house-hunting
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Kawasaki, 2020.03.07
Today we looked at a house in the city of Setagaya within Tokyo's long border with Kanagawa prefecture.
I liked it. For reference, it is at the SW end of the routes listed here.
My initial thoughts on its positives:
- Lots of room (especially for Tokyo!)
- Well designed: lots of windows, lots of closet space, big kitchen, big space for a washing machine, and two bathrooms.
- Separate bedrooms for the kids.
- In-wall wired network means no need for WiFi in the kids' bedrooms. In addition to the health benefits, we could possibly control the kids use of ipads/games because the Wifi could stay in the kitchen/living area.
- fairly central location
- gigantic park nearby with a lot of amenities (we walked past it)
- possibly good fishing river nearby
- hospitals nearby
- 33 minutes from Shibuya station (20 minute walk, 13 minutes on train)
- Quiet neighborhood, good reputation.
The agent said that she'd treat us as "equal to" the people who already applied because Mari was the first to contact her. She said also that they have a dog, which we don't. When she told us this I pointed out that the owner of the house liked my jokes.
The agent also said we can break the lease with one month's notice.
Some not great things:
- The walk to the station was long; 1/3 longer than our current walk to distant Woodbine station. The neighborhood really lacks character - it's a car-centric suburban neighborhood with a couple of major highways.
- It's in a "food desert". It's a long way from the grocery store, and there's no shoutengai; there aren't even any combini or cafes nearby.
- The long walk is fairly safe (no Queen/Woodbine or Kingston/Woodbine), will never be icy.
- The mud room would make cycling life easier because there was a sink right there.
- A cargo bike or cargo bike trailer would be suitable (Canadian product description). That's something I could do on Saturday mornings.
- I *think* there was a smell of mold around the place. The mud room was musty for sure, but I kept smelling it elsewhere. However, that might have been from the owner's late dog or possibly from lingering new paint smell (I couldn't be sure).
- The utility costs: Y25,000/month. That brings the real cost to Y235,000 + Internet.
- Maybe we can deploy a solar panel?
- One of the bedrooms doesn't have air conditioning.
- The local train station (Youga, 用賀, which seems to mean "for greeting") is not a stop for the express commuter trains.
- Ken's commute to the school we'd like him in would be an hour long.
- The low doors upstairs (they're around 185cm) and Ken would be hitting them before three years is up.
- I suspect that that could actually be fixed fairly cheaply.
I'd be happy to live there. I think the kids would like it.