for the meeting with some trepidation about what exactly we were in for. I'm sure the builders don't mean to make us worry and it's difficult to adequately explain what's happened on an internet forum but I do wish there was some way that we could alleviate the fear of not knowing a bit!

Anyway, we got to the meeting to discover that in removing the steps on the eastern edge of the plot, the wall separating our plot from next door had collapsed! It transpires that the ground in that area of the plot is somewhat less solid than had been predicted and this caused the wall to give way. Thankfully, our neighbours have been very understanding and the builders have done a very good job of smoothly over any potential tensions, quickly offering a solution which was deemed cosmetically and practically acceptable.

The downside is that we will need to install six or seven additional steel pilings and, if I understood correctly, a kind of metal retaining barrier to shore up the ground before installing the new steps and the concrete walls for the parking space. Obviously this is likely to be a reasonably hefty expense and, since it's not a mistake but rather a discovered feature of our quirky plot of land, it's on us to foot the bill. Marvelous.

I think in these situations, it's always healthy to try and mitigate with a bit of positivity as far as one possibly can. In this instance, one such comfort is that we did get the land for a steal on account of it being rather difficult, and thus we do have a contingency for dealing with such problems (and indeed we expected a few). The other is that we at least know now that the land will be safe and stable and will have documentation to that effect. Aside from giving peace of mind, it's likely to be appealing to a buyer should we ever decide to sell and move on in the future.

The work is likely to delay progress by a couple of weeks which is unfortunate but not the end of the world. There was also some promising news this week that the government has extended the eco-subsidy that we have applied for from February to August and so there is a chance that, if the builders work quickly, we'll have a chance of having our application accepted. It's worth 800,000 yen so we're really hopeful of a positive outcome!

Here's some pictures of current progress:

Looking south. On the LHS, you can see where the wall fell down!

A view across the car parking space to the south west

The new slope where the old stepped wall was situated. Slope will be the part under the tarp. Gradient will be a little shallower than this and will feature flowers and trees (probably)

Looking down from the top of the plots at the parking space. The pole on the tarp is actually about where the north wall of the house will be.

View across the plot to the north west. As you can see, a lot more digging has been done in the last two weeks!

Large mound of earth under a tarp on top of the plot. Not sure what will happen to it.

Digging Begins!

After months and months of waiting, the digger has arrived and we have finally broken ground. It’s taken such a long time to get to this stage that we were really starting to wonder whether it would ever actually happen. Nevertheless, we have started!

The builders started by introducing themselves to those in the vicinity of the plot and explained that they were planning to commence construction and the likely duration of it. Usually we would have accompanied them but we were away in the UK at the time. There were no indications of any objections, I think partly because the plot has been empty for a while and a new house is decidedly less unsightly than some straggly plants, weeds and tall grass. I did ask the builders what happens in the event that someone objects and they said “We build anyway. It’s your right”. So much for asking for permission.

Often in Japan there is also something called a jichinsai, which is a ceremony to purify the land before construction starts. It wasn’t something we especially wanted to do as it is quite expensive and doesn’t mean anything to us (but we were prepared to do so if family were interested and we did think it might be quite an interesting cultural event). As it turned out, there wasn’t time to have the ceremony before we went to the UK so we managed to swerve it in the end. Of course, it being Japan, there other ceremonies further down the line. Whether we’ll be able to avoid them too, only time will tell.

At any rate, the first work started and has basically involved cutting into the tall stone wall to make way for the new double parking space. As you will see in the pictures below, there is not much else to report other than to marvel at the fact that apparently one guy managed to make that huge hole with a tiny digger in just one day! I can’t really think of anything else to add for now so enjoy the photos!   

The little digger

Bye bye tiny parking space!

The hole with view to the West

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!

House Walkthrough 8 - The Japanese Room

In the North East corner of the upstairs space we will have a 和室 (washitsu) or Japanese room, the floor of which will be made of traditional Japanese reed mats called 畳　(tatami). These rooms are typically used for celebratory meals or as an additional sleeping space for guests. Houses that have a family shrine often place it in this room, although I don’t think we will be getting one ourselves.

Location of the room in the top north east corner of the house

We want to keep this room as simple as possible so have opted not to include much in the way of shelving, save for a low lying runner unit on the north wall. Along the east wall will be some low (frosted?) windows bringing in some natural light.

Low windows at the bottom of the east wall

We have had to make two relatively big decisions with this room and both were quite difficult. Firstly, we were asked whether we wanted the floor to be flush with the living room without a step up onto the tatami. This was our first preference. However, what we discovered was that by raising the floor of the Japanese room, we could install long drawers which slide out, into which we could put all the futons and bedding for when the room is used for sleeping. We decided that not having to include large cupboards for this stuff would give us a larger and simpler space and so we decided that the trade-off was definitely worth it.

The second decision was whether or not to leave the space open or to put in some sliding doors to separate the space from the living room. This time, it was a financial consideration as these doors were not exactly going to be cheap. That said, if we were to decide to have doors, there were various options to choose from, falling into two main categories.

The first are called shoji which you may have seen in pictures or films. They are basically a light wood frame and the “door panel” is made of waxy paper. They are beautiful but bad at keeping out unwanted light, poor at keeping heat in and prone to getting broken by kids and drunk adults. They are also quite expensive. The second are called fusuma and are heavier and more hard-wearing and better at keeping light out as they are more opaque. They are also a little cheaper but, I think, less beautiful than shoji. (More info about them both here https://simplicable.com/new/fusuma-vs-shoji)

Doors separating the space from the living room

Again, we flip-flopped between the two different kinds of doors and also having no separation at all. Eventually we concluded that being able to close off the space was valuable but not to the extent that we would splash out of the shoji. We have therefore compromised and chosen fusuma. If the budget starts to get away from us, we can always change our minds again.

That’s it for this entry. The final entry of the walkthrough will be the balcony and roof terrace. Stay tuned!