Signing on the dotted line

We have taken the very first "official" step in the housebuilding adventure and signed a contract for design drawings. Just in case we decide not to build we have to sign this contract and pay a fee so that the architect doesn't end up essentially wasting his time doing all this drawing work, and now he has sent out the drawings to another firm that calculates where the load bearing pillars and walls need to be and what the foundation has to look like and all the other calculations that really matter, and he probably has to pay for that too. So to ensure that his time is well spent in this stage before we ever get to the first large payment stage,  we sign this contract. The money we pay will be put toward the build, but as I said, just in case we don't build, at least the architect gets some money for his trouble.

This past weekend we went to a housing fair and saw some baths, kitchens, windows, doors, etc. from several different manufacturers. I’m so confused. There are so many freaking choices!!! The architect recommends TOTO and I’m inclined to just go with his choices as I find it all overwhelming. I want something functional that looks nice, of course, and I really, really want speakers in the bathroom. That’s pretty much the only extra I want. But I am also all for adding extras that end up reducing running costs. For example, TOTO has a bathtub option called “Mahobin,” which means thermos bottle in Japanese. A friend has this bath and says that when they fill the bath with hot water, the water is still hot the next morning. So that helps cut down on gas and electricity because you don’t have to spend (as much) money reheating the bath. The other things I like about TOTO are the kitchen sink and counter are one integrated piece, so there are no joints or caulking that make it difficult to clean or easy to mold. The dishwasher on the TOTO kitchen folds down making a lot more room in the dishwasher itself to hold dishes compared to the usual pull out drawer style dishwashers common in more modern Japanese kitchens. There is an oven option with a TOTO kitchen so I can have an actual built-in oven, and with TOTO sinks there is a disinfectant spout as well so you can disinfect knives, cutting boards, hands, whatever, and it only uses water so you don’t have to spend money on cartridges and what-not. It just needs to be plugged in because the water is broken down into electrolytes. It also has a drinking water function that you do need a cartridge for, but it only has to be replaced once a year. So, I guess I’m pretty much sold on the TOTO kitchen.

Still a lot of other business to take care of. The loan officer we were originally working with got transferred to another bank so I have to go in and meet the new loan officer. I also have to ask him about registering a storehouse and the bath on my in-laws land. Neither building is currently registered and the previous loan officer said they needed to be, but my FIL doesn’t think they do so he wants me to ask the new loan officer. It costs money to register them so it would be preferable if they didn’t have to be. And I think that about sums up where we are now.

I can’t believe I forgot this bit! At the housing fair our architect showed us some flooring he thought would be good for our house that he has apparently already purchased. I’m quite excited about it. They planks are a lot wider than the average flooring planks so we need fewer to plank the entire house and because the house is so big there’s a lot of floor space to be covered. I have a photo but I can’t figure out how to get it from my photo album as I’m writing this edit on my iPad, not on the computer. I’ll post the photo later!

The floorboards are the ones on the left most side. Pay no attention to the arrow on the bottom photo. Somehow it moved itself. The photo is just for comparison to the other thicknesses of planks. Anyway, they are lovely looking floorboards. I'm very excited to think I'll be living with them under my feet in less than a year!