Category: house

Sorry for not writing the other day, despite promising… On top of my work, I was at the house every day doing something or other, and I was exhausted. Tomorrow, the office renovations will start, and I need to get my work sorted out before moving on Friday. I hope there will be more news to tell and more time to do so.

Anyway, 10 days ago or so, I started looking for a moving company. Even though the new house is very close, and I don’t feel that I have that many things, I want professional help with this. There’s no way I’m going to schlep all my stuff down from the 5th floor and then most of it into the 2nd floor of my new place all on my own (or even with the help of my friends).

I filled in an online form, and they sent my info to around 10 moving companies operating in Kyoto. Within 10 minutes, I got emails from all of them and phone calls from half. Some were offers based on what I filled in, but some companies wanted to come by and have a look at my things to make a better offer.

The first representative (of a very large moving company) came on Thursday, made a detailed list of everything I wanted to pack, and he gave me a quote of 82,000 for a moving date of Saturday, 27th of November. I said it was a bit expensive and told him that I really wanted to move the Friday before, and that another (much smaller) company would visit on Sunday for a quote.

He immediately said, “If you tell the other company that you already chose us, I’ll give you a price of 70,000 yen flat”.

Wow, I hadn’t expected anything like that. The fact that I got so much interest within 10 minutes after pressing “send” did surprise me, but apparently the moving market is more competitive than I thought. However, since he couldn’t give me the Friday date, I declined and told him I’d wait for the others and get back to him.

Sunday noon arrives, the second representative shows up, runs through all my stuff and gives me a quote of 85,000 for Friday. After telling him about the significantly lower quote I had received, he phones his boss and finally comes back with 75,000 yen for a Friday move, which I accepted on the spot.

Never, ever, have I done this before. I find it embarrassing, and it’s probably embarrassing for the other person as well. And had the first representative not given me a hint that negotiations are possible, I wouldn’t have tried it this time either. But, thanks to him, I get what I want when I want it – and for 10,000 yen cheaper to boot! However, since this is a very small company, I will try to make things as easy and smooth for them as possible. I already received moving boxes which are now stacked in my place, ready to be filled.

And of course, I haven’t packed a single thing yet. I really must start tomorrow, once I finish my work. So far, I only decluttered things that will definitely not come with me. Lots of stuff I’ve kept “just in case” and which I never needed, plenty of paperwork, these sorts of things.

While going through everything, I even found a stack of old “Hey, I’ve moved” postcards from the Netherlands. So, just in case you’ll receive a funny-sounding postcard with my new address on it, it’s all part of my big decluttering plan. Thanks for helping with it. 😉

Since renovations and other things are moving quite fast at the moment, and I don’t want to bore you with a super long post on Wednesday, I’ll give you two weekly posts instead for the foreseeable future. Aren’t you just thrilled to hear more about my renovations! 😉

This post is all about tatami. For those of you who don’t know, tatami are the mats that are used in traditional Japanese rooms. They are nothing more than rice straw sewn together and covered with woven (soft or common) rush on the top. The edges on the long side are usually covered with fabric, often brocade. Tatami are typically 5-6 cm thick and twice as long as wide. Exact measurements depend on the region.

Traditional tatami like these are quite expensive. You can now get cheaper options with for example a styrofoam core in the middle, with also cuts down on the weight. Still, to this day, tatami are mostly made of natural materials, which makes them quite delicate. The most dangerous enemy of any tatami is water, which can seep through the rushes on top and damage the rice straw directly or cause mould in the long run. I have seen people rush home during a thunderstorm just to close their windows and protect their tatami.

When tatami get old, they turn a warm yellow colour. The longer they are in use, the more the surface gets scuffed and worn, even though nobody in Japan would ever enter a washitsu (traditional Japanese room with tatami) with anything else than socks. As you can see in the image above, the rushes get worn out eventually, often starting at the edges (the light-yellow colour).

Last week, my tatami were measured for replacement. Interestingly, the sizes of tatami differ according to the Japanese region you live in. The Kyoto tatami have the largest size – 0.955 m by 1.91 – they are called kyoma tatami (literally: Kyoto room). The edoma from Tokyo are significantly smaller – 0.88 m by 1.76 m – and the size in Nagoya lies in between.

