Points like checking that the border markers are all there, to see what the different remarks in the contract meant etc. Plus having an overall look at the current shape of the house in which we would receive it. At the same time, a guy from construction/carpenter company was there to give me an estimate of how much different reforms/fixes/changes that I was thinking about would cost.
Borders could all be seen. There were some remarks about a couple of holes in bedroom walls, an indent in the flooring of the bathroom and something about a kitchen fan not working. Also a remark that there might be noise from passing train which we need to understand.
We had already seen the interior a couple of times but this time it was with different eyes as future owners and much more critical. Overall there is nothing wrong or strange with the interior, it has all the marks and dirt spots that one can expect a 14 year old house can have. So it is not that bad. We can always get new wall papers or clean up. But I think new wall papers will soon be scratched or dirtied by the cats so that's not money well spent. We should just keep to the cleaning and maybe painting part.
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| hole is right under the window |
The hole in the bedroom are almost same size as a fist. I guess the cheapest fix is to use spackling paste myself and then either paint or tape over it, or hide it behind a piece of furniture.
The indent in the bathroom flooring looked worse though. Nothing I can fix myself. I asked the reform guy to have a look and tell me what it will cost to fix, but being the businessman he is, he started from the indent and gradually expanded the fix to removing the sink (which is nowhere near the small indent) and removing the whole floor and replacing with tiles and some fancy options, and ended up dreaming away towards getting a whole new bathroom just to fix the small indent. I had to stop him and tell him to give us the easiest cheapest version. And that would according to him mean removing just half the floor and replace with new flooring after fixing the indent underneath. A bit put off, he said as a last remark: "Or if you want it cheaper you can just leave it as it is"
I thought about it and asked him to give me a price estimate anyway.
It didn't look like a water damage, and it is not that big really. I probably will bring in a local handyman after moving in to see if he cannot give a better cheaper fix.
Inspecting the kitchen fan, it worked just fine. The guide we were with said that there appears to ba a glitch in the electronics so that the fan sometimes doesn't turn on. We tried it a few times and it seemed fine. If it gives us trouble I guess I will open it up and see if I can fix it.
As for the train sound, the tracks are 15 meters away on the south side BUT there is a big hill between us, plus the tracks themselves are on the deep other side of the hill, almost 30 meters below. So the sound is muffled and far. Plus it doesn't last long as the train passes by fast.
While we were inside, we actually heard the train pass by a couple of times. But we noticed it only because the doors and windows facing south were all open. And even then, it is nothing remarkable that one cannot get used to, unless you need a complete and total silence at all times. By the way, all the doors and windows have double glazing. So when we closed them we barely heard the train. And it is not usual that everyone in the house just stands still and listens for passing train.
Actually living near a road is much noisier. And the train doesn't run in the middle of the night. Where we live now, cars pass by all the time and it is also smokey from the cars. Everywhere we lived before in Japan, it was pretty much same with noise form cars. Even when we didn't live right next to a road. This house is actually far from the main road which is a big blessing. There are several houses between us and the road.
The reform guy told me he will also give me estimates for reforming/renewing the kitchen, renewing the tatami-room floors (which he said must be done because the color has changed due to the sun, but that room being on the south I guess it takes only 2-3 months before the sun changes the color of new tatami floors too...), replacing the hoses of the air conditioning, covering some cracks in the balcony with a layer of concrete (The cracks are nothing, just looks normal, and the fix would only be cosmetic he said), and also a total cleaning (which we can do ourselves very well). I probably won't do any of those but it is good to know what the cost would be, so I let him do the estimate.
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