Heartful plans

It immediately became apparent that we made the right decision not to show other builders' plans to each designer. The designer at Heartful came up with an idea very different to what we had seen before.

His idea was to get two modules with a ratio of 13x6 (japanese units of 910mm) and fit them together. One is at an angle of 135 degrees to the other and they overlap. This enables the roof to face sSouth while part of the house looks out over the river and toward the lake.

We were impressed with this original take on our brief and liked some of the style options that this brought. There is a separate triangular study downstairs that is accessed by a wood deck. The deck, with its two doors into the house, also serves the purpose of allowing air to flow through the house from the North. Upstiars there is a nice line that continues from the bench on the outside deck through the kitchen counter to the dining table.

While these initially had us wowed, after more consideration, we now realise there are some important things that need changing.

• Immediately apparent was the lack of roof on the deck. This will be easily remedied to give us the outside room.
• The courtyard seems pointless.
• Space could be better managed downstairs. By making the wood deck corridor into part of the spare room will almost double the size of that spare room.
• The master bedroom and the first of the children's bedrooms can be switched to enable us to make the master bedroom ensuite.
• Whereas there is a great view from the deck and kitchen, the living room loses out in that aspect and the washing and bathroom areas completely block that wall from having a view.
• There are seven outside doors downstairs and we wonder how much they are going to coost!
  

We are now awaiting a quote from Heartful to see if it is going to be possible to move forward with this plan.

First plans from Heartful and contact with Sekisui

After 6 weeks of waiting, we are due to see the first plans from Heartful in the morning.
Since first contacting Hearful we have again met with Yutaka (OM Solar) and seen some slightly ammended plans based on putting the house on both plots of land. If we decide to go down that route I have a feeling that we will need to redesign the house to suit its new location. However, we are happy with the plans and price that they have quoted so far, and not wanting to waste their time, feel that the other companies need to get to the same stage before it is justifiable to ask them to put much more work in.

Sekisui Heim is part a large Japan-wide company that mass produces houses. We spoke with a salesperson at the start of November and are now awaiting plans from them too.

They differ vastly in their dealings with the customer from the othr companies we are in contact with. Although they try to retain the personal approach, you are clearly being led along their sales programme. This doesn't concern me too much as it has its advantages too. They are upfront and clear about the flow of the process, and present this in an easy to understand way.

They offer houses to include whatever you want ("not two of our houses are the same..."), but at the mention of a jacuzzi on the balcony we were immediately pushed towards having a bathroom with a large window.

We are looking forward to getting their plans too and trying to keep open minds. The builders have not seen each other's plans so they should come up with different interpretations of the same briefing.

Hybrid Solar House - Heartful Construction

This is a system that has similarities to OM Solar. Oil is heated under the roof and this is run under the upper and lower floors and through the hot water tank. In this way it does the same job as OM. Where it does not perfom is in cooling the house. For this we would require air conditioners.

It is the system that Heartful Construction uses. We started talking to them in September 07 and are awaiting a first plan from their designer.

The biulder says that he can build the size we are looking for (40 tsubo) for around 80% of the price we have been quoted by OM builders.

Finding a builder - Yutaka

In August, 2007 we contacted Yutaka Construction - the company that built our friend's house.

Being a larger company than the one-man-show of Katou, they immediately seemed more professional. Like Katou though, they were mostly positive about the contentious issues of an upside down house using OM solar, log fire, jacuzzi, wind power and LED lighting.

The second plan that their designer came up with met a lot of our goals. We both really like the layout of the house. The area under a roof, but outside the kitchen and living room is a great extension to the inside of the house, yet is outside. The jacuzzi has been accommodated. We have large windows that look out in the right direction. There is a loft. The kitchen is sociable. All the bedrooms are large. We have a pantry and storage.



What surprised us is the washing areas are all upstairs. This works well in terms of layout, but there is a problem with heating these rooms. OM solar relies on air flowing inside the house. These rooms will not have any warm air flowing through them and thus will not get heated. Yutaka's solution is to put in heaters. I am uncomfortable with this as it will use electricity to do the job of what the OM heating should do. If these rooms were downstairs then they could be heated through vents in the floor.

