Featured on Dockleys Blog

A couple of weeks ago an old friend, Adam Dockley, got in touch to ask if he could feature this blog on his site. Adam is the estate agent who found my flat in London for me and helped me to sell it again years later. In many ways, he's the guy who made this whole Osaka project possible! If anyone is reading from the UK and needs an exceptional agent, I would recommend Adam without hesitation. Here's a link to the piece that they wrote about us.

https://dockleys.com/2019/07/25/self-build-in-japan-the-osaka-house-project/

First steps inside

On Friday last week, we had a meeting at the house (definitely going to call it a house now, even though it doesn’t have any walls yet) to confirm the location of plug sockets and light switches. This sounded pretty boring to be honest but then we hadn’t actually really thought about what it would entail.

We arrived and were led up the temporary steps to the house and then ushered inside the blue sheeting that covers the frame. It then struck us that we were, for the first time, standing inside our house! With the frame fully up and standing on the wooden flooring beams, we could finally experience the scale of the place we plan to be living for the next 20-25 years. We were finally able to appreciate the layout, the flow from area to area and, perhaps most importantly, the size of the rooms.

We actually began our tour of the house standing on the outside wood deck. We have talked in previous entries about how we like the Japanese idea of the inside blending with the outside and it was immediately clear that they builders had achieved this. There is a kind of roofing in Japan called noki (軒), often found on temples, where the roof extends over the outside walkway and is supported by vertical beams. This allows for good weather protection and the ability to transition from inside to outside without having to put on shoes or use an umbrella. There’s a good page with more information (Japanese) about noki here.

Downstairs, we were particularly pleased with the size of the study and the laundry room, both of which seemed bigger than on the printed plans. The corridor that runs from north to south is a little narrower than expected but as long as I can lay off the Costco hot dogs a bit, I should still be able to squeeze down it. Relatively speaking, corridors are kind of wasted space anyway, especially in a small house, so it’s not something we are too bothered by.

Having walked around the downstairs and chosen the height at which to put lights and where to put the plug sockets and light switches, we were surprised to be told that our next stop was the second floor. Obviously there is no staircase yet so we had to make do with a long (and pretty wobbly) ladder. Being the brave one, I went first to show Yuko how it’s done. Since I weigh about twice as much as her, I can’t imagine the bending and contorting of the ladder as I tramped up it made her especially comfortable but, by that point, I was too busy taking in the second floor!

I presume Yuko got up the ladder ok since she soon joined me upstairs. We both looked around the main living space in silence. It was surreal – somehow, it was both exactly as we expected and yet, at the same time, a complete surprise. Standing in the middle of the living room and seeing where the balcony is (covered by a sheet so we couldn’t see the view this time), the pantry, the Japanese room, the height of the ceiling, the wooden beams etc. was such an awesome experience. Even though it’s just a frame and a sheet (did I mention no walls?!), for the first time we could imagine actually living in the house. Seriously cool stuff!

We ran through a few more decisions about lighting and plug sockets and took a few pictures and, before we knew it, we were in the car and on our way home (via conveyor belt sushi and the golf range), no doubt smiling from ear to ear. It’s been a tough journey to get to this stage but we’re finally getting to the point where we can start to look forward to living in the house rather than just building it!

That’s it for this entry. More photos to follow next time I hope. In the meantime, enjoy the very much blue-sheet influenced photos below.

The downstairs

Upstairs. You can see the high sloping ceiling with exposed beams and the loft area above the tatami room

View from the front door down the genkan

Wooden floor beams. This is the master bedroom

The wooden beams in the bedroom. Will be left exposed like this

The Frame is Up!

Very exciting news over at the site. The rain has held off for the last couple of days and the frame is now up. The builder sent over the photos this evening and, honestly, we are pretty speechless. We're in love with our new house! I can't think of anything to write so here are the photos!  So happy!

The view from the roof deck

Inside the protective blue covers

The roof terrace access from the side

The frame!

The frame again!

The parking space. On the LHS, the steps are taking shape

A View From On High

When is it going to stop raining?! It’s been a long, wet couple of weeks in Japan with frequent weather warnings and some unfortunate folks in the southern prefectures being evacuated. Osaka has not been as badly hit as some but the bad weather has delayed the frame going up by about a week. We’re pretty used to delays by now but it is still frustrating to pull back the curtains in the morning and see that, once again, rain stops play.

There has actually been some progress on site although the weather has meant that we haven’t been over there for about 10 days. We’re both itching to go and take a look for ourselves but, for now at least, we have to make do with some photos from the builders. As you will see below, the scaffolding is now pretty much up and we are ready to get started! The outline of the wood deck has also been put in place.

We have also had our first glimpse of the view we will have from the upstairs floor balcony. I’ve scoured the pictures to try and get an idea of the height from which the picture was taken and it looks to be at about the balcony level, although I may be wrong. Nevertheless, it’s a pretty cool view, despite the bad weather.

In other news, we decided to forego the expensive (and to us, pretty meaningless) ceremony to bless the land and the frame and all that stuff. I hope the Japanese gods decide to take pity on us in light of our overall patience and unbridled positivity towards the project. I’m sure there will be plenty of opportunities for us to throw some rice and sake around at a later date. We will however be meeting our carpenters in a couple of weeks which should be a nice experience. So far, we’ve spent a lot of time with the architects and people coordinating the design but not much with the people actually building the house. They probably think we’re a bit crazy so it will be nice for them to see that for themselves.

Thanks again to the new followers. We’ve actually just passed 10,000 views which is pretty insane for a random couple building a house in a sleepy suburb in Japan. More updates to follow in due course.

The view to the west. Excuse the lousy weather!

Our house from the scaffolding. You can see the outline of the wood deck on the LHS

From the road

From the road 2

Next door's garden is looking nice. Inspiring!