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