We Got the Keys

Friday, September 8, 2023. Friday was a wonderful day. At the house we got some instruction on how to use the appliances in our house. Then, the builder Takata Kenchiku had a little ceremony for us to hand the house over to us.

A lady, probably either from Takara Standard (kitchen) or Lixil (bathroom and toilet) gave us instruction on how to use: kitchen sink, dishwasher, IH range, bathroom sink, bathroom, water heater. Before that we got instruction from another guy on how to use the garage door opener.

After class was over, we had a little ceremony with the people from Takata Kenchiku. They said a bunch of nice things about working with us and we said a bunch of nice things about them and their work. Y-San gave us a very kindly written thank you card.

Finally, they gave us the key to the house. The door had a clever feature that allowed a construction key to be used. But once our key was inserted, the construction key does not work any more.

They said such nice things. They built an amazing house for us, and in a great location. It was a great day.

Tiling Finished!

Wednesday, August 30, 2023. The tiles are set, but need grout. Kayo and I decided to grout all three tile surfaces today. We got started in the morning, grouting the stove wall and its left side. Before we left for lunch, we had not wiped the grout off the surface, which turned out to be a big mistake.

When we came back after lunch, the grout had dried hard and it was difficult to remove the grout remaining on the tile’s surface. This is probably because the tile itself is fairly rough. I started scratching at the grout with my fingernail, but wore down my fingernail. Frustrated, I went to the hardware store and bought variety of scrapers and brushes, hoping at least one would work. Kayo grouted the kitchen tiles

We left again to go to Noah’s school festival. Came back in late afternoon, grout the right side of the stove wall and Kayo tried her hand at cleaning the tile.

Left again for dinner, and returned in the evening to grout the stove floor. And clean up, as we had accumulated quite a few tools and supplies there. We finally left at 10:30 pm.

Kayo is applying grout to the stove wall. She is still wearing the masks we put on while mixing the grout, which was a very fine powder that went everywhere. We did that outside.

Grouting the left side. Because I’m taller, I did the higher tiles, and had to stand on a step ladder. The wall is 2.4 meters tall.

All done! It’s probably hard to see in this picture, but there’s grout still on the surface is various places. But because the surface is textured, it is hard to notice.

Floor. Yeah, we are not pros. The tiles could have been better aligned, and even after we cleaned up, there was grout residue on the floor and posts. I hope someone cleans that up 😂

Kitchen tiles. Kayo did all the grouting herself while I was trying the clean the stove wall tiles.

Signing the Mortgage Documents

Wednesday, August 30, 2023. We had a phone meeting with the bank’s lawyer (“scrivener” 司法書士 something like a lawyer specializing in real esatate) to review the documents we need to stamp (rather than sign) and send back to them. Based on the context, these documents seem to register the bank on the property deed as holding our loan. We had this meeting over the phone since the lawyer is in Tokyo, we were at the house working on tiling at the time.

There were four documents. All used our jitsuin, and some had to be stamped twice. Rough translation by me or DeepL:

• 登記意思確認立会調書　Registration Intention Confirming Witness Record. This document seemed to be that the lawyer was witnessing the signing, even though it was over the phone. Besides the date and time, the document also had a field for “weather”.
• 不動産抵当権設定契約証書　Real Estate Contract Deed or Real Estate Mortgagee Contract
• 抵当権設定　登記原因証明情報　Certificate for Reason to Register – Mortgage. Double stamped
• 委任状 Proxy Authorization. As before, we authorize the lawyer to perform these procedures for us. Double stamped

The bank’s fee for the loan was only 55,000 yen, but the fee for the lawyer is around 150,000 yen, which they didn’t tell us about in advance!

Nighttime Tiling

Wednesday, August 29, 2023. To make progress on the tiling, I went to the house to tile the floor under the stove this evening after work.

The day before I had gone to cut a hole in a tile for the stove’s outside air inlet. I wasn’t confident the hole was big enough, so I asked the builder to inspect it before I glued the tiles down. He later said it was fine.

The builder cut the floor to the size I specified, and placed the white heat-resistant board. The edge of the floor made an easy boundary for applying the thin set. The hardest part was the thin set got a bit stiff as I was working, making it hard to spread easily.

This particular tile came with a random assortment of patterns. On Sunday Kayo and I decided which tiles would go where.

Weekend Tiling Firewall

August 27, 2023. There was lots of progress on our tiling project this weekend, which is good, ideally we will finish before the open house next weekend. I had already posted about the hexagon tiles in the kitchen. Those are finished, minus the grout.

This weekend’s goal is tiling the firewall for the wood burning stove. The white surfaces are heat-resistant boards that will be tiled. On Saturday, I tiled the tall thin section between the brown post and the white board.

On Sunday, Kayo joined me, and we started tiling the wall. At this point, we have put one column of wall tiles on. There is a black trim strip to hide the edges of the tile at the corner.