Interestingly, I have edoma tatami in my house that are not entirely uniform in size. I have only measured a few, but they were all between 0.86 and 0.88 m wide and from 1.76 to 1.79 m long. In any case, they were removed last Friday to expose the underflooring, which looks like this:

Yes, that’s quite normal, it’s a wooden house, remember. Actually, this is a very good underflooring; a friend of mine lives in a house from roughly 100 years ago. There are gaps between the floor boards that are 2-3 cm wide, and that’s on the ground floor, without any insulation against the cold!

In fact, Japanese houses were and still are built as airy and breezy as possible to make the summer heat more bearable. Every little gap where some puff of air can come through helps in this respect. And as I have mentioned before, the Japanese seem to be less concerned about the cold in the winter than about the humid summers…

As you can see, there are still parts of the rush covering lying around, and in fact, I was quite surprised how dirty the room was. I guess there’s a lot of dust and other dirt that can fall through the cracks of the tatami over the years. I’m not sure if there’s a solution for this – other than meticulous regular cleaning, that is.

Anyway, I went to the house today, just in time to see the finishing touches put onto my brand-new tatami. Sadly, I was too late to see what they put underneath them, there was talk about an insect-repellent sheeting or something. As you can see below, the rush is still green, and they do smell so lovely and new! I have ordered blue borders that look good now and will go well later with the mature yellow too, and I’m very pleased with the effect.

The contractor has informed me that the rush surface has been treated with some wax or chemical or something. I will have to wipe this layer off with a dry cloth and repeat this three or four times, otherwise it will come off on my socks when I walk on them.

It’s not really obvious in the image above, but there is indeed some sort of white waxy layer on top; the craftsmen installing them showed me how to clean them (wipe with the grain of the rush covering) and they turned even greener than they are now. The craftsmen also told me to keep the windows open for a while, as long as it can’t rain into the rooms. Well, I’ll be at the house every day this week anyway to get some other things done, so that’s not a problem.

I really love how this simple upgrade has changed the feeling of the rooms upstairs. They look so much cleaner and neater, even though I haven’t done anything else. I don’t have the money to make other, more significant improvements to the rooms upstairs, but as I said, they are mostly in working order. I will replace the paper of the shoji at the windows though, that seems to be an easy DIY-fix even I can attempt – and write about.

Fun fact of the day: There are no light switches on the second floor. Not one. All the ceiling lamps are turned on/off by pulling a cord that hangs down from them. I didn’t even notice this until I tried to get some light for my photos today. It is definitely an interesting choice I have to get used to…

Today, probably for the last time, I met with the architect and the contractor at my house. The carpenter, who is actually going to do all the work, was there as well. Together, we went over the design one last time and also fixed colors for floors, doors, and windows. There is now also a key box outside so the workers can come and go as needed, whether I’m home or not.

So, we’re ready for liftoff! And Zero Hour will be this Friday already, when the contractor goes to the house to measure the tatami – new ones should arrive by the 20th – and have a closer look at what’s behind the kitchen cabinet I want removed…

The other work in the house will start on the 22nd, and I’ve set my moving date for the 26th. This means, that it’s possible that the kitchen will not be finished; the office will definitely take until some time in December. I just hope that the outside wall will be finished when I move in – I want to remove the two sliding doors in the office and install a window instead. Even though Japan is a very safe country overall, I’d rather not sleep in a house with a gaping hole in the wall – and the only wall facing the street to boot…

Anyway, I’m super excited to get started! I have done some smaller things in the house like removing nails and screws from the walls as well as curtain rails that will be reused elsewhere. I also have plans for the bathroom, which may be a bit weird… we’ll see.

Yesterday I asked on an online site for quotes for the move and I got 5 calls within 15 minutes of pressing “submit”. I have arranged for 2 companies to come by and have a look at the apartment for a quote; the online site listed prices from 16,000 yen to 85,000 yen. Nothing to break the bank for the 4 km of moving, but still worth shopping around a bit more.

I’ll keep you posted on the progress, probably even with actual photos!

It was a national holiday today – Culture Day – and I spent it involved in the international DIY culture. In other words: I went to my house seeing if there’s something I can do myself. Since I don’t have experience with wooden houses, there’s not so much I feel capable of doing, actually. Thankfully, there is the internet and I have read a number of DIY manuals and watched youtube videos to get an idea of what I can do.

