Since buying and renovating our abandoned
house here in Japan, I've been interested to see what other people have been doing with
their houses. So in this video, I'm going to visit a couple
who are renovating their house but on a much lower budget than ours. I'm heading out to Lake Kasumigaura, the second
largest lake in Japan, and about an hour from my house to meet Laura and Ichi. I've watched their YouTube channel but this
is the first time to meet in person, the area around Kasumigaura and Tsuchiura, the main
town on the lake. It's really nice. There's a park with a beautiful light display,
and a Dutch windmill for some reason. The area is good for cycling with a number
of bike paths, and you can rent decent bicycles at Tsuchiura station. You could even do a 180 kilometre circuit
of the lake if you'd like a spot of exercise. Driving down by the lake really felt like
you're off the beaten track. Instead of rice fields, there were lots of
lotus fields growing renkon, which is the lotus root used in Japanese cuisine. Let's get this out of the way early. Yes, Ichi and I are wearing the same outfit. Thanks, guys are heavy the house looks great. So how did you decide to get a house like
this? So combination of factors, slightly different
for both of us. But for me, in particular COVID had a massive
effect on my business, which is in tourism. So I was living in Tokyo paying you know,
sky high rents, and reading newspaper articles that said you can get free houses in the countryside
or you know, houses for a million yen. So that caught my attention and made me initially
interested. And then he was interested in a bigger space,
more space to do his art. Yeah, for the work studio. What made you look at Ibaraki. So at the beginning, she would like to get
a property around Mount Fuji. And especially nearby lakes, five lakes, around
Fuji. But it's difficult to find a proper one. I mean, one matching us and matching with
our budget as well. Next, I think about lake. And then we found that big lake in Ibaraki. And he's very familiar with Ibaraki because
it's his home prefecture originally. Yeah, this is this is a really nice area. And it feels like you're really off the beaten
track here. What did you think when you first saw the
place? Oh, well, when we drove down this main road,
which I think you came down today, it's just lake and fields on one side, and then these
beautiful traditional houses on the other side. It just felt like another world, like old
Japan, where time has stopped. Yeah, time stopped. And it's so quiet and peaceful. So you definitely feel that, but we're only
a 20 minute drive to Tsuchiura, and then an hour and a half to Tokyo. Then how did you find the place? From the internet. So in the owner was present? No, it had been empty for eight years? Or six years before we got it? I don't know exactly. The real Estate guy says 10 years but not
sure. The neighbour says no. It's sometimes hard to get a clear time. Yeah, it was definitely empty for a number
of years. But the previous owner lives locally? Didn't he die? Yeah, he passed away. And then the wife maybe moved to the city. And then eventually they decided to put it
on the market after it's been empty for so long. Can I ask how much you paid for it? The house was a bargain. It was 5 million yen (USD 50,000). It's less than the price that the land is
worth. Yeah, I guess that price factors in the assumption
that someone might knock the house down. Exactly. Yeah, they think you're gonna spend money
to clear the land so they have to sell it cheaper. But in actual fact, it's a really good quality
house. You just would not knock this down. They use the traditional method. This house is only 43 years old. So it's actually not that old for this type
of building. It's probably one of the last ones that was
made like this. When you moved into the house, was there a
lot of rubbish and stuff everywhere? No, we watched your videos and it was nothing
like yours. I'm guessing because it was listed on a proper
real estate website. It wasn't being sold as a like an akiya bank
akiya. They were trying to sell it. So I think they probably just cleared it as
part of the process they go through. I suspect. That's pretty nice. So yeah, it was basically empty inside. What's the size of the house? This is 98 square metres. The house? What about the land? Just under 1000 square metres? And then how many buildings are on the land? Three plus a toilet block. Plus a cow shed. How should you count? Five. So this would have been a cattle farm? It was a rice farm. It was a rice farmer's family home. So is there any attached farmland? It does have a small piece of farmland. But I don't think that's what they would have
been growing their rice on. Too small. And how are your neighbours? Really nice. The neighbours were very welcoming. Oh, that's great. Yeah, very welcoming, which we were little
bit surprised about. Everyone's been really nice. Awesome. You do hear horror story rumours about city