Kayo is back-buttering tiles —- our notched trowel does not quite apply the recommended about of thin set, and this technique is recommended anyway for large wall tiles. It worked well for Kayo to handle applying the thin set adhesive (letting her gloves get dirty) while I applied the tiles to the wall and aligned them (using clean hands). It is particularly difficult to clean the thin set from these tiles, because they are fairly rough, but a good point is that it is hard to see the thin set stains on the tile surface.

The black metal trim is held in place by thin set, so it made more sense to work one column at a time, rather than rows at a time. You should lay the tiles in 30-60 minutes before the thin set gets too dry. We were running low on thin set towards the end, so there is not as much here. Hopefully it holds!

Mission accomplished! It took us most of the day, but we finished by working together. Our romantic date was installing tiles, which included McDonald’s for lunch.

Let There Be Light

Saturday, August 26, 2023. I was at the house to work on tiles. On Wednesday the floor protection was removed and the house was cleaned for the upcoming open house. The inspection was Thursday.

The biggest news is that the floor protection has been removed and we could see the house properly.

While I was working on the tiles on Saturday, electricians were in the house. They turned on the power for the first time, checking all the lights and the outlets. The air conditioner was working.

The blinds are installed. The second floor gets these wood louvered blinds as an upgrade.

The shelves have been added to these cabinets, and you can see the custom door to the bathroom.

More: Tatami was installed the tatami room. Shelves under the sink were installed in the bathroom. Ceiling fan, porch light, intercom system and many lights are all installed now. I happened to have a pendant light from the same Ishikawa glass blower as in the second picture above, which the builder requested for the open house.

Driveway Forms

August 25, 2023. On Friday I stopped at the house on my way to work to drop off tiles. I couldn’t find the key lockbox, so I couldn’t go inside.

The garage door is a ajar so that the concrete poured can cure. The forms for the driveway have been put in place.

The protective cardboard has been removed from the front door, so I was able to see it for the first time.

The water heater has been installed. This is an eco-cute heater, which uses a heat pump and is said to be very efficient.

I turned on the outside faucet, and water flowed.

The concrete wall needs to be reinforced to come up to code.

This can only be our TV antenna. Looks much nicer than those old Yagi-style antennas.

More: The builder said the house was to be cleaned on Wednesday. Thursday was the inspection by the city, but I have not heard the result.

Concrete Floor in the Garage and More

August 22, 2023. I stopped at the house to drop off tiles that had been delivered. Pleased to see there had been lots of progress since my last visit.

The concrete floor of the garage has been poured and was being smoothed when I was there.

Much of the electrical has been installed. This light in the style of Frank Lloyd Wright is at the top of the stairs; this is the one that K-san said would be the “main character”. The breaker box is in, as are most of the lights and the outlets.

Louvered sliding doors hide the shelves in the kitchen.

The front steps now are covered.

The air conditioner was being installed when I arrived. They guys were outside working on the heat exchanger. I had a moment of panic — I thought they’d installed the unit in the wrong place. When I contacted the developer, they informed us we were getting two units instead of the expected one unit. It was supposed to be a surprise, but I kind of ruined the surprise with my panic.

More: The balcony wall is now covered with a pieces of metal that match the windows. There are shelves next to the bathroom sink. The water heater was delivered but not yet installed. The port-a-potty was being taken away when I arrived.

No sea of concrete please

August 18, 2023. We had a meeting with the builder at the property to discuss the space in front of the house. Looking at the other homes that they’ve built, I was sure they would propose a seat of concrete in front of our house, and indeed they did.

I would like to do something interesting in terms of landscaping and a nice walkway, but don’t want to be rushed into any decision right now.

Minimally we do need some concrete to form a driveway. So I parked my car where the driveway would be and choose what I thought would be a suitable width, using the boards you see in this picture, 3.5 m wide.

I marked up the drawing of the concrete with what I thought would be good, and sent it back to the builder.

At the meeting the builder really thought that there ought to be enough space to park two cars, so they proposed adding some small stones to the left of the driveway. Felt like a compromise

Unrelated, but when we were there the workman was working on the porch, in the same style as the genkan inside.

Loan Product and Tiling

August 14, 2023. Today was a busy day. In the morning we had a phone call with the bank SBI Shinsei, we choose our loan product, and went point-by-point over the loan terms. I verified there was no penalty or fee for early payment. We choose a 20-year loan, with a fixed interest rate of 1.45%. The signing of documents is done electronically

Yesterday we cut some tiles for the kitchen wall, and today we attached them to the wall.

Before picture. We removed wallpaper where the tiles will go, taped remaining wallpaper to protect it from thin set, and laid the first layer of tiles out. The tiles come 9 per sheet, connected with paper.

Kayo is applying thin set to the wall. We did the lower part first to get the positioning correct, and because there were two edges to get right.

An unflattering picture of me adjusting the tile spacing using spacers. This was the most work because I had to bend over the counter at a funny angle that made my back achy the following day.

Finished for the day. This particular thin set was really hard to clean up, are they all like this? This was my first time to do tiling in a long time, so the thin set got everywhere. It was possible, but not easy, to clean from my hands and tools. I’m hoping that it will be possible to remove from the tiles, once the thin set has hardened.

There is a bit more tiling to do, one more column of hexagons on the right side.