Yanagicho Aparto Renovation >> Finished Video is up!! <<

Stuart Ablett

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Tokyo Japan
Note, "Aparto" is how they say "Apartment" in Japanese, it is shorter less typing, I'm lazy, so I'm going to use Aparto........ just think of this as a mini cultural lesson :) :wave:

My Monster-in-Law has an old aparto building not far from where we live, it is an old wooden framed building, that has four apartos in it, two up and two down. It was last renovated about 18 years ago, by a carpentry company, they did a good job, but that was 18 years ago!

About 3 years ago, we had to completely renovate one of the upstairs apartos, as the roof leaked badly and the water damage was enough to make the place unlivable. Of course FIVE years ago, I told the Monster-In-Law that the roof needed fixing, she ignored me, saying she did not have the money, at that time the roof fix up would have cost about $5000, but because she decided to stick her head in the sand, and ignore the problem, the roof fix, plus the aparto renovation cost her $15,000, yep, she is a bonehead :doh:

The aparto that I'm going to fix up is directly below the one that was renovated after the roof leak, there was some water damage in the 1st floor aparto too. This aparto has been unoccupied for 3 years, why you ask.... because the hot water heater for the bath/shower was busted, and too old to get replacement parts for. A new heater cost about $1800 to have installed.

This aparto rents for about $600 a month, so you do the math, 12 months x 3 years = 36 months at $600 a month is $21,600

The replacement heater costs $1800 why would you NOT fix it? :huh::dunno:

Well, I told you before the Monster-In-Law is a bonehead, she insists that she does not have the money to fix this place up........ WHAT :eek:

A while back, my wife and I had the plan of spending our own money, and my labour fixing the place up, then charging the Monster-In-Law for the work, well the accountant put the brakes on that due to tax laws, if I'm a salaried employee of one company, I cannot own another company that does work for the first company, especially if it is all family businesses :bang:

What I can do is do the work, get the Monster-in-law to pay for the materials, and have some of the materials stuff like tools I need/want, that is just fine, so that is how I'm going to do this, and get the table saw out of the deal. Add to that, the first idea of us spending our own money did not sit well with me, the Monster-In-Law can be a pain, and I did not want to invest my money in her property and wait on her good graces to pay me back. I was born at night, but not last night :)

We got a local plumbing company that we know well to give us an estimate on replacing the old water heater with a much newer style, a tankless water heater. This would move the old unit out of the bath tub area, and make room for a much bigger tub as well, which is what we have done. I went by the aparto today, to check the work these guys did, unfortunately I forgot the key to the place, :doh:so I could only see outside.......



yanagicho_aparto_01.jpg yanagicho_aparto_02.jpg yanagicho_aparto_03.jpg

........ so it begins, I'll take some before pics, and I'm sure I'll be asking for advice etc on various things before too long. I now know how to do drywall well enough, the largest task I foresee is ripping out the old floor in the kitchen, that is not going to be fun......:(

New Table Saw........New Table Saw.......New Table Saw........ say it with me........... :D:thumb:

PS think I'll be done before Ned gets his barn done :rofl: :D
 
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New Table Saw........New Table Saw.......New Table Saw........ say it with me........... :D:thumb:

PS think I'll be done before Ned gets his barn done :rofl: :D
Hmmm, quite the job there Stu, best of luck with it, and you've got three months. (That's when I expect I''ll call it done.. with power and siding on.)

probally 3 times as big as the bulken shop:D
720 sf? not hard to do.

Hey you gotta quit pickin on us compact shop people!!!! You never know there may be more of us then there are of you!!!!:eek::eek::wave::rofl::rofl::rofl::D

cozy shops are just the way to go... (or so I tell myself)
 
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Note, "Aparto" is how they say "Apartment" in Japanese, it is shorter less typing, I'm lazy, so I'm going to use Aparto........ just think of this as a mini cultural lesson :) :wave:

I'm pretty sure you typed more letters with you prelude than if you just typed 'Apartment' :rofl::rofl::rofl:

Good luck with the reno! It's always good to have an incentive :D
 
Its funny how being from SoCal I immediatly tried to pronounce that as if it were Spanish ;-)
 
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Hmmm, quite the job there Stu, best of luck with it, and you've got three months. (That's when I expect I''ll call it done.. with power and siding on.)