On the subject of airflow, there are concerns that we do not have a mezzanine and there is not a big enough passage for warm air to rise to the upper floor. A suggested solution has been to disperse some of the heat under the 2nd floor floorboards as it is being sent down the duct to the concrete under the house. We would be able to control the percentage that is used upstairs and downstairs. At the moment we are awaiting calculations on whether this would allow for sufficient heating of both floors. As the night time heating of the house requires the concrete to be heated throughout the day, we need to make sure enough heat is getting to it.

A quote from Yutaka has come in to just about fit in to our budget (depending on survey and ground work). So now we are eagerly awaiting news of the efficiency of the OM system in this plan.

Some notable absences from this plan are the fireplace - deemed unnecessary, expensive and labour intensive by Yutaka; and wind turbine to power the 12v LED lighting, omitted on the grounds of it not producing a reliable source of electricity.

I am not convinced of the last two arguments yet.

Finding a builder - Katou

In November, 2006 we first talked to Katou Construction. Beofre our first meeting we had an idea of what we wanted the house to look like, but nothing that we had tried to describe to others before.

Mr Katou was very patient with us and helped lead us down the path of thinking what we want to use the house for and what purposes the different spaces in the house will serve. Over the next 8 months we worked through 7 different plans. The most recent plan (June 07) can be seen below.
The kitchen and living room are upstairs so that we can enjoy the view over the levy to the river and the lake. The large deck is accessible from two sides of the living room by doors that open completely to leave a large 'hole'. As the road-side of the house - that with the narrower (2M) part of the deck - is under a roof we would be able to leave these doors open evein when raining.

The biggest headache with this plan was fitting in the kitchen and the OM duct. The duct seems to be plonked in the midle of one of the entries to the kitchen.

A 2M wide open loft runs the length of the house above the kitchen and rear of the living room. This would house the OM handling unit and be used for storage/study.

With the sensible place to dry clothes being on the deck (under a roof), the distance from the washing machine is a drawback.

We liked many things about this plan - space for a jacuzzi on the deck; open living, dining and kitchen; large loft; high ceiling; view; large room for children. However, as yet we have not been able to get it within the budget. That couple with the location of the kitchen/pantry and OM duct prompted us to start looking for other builders.

OM Solar

A friend of ours has an OM Solar house.
We both like the way that the house is heated in winter, cooled in summer and hot water is provided most of the year all from the power of the sun. You can read more at their website from the link in the link bar on the left.

We are also keen on the way that these houses are (as a way of keeping the air flowing) open-plan. This would give us the feeling of large space that we are looking for.

Also, they are of timer post and beam construction. It is possible to encase these in plaster board, but often they are left open and the beauty and smell of the wood are on display.

Slideshow from border of our land and the big land

Slideshow from path

Slideshow from road

Slideshow from triangle

Slideshow from levy

Maps of the land and the local area

I have uploaded some pictures of the land in its development so far. To understand where they are taken from refer to the map below.

The land that we currently own is the triangular plot (A) on the end. It sided to the South by a 6-metre-wide road, North by a path and East by another plot (B). We call the plot next door “The big land”. We hope to buy the big land too.

The other side of the road is a levy, beyond which is a 40 metre flood plain before reaching the river.

Pictures are taken from the road; the levy; the corner where the path meets the road; or the path.

Here is a map of the local community. The lake, Biwako, is to the North. There is a sandy beach before the lake. The block that contains the Chinese characters is a park. Running SE-NW in the bottom left corner is a river that empties into the lake 150-200 metres from our land.

Purpose

In December, 2006, my wife, Kaori and I first approached a builder to help us build our new house.
Nine months on and we have managed to buy the plot of land we wanted, but still at the designing stage, we have decided to get opinions and ideas from other builders and other sources.
I had been reluctant to start a blog part-way through the project, but as we now seem at a new starting point it has given me the push I needed.

I hope this will serve as a record of the development through stages from finding a builder to moving in. I enjoyed reading similar records before we decided to build in Japan and hope that this will serve as a resource for others who want to design their own home and have it built in Japan.

Comments and advice will be welcome.

Paul Bennett