Buying/Building a house/Imported Houses

[ttjereth]

[Nobody]

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[Nobody]

[ttjereth]

[amdg]

on a day trip with realtor A started they off by showing us locations that fulfilled say maybe half of our requirements for a lot within the price range we wanted, causing us to become ever more dissapointed with our search, then hit us with two last sites that fulfilled maybe 70-80% of our requirements, making them seem like godsends after the crap we had looked at previously.

That's the way they do business. They show you shit places on the first and second tries to lower your expectations and then they show you the place(s) they want you to buy.

[Nobody]

Long story ahead (...)

Great story.

[Nobody]

There are very few people who actually stop and look at the outside of their house any more a year or more after it is built, but the exterior appearance of the house can easily be one of the most expensive factors of house building in Japan.
(...)
What good is a house with an exterior worthy of bragging about, if you are miserable or have constant nagging regrets about actually living INSIDE of it.

Very true. You'll have to repair/refresh the exterior after 15 years anyway.

[ttjereth]

That's the way they do business. They show you shit places on the first and second tries to lower your expectations and then they show you the place(s) they want you to buy.

Yep. And man were the first places we went to ever shit. The one was in the middle of a HUGE residential neighborhood with literally nothing in walking distance. No grocery store, no conbini, no mom and pop, not a goddamn vending machine. On top of that it was next to some gigantic crater for reason.

It can sometimes be hard to bear in mind that these people are calculating sales people when they are trying to be as buddy buddy friendly with you as possible.

[ttjereth]

Very true. You'll have to repair/refresh the exterior after 15 years anyway.

This is our current big worry. I don't care toooo much about what the exterior looks like so long as it doesn't end up all nasty dirty and crusty like a lot of homes here do after a year or two of living in it. There seems to be a huge difference in how well the various exterior coatings/tile/panels etc. stand up to the humidity, water stains, etc.

If they bloody had it, I'd just have them slap aluminum siding on the house and buy a power washer

[Nobody]

This is our current big worry. I don't care toooo much about what the exterior looks like so long as it doesn't end up all nasty dirty and crusty like a lot of homes here do after a year or two of living in it. There seems to be a huge difference in how well the various exterior coatings/tile/panels etc. stand up to the humidity, water stains, etc.

If they bloody had it, I'd just have them slap aluminum siding on the house and buy a power washer

Since humidity is the enemy number one of wooden houses, I'd exercise caution with the power washer.

[ttjereth]

Since humidity is the enemy number one of wooden houses, I'd exercise caution with the power washer.

Assuming the siding is attached correctly none of the water/moisture should get at the wood underneath.

Having a really hard time deciding on an outside appearance for house though. There's the problem of my taste vs. my wife+mother in law's but then there's also the contractor being a bit of a pain about things (they really urge us to go with their "standard" rough spackle-looking type crap, but I can't stand it, and I've never seen it hold up well, always seems to get really dirty on the houses where I've seen it used).

[ttjereth]

The newest fight over the house begins!

Current plan has us with two little gardens, one on either side of the house, one of which will go to the parent's in law for hanging laundry and "growing vegetables" (yeah I don't know either) but the other is going to be kept as a "yard".

The problem is, my wife+ mother in law's idea of a yard/niwa and my idea vastly differ...

I think of something like this, where you can relax a bit, have a bbq, set up a little pool for the kids and such:



But they think of this, which... honestly I don't have a frigging clue what the appeal is...

[2triky]

House in Sendai, Japan

[ttjereth]

House in Sendai, Japan

I've seen a lot of houses similar to this, in what the Japanese seem to refer to as the "urban" style, and whereas they look nice and all, they don't strike me as being someplace I'd find terribly comfortable to actually live in.

[2triky]

I've seen a lot of houses similar to this, in what the Japanese seem to refer to as the "urban" style, and whereas they look nice and all, they don't strike me as being someplace I'd find terribly comfortable to actually live in.

Yeah, they look more like show pieces....then again some real furniture might help

[dimwit]

The newest fight over the house begins!

But they think of this, which... honestly I don't have a frigging clue what the appeal is...

Just tell them that the Japanese garden looks great -for target practice. Japanese gardens are a bitch to buy difficult and expensive to maintain (they expect your trees to be butchered by a Japanese butchering specialist every year or so) and generally not used much especially if you have kids. They could work in a Japanese style house with the covered walkway around the place, but they are pointless in any other setting.

If you are going to grow a lawn, I would suggest planting a decent shade tree or three. Otherwise that lawn will be a nice shade of dead brown by the second week in August.

