They haven’t scratched the tatami but they do like the wood posts. I’ve made them scratch posts and they have a scratch pad which they seem to prefer now.
I miss sleeping on futon and tatami so much. Sometimes I wish I could have one bedroom with tatami floor and another one with a bed to change when I feel like it
I liked the quip about the door. It felt so relatable. "If I say the colour disparity is intentional, I don't need to paint it! It's modern and unique!" Wife: "You'll paint it."
I think she made the right call, really, the fresh/freshly bared wood just was too much of a contrast and certainly to me would just look like an unfinished job all the time and nag me every time I saw it. It might have been tempting for me to sand the faces of the old frames and try and blend the two woods together, but the grain's maybe too different and I'd probably end up staining or painting the whole thing anyway. Where the doors are seems to have a couple different woods next to each other anyway.
"Buuut, my wife wants me to paint it, so I guess we're painting it." - the executive branch has spoken! Great job on those doors buddy, this place looks great.
was just thinking, he's going to paint it....then she puts the shoji and I'm like... do japanese doors work differently when it comes to painting than european ones? glad to know he will be painting it. and yes I am a wife as well.
Your wife made the right decision. The door will definitely look better painted imo. It's so great seeing your home come together. Hard to believe it's the same house from the first video. Your blood, sweat, and tears paid off. It's a beautiful home to raise a family in.
I think that she's also right about not having live peacocks in the garden. I suspect the search history of most peacock owners is: "Peacock call", "How to get peacocks to shut up" and "Great peacock recipes".
Im 82 & want to thank you both for an awesome account, pray for your safety & long life in your home, so glad you able to buy from family who used to live there!! I love stories like this!!!
You started to me a few years ago as just a random channel popped up in my suggestions. After watching you along your journeys these last few years, I have to say I am proud of you and this channel. You have such a gift and talent for these videos and you bring joy to us all! Thank you, for everything!
As someone who has lived in Japan for almost two decades, it has been a dream of mine to buy an old house or building to renovate and make my own, but as a single female freelancer it seems impossible. It’s nice to live vicariously through your channel! Beautiful work, beautiful family!!
@@bethica-anncontreras Me, three! 😃 And it is so encouraging and inspiring to see all that he and his wife are doing to make this BEAUTIFUL house their HOME!!! I truly believe it's just a house until LOVE lives there...and LOVE has moved in there, for sure!!! Blessings!!
As a witness of this resurrection of traditional craftsmanship, a part of me hates to see it coming to closure. Thank you for your generosity in sharing your vision and journey with us. Wishing you and your family joy and good health in your new home, from New Jersey USA.
I'm black man in America with a deep appreciation for Japanese culture. Thank you for sharing I would like to model my bedroom after this traditional interior.
That house is beautiful so glad you kept it traditional with the tatami and the cloth shoji. With that roof it deserved traditional and compliments the house so well. Was sad to hear that that stuff is dying out in japan. Looks amazing!
its such a shame that people don't use or seem to like the old style anymore. Its so beautiful! I hope that it becomes more popular again. Im excited to see how your home turns out in the end it's so fun watching you restore this beautiful house!
It's a bit of a problem everywhere. Suppose the main driving force for this issue is people treating houses more like investments rather than actual homes, which leads to cookie cutter, cheap looking houses, with cheap materials, with an expectation of selling it for high price. But I think many of us think traditional is more appealing 👍
The way you breathed live into this property and building to save it from rotting away was a real joy. Thanks for taking us on the journey of this renovation with you.
Of all the things I wish I could have in my house, an engawa is the most desired. The idea of a hallway that opens wide into the outside, enjoying a mild nighttime breeze, or sitting there watching the rain, is just perfection.
My guess is they are in part an insulation feature for winter (by creating air spaces between outside and the living area), which then is easy to open up and help cool down in the summer.
I want an engawa and genkan too. I really hate it where I live that after you step into my home, the dirt is in a central position which will be crossed when you go from any room to another, thus all of them get dirty fast...
I once visited the Chochikukyo house near Kyoto designed by Koji Fugii. Had a unique system of internal and external soffit vents that circulated air outside through the excavated crawlspace into the house, keeping the rooms comfortable all year and used charcoal space heaters when needed.
@@MaShcode natural ventilation is near forgotten where I live. It's weird how older houses stay cooler in summer... And we don't have AC in our region!
I think it is really cool that you stuck with using the doors even though they turned out to not be antique. Reusing is something we really should be getting back into! One day those doors will be antique exactly because you decided to still use them.
The amount of time, money and effort you put in renovating this house is so inspiring and it's so satisfying to see the house turning like a really peaceful cottage. I love this channel so much. I hope you finish this project and enjoy peace at this home.