people not being welcomed or foreigners not being welcomed. We've had the opposite experience. Okay, shall we have a look inside? Yeah, sure. Let's do it. Let's do it. Wow. This is a doma entrance. There you can see the koyagumi made of logs. So you took the ceiling off yourself? Yeah. Yeah, and actually, this is step is made of
keyaki wood here. Yeah, this is a beautiful step. Now you guys are doing this all yourself? Pretty much. Yeah. We've had professionals in for the electrics
and pipe work, water, gas drain. Gas pipes is not our work. So everything else. Well, I say "we" but he is doing it. And I'm assisting. Have you had any experience doing renovations
before? I mean, kind of like a part-time job when
I was a teenager. Long, long, long time ago. So it means not professional. But I saw some work of a daiku-san (carpenter),
or, like construction work. And then plus, now, you know, I can watch
YouTube channels. So what's your budget for the renovation? Oh, actually, we didn't think about it properly. But I always think minimum costs so save money. When we got it, I kind of tried to look at
total price of what rent is like in Tokyo. So three years rent in Tokyo is like 8 million
yen. So I was thinking "Oh, if we could do it for
that". That's really good. The purchase and renovations together 8 million
yen. So you bought it for just over 5 million including
expenses and taxes. So right, that's like 2.5 million for the
renovation. So, so far, we've already spent 2.5 million. Yeah. So that's gone up a little bit. I mean, as he said, we're trying to do it
for the lowest possible price, but still good quality. So now we're aiming for three and a half million. Yeah, three and a half is the new aim. The quality is also important, not only just
cheap, you know. Yeah, we've tried to buy nice quality things
at discounted prices. So, like, ex-display models, or used but still
in really, really good condition. Yeah, well, using materials, but people may
not realise it's a very good material, and then somehow we find it for a cheap price
and then take it. Where are you finding all of these materials
then? The cheap prices? Basically Yahoo auctions, or there's a secondhand
shop around here. And then like, you know, treasure hunt. Yeah, treasure hunting. Yeah, we can show you some of the stuff we've
got. It's all in the garage waiting to go in. So we've spent two and a half million, but
in the garage we've got the kitchen. We've got interior doors, toilet. All of the lights have been bought. They're quite expensive. We bought the shower and bath. Oh, flooring. We've got a massive oak floor for this room. Yeah, so we've we've actually purchased a
lot with the money that we've spent. When did you buy the house? We offered and accepted in August and got
the keys in September. And when did you start work? October or maybe November. Yeah. So what's that seven months? Seven months ago. So when do you hope to finish it? By last month. As soon as possible. We're tired. Yeah. takes time. Where are you staying? Well, in the garden. We have an extra building in the garden. Okay, which very, very fortunately it's got
a kitchenette in it. It's got water, it's got power. It's basically like having a studio room with
a kitchen. That's pretty handy. So there's that and then we're back and forward
to Tokyo a little bit as well. Okay, you still have a place in Tokyo. Yeah. But it's much more convenient having some
way to stay here rather than trying to base yourself out of Tokyo and renovate. Yeah, we normally do like 7 to 10 days here
at a time, and then we go back to Tokyo and just relax and have a proper bath. Enjoy using a real toilet. So where do you have a bath now? So just down the road they have a shower you
can use for 200 yen. So we rock up there with our towels and our
shampoo. Did you have any issues with the house when
you arrived? Any water damage or any signs of termites
and things like that? Oh here little bit of termites here. I just on purpose broke a tiny bit though. There's some water damage over there, isn't
there? Yeah, water damage is here. You can see here it is. Do you know where the leak was coming from? The previous owner already fixed it. There was a big earthquake. Did you inspect the house before you bought
it? No. No, no inspection. And then slight panic after. I felt panicked after we bought it because
there was no inspection thinking what if we bought something that's going to fall down? But actually everything's been fine. Yeah, quick, quick. I saw it myself. Yeah. And then I thought it's still fine. And then a couple of your friends came as
well. Yeah, a carpenter friend came. And then did a quick check. They said fine, too. There's a kitchen area and dining area. There used to be a bathroom here. Now we've moved the bathroom next door. Okay, that's the bath. Yeah. And then here's the changing room. And then the laundry room here, the island
kitchen here, kitchen sink here, An island kitchen, which is in the garage. And the dining table will go around here. So a dining table here. Island in the middle. We've got another counter for the back, a
