Raised Foundations

Hi all. A relatively short update this week. There has been a reasonable amount of progress over at the site but there’s not a huge amount I think we can really say about it in the blog post! I was able to drive over there last Saturday to take some pictures, which you can find at the bottom of the page as usual.

The most noticeable change is that the next level of the foundations has been completed. You can no longer see the steel rebar that is reinforcing the concrete and the wood panels have now been removed. What is left is a smooth and rather cool looking concrete maze on which the frame will eventually sit when it goes up (hopefully in the next 2-3 weeks depending on the rain)

The concrete base actually sits about 50cm above ground level. The reason for this is to raise the whole house by that distance in order to build up as high as possible without including an expensive (and difficult to get through planning control) 3^rd floor. We want the house to be as tall as possible to protect the views we have over the house in front, in case they decide to rebuild at some stage.

I think, now more than ever, we can really get a feel for how big the house is going to be and where it sits on the plot. Actually, I think the builders have got the position of the house absolutely perfect and there is plenty of access space around the East side where all of the meters and various house equipment will be. The garden feels like a good size and the wood deck is well situated. It’s still a bit dicey next to the carpark area but that will no doubt feel a lot safer when the roof is added.

There has also been some progress on the concrete steps that will lead up to the front door from the road. The plot shape and elevation dictate that these will have to be fairly steep, but we’ve opted for a simple design that should hopefully make getting up and down them reasonably easy.

As I said, there’s not a whole lot to write about since the pictures can give you a much better idea than I can. There are likely to be quite a few updates over the next few weeks as the pace is really picking up. Of course, it’s now rainy season so delays are always possible. As always, please keep in touch and keep your questions and comments coming. Speak soon!

View to the NW. Shows well how the house sits on the plot I think.

View to the SE taken from the garden.

View to the east. It's reasonably narrow between the end wall and the car park. The roof will make this a lot safer!

View down the soon-to-be staircase

View up the soon-to-be staircase

The gap where the front door will go. Before that is the porch

The corridor stretching from the study to the south wall of the house

Mini foundations for the wood deck

Smooth concrete - this is the kids' room

The south garden area. Small, but with elevated veg patches on the RHS

The main garden. There is a little bit of space to the left of where I am standing too

A final picture of our concrete maze

Window Shopping

Greetings all. For those in Japan, I hope the summer heat isn’t causing you too much trouble. We’re up to the high twenties here in Osaka but the worst is certainly yet to come. It’s been rather quiet on site lately as we are waiting on the wood for the house frame to arrive and for a break from the recent rainy weather to build the concrete base above the foundations on which our house will sit.

The groundwork and a few other things have delayed us a bit so we’re now looking like November for our completion date. We were hoping to be in before the Rugby World Cup, as the stadium is nearby and we have tickets but unfortunately, it was not to be. Ah well, what’s another few weeks eh?

Whilst the last couple of weeks have been pretty wet and miserable, we have at least been able to make some decisions about materials and finishes for the outside of the house. Obviously it’s not built yet (!) but I have a few sample pictures which I’ll include below to give you all an idea of what it might look like. The main focus today, however, is the windows...

I’ll start by saying that choosing window frames involved a huge amount of deliberating and compromise both amongst ourselves and also with the builders. We are having LIXIL Thermos (in Japanesified English, Samos) windows fitted since they are double glazed and relatively inexpensive. You can see more about them here. This gives a choice of both internal sash colours (to be discussed in a later blog) and external sash colours. Double the fun!

Yuko and I had been given a small sample to look at and had provisionally decided on “Shine Grey”, a kind of dark and, oddly, not especially shiny grey as the exterior frame/sash colour for all the windows. Since there are two LIXIL showrooms in Osaka, it was pretty easy for us to drive over to one of them and have a look. We were very positive and excited to go and have a look at our new windows.

Then we encountered our first problem. I didn’t like Shine Grey. To me it looked cheap and flimsy under the bright lights of the showroom. I didn’t like the other options much either, with one exception. The black frames looked smart, sturdy and, from a distance, they could have easily have been made of wrought iron instead of the lightweight aluminium that they are really made from. They seemed rather neutral and cool. I could imagine them aging well.

