The past few weeks have been a little overwhelming, to say the least. We met with our architect last Sunday and I nearly had a breakdown from hearing more bad news regarding our home deriving from the disaster.
We learned that some of the materials used for the external walls, Novopan, were no longer being manufactured. We have to switch to normal plywood. We also learned that the roof we had selected, a pale grey color, was not longer being produced due to power supply problems.
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| We can see our 2F now... |
Granted, changes in schedule and materials are nothing compared to loss of life, property and employment that has hit such a vast part of Japan.
And yet, it seems that every little thing is now affecting me deeply and I cannot see objectively. In normal circumstances, we would just look for an alternative and do our best to live with it. But we feel that we have poured so much energy and funds into this project, we should at least get the house we want. We are extremely disappointed, but there is really not much we can do.
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| Can see the Loft too. |
We are starting to feel doubts about the soundness of our choice to build in Japan. But paradoxically, it is becoming even clearer to us that this is the only place where we want to live. While many friends and acquaintances have left for safer grounds, others have no plans of leaving and are actually also building their home in Tokyo. This is immensely reassuring to us, as we're apparently not the only ones betting on Japan being a safe place to raise our family.
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| Where the stairs to the 2F will be. |
On the plus side now, Efrain is back in Tokyo after working for the past 2 weeks in Kyoto and Osaka. Also, school has resumed and our kids' life has finally returned to some level of normalcy. The trains are still a bit unreliable, but that is probably to be expected for a while.
Spring is slow to come; we are still sleeping under heavy blankets and striving to cut down on power as much as possible, so not using any air conditioners but hanging on dearly to my hot water bottle at night...
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| Plenty of space for our bicycles and a car in front of the house. |
My biggest joy yesterday as we went to visit our site was to see how our son carried on an animated conversation with our carpenter Fukuzumi-san while also offering his "help", genuinely interested in his work and tools. We are looking forward to going back today to measure the progress.
2 comments:
Hi Caroline,
Hang in there. It can be frustrating when you spend so much energy and not every detail is as you would have it. We had similar miscommunications and expectations weren't always met, but in the end everything turned out great.
I just got stiffed for 2 months rents on damages to the old house we were renting, and though it really makes me angry when I think of all the rent money we wasted, it makes me so happy to have my own home instead of subsidizing someone else's income.
Sending you the best vibes.
Please come by some time. as
Thanks for the encouragement! We really need it at this point. Not sure what other "surprises" are in store for us but we'll know soon enough.
For the next few months, construction companies will be busy building emergency housing in the disaster-stricken areas, and of course, materials will be produced for that purpose primarily. So we are still not sure what kinds of delays we’ll be facing.
Of course, we would really prefer to move out of our apartment as soon as possible, to avoid paying both the rent and our home loan at the same time! About rental properties, it seems that homeowners have a lot of leeway here when it comes to charging tenants for damages to their property.
We’ve had countless problems at our current place with humidity and mold, mainly due to poor insulation. So we contacted our Real Estate Agent – who knows us well by now - to show him the latest photos of the various problem areas and let him know that we do not wish to be charged for renovating an apartment that was not well built in the first place…
Cheers,
Caroline & Efrain
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