Your monotone sarcasm got me. I love how meticulous you are about the little details - obviously, you care because it's your house, but it's still rewarding seeing everything come together perfectly.
I bet your neighbors really like all of your family's work. You have taken the worst looking house and made it possible the best looking in the neighborhood !
LOVE this series!!!! It's never a good idea to store your firewood against the side of the house. Sometimes there are infestations of wood eating insects in your firewood. We always make sure there is a gap of some sort between the wood shed and the main structures, as an extra precaution against structure infestations.
It's so great watching this house come back to life - it was so sad to think about the man that owned it before, and how it fell into decay, but seeing the renewal of this property is really inspiring. I hope his spirit is resting easy as you and your family enjoy this home.
My deepest respect for all you have done yourself and still are about to do! And hail to you for preserving a beautiful ancient building and modernising it at the same time, with repsect for the original elements and character. That is what conservation ought to be about!! 👍👍👍
This channel and RenovationEast are the two house restoration channels I will drop everything to watch when I get that notification. It's looking amazing, phenomenal job!
I should like to add after following it all the way to the end of this video, you, your wife, everyone should be very pleased, including your neighbors. It's a beautiful home.
watching the tatami go in and the genkan get cleaned was so satisfying. The effort that you, your wife and the carpenters have put into this house is really coming through. The house is going to be absolutely stunning.
Mate this is becoming a work of art. One simple thing is to do prune & tidy up the trees, you can significantly improve aesthetic with not much work. Also there must be numerous experts on what & where to plant.
Old houses are always a "labor of love" requiring so much labor, good problem-solving, & inevitable costs. Your efforts to restore this beautiful house AND share the process is such a gift. Thank you! 👍👍
Amazing, what love and care everyone is putting into this home. I think some of these older craft masters you are employing for help must be so very happy to see the work you've done. Thank you for sharing your little piece of Japan with us.
I do wonder if the craftsmen have watched these videos and know how much we appreciate them and what they do. I hope their craftsmanship become popular again.
It’s looking soooo beautiful, you and your wife have worked soooo hard into making this your home - one day your children will realise what you have achieved for them and will be very proud and grateful to you both.
The woodwork is simply jawdropping! Not to mention the incredible attention to detail (as you casually mention the lighting matching to detail on the woodwork)!
As a writer wanting to write a historical fiction about Japan, your videos have been a GOLDMINE of information for me- like the hallway between the outside and the inside rooms (engawa) and the difference between shoji and fusuma doors and panels. Thank you! Not only do I get to watch a beautiful home get restored to its formal glory, but I also get to learn and apply the language that I get from your videos!
Your home is beautiful! It's been wonderful of you to share this journey with everyone with your vlog. It dawned on me while watching you that your kids are going to not only have memories of "the time dad and mom fixed up the house" but also have an entire HD recorded series of it to watch. The future is going to be so interesting for future generations. Keep living the dream!
You are doing such an amazing and wonderful job on your home. I was blessed with your opportunity to live in Japan for three years, granted it wasn’t in a beautiful home like yours; but still I got to experience Japan and it truly was one of the best times I ever had.
So lovely - everything is really coming together. The house is such an obvious labor of love, it always make me a little emotional when I see the latest update. Also, your DIY skills, omg! You're basically a professional now!
You know you're serious when you break down and get a table saw, even though the bulk of the "build" is complete. 🤩 Seriously, you do beautiful work! 🥰👍 I'll be anxiously awaiting your next video❗👍
Never have I felt the urge to live in a certain as strongly as when you showed the Eigawa with the sun shining in. There's something about it that really makes me want to live in a house like this, even preferably in Japan. But it's not only this, the entire has come out really beautiful and it really became something that seemed unthinkable of in part 1. Thank you very much for taking us along that journey so far and doing it in such a nice and relaxing way.
I’ve been following your progress for a year now and all the work you and your family achieved is truly impressive and splendid! It’s always a pleasure for me to discover how much you’ve done each episode and appreciate the beauty of your renovations ! And as it’s practically over I can only tell you “bravo”
If I win the lottery this is what I'm doing! I initially saw your buying video a year ago and have forgotten completely about it. The progress is amazing, and I'm so jealous right now!
I and my (Japanese) wife are too currently looking into buying a 古民家。 There's so much that we still don't know about these traditional Japanese houses (particularly what renovation is needed) so I'm learning quite a lot from these videos. Thanks for making them!
I would very much like to hear how you describe the feel of the home when you enter. The hall way filled with glass and light looks so serene. The wood, the purpose of the quiet floors, it's almost holy.