[ttjereth]

Just tell them that the Japanese garden looks great -for target practice. Japanese gardens are a bitch to buy difficult and expensive to maintain (they expect your trees to be butchered by a Japanese butchering specialist every year or so) and generally not used much especially if you have kids. They could work in a Japanese style house with the covered walkway around the place, but they are pointless in any other setting.

If you are going to grow a lawn, I would suggest planting a decent shade tree or three. Otherwise that lawn will be a nice shade of dead brown by the second week in August.

For three years I lived next door to a house here that had a great lawn with no shade and only the normal amount of required maintenance, so I'm not terribly worries about that.

The Japanese garden thing just befuddles me. The wife said having a yard with nothing but a lawn is a "waste of space" and if we have the space it may as well be filled with something... Still trying to get it through to her that the purpose is for us to actually be able to use the space.

[kusai Jijii]

The wife said having a yard with nothing but a lawn is a "waste of space" and if we have the space it may as well be filled with something... Still trying to get it through to her that the purpose is for us to actually be able to use the space.

Just tell her thats where the BBQ & ice chest go!:cheers:

[ttjereth]

Just tell her thats where the BBQ & ice chest go!:cheers:

That's my reasoning! She figures that still means the space will go unused half the year. I figure the Japanese weed jungle means it will go unused constantly since there ain't any room for any human beings in there.

[Greji]

Just tell her thats where the BBQ & ice chest go!:cheers:

That's where the smart money would be, but my resident rice cooker thinks the same way. If you don't plant a tree and a rock and let the weeds grow, you don't love nature and don't understand Japan!

[dimwit]

Trees especially those of the broadleaf variety are pretty useful in the summer. The shade they provide reduces the amount you are going to be spending on air conditioning and they improve the quality of the air. I think grass without trees is a humidity farm and personally, my sorry white skin needs some shade.

We are planning to put in three trees. A red maple, pomegranate and a loquat. The red maple is my idea. The other seem to be accidental sedlings we have acquired.

[ttjereth]

Trees especially those of the broadleaf variety are pretty useful in the summer. The shade they provide reduces the amount you are going to be spending on air conditioning and they improve the quality of the air. I think grass without trees is a humidity farm and personally, my sorry white skin needs some shade.

We are planning to put in three trees. A red maple, pomegranate and a loquat. The red maple is my idea. The other seem to be accidental sedlings we have acquired.

Trees are mostly out of the question for us because

1. one of the big points my parent's in law and wife went gaga over the house for was "it gets a lot of sunlight", so putting trees to then blot out the sunlight again is sort of pointless (I've never heard the whole "lots of sunlight", "southern entrance" thing before coming to japan...)
2. the plot is the corner plot on top of a hill and the hill side is all reinforced with concrete, can't have anything that's roots might eventually punch through the concrete.

If you're planting a loquat make sure it has PLENTY of room to grow. We have a loquat tree and a kiwi tree in our current place, and while the loquat is not as bad as the kiwi, it still needs major trimming at least twice a year (the lazy man's approach, should probably be done quite a bit more often) or else ends up in danger of engulfing our balcony and windows. If it's a good 3 meters or so from anything than it shouldn't be a problem.

The kiwi is insane, I swear to god I never knew any type of tree could grow so goddamn fast. We're literally out there chopping away at the thing every month or two and even at that rate we still end up with garbage bags full of trimmings!

Oh, other thing about the loquat is it attacts birds, bees and ants like nobody's business. The birds (sparrows mostly, but you get the occasional pigeon and crow) seem to like the loquats just before they are ripe enough for people to eat, so you end up losing a lot of them to the birds (who only eat half of the thing and let the rest fall all over your properly to rot and then later be stepped in, which is fun because the outer fruit rots making it all mushy and slippery while the big round seed stays good and hard enough to become the perfect combination for making human beings slip and fall on there ass whenever they step on them). After the birds eat half of the fruit, half of what you have left gets eaten by the ants (wash them pretty good before taking them in your house, as my wife found out...) so you only end up with like a quarter of what actually grows, but honestly that's still more than enough for the average family (unless you like eating them with every meal everyday ).