Ned,
In three more months it'll be under snow! Better get the siding on first, and the trench for the power line done before it's too frozen to dig... :D:rofl:
 
Total floor space, I don't know, I'd have to check, but I bet it is not over 14 tatami, or 7 tsubo so that would be around 250 sq feet.

Ned, the race is on! :wave:
 
I got inside today and took some pictures.........

yanagicho_layout.jpg
This is the basic layout. The Tatami room is not going to get a lot of work, I might not even replace the tatami with hardwood floors, depends on how my time goes.

yanagicho_aparto_entrance.jpg
Here is the entrance into the aparto

yanagicho_aparto_tatami_room_left.jpg yanagicho_aparto_tatami_room_right.jpg
Two pics of the tatami room....

yanagicho_aparto_closet.jpg
......and the "ONLY" closet in the whole aparto :eek:

yanagicho_aparto_tatami_hole.jpg
The Tatami is in "OK" condition, only one has a hole in it......


yanagicho_aparto_toilet.jpg
The toilet, look familiar :D I might just rip out that flooring, bring it up to date a bit :thumb: I asked the plumbers to check the flange etc on this one, they did and replaced the rusted old flange bolts with new stainless ones:)

yanagicho_aparto_bath_threshold.jpg
Some bad news, this is the door into the "Bath" room, you know, where the bath is, the threshold is rotted out, needs a new door and such.....

yanagicho_aparto_new_bath_tub.jpg
There is the new bathtub:D

yanagicho_aparto_wall_ceiling_covered.jpg
OK here is the damaged area in the kitchen from the roof leak, the wall is bad, the ceiling might need some work too, time to tear down that wallpaper and see what it is hiding.............

Continued.....
 
.......... time to tear down that old wallpaper......

yanagicho_aparto_wall_exposed.jpg
Yuck! the wall is bad, I can push a finger through it........

yanagicho_aparto_ceiling_wall_exposed.jpg
The ceiling is still mostly solid, but that mold.....

yanagicho_aparto_kitchen_leftside.jpg
Well at least this side of the kitchen is just dirty, not falling apart

yanagicho_aparto_washing_machine_drain.jpg
Oh yeah, that is the drain hole for the washing machine.....:doh:

yanagicho_aparto_kitchen_window.jpg
Here is the North wall of the kitchen, and the door leading into the Bath room

yanagicho_aparto_power_panel.jpg yanagicho_aparto_20A_main_1983.jpg
Here is the main panel for the Aparto, yep a whole 20 Amps :headbang: :rolleyes:

The main switch there is circa 1983. I'll ask the electric company to upgrade to a 30 Amp service, as an Aircon unit here usually draws about 13 Amps and a regular fridge about the same, so if they both kick on at the same time, say while you are making toast, POP goes the breaker :doh:

Not well pictured here is the floor in the kitchen, it is really bad, I can just about step through it in many places. I'm really concerned that it is just the laminate flooring with no underlay, if so, that will present all kinds of problems :eek:

more later.........
 
BTW, before I made a rough guess at 250 sq ft of space, but I actually ran the numbers, and including the bath room, toilet, entrance area, and closet, as well as the kitchen and tatami room, the total is about 220 sq ft.

To put that in to perspective, 12' x 18' is 216 square feet, not a lot of space.

Cheers!
 
BTW, before I made a rough guess at 250 sq ft of space, but I actually ran the numbers, and including the bath room, toilet, entrance area, and closet, as well as the kitchen and tatami room, the total is about 220 sq ft.

To put that in to perspective, 12' x 18' is 216 square feet, not a lot of space.

Cheers!
wow, my shop is bigger than something? woohoo!

looks like a lot of work there Stu, enjoy the new TS!
 
Ned Bulken said:
ahem,
I already told him when I expect to be done... He can beat that easily, this is Stu we're talking about after all.

now, if you're talking 'working shop'. I'm already there, true I'm not fully wired and so on, but I've got a roof and the tools are secure.