So far, I have stripped the dirty wallpaper off the doors that lead into the kitchen. Since the doors will be replaced eventually, I will only paint them instead of putting on new wallpaper. The walls in the kitchen are daunting enough; the wallpaper definitely needs replacing there, and I’m not sure if I can just hang a new one over the old one – the current layer seems to have been nailed to the wall at the edges?

To my great dismay, the interesting outlet before my kitchen cabinets turned out to be a connection for a gas heater. I have nothing but the deepest respect for gas, so I don’t really know what to do with this one. Unfortunately, it looks a bit like a wall socket, and it sticks out of the floor a little, so just leaving it as it is might be a tripping hazard. I’ll have to think about this.

More food for thought came with my contractor’s quote. I’m only addressing a single room instead of two, I’ve already sacrificed my double-glazed windows – and yet, we’re already way over budget. Interestingly, there are not so many big ticket items – the new flooring downstairs and the tatami mats upstairs of course – but most things are small, 20,000 yen here, 35,000 there, 4,500 over here… The sheer mass of them does add up, though. I’m now wondering what else I need to sacrifice to get my office in working order, thankfully my architect has made some valuable suggestions for price reduction. He’s really worth everything I’m paying him.

Already last week, my friend deciphered the pink note I got from my mailman. It was a simple “Hi there – are you living here already? Who are you, tell me your name!” form that I filled in and sent off on Friday, and since I already got mail there under my name, I think we’re good to go. He is still ringing my bell, so I am planning to go to the house again tomorrow morning and see if I can catch him and say hello. Always nice to be on good terms with the mailman and the neighbours…

Just today, I received the documents for the property registration. That means that now Kyoto City too knows that the house is mine. I am quite surprised about the speed with which this happened – only seven days after the purchase. In Austria, this procedure alone can take months to complete. Most of the time, people are already living in their new home before the official registration is completed!

As I mentioned, this will still take a bit more time for me because of the renovations. Yesterday, I went to the house to take measurements and spend some time there, daydreaming… I mean: planning things. While I am eager to start the renovations and get moving, first I need to figure out what I actually want with the rooms. There’s not much point in hiring somebody to “fix my house” if I can’t explain what I want to have done.

Some things will also need a bit more attention than I thought at first. There are veritable holes in some walls! And where the hell do all those cables come from/lead to? But overall, I’m very happy about it. So much so, that I already left my scent mark in the form of a roll of toilet paper. Not that I can use the toilet because the water’s not turned on again, but still. Baby steps!

So, this is the “really big thing” I was talking about beginning of September. And since yesterday, it’s officially mine.

A bit of background: I’ve been looking for a house on and off for about a year now. I’ve seen around 15 houses in various stages of (dis)repair, from recently renovated to barely holding together. Finding something decent is even harder if you have specific wants, like sunlight, coupled with a limited budget. So, I’m very happy this house came on the market at just the right time.

Although, technically, it was never “on the market”, at least it wasn’t widely advertised as for sale. Back in early August, my friend Junko and I were visiting another property of a real estate agent when he mentioned “oh, this one’s just in”; it didn’t even have a price tag yet. It took a bit of back and forth on the price on his end, and a bit of back and forth on “do I or don’t I” on my end, but it’s all over and done with now.

A few details: The house is 53 years old, and around 90 square meters big on two floors. It’s a bit farther away from the city centre than I originally wanted (even farther than my place now), but it makes up for the extra travel time: It lies in the Higashiyama mountains in a very quiet neighbourhood, and it is open to the south side, so the living space is very sunny.

As you can see from the photos below, it does need some renovations before I can move in; it was empty for about a year. But these are mostly cosmetic changes, the underlying structure is very good. Essentially, I am thinking of remodelling the first floor to Western style with an office, kitchen and living room; while leaving the second floor and its tatami rooms mostly intact. Don’t worry, I’m going to post more details about the renovations, you’ll probably get sick of them soon…

I am not sure when I’ll be able to move; end of October seems overly optimistic, but then again, I’m not planning on a complete overhaul of the new place, and Japanese companies are super efficient. Wish me luck!