Welcome to Your Home Sweet Office

Budget Makeover: Home Office Heroics

My main concern for the kitchen is that it isn’t too small, or feel too cramped. I would love to cook together with Naoko (don’t know if she feels the same way), and in general I want to feel comfortable in there as I would like to get back to baking, and cooking once in a while.

It was just an initial exploratory meeting, but both Naoko and I had a very positive vibe about the lead architect (芳賀 敏夫 - HAGA Toshio). I think he appreciated our “predicament” in terms of the division of the space, and seemed to be sensible with respect to how necessary half of the second floor was to the in-laws. He also had some interesting initial ideas about how to create the space (kitchen and bath on 3rd floor, for starters). He was informative about some of the issues involving inspection and city bureaucracy (it is easier from inspection pov not to have a loan, for example). And while perhaps a bit superficial on my part, I appreciated that he seemed rather immersed in architecture and its traditions (books on Richard Meier, Luis Barragan, FLW, for example, were prominent on his overloaded bookshelves). I also was impressed that he wanted to know exactly where the new land is, so that he can visit it in person, making a point to mention that it was an important part of the process.

He’s been featured at least twice on television programs, and gave us videos to look at of these. And he wants to meet the mother-in-law sooner than later. As he explained it, it is often the case that the young couple comes to him wanting such and such a house, but that one hits a wall when one starts to talk with the in-laws. So naturally he doesn’t want to get too far involved in the project without meeting at least okaasan.

All in all, very positive and energizing. However, somewhat predictably, the in-laws don’t seem to be overly impressed by images of past houses and the videos, and made some mention (I wasn’t around, this is via Naoko) that the houses were “重厚じゃない” (juukou ja nai, or not stately enough). I think it will be an uphill battle to sway them from anything other than Shimokawa, which doesn’t make me feel very positive about all this, other considerations aside.

This then led the m-i-l to want half of the second floor outright, which is not how the current plan is drawn up (to say nothing of the fact that it has always been envisioned that we would have the 2nd and 3rd floors). So this led to a big discussion, argument, what have you. As it stands now, they want 1.5 floors, and want Shimokawa Architect to re-do his plan for this, and want us to look at other architects.

We (meaning I) also asked him some general type questions about construction (hybrid post-and-beam and 2×4), time frame, oversight of builders, etc. All in all a generally positive meeting, with a design I could live with. I think in terms of attention to detail, and documenting the process, they’re very impressive. On the other hand, I’m not sure how creative he is, in fact. His own house, to my (untutored) eye, is not very impressive. It seems fairly run of the mill. So I have lingering doubts about him….

However…. (see next post)

Home Theater
Home Theater Setup Guides from Audioholics
Home Theater on a budget
Custom Home Theater from About.com
Home Theater Forum
Home Theater Design from Repair Home mag

All in all I had a favorable impression of them and I think he respects my interest in (and knowledge about) Japanese culture. The in-laws like him, so of course that’s important. But the problem is that they like him too much, or rather, they seem ready and willing to sign on the dotted line without even considering other alternatives, other proposals, etc. This leaves me in the typical contrary position of saying “whoa, hold your horses, let’s not get carried away just yet”. Frankly it shocks me that these folks have not heard about “due diligence,” and just the idea of researching this guy, getting references, etc. seems to be something no one other than myself has thought of.

My father-in-law actually said that “no one” does what these guys do, which is to take a customers wants and realize that with a design, which of course is nonsense. Yes, most folks building a new house do it the standard way, go to the biggies and order something more or less off the shelf. No different than America or most places no doubt. But that doesn’t mean there are independent architects in Japan.

In fact, back when I started this blog, in December of 2004, Naoko and I visited an outfit called “Weekend Homes” at their Yoyogi offices in Tokyo. Basically what they do is hook-up prospective customers with a network of architects, and over the internet have a design competition. (An explanation of their system in English is here.) After answering a detailed survey on the internet, Weekend Homes will solicit they network of 1000 architects to design a home meeting (or attempting to, at any rate) what we’re looking for. We’ll then be able to view those plans over the Internet, for free. Only at the point where we actually signed on with an architect would we have to pay any money (roughly $5,250) to Weekend Homes. There would then be a separate competition among construction companies called an “Estimate Competition”.

We’re hoping to start this process this week (it’s free, after all), and see about finding other architects as well. I have a feeling it’ll be an uphill battle to sway the in-laws from the de facto first choice, but we’ll see.

Google SketchUp (free) is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program whose few simple tools enable you to create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects – even space ships.

Google recently purchased SketchUp and is offering a free version to users. I have not used it but it does receive raves from some who have. Not sure if I need it at this point, but I hope it’s easier to use than 3D Home Builder, which I tried a while back and had too much of a learning curve for me.

(via)

和の色

Too bad the small pics can’t be viewed larger.

The city has finally told us that our turn has come, and indeed it looks like our current house will be demolished sometime this Fall, which will necessitate us moving to temporary housing nearby. Unfortunately, for reasons I have yet to fully understand, the city wants to finish re-doing this street before we will be able to even start building the new place, even though are new house will be on land several hundred meters away.

But progress is being made, and I’m hoping I’ll be able to return back to this and keep it updated, and to utilize it as a sort of scrapbook of ideas more than anything else. In the meantime I’ve copied over the posts from the original blog just for continuity’s sake. Stay tuned….