Yuko didn’t like the black frames. Oh dear! Problem number 1. What to do? We asked the shop assistant for help and she told us that some people like black frames and some people don’t. Not especially helpful. She then showed us a mockup on a computer screen with black frames and then grey frames, which didn’t really look anything like our house. Again, not the breakthrough we were hoping for. This was becoming an issue.

We wandered round a few more times but it was pretty clear that we were at a bit of an impasse. I kind of agreed that having all black frames for the whole house would be a huge decision but I couldn’t really see any alternatives. After rather a lot of pacing and not a whole lot of constructive commentary, Yuko announced “We have a big problem”. It was hard to disagree.

Now, since I am a super husband and all-round reasonable man, I had reluctantly told myself at this stage that I was likely going to have to accept the Shine Grey all over the house. Of course I couldn’t tell Yuko that! That would be akin to pulling out the white flag and I still wanted at least to discuss it a bit more! Negotiations continued.

Then I had a bit of an idea. The lower part of the front of our house is going to be clad with Japanese cedar in a kind of orange stain which should weather into a kind of darker burnt orange hue. The top part is going to be finished in a white-ish mortar with a small amount of yellow added. Whilst I had accepted that the Shine Grey frames looked reasonable against white-ish backgrounds as the two colours blend together reasonably well, what I really didn’t like was the way the Shine Grey looked against the stained cedar. Black looked much better I think. It could also pair up nicely with a black door handle on the wood front door and the darkness of the roofs above. I felt that this would create a kind of cool wooden ‘wrap’ effect around part of the ground floor of the house. Perhaps you can see where this is going...

We asked the lady at LIXIL if people often have different window frames for different parts of the house and she said that they didn’t really. This didn’t bother me (us?) as we aren’t trying to build a 100% typical Japanese house like the ones you get from the big homemakers. In a way, we are trying to build something that incorporates both of our cultures (although that’s certainly more difficult to do with the outside than the inside). A plan was developing.

At home the discussions continued with lots of Google image searching for examples and inspiration. At one stage, I think I had about 70 tabs open on my computer. Conversation ebbed and flowed but I sensed that we were starting to come together towards consensus. Perhaps I could put the white flag away for good?

After more than a day of discussion, we finally opted for the bolder option of having black window frames on the cedar part and Shine Grey for the mortared walls. We sent our decision off to the builders with a couple of the pictures we had sourced to explain the concept. They responded to say thank you and that we would speak about it at the next meeting.

At the meeting, we went over the various choices we had made and the conversation turned to the windows. Japan is pretty conservative when it comes to these things and conformity is certainly the norm. Doing something that others don’t is perhaps seen as a bit eccentric and a bit individualist. As such, our architect described our two (small) black window frames as rather “kitsui”, loosely translated as intense, bold, or striking. Negotiations had re-opened and this time with a different adversary. This being Japan, several long and uncomfortable silences ensued!

Yuko did a grand job of mediating between us and eventually it was agreed that we would in fact go with the more striking option. I (and perhaps still to a lesser extent), Yuko have faith that the black windows are going to look good and, at the very least, in a world of conformity, it will make our house a bit unique.

All this fuss over two small windows! We’ve lived at our current flat for over 3 years and I still couldn’t tell you what colour the frames are on the outside. Still, I’m really glad that we took the time to really discuss it together, as difficult as that was at times, and presented our decision to the builders as a team. If it looks awful, I’ll have to suck up my pride and find some replacement frames or get the paintbrush out.

I think that’s a good point at which to draw this entry to a close. In other news, there’s going to be some concrete work on site in the next few days so hopefully I can get some pics up early next week. I’ll also try and get something together on some of the interior decisions we’ve made lately. Tiles, toilets and the like. As always, we really appreciate the ongoing feedback, commentary, shares and likes. We’re closing in on 10,000 views which is just absolutely insane. Thank you all for taking such a keen interest.

The sash colour options. Interior are on LHS, exterior on RHS.

Cedar wood cladding which will feature the two black windows.

Mortar options - we will probably go for something like the one right in the middle.

An "inspirational" picture which shows the look we are going for.

The only picture I remembered to take in the showroom despite spending hours there!