ASO MILL Blog

Extra windows 追加の窓

2021-01-24 by David

冬の阿蘇は結構寒いです！夜中には毎日-3°~-5°になっています。しかし、この家には2階天井の下に大きい穴があります！空気を流すために網戸しかないんだ！暖房はありえない！

▲ 梯子を上って網戸を切りました。それから外側の雨から守るアルミを外しました。

Aso gets pretty chilly in winter, regularly hitting sub-zero temperatures at night. Which makes this large ventilation hole near the ceiling on the 2nd floor living room totally mad! I'd rather ventilate the house when needed, than lose any attempts at heating in winter, so I climbed up a ladder and cut out the flynet material covering the holes (centre of the pic) and the exterior rain guards....

▲ その代わりにプラスチックの板二枚を付けました。やった！空気が変わりました！

.... and replaced the gap with two sheets of plastic and an airgap in between. I might revisit that solution sometime, but for now it will suffice. As you can see, it makes the whole ceiling area quite a bit brighter! Yay

▲ ベッドルームのために安い2x4パインでダブルベッドを作ってみました。まだ未完成だけど、もう床で寝なくてもいいからうれしい！

One other project I started work on was a quick and simple double bed, made out of cheap pine 2x4s. At least it will keep me off the floor for now?

▲ あと、リサイクル屋さんで中古冷蔵庫も買いました。大津市はちょっと遠いから、私のオープンカーで持って帰りました！ケイティちゃん（犬）が足元に可哀そう！

And lastly, I bought a used fridge from a recycling store, and managed to bring it back (very carefully) over the mountain detour roads, in my convertible. Haha! Poor Katie wasn't very happy, curled up in the footwell of the passenger seat!

Tags: livingroom リビング

Fingerprint Doorlock 指紋ロック取付

2021-01-23 by David

アマゾンや楽天で日本製ロックを購入すると約1万円かかります。一般的な防水ロックとなります。ただし、1万円ぐらい使うならデジタルロックでも便利じゃない?

番号コード、スマホ用のスマートロック、そして指紋ロックの機能からも選べますですね。取り付けも結構簡単です。

DIY stores in Japan are waaaaaaaay behind on some technology, and since buying a good quality exterior door lock will cost around $100 here anyway, why not plan a little ahead and try some new technology for the same price?

▲私が買ったロックは防水の鍵・番号・指紋の機能が付いていたロックでした。海外のEbay.com をちょっと紹介しますね。Ebayでは本当に何でも購入できるサイトです。ヤフーオークションみたいなサイトですが、日本のヤフーよりも商品がいっぱいありますので、価格がお得です。Ebayはアメリアの会社ですが、世界からの商品がいっぱいです。日本への送料を含めて日本のサイトより安いです。

写真の「Digilock 6600」は約$100 (1万円)で注文しました。送料は多分2000円ほどでした。

The average Japanese shopper is not actually very familiar with Ebay, strangely. They have their own version here, Yahoo Auctions, and of course Amazon, but the selection is small and overpriced for products relatively new to market. Yahoo Auctions, particularly, is horribly difficult to use.

Buying from overseas sites like Ebay, Amazon.com (US & UK versions), and AliExpress is usually worthwhile, even considering extra shipping costs. I usually do my product research on Amazon.com (for the reviews), and then buy from Ebay.com for the higher likelihood of overseas shipping (and reasonable costs!).

So I ordered this DigiLock 6600 for the front door for about $100, and maybe $20 shipping costs. A great deal for a solidly-built waterproof lock with normal key access, code entry and fingerprint scanner!

▲ 取り付けがそんなに難しいではないんです。必要な道具は：

ドリル
穴あけドリルビット
ドライバー
ハンマー

約2時間で完成できました。まずは玄関のドアを外して、古い鍵を捨てました。次は穴あけドリルでアルミのドアに穴をあけました。最後に新しいロックを付けて、電池を入れました。そして、説明書のとおりに指紋を登録しました。

Installation took about 2 hours, and wasn't actually that difficult. First I removed the door from the hinges and took out the old locks and handle. Then I cut a large hole in the aluminium door using a power drill and a holecutter (according to the installation instructions), and slotted in the new lock. Once it was fitted, I added batteries and started registering fingerprints and codes etc.

▲ ロックが結構大きいんですが、位置によって上の古い鍵はそのまま一か所残っていた。鍵のなかの部分は外しました。

The digital lock is quite large, but not large enough to cover both the previous door handle and latch AND an extra, second lock placed above the handle. So I just removed the guts of the superfluous lock and left the key slot there.

▲ 電池が内側ですね。電池切れの場合には、外側に非常9v電池接続ポイントもあります。この2年間で電池がまだ切れていない。

This lock takes 4 AA batteries on the inside, but also has connection points on the outside for an emergency 9v battery in case the batteries die. In the (almost) 2 years since I installed this, the batteries still work fine.

