As scheduled we signed our building contract on 8/25. We only managed to bring the cost down by 500$ on the fifth round but we got a concession on the payment terms. I was pretty adamant about paying as little as possible upfront since so many builders have gone bankrupt in the last few years. Typically, it’s usually 33% to start, 33% halfway, 34% at the end. Typically the home is 30% finished at the halfway point so we agreed that the 1st and 2nd payment would total around that. This is just good sound risk management. As well, Sakamoto-san does not work for free and I still have to pay him while construction is on-going. Lesson here is to make sure you have money around for your architect then any materials you need to purchase yourself (in my case the AC units) then your builder.
Below is a photo of the land with the building torn down.
It actually looks much bigger than I thought. And thankfully we won’t be building as big so more space for the garden. As we you can see it’s as long as 2 standard homes and the width is that of 2 smaller homes.
This little maple was the only thing worth keeping. We will probably move it to another area and it will look great in the fall.
Today was the Land Exploration where they certify the stability of the plot. Sorry no photos. It’s pretty much a given since there was a home there standing for 20 years earlier, but you need to check before the foundation is set. 35,000 yen is pretty cheap for many years of piece of mind.
We break ground on construction on Wednesday.
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