住めば都

Last Saturday (Dec. 11) the eager salesman from Polus (see previous post) picked up Naoko, Kaika and I and drove us over to Yono, to take a look at a Polus-built house. This was a recently completed house built on 30 坪 (tsubo, roughly 3.31 square meters) of land, 3 stories, and for two families with separate entrances – in other words, exactly what we want to build ourselves.

One of the problems with visiting model home parks and the like is that none of those homes bear any relation to what ours would be like in terms of size, they’re all about twice as big, and certainly none of them are 二世帯住宅 (nisetai juutaku, duplex house) which is what we want (er, require).

The design of the house from the exterior was modern and not so appealing, and the entry way was nothing to write home about, in fact it seemed to be at odds with the modern design, but inside I quite liked the house. We went in through the upstairs family’s door, but we realized that there was actually an interior door that connected the downstairs “flat” with the upstairs house, at the foot of the stairs. Reminded me a bit of a connecting door in hotel suites and dorm rooms. I hadn’t thought of this before but as long as noise wasn’t a problem, and we established strict rules about entering this door (both for us and the in-laws), I think the door is a good idea – at some point it may be that the in-laws are no longer with us and this would allow us to create an entire 3-floor house with little or no work.

The grandmother lived in this particular first-floor flat (she was a widow) and she was quite at home there, apparently. I was surprised at how much space there actually was, and there was a kitchen and a bathroom (and separate toilet), with the bathroom big enough to have a washer in there. Granted she was single and in our situation there would be two people living on this one floor, I think it could work. (Mother-in-law was sick so she did not visit the place with us, unfortunately). (One idea would be to build that basement storage area we saw the week before, and perhaps eliminate one of the closets to create even more living room.)

Upstairs on the second floor it was quite roomy, with an open plan (no separation between the kitchen and living room). The kitchen was rather wide and comfortable.The bathroom was on this floor and I was surprised by how roomy it was, with lots of space for a washer. On the third floor, there were three bedrooms, one for the family’s son, one for the parents, and a guest room. The guest room was a bit smaller than the other two, but all were comfortable. In the child’s room, there was a very deep closet. Adjadcent to the parent’s bedroom was a small area between that room and the walk-in closet, kind of nook, which was the father’s office. The walk-in closet was rather large (perfect for my office!).

A few other misc. details: The father worked for Tokyo Gas so the house was a gas house. They had installed heaters underneath the floors. The washitsu was raised about a foot above the main floor (on the second floor), I rather liked this as the ledge provided a nice place to sit. They were able to fit one car space onto the property, just like we want to. The second floor had one narrow balcony extending the entire length of one side. Wide enough maybe to hang laundry or keep trash, but not really for putting a chair out there. There was a balcony on the third floor, along the width of the house, about the same narrow-ness.

I liked the way the two entrances were on the first floor, and the stairs to the upper “house” were internal rather than external as I often see. It reminded me of Victorian flats in SF which was coincidental because I had been saying earlier to Naoko that perhaps as we try to think how we can create a two-family house, we could use SF’s Victorian’s as an example, since almost all of them these days have been divided so that instead of one large house, they are two or three separate houses, with two or three doors fronting the sidewalk, each entrance leading to a separate floor. (Here’s an example).

All in all, a very positive excursion: we got to see first hand a house with almost the exactly same dimensions, layout, and living situation as what we want to build, and we got some ideas of how the space can be used.

Yesterday Naoko and I with Kaika in tow went to a 住宅展示場 (juutaku tenjijou, or model home showroom), although these aren’t showrooms per se but more like big parking lots with model homes arrayed like some quasi neighborhood). Really you’ve been to one you’ve been to all, as far as these go, and now I’ve been to 4 or 5. This one was in Kawaguchi. All the biggies were there as they always are, I mean what independent can afford to put up a model house and staff it with salesmen (well, I suppose a few do, but still….)

But at some point we’ll need to have a few quotes and plans from these big companies, so that we have something to work from when we start to fish around more independent waters. And as far as I know these companies will do that for free, provided you sit around long enough to hear their spiel, and endure the later follow-up phone calls you’re bound to receive. And of course they can give you ideas about features or design quirks that might be nice to incorporate even if it’s another builder who carries them out. We looked at two homes from companies I hadn’t even heard of, Kinoshita and Fujishima, and one company I recognized but wasn’t really familiar with, Polus.