In all, it's a project well worth doing, I think. Since this house might be stayed in by friends eventually too, I can set guest codes for them to get in without having to hand over keys.

Tags: genkan 玄関

Video Tour ビデオでツアー

2021-01-22 by David

一日目は床の上に寝袋で過ごしました！次の日にすぐ土地やインテリアなどを図りました。そして３Dソフトで大体の図面を作ってみました。

After receiving the keys and sleeping the first night on the floor in a sleeping bag, the first thing I wanted to do was to properly measure out the land and the dimensions of the building. Then I drew up this basic 3D model using free software (Sketchup), to see what I had to work with.

▲ 道はイラストの左側ですね。右側の坂の下にも道はありますが、入り口はありません。今まで、ずっと日本の大きい町で暮らしていたので、結構広いスペースだと思う。

Road access is to the left of the picture, and although there is another road behind the property (on the top right), it is at the bottom of a small slope, so there is no entrance there. Since I've only lived in Japanese cities before, the space seems pretty large to me.

▲ 1階のレイアウトをビデオで撮影しました。古い家具や物もないし、天気も素敵ですので綺麗でしょう？

Here's a quick video of the ground floor level of the house, with all of the previous occupants' stuff cleared out. With the windows open and the sunlight streaming in, it looks full of possibilities....

▲ 2階のビデオも一応撮りました。犬のケイティちゃん（Katie）も低い窓が好きそうね！広いリビングルーム、小さいキッチンとベッドルームもあります。

The 2nd level is the living area of the house, and contains a small bedroom and a basic kitchen, plus of course a living room area.

Tags: video ビデオ

New old house! 家を買ってしまった！

2021-01-21 by David

あと1週間で2年となりますが、2019年1月末にこの家を買ってしまった！2016年熊本地震で結構ダメージを受けた建物でしたので、安い価格で手に入りました。

まずはネットでいろんなホームページで調べましたが、やっと「アットホーム」(www.athome.co.jp)の土地検索で見つけました。検索したときには「土地」と「古家あり」の条件で安い物件で探しました。物件価格は400万円でしたが、地震から3年間も空いたままだったので不動屋さんと値引きのメールでのやり取りをしてみました。数週間後に350万円で購入しました。

1階も2階も66平方メートルで合計132平方メートルの建物と767平方メートルの土地もありました。

▲ I found this old house/craft workshop online, at a website called At Home (www.athome.co.jp). You'll need some basic language skills, but it's easy enough to limit your search to land for sale, containing an old building. Those search criteria gave the absolute cheapest plots of land available, and most Japanese buyers would not consider renovating the buildings - so they're included in the sale of the land as pretty much worthless.

The listing was priced at 4 million yen (approximately $40,000), but since it had stood vacant for the 3 years since the 2016 earthquake I felt confident asking for a lower price. The damages to the building were significant, hence the low price for the building and land. After some back and forth with the (quite frankly, useless) estate agent, I agreed to purchase the house for 3.5 million yen (approximately $35,000).

The house has 66m² of floorspace on each level, plus a little extra for a mezzanine loftspace, and 767m² of land attached. Mostly this is cedar pine woodland, one third in front of the house and two thirds behind it.

▲ ペンション村の中にありますが、過去にペンションではなかったそうです。2階のほうでは別荘と1階のほうでは染め教室やアトリエでした。

It's located near the entrance to what's known as a "Pension Village", which is a sort of resort village full of holiday homes. Think of log cabins and small, cosy B&Bs, etc and you get the picture? The previous owners had used the 2nd level as living space during the summer (cooler temperatures here in Aso), and the ground floor level as a painting studio and dyeing workshop space.

▲ この写真は2階です。梯子を上ったらロフトスペースもあります。インテリアはログキャビンみたいな雰囲気。

This is the 2nd floor, with the ladder up to the mezzanine loft space, as I found it when coming to see the property for the first time. The owners had left when the 2016 earthquakes shook the area, and never returned to stay!

▲ 1階の染め教室とアトリエ。初めて見たときにこんな感じでした。暗くてちょっと寂しい感じでしたが、どうなるかなぁ。。。

The ground floor's studio space was a mess of stuff when I viewed it, and a little dark and gloomy. However, it is quite a large space (by Japanese standards), and as soon as I saw it my mind started turning with possibilities.

▲ 写真見たら別に問題ないでしょう？。。。いや、ちょっと違います。地震のダメージが結構ありました。次回から見せましょうか！

So far these photos look pretty much okay, right? Well, there were quite a few problems to deal with to make it liveable, but it's going to make a great project house, I think...

Tags: house 家

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