House KUTSUROGI - DIY house restoration

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Zasso Nouka
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Re: House KUTSUROGI - DIY house restoration

Post by Zasso Nouka »

You can combine an ECS/OM Solar type system with solar panels, particularly if you go for high end panels like the Panasonic HIT panels but it can work with practically any make of panels. The contractor works out how many square metres of roof space is needed to heat your house and then can reduce that figure to accommodate solar panels by adding sections of toughened glass on top of the galvinium roof. We managed to fit 4Kw's of panels and still have enough space for the ECS system to provide plenty of warmth.

You'd have to make sure the house is well insulated to retain that warmth captured during the day, Neoma Foam isn't necessarily the cheapest option but it is environmentally friendly, easy to work with and cut to size (use some sort of mask when cutting) but there are also many other materials to choose from.

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Re: House KUTSUROGI - DIY house restoration

Post by iamsen »

Stuff I did last week.
- Removed almost all the remaining plasterboards? on the 1st floor. There's still that bit behind the kitchen counter and cabinets. I thought those could be easily unscrewed but everything was nailed down.
- The ceiling of the living room/kitchen uses the same plasterboard material as the walls. Tried to remove but they have wallpaper on them. Bought scrapper today, will be peeling off every last sheet of wall paper tomorrow night.
- Chopped half of the dead bamboo into 30cm-ish lengths to dispose off during gomi day.
- Spent the past 3 nights breaking apart the large pieces of plasterboards into small bits so I can stuff them into disposal bags. 103 bags in total. The contractors coming to pick them up wanted me to weigh them, I gave up after around bag no. 20. I estimate there to be 1.1ton worth of sand and stone in those bags.

Link to the album.


I really need to set up my own blog. Maybe this coming weekend.

Got an almost perfect before and after shot.
Image

Image

Tonight's literally backbreaking work, weighing all 103 bags.
88 of the 10kg bags and 13 of the 20kg ones.
If this is 1 tonne, I guess the 2nd floor's will be over 2 tonnes.
Image

With all that debris cleared up, I can finally remove the remaining floors this weekend and install the vapour barrier over the dirt foundations.

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Re: House KUTSUROGI - DIY house restoration

Post by Zasso Nouka »

That is some seriously impressive work there Iamsen, although it is hard work it's incredibly satisfying doing it yourself and quite empowering.

Love the before and after pictures

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Re: House KUTSUROGI - DIY house restoration

Post by gonbechan »

Wow. I have green eyed renovation envy.
We really had to move in quickly because of the stupidly high rent on the place we were in.
So we got pretty complacent after we did the bare necessities.

However we have a project planned for the summer vacation.

The senmendai is rather a small area and we like to keep our unmentionables, delicates and socks etc in close proximity to getting out of the bath.
Well the one wall butts up against an oshiire type closet in the living room and the plan is to break down that wall and pinch half the depth to put shelves, drawers etc on the senmendai side.

This way towels, underoos, socks etc can come directly out of the dryer and into their storage space.
We also plan to replace the actual sink with a smaller (not as hugely deep) one possibly from Ikea and put a proper mirrored bathroom cabinet up instead of the plastic horror that is there now.

We shall post before/during/after on our house thread when we get at it.

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Re: House KUTSUROGI - DIY house restoration

Post by gonbechan »

Before I forget, if you are looking for cheap solutions to hot water, TEPCO does an EcoCute lease deal where they actually instal it for free and you just pay a small monthly fee.
TEPCO ECO CUTE LEASE

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Re: House KUTSUROGI - DIY house restoration

Post by iamsen »

Thanks for the kind words ZN. It really is very satisfying.
I've always wanted to live in a house since I was young and this is one of my dreams come true.

Thanks for the ecocute tip gonbe chan.
I need to start looking into solutions for things like those too. I've been so preoccupied with the structural areas that I've totally neglected the electrics. Need to starting thinking about what I'll be needing and how much power I'll need too.

Current state of the house.
Image

Finally finished removing all of the floor beams yesterday.
Next step will be to raise and level the supporting beams and then I can begin putting in vapour barriers, insulation and new floorboards. It's all going to very girigiri before I have to leave my current rental :D

Some rough floor plans I made.
I made a lot of guesses and estimations during my initial measure so it's rather off. I've made new measurements so I'll redo the plan tomorrow night.
http://legendofcode.com/HouseKUTSUROGI/plan.html

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Re: House KUTSUROGI - DIY house restoration

Post by Zasso Nouka »

iamsen wrote:It's all going to very girigiri before I have to leave my current rental :D
:eek:

That's really grabbing the bull by the horns man but respect to you for doing all the work yourself. At the end of the day you'll be able to look at your house and know you did all the work yourself and that brings with it an incredible feeling of satisfaction.
iamsen wrote:Need to starting thinking about what I'll be needing and how much power I'll need too.
Well you can never have too many sockets around the house, much better to have too many than have to daisy chain 4 and 6 way adapters. At our old apartment all the sockets were wired as simple spurs rather than proper ring mains which seemed a rather precarious set up to me.
iamsen wrote: Some rough floor plans I made.
I made a lot of guesses and estimations during my initial measure so it's rather off. I've made new measurements so I'll redo the plan tomorrow night.
http://legendofcode.com/HouseKUTSUROGI/plan.html
Looks like it will be pretty awesome when you've finished.

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Re: House KUTSUROGI - DIY house restoration

Post by gonbechan »

Really looking forward to seeing what is happening at your house.
I am guessing the quietness here means great gobs of work going on there.

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Re: House KUTSUROGI - DIY house restoration

Post by iamsen »

Image

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Re: House KUTSUROGI - DIY house restoration

Post by Zasso Nouka »

Looking good Iamsen,

Did you pour concrete under the floors or go with another option ?

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