Plans are finalised

The house plans have been finalised and we will sign the contract with our architect/project manager tomorrow. Until then, here is some background information on Niseko, Japan and why we have decided to attempt to build a custom house.

Niseko is located on the northern most island of Japan, Hokkaido. This small, rural, farm town became a premier ski destination in the 80's during Japan's economic boom period. When the bubble burst, the ski resort struggled to stay out of bankruptcy for the better part of a decade. 

I first snowboarded in Niseko in the winter of 2000-2001. Back then, there were almost no foreigner tourists on the mountain, or Japanese tourists for that matter. However, Niseko receives up to 14 meters of snowfall every winter, which means bottomless powder for a full 3 months in winter. Needless to say, I decided to make Niseko my permanent home and began living here permanently from the fall of 2003. 

About the same time, Niseko was discovered by the Australian ski market and has seen a whirlwind of growth in the last 5 years. What was a sleepy, little ski town has become the hottest ski destination in Asia. This boom has led to skyrocketing realestate prices and swarms of developers throwing up condominiums on any piece of land available. Land prices in Niseko have risen faster than anywhere else in Japan and now rival land prices in Tokyo and other major Japanese cities.

We bought a block of land about 2km outside of the main resort village in April of 2007. After speaking with numerous house makers, we decided that we could build a better house for less money if we did some of the work ourselves. Japanese construction costs are quite high compared to countries like the US and Australia and material costs are staggering. Add to that the fact that most house makers will only guarantee their work for about 10 years and tack on a hefty markup on the material costs, it just didn't make sense to go the traditional route.

We have sourced a local architect, Harada-san, who has agreed to design our house and help us organise the tradesmen for fraction of the cost of  a normal house maker. In addition, as a builder in Japan he is able to get 30 -40% discounts on materials and he passes them onto us at cost. Because of this, we will be able to complete the house at about 30% less cost than going through a house maker.

Not being a carpenter by trade, it is a little scary to contemplate doing all of the finishing work on the interior myself. But we have an ace in the hole in the form of my wife's father. He built his own house and has just retired so he will spend the summer helping us build.

The foundation goes in around June 20th and the goal is to have the house livable by November 20th. Barring any severed fingers/thumbs/earthquakes this should be feasible.