The Renovation Plans for Our 150-Year-Old Japanese House

Added: 2026-06-04

[00:00:23]It's only been a few months since we bought this 150year-old house here in rural Japan.

[00:00:30]And even though it's a small house, it's still a big renovation project.

[00:00:36]After finally opening up the ceilings, we're now planning the next stages of this house's renovation journey, from which original structures we'll keep to the logical next steps. We'll take you through our renovation plans and the order in which we'll tackle everything to make it all happen.

[00:00:55]If you're new here, welcome. If you're a returning visitor, welcome back. I'm Ma.

[00:01:00]This is Jesse. And this is our dog, Pancake. And together, we're slowly bringing this old Akia house back to life.

[00:01:11]But before we can move forward with any of the major work inside the house, there's one major challenge we need to solve first.

[00:01:20]Road access.

[00:01:28]The curtain pathway was built well before modern building regulations, so we'll need to upgrade that. The house sits on a raised terrace behind a stone retaining wall and before we can obtain any necessary building permits for the house, we first need to create proper road access so that work vehicles can reach the property.

[00:01:50]Right now, we're considering two options.

[00:01:53]The first would involve bringing in an excavator, removing the stone wall entirely, and rebuilding the wall from scratch.

[00:02:02]The second and more affordable option would be to build a cantalver style driveway supported by concrete pillars beneath it. Whichever route we take, the final decision will depend on a land surveyor's assessment and approval.

[00:02:20]As for the house itself, the plan is to strip everything back to the bones while saving as much of the original structure as possible.

[00:02:28]Plans for the services will come next, such as septic, water, gas, and electricity.

[00:02:36]Right now, the house's footprint is fairly straightforward. a rectangular layout with two tatami rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a newer addition of a sewing room. Permits permitting, we'll extend the house into an L-shape. We'll take down that sewing room and move that kitchen into that area. The bathroom and toilet will be placed in the back of the house. The old kitchen floor will be raised to match the tatami rooms while keeping the traditional indoor and outdoor doma entrance and extend it into the new addition.

[00:03:14]Aside from the main structural work, we're hoping to do as much of the finishing and carpentry work as we can ourselves.

[00:03:24]We'll keep the Japanese style rooms largely unchanged, reusing the existing tatami mats after they've been professionally reshelled with new covers. Fortunately, the flooring here has been redone recently, so this won't be one of the bigger renovation projects. We'll also sort out where the closet space and the tokonoma al cove used for displaying decorative items will go in these rooms.

[00:03:51]The exposed original beams will be one of the houses focal points. The soot stained beams known as suzuketahari were slowly smoked and cured over decades by the Iodori hearths once common in houses like these. While the thatched roof was later replaced with a newer one, that will need to be replaced as well. We're still debating between a lighter modern metal roof or a much heavier traditional tile roof.

[00:04:24]And that outhouse that's definitely going away.

[00:04:33]Bangawa hallway will need to be completely rebuilt to repair damaged sections and preserve its role as a transitional space between the house and the outdoors.

[00:04:47]And finally, insulation, possibly incorporate the old mud walls back into the house, and even building an extended wraparound deck. We can already picture ourselves taking our morning coffee out here and enjoying those views.

[00:05:06]As for the property below, it's zoned for agricultural use, which in Japan means you must use it as such. So, we'll finish tilling this land and start planting later this year, beginning with a small garden and possibly expanding into a fruit orchard. Because these plans are still evolving, I'll keep an updated road map and cost tracker linked below so you can follow along in the following months.

[00:05:44]While we still had a bit of daylight left and plenty of clearing work ahead of us, we got back to work.

[00:05:52]The land surveyor is coming in a couple of days. And we want this area to be cleared up as much as possible for his visit.

[00:06:03]But even with the best intentions, battling through all of that brush can wear you down pretty quickly.

[00:07:05]I like that noise.

[00:07:07]>> Huh?

[00:07:07]>> I like that noise.

[00:07:33]With all that noise we were making, it was only a matter of time before one of our wild neighbors came by to investigate.

[00:08:24]When was this?

[00:08:25]>> Just now.

[00:08:26]>> You're kidding.

[00:08:28]A great big patcher, isn't it?

[00:08:31]>> That's so cool. I don't know when it was person.

[00:08:40]>> Oh, that's cool.

[00:08:41]>> Yeah.

[00:08:45]I don't see well.

[00:08:58]After a long day working on the house, it's always nice to head back to our rental and get cleaned up.

[00:09:05]Our past work that we've done on our own rental has really shown us just how massive our mountain house renovation project will be pancake. But for now, it's nice to come home, slow down at the end of a long day, cook some dinner with local takino vegetables from the neighbors, and reset before doing it all over again.

[00:10:13]Shoot. Shoot. Something.

[00:10:47]It's still a little surreal that so many of you have decided to follow along with this journey.

[00:10:53]Whether you've been here since the beginning or just found the channel recently, thanks for spending time with us today. And for those of you supporting us on Patreon, thank you for helping make these videos possible. If you'd like to support or just see some of my extra behindthe-scenes content, you can find them over on my Patreon.

[00:11:14]And we'll see you next time.

[00:11:17]>> Bye.