Of the three, Polus was definitely the most impressive, primarily because they were showing a 和風住宅 (wafuu juutaku, or Japanese-style house) and the salesman was earnest and pleasant (well, they all are, aren’t they?). They were showing one of their “Po Hous” line called “Wabian”. It certainly had the most craftsmen-like feel of any of the houses, and if someone forced us to have that house well we could do a lot worse, that’s for sure. One thing I really liked was the basement-like storage compartment underneath the floor of the 和室 (washitsu, or Japanese-style room, eg. usually floored with tatami mats and with an alcove), which was operated by a button on the side wall. Basially one of the tatami mats could be raised up to reveal a storage area underneath, about the same size as the washitsu itself and about 5 feet in depth. Not exactly the basement we’ve been contemplating, but a start

Another appealing thing was the way the dining room was sort of in a nook, with a tatami mat-upholstered bench forming the seating on the far side of the dining table. The table was at an angle which seemed interesting as well – unfortunately another salesperson was using the table for his customer pitch so I couldn’t sit at the table myself and guage whether that would be awkward.

Another interesting storage touch was the employment of a “Lazy Susan” for storage under a raised platform that supported the beds in the master bedroom. Not sure how practical in everyday use but certainly an idea to consider. (In case you don’t know, this gives you an idea of the real “lazy Susan”.)

The salesman admitted that 3-story wafuu houses are not very common, although he did say that the company was currently building a 3-story one in Omiya that he invited us to check out. He quoted a very rough 3 to 3.5 million yen cost to build one with his company.

Pictures from the day are here.

Some good information contained in the .pdf “Trends in the Japanese Housing Market” (Summer, 2003), put out by the The Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Why Canada? Because Canada exports a lot of wood to supply the growing demand for 2 x 4 housing.

Of particular note is a recap of a survey of “Japanese Home Buyer’s Attitudes on the Environment and House Durability” (done by the EnviroLife Research Institute) which showed that Japanese now say that ideally a house should last 56 years, 7 years longer than was said 3 years prior. (Interestingly, that figure has risen by 12.9 years since the Great Hanshin Earthquake (Kobe) of 1995.)

Digging around for articles on home-building in Japan, there aren’t a ton of them in English, I’m finding. Did find this one just now, “Home-buyers in Japan up against a stacked deck” (Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2002), which is about shoddy construction in Japan and the difficulty of the consumer complaint process here. Some food for thought here, particularly about how little houses are worth after 20 years or so. This paragraph at the end stuck out as well:

Although exact comparisons are difficult given the difference in land prices, Tokyo residents pay more than twice what their Los Angeles counterparts do for a house that’s 25 percent smaller. The gap for condo purchases is even greater. The average city dweller has a ¥98.8 million outstanding mortgage on a property worth half that.

Today (well, yesterday now) men from the city came over to assess the value of our current house (to be honest, the in-law’s current house). This I suppose we can say officially marks the start of the process of having a new home built, although timelines, costs, design, builders, etc. have all most patentedly NOT been decided.

What has been decided is where the new house will be, perhaps 200 meters away from the current place. (I will endeavor in the next couple of days to scan the map the city gave us, which shows the new configuration of the neighborhood laid over the current one). It’s the same size plot as this one (30 坪 (つぼ － tsubo, the land measurement used in Japan, equiv. to 3.31 square meters)), naturally, and will face the same direction (west). It’s a corner plot, and will be across from a park (which is better than being across from a parking lot as now).

But aside from how much the city will give us for the current dwelling (not much, I’m assuming), what’s more important is to know when we will get to (have to!) move. This is anyone’s guess, apparently – it could be a half-year away, it could be two years away. This does not give me comfort, to say the least. While the sooner the better as far as everyone is concerned, my worry is that a short notice will not give us the time to plan for the house we (I?) want, and will be forced into something that can be built quickly (if not cheaply). No one seems to be very concerned about his other than myself.

Just as background, this is all coming apart as part of an ambitious city plan to re-layout the entire area around here. Has been going on for a couple of years now, all around us, but not notably, for us (until now). I’ve never got a clear answer as to why this is being done (heard something once about giving fire trucks easier access in the event of a fire)….

Starting this new blog, about building a new house in Japan. 住めば都 (in roman letters, “sumeba miyako”) is a Japanese saying that would be the equivalent of “home is where the heart is” or “home is where you make it” in English.