Again though, if anyone ever suggests planting a kiwi or you are given some seeds, I'd turn em down. The tree is my father in law's and for some frigging reason (no one actually eats the kiwi, they are sour as all hell) he wants it left alone otherwise I'd have taken a power saw to it years ago

[Mock Cockpit]

Just some of my random observations/mutterings that may or may not be of use to anyone. Fwiw we built a 42 tsubo house with Sumitomo Ringyo a few years back. So far extremely happy. My ejaculations are in no sort of order.
-Spend as much time as you can getting things exactly as you want them down to the smallest detail. We must have spent at least 50 hours at the showroom over the period of a few months hammering out the details. The result is that there are very few things I wish I could change or am not happy with
- double glazed windows even if you don't think you'll need them. the best thing for me was the sound suppression.
- buy the best air-conditioner you can afford for the main room. It'll be expensive but the electricity bills will be better.
- make sure they'll let you on the building site whenever you want. Shouldn't be a problem ime.
- we use an induction heating cooktop, highly recommended although I was dubious at first.
- we paid a little extra to have an architect at our beck and call. I'd like to think the house is well designed
- make sure the insulation is up to standard. We only use a kotatsu in winter, in summer we run the air-con at about a quarter rat power. Helps with the power bill
- upstairs toilet, some of the cheaper/smaller houses don't have this, pain in the behind.
- go for quality over quantity. Don't be seduced by Hashimoto Jutaku Cardboard Emporiums 60 tsubo Villa. We (I) almost were.

As usual ymmv, just my observations.

[ttjereth]

Just some of my random observations/mutterings that may or may not be of use to anyone. Fwiw we built a 42 tsubo house with Sumitomo Ringyo a few years back. So far extremely happy. My ejaculations are in no sort of order.
-Spend as much time as you can getting things exactly as you want them down to the smallest detail. We must have spent at least 50 hours at the showroom over the period of a few months hammering out the details. The result is that there are very few things I wish I could change or am not happy with
- double glazed windows even if you don't think you'll need them. the best thing for me was the sound suppression.
- buy the best air-conditioner you can afford for the main room. It'll be expensive but the electricity bills will be better.
- make sure they'll let you on the building site whenever you want. Shouldn't be a problem ime.
- we use an induction heating cooktop, highly recommended although I was dubious at first.
- we paid a little extra to have an architect at our beck and call. I'd like to think the house is well designed
- make sure the insulation is up to standard. We only use a kotatsu in winter, in summer we run the air-con at about a quarter rat power. Helps with the power bill
- upstairs toilet, some of the cheaper/smaller houses don't have this, pain in the behind.
- go for quality over quantity. Don't be seduced by Hashimoto Jutaku Cardboard Emporiums 60 tsubo Villa. We (I) almost were.

As usual ymmv, just my observations.

I wish we could afford to build with Sumitomo Ringyo, but the final plans for our house stand at a bit over 61 tsubo, and Sumitomo Ringyo simply cost too much. If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for your place?

Definitely good advice about air conditioners and being picky about things. We're currently arguing over kitchen layout (specifically the contractors basic choices don't include any colors the wife likes ).

[Nobody]

Just some of my random observations/mutterings that may or may not be of use to anyone.
(...)
As usual ymmv, just my observations.

Thank you. Any advice is always welcome.

Anybody on this board with experience with Bruce Japan?

[Mock Cockpit]

I wish we could afford to build with Sumitomo Ringyo, but the final plans for our house stand at a bit over 61 tsubo, and Sumitomo Ringyo simply cost too much. If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for your place?

Definitely good advice about air conditioners and being picky about things. We're currently arguing over kitchen layout (specifically the contractors basic choices don't include any colors the wife likes ).

I'd have to check but I think with everything included (we got a lot high quality furniture etc) it was around the 25,000,000 yen mark.

Couple of more thoughts;
-On walls facing the road we put the air-con pipes through the walls for aesthetic reasons. It's pricey but worth it ime.
- Had the wires for the rear speakers for the TV/stereo home theatre put through the wall.
- Ditto with Sky Perfect stuff
- wished I'd put a few more phone jacks throughout the joint for internet.
- Sumitomo Ringyo tried to nickle and dime us at every oppurtunity. Stay on top of it, they'll be all "gomen gomen" but the alleged "error" will always be in their favour.
- Found the upstairs intercom to the front door to be useful at times.
- washlet toilets. Your arse will be eternally grateful.

I'll post some more ideas if I think of them.

[ttjereth]

[quote="Mock Cockpit"]I'd have to check but I think with everything included (we got a lot high quality furniture etc) it was around the 25,000,000 yen mark.

Couple of more thoughts]

Thanks for the price info. If we were building a smaller house I'd have liked to have gone with Sumitomo or Tokyu Homes but with their prices at the size of the place we're looking for we'd end up with a house costing half a million dollars or more...

The intercom reminds me I need to ask about that as well. We have some crazy fancy system (it's this contractor's default system, they buy them in bulk from the manufacturer and get an amazing discount) that is color and can actually record video from the door phone, so I wonder how much it will cost us to get that put in upstairs... my office is upstairs which guarantees that's where I'll spend most of my time, so good bet I'll want one up there.