stainless one, which we got from a great secondhand stainless shop, fridge in the corner. And then we're going to change this door as
well. I hate this door. It's just awful. So over there in the boxes, the new door is
ready to go in. It's just a black sash frame with clear glass. And it's a little bit narrower. So we'll have a nice, open light door and
then maybe a little bit of deck outside. These doors must have been popular a while
ago because we had one of these in our kitchen as well. And there. Did you rip it out? No. It's my favourite door. So, yeah, hopefully when it's finished, it's
gonna be quite a nice space. So priority is to finish the bathroom, and
then move on to the kitchen and bedroom. So what what do you reckon? Realistically, couple of months? Yeah, I think couple of months probably. A couple months. Yeah. There's the bathroom. This wet room bathroom. Oh, you got the same tiles? I got them through the guy who did our tiles. We didn't I didn't do the tiles myself. The guy who did our tiles ordered them for
us. On the floor we've used this is a marble from
Turkey. Very nice. So the idea with the bathroom was, from the
beginning, that I wanted a bathroom that felt like an onsen. I had to have a window next to the bath. And then we will build a fence around outside. Make a traditional Japanese garden outside
the window. So for the walls we'll use the same small
tile from floor to ceiling. Oh, by the way, he what kind of art do you
do? I'm a painter. So I'm doing a suiboku-ga painting (Japanese
ink painting). And then recently I published a book. So can people buy that book online or in stores? Yeah. Online. I have an online shop. It's called the Ichi Store. Okay, I'll put the link in the description. Oh, thank you. And buy the book. It's amazing. It's 100 pages of dragons. Yeah. Dragons. Painted dragons. Check that out. Gorgeous. One big room. From the engawa to the two rooms, just make
everything one room. Yeah, that makes sense. It's a better use of space because the engawa
there is not that wide. So it makes it like an engawa, in effect,
by having the big room and you'll have more space to sit and put a table. Yeah. So it kind of brings the engawa into the room. And then also the views are great here. Yeah. True. You don't want to have shoji blocking that. You're keeping the kamidana (Shinto altar). Oh. Oh, well, originally, yes. But now we're thinking about it. It's quite a nice kamidana. Yeah, it is nice. Originally, we were definitely going to keep
it. Yeah, you said in your video. But the more we go through the renovation
and start thinking about finishing touches and design, then we're starting to think. Do we really want it? Yeah. Yeah, we'll think about it. It's quite cool though. So only this ceiling is the only good one. Yeah, it's called "fumiten". Probably your house has one like this. Our bedroom is like this. So are you paying for this out of your savings? It's coming out of our savings, which is why
we're keeping the budget as small as possible. But making sure we still buy good quality
things because we want it to last. Yeah, but the great thing is, once you've
finished it, you will have paid for your house. No mortgage. Yeah, I think. Yeah, yeah. But that's the dream, right? Yeah, definitely. I mean, we took out a loan for ours, we have
a mortgage. And that's my only regret, like, oh, we could
have done it as cheaply as possible. And then at the end of it come out mortgage
free. Yeah. And that's what you have to kind of weigh
up, isn't it? Because like, ours is taking significantly
longer to do, because we're doing it ourselves, because our budget is smaller. So we're also fortunate or unfortunate that
we've been out of work for a while because of COVID. So we've actually got the time. And then because of COVID we haven't really
got any money, which is another reason why the budget is low. But we've got the time. So that was a really fun and interesting visit. Laura and Ichi have done really well for themselves. That place is really nice, and it's not too
big. It's something that they can complete on their
own. Also, having a place to stay while they're
doing the renovations is a huge plus. And that's a big advantage compared to some
other places. The fact that they're possibly going to be
able to complete the whole project, including the house purchase and renovations, for less
than 10 million yen (USD 100,000). And come out of it mortgage free, I think
is what makes the idea of an akiya really attractive to a lot of people, especially
overseas. It's going to be really interesting to see
that place once it's all complete. We're gonna visit a couple who are renovating
their house on a much lower budget than ours. Welcome to Grand Designs Japan. I don't think you can use that. Should be fine, my lawyer will sort it out. Let's do it again. We're gonna visit a couple of a renovating
their house on a much lower budget than ours. Welcome to Grand designs Japan, where we put
the grand in Japan. That's just bad. It doesn't even make sense.