I expect to be done in a week or two, and I'm just renovating, not building a structure from the ground up. :wave:

Had a fun filled day today :rolleyes:
I cut into the kitchen floor and found that they did just put the flooring on top of the joists (wait till you see the "joists") and the lamination in the flooring has let go, thus the soft floor.

floor_cut1.JPG floor_cut2.JPG
Them "joists" are not much either eh? :rolleyes:

It seems that I will be able to put some underlay down, then the new flooring, the underlay will only be about 1/2" but with the flooring, also about 1/2", it will be double what was there:dunno:

I started to take down the water damaged wall, and found some leftover stuff from the last renovation.........

hidden_window.JPG
.....yep, an old window in there, and you can see one of the posts that has some notches in it, for some sort of past wall or something.

I ripped out the top cabinet, it was NAILED to the wall, with 2 1/2" spikes :D Certainly was not coming down without a fight!

I got the gas guys in to take the gas spigots off the pipe, and cap it for me, I'll have to get them back later when I'm done. I moved the bottom cabinet over to where I want the new cabinets to go..........

kitchen_new_orientation.JPG
..... now use your imagination here, the lower counter there is for a gas stove top, two burner, typical stuff here, the would go on the left side, and the sink would go on the right side, opposite of what it is now. I would get a little longer counter, but leave a space on the right side, for the fridge. Where I want to put the fridge now, it where the washing machine went before, I'd move that over to the small alcove under the stairs..........

washing_machine_alcove.JPG
.... there is already power, water and a drain here, might have to move some of that around a bit, but not far.

OK, now that was the "Fun" today, the bad stuff came as I was cleaning up, getting ready to go to the L shop to do my day job. The neighbour on the North side of the aparto came over to talk...........:rolleyes:

Now I'd heard this guy was difficult, but man, did he prove that to me in spades!

He demanded............... DEMANDED that we put some sort of a duct in that goes up two stories so the exhaust from our aparto kitchen fan, does not smell up his house.....:doh:

Now you have to understand, this is Tokyo, houses are 2' apart from each other, what does the guy expect :dunno:

Oh boy, we went round and round, I did NOT get angry at him, I just could not believe this guy's DEMANDS, I was laughing out loud :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

I asked him if he had a duct on his exhaust fan, he got angry and told me "That has nothing to do with this" :D

This is Tokyo, we all live VERY close to each other, right now, we live on the 6th and 7th floors, but before, we lived in an old house, and you could quite easily smell what the neighbours were having for lunch or supper..... :dunno: What is the big deal, everyone has to deal with this.

I lived in one place, where the family next door fried this stinky, smelly, smoky fish, and if I did not close my windows, my room would fill with smoke, so I closed my window for the 20 minutes that they cooked.

Well the guys got more and more upset, he then tells me that he will SUE ME, he will GET A LAWYER!!! I just laughed and told him to go ahead, the aparto has been the way it is now for 25+ years, and we are not rebuilding, we are only putting in new walls and floors, so I think the guy has not leg to stand on. The exhaust from the fan is a good three feet from his house, about as far as it could be, on that side of the house.

We will talk to our architect on Monday, and see if he can shed any light on this. My wife Googled it, and all she could find was lots of people complaining about the neighbour's smelly fish etc, but nowhere did anyone quote some sort of law etc about this subject, so it seems that it is a gray area.

What fun......:doh:

The little man called my Monster-In-Law and went off on her, and while me and the MIL can butt heads, I know that calling her on the phone and yelling at here is only going to make her dig her heels in and swing back :thumb:

The next time I see this little man, I have a response for him, I'll hold up the flat of my hand and tell him "Sorry, my lawyer has informed me to NOT talk to you again on this subject" and then do the "Doctor Evil Zip It" thing.

What a waste of time.

Neighbours can be such fun :rolleyes: :wave:

----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----
 
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Neighbours can be such fun :rolleyes: :wave:

----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----New Tablesaw----

That WILL make it all worth it. "Talk to the hand!" :thumb:
 
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