Will rent this house for both living and working. The owner is a pensioner who retired from his carpentry business. As the old saying goes, the shoemaker's children go shoeless. The owner seemed to build this house for utility more than beauty. It's old, but has tons of storage space and good air ventilation to accommodate the hot and humid summers.
Every room also has huge windows to help warm the house in winter. Every room has numerous outlets, which is uncommon in most apartments and homes built during the 70s and 80s. When not working, there's enough ambient light to do cleaning or to do office work at the computer.
Will use this space as my office and study. With all the in-wall cabinets, had to get rid of a lot of our old cabinets and shelves to help avoid excess clutter. In fact, if we moved here with some of our old furniture, we wouldn't be able to use them since they'd block access to the buil-in storage.
I especially like the shoji paper sliding doors. We will get rid of the old light fixtures and bring our own for more brightness at night and asthetics.
The first floor is almost like a trick house or built to accommodate ninja defenders. You can access different rooms from different doors depending on where you happen to be. Another nice benefit is that lots of natural light shines in from the east, south, and west -- warm in winter, but a bit warm in summer.
Most rooms except for three have wall-to-wall tatami straw mats on the floors. Great for walking around with bare feet or just sprawling out on the floor for a mid-summer nap.
View of the front entrance from the room I'll use for the classroom.
The largest room upstairs will be my father-in-law's bedroom since he'll sleep on a bed, whereas the other rooms are better for sleeping on the tatami mats using futons.
The bedrooms upstairs have such big windows that you simply step through them to hang out the laundry on the balcony for drying. (As is the case in most Japanese homes, clothes dryers are a rich man's dream. Not only would the power bill for using a clothes dryer be astronomical, but there aren't even vents in the wall to accommodate the heat exhaust from a dryer in the first place.)
At sunset, we close the shutters on all the windows upstairs and downstairs for privacy and to keep the noise inside from bothering the neighbors. During winter, the add a bit of extra insulation from the cold, biting air. During typhoons, they add extra protection to the windows from flying debris.
All in all, I think we'll be comfortable here. This will be my first time to live in a house as opposed to an apartment or condo. Have a small yard with lots of shrubbery to maintain during summer. For the first time in 30 years, I'll be able to enjoy some gardening and yard work!
Best thing of all, we'll have a place where the dogs can stay with us indoors.