The nickel and diming stuff works out in our favor with this place because our architect and the construction company are separate companies so the architect wheedles prices as much as he can for us

Phone jacks are definitely a must. We need a total of 4 different lines (#s, ours, the parents, my work, wife's work) and their standard package only has a single phone jack in the living room

[canman]

It may have been said before but get as many electrical outlets as possible. When building our house I had the builder double the outlets in both the kitchen and the family room, as I new we would be running tons of electrical devices. Also you may want to upgrade your breaker box. I can't believe that a lot of houses have a 30 amp service. We went with 100 and the builder thought we were crazy. But trust me it will be worth it. I was watching tv about some people who like to decorate their houses for Christmas, and when they turn their outside lights on they must shut everything off and sit in the dark in the house or the breakers will flip. As for the southern exposure thing, I think that for so long Japanese houses had such poor heating(they still do) anything you could get from the sun for free was a bonus. Hence the idea of planting trees to stop the sun runs counter to what they have been programmed with. Also how would you dry your clothes,(never having heard of a clothes drier).

[ttjereth]

It may have been said before but get as many electrical outlets as possible. When building our house I had the builder double the outlets in both the kitchen and the family room, as I new we would be running tons of electrical devices. Also you may want to upgrade your breaker box. I can't believe that a lot of houses have a 30 amp service. We went with 100 and the builder thought we were crazy. But trust me it will be worth it. I was watching tv about some people who like to decorate their houses for Christmas, and when they turn their outside lights on they must shut everything off and sit in the dark in the house or the breakers will flip. As for the southern exposure thing, I think that for so long Japanese houses had such poor heating(they still do) anything you could get from the sun for free was a bonus. Hence the idea of planting trees to stop the sun runs counter to what they have been programmed with. Also how would you dry your clothes,(never having heard of a clothes drier).

Oh the electrical outlets are already tossed in. I've had constant battles with electricity/breakers since coming to Japan. Out current place in particular is a huge pain in the ass. We currently live above one of my father in law's company's warehouses and breaker box is down in the warehouse. We actually have the highest rated private use breaker you can get in Japan, but the wing nut company that built this fun house for some reason hooked nearly everything up to the same handful of breaker.

Literally more than half of the breakers in our breaker box are unused, but because for example, my two constantly running pcs, the refrigerator, microwave, washing machine etc. are all on the same bloody breakers if I have the pcs running, the ac and the wife has say the washer or drier going, and then someone turns on something else, like my wife's hair dryer or the microwave oven, it trips the breakers (cutting power to my PCs and costing me work most times). On top of which in order to flip the breakers back on I have to go downstairs, outside, open the big stubborn warehouse shutters then climb a literal mountain of boxes and bags filled with plastics materials to get at the breaker. Needless to say it puts me in an extraordinarily bad mood whenever it happens.

For the new place not only do we have a ton of outlets, but again the highest rated box with each room on it's own breakers (the way normal people do it) and with my office in particular with different outlets on different breakers in order to prevent me from going on a homicidial rampage because I lost another hour (or significantly more than that if I have one of the PCs compiling code, running a translation memory check, converting video or any other extraordinarily time consuming operation) of work because someone couldn't figure out not to turn on a hair dryer and the microwave at the same time.

The clothes thing is actually driving me nuts at the moment. We actually own a drier, but I can even understand not wanting to use it for at least certain articles of clothing. However the current argument is this: with out plot of land and the house plans, we actually end up with two small yard/garden spaces (one approximately the size of a 6 tatami mat room, and one about so we have given one to the parent's in law, the bigger one even, and even had things laid out so that a door direct from the laundry room leads right into that garden so that they can have their little garden thing and also easily hang clothes out to dry and such.

Now the [s]old hag[\s]... ahem... my dear mother in law, wants us to add an entirely new balcony to the plans so that she can use a balcony for hanging her clothes up to dry, because for some freaking unfathomable reason, a balcony is preferable to the yard.

Now in a normal Japanese house I could understand this, except this isn't a normal house. We are on top of a hill and we the corner lot. The garden we're giving to the parent's in law is open air on 3 sides (road in front, the edge of the hill to the back and right and our house to the left) and because we are up on the hill we get plenty of sunshine and wind so I don't understand why the hell they NEED to have a balcony to hang crap out to dry.

This especially bugs me because other than that the entire house is designed so that not only is their no need for the parent's in law to come upstairs, they have no reason to, providing the wife and I with a little fortress of solitude when we need to escape from them (the first floor area is 1/3rd larger than the area of their entire current house, so it's not like I'm banishing them off to some tiny cramped portion of the house or anything either).

What irritates me more about this, is that these things pop up out of the blue everytime we have more or less settled on a layout/design and the wife always sides with them after in the end after HER spouting on about how it's our house and she is worried her parent's will try to change it too much to suit their needs...

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