Slanted House (Part I)

You ever hear the one about the family in the slanted house of Izu? If not then pull up a stool and I’ll tell it to you. The family that bought it used to live out of two upstairs rooms in the Japanese wife’s family home in Numazu until the spring of 2012. They’d been looking to buy a place of their own since a year earlier—looking more and more earnestly even after the giant Tohoku earthquake and tsunami the prior spring since that place was well within tsunami range. Alas the owner of the one house they found and really liked wouldn’t come down to their buying price so they thought they’d remain living out of those two upstairs rooms near the sea. They thought that right up till the realtor called. “Would you like to rent the house?” he asked. Actually not in those exact words, that’s a Japanese to English translation of his question, but you get the point. “Yes” they said. And so this family of four—the Japanese wife and mommy lady, the American husband and daddy guy, and their two young boys moved to Kannami. They were excited because they really liked the house. It should be mentioned that there was one pretty big problem however.  

The house was….

HAUNTED!

Okay no, not really. That’s a lie it wasn’t haunted. The truth is the house was sinking. Or if not was still sinking at least had sunken. Sunken quite a bit actually. One end of the house, the rear end of it near the retaining wall then 3’ wide 4’ deep concrete drainage canal, was a good 12cm lower than the other side. It was very noticeable. So much so you had to move real fast to get a rag if milk was spilled on the dinner table if you wanted to catch it before it ran off the end down and onto the floor. A ball placed in the hallway would roll all the way to the low end of the house too, gaining speed as it went it’d be moving quick enough to bounce off the baseboard a time or three before finally coming to rest. But since they were renting the house that was acceptable because they, especially the dad who worked as a carpenter for nearly a decade in a previous life, really liked the house. It was framed in traditional Japanese style all post and beam out of HINOKI—Japanese cypress.  Good stuff! And the roof was all copper. Big long sheets of copper with ornate ridge caps that had decorative ends over the ridges. It made for a beautiful roof and was far lighter than the traditional heavy tile that’d be apt to come crashing down in a big earthquake. The house had huge overhangs too, and big windows to let in plenty of light.  Architecturally it was quite unique. There was some concern though, again mostly if not solely by the dad, of how it’d hold up in a huge earthquake. 

The years passed after they moved in till one day the family of four added one more. A little girl child joined them. They went on living in the house, laughing, playing, complaining, fighting, loving, getting along, tolerating, you know, being just like your normal everyday human. Then one day the wife lady, the mommy lady, she said she wanted a house of her own. Back when they started renting they’d told the landlord they may want to buy the house one day.  Then after nearly six years of renting they approached him with an offer and he said “Not EVEN!” Or something in Japanese that was close to that.  Thus began a few months of meeting at the kitchen table in the slanted house—the wife, the landlord, the realtor, and the husband. The husband stayed quiet for the most part. The wife did all the negotiating. The husband couldn’t follow along when speech got really fast and detailed. In Japanese he knew just enough to know when to look stern or when to laugh, when to look shocked at a counter offer or when to murmur something approvingly and put on his thinking face, all the while hoping he wasn’t blowing it since his wife, unbeknownst to him to up till then, was, make that is, an ultimate master ninja negotiator.

The original asking price on the house six years earlier was about $270K if converted to $USD. Hinoki is expensive shit, or lumber rather. You know. As is the copper roof. All in all it was a fair asking price and still a mere half if not lower than what was paid when the house was built before the bubble burst in Japan in the 90s.  Be that as it may most who buy a used house in Japan just tear it down. It’s happened a million times if it’s happened once. People buy a nice looking albeit older, ten, twenty, thirty years old, home—structurally sound not even sinking beautiful home but they just tear it on down so they can build a new one. The new homes are modern looking and, in the American husband ex-carpenter daddy guy slanted home buyer’s opinion, not nearly as sturdy as older Japanese homes. 

Not that they're bad homes, they're much like any new product--cleaner and with more modern features, just not built to last like things used to be. If you could combine some of the newer engineering (e.g. sheer walls all around 1/2" plywood nailed six or three inches on center) with the older notched solid wood post and beam construction now that'd be a sturdy home! Down side is newer homes are  built with engineered materials that just won't hold up over time as well as a good solid piece of pure timber will. They've got comp roofs more oft than not, which will need replacing in time, along with laminated beams and even posts in some of them and twenty year siding that, based on all I've seen, will likely need repairing if not replacing soon after the warranty expires. Like the ol carpenter dad guy says if all the people disappeared those older homes skeletons would remain standing long after the newer ones came crashing to the ground. 

Long story slightly shortened; after three or four of those kitchen table meetings that ninja negotiator woman had talked them down to just buying the land. That’s right, she got it for the “Not even!” price after all. So it was done. The daddy husband ex-carpenter American goof guy was happy because he had all kinds of ideas for remodeling the place but his one condition on buying is they got it at a price low enough to afford to hire that company out of Chiba.  You know the one—that company with the new patented material and new method of lifting up and fortifying the foundations of slanted houses.  They’re doing that as I type this.  If you felt the desk shaking or heard the walls creaking that’s why. And ‘you probably figured out by now I’m that daddy guy. It’s been fascinating to watch how they do it. That’ll be part two of this tale which, although I’m about as slow as molasses in wintertime at adding new blog entries, I’ll try to get posted with pictures soon.

Here’s a teaser photo till then. The hybrid high powered super concrete injection new fangled Japanese lift up the house process involves putting a swimming pool in our backyard.

Who'dve thunk it!