Akiya Renovation: Major Work Begins

It’s been just under a month since we moved in, and the time has been more like glorified camping than really living in a house. But as we slowly make progress, the house becomes more and more comfortable and livable. In the three weeks since the contractors started work, it has been wild around here!

I want to point out first that, we had initially planned to do most of the renovations ourselves. And we will still do a lot of the work. But after looking at everything that needs completed before we can open our guesthouse, we realized that it would be almost impossible to stay on our Startup Business visa timeline, if we did all the work ourselves. It was a difficult decision to make because we very much like to do this kind of work. But it’s very important we stay on the timeline for this first six months, as multiple agencies will be following our progress, in order to achieve the official Business Manager Visa at the end of this six months. Please note: I’m definitely planning to share this process in great detail, soon!

We’re pulled in multiple different directions, between renovation, paperwork, planning, meetings, emails, and giving attention to our fledgling honeybees and garden… and we just can’t go at the fast pace that the contractors can. So we’ve split the workload: they will be doing some jobs, while we do others, and it all sort of works together really well so far!

Speaking of fast pace: these guys really hit the ground running. From the moment they arrived, it’s been non-stop. I’ve been looking back at my photos and video during these last few weeks, and, admittedly, it’s a lot more sporadic than intended… But I think I’ll still be able to put together a pretty clear picture of all the different projects going on at once, or, at least, capture the chaos we’ve been living in. It’s been a really exciting three weeks, so let’s take a look!

Let me see if I can remember all the little things checked off the to-do list: two large trees cut from the side yard, the kitchen and shower room painted, new wooden floor in four rooms, new tatami in the upstairs bedroom (where we’re sleeping), new shikkui plaster in two rooms + new shikkui in a formerly unfinished closet, kerosine hot water boiler repaired (so we have hot water!), two hot water temperature control panels installed, some unnecessary faucets removed and a new kitchen sink faucet installed (one that can swivel from hot to cold, not as common as you’d think!), new wood paneling on the walls in the downstairs ‘Western style’ bedroom, new ceiling in two rooms, some concrete poured to fix an exterior sliding door (which will be the entrance to the ‘Benton Homestead, Inc. Global Headquarters’ haha), the upstairs window sliding storm covers transformed into functional window screens, and of course, lots and lots (and lots!) of deep cleaning, scrubbing, polishing, and wood staining, throughout.

I would also like to add that we’re very happy with our chosen contractor, who came recommended by literally everyone on Ōmishima. They all say he can fix anything! He’s cheerful and funny, but also understanding of the occasional language barrier, and flexible with our odd “gaikokujin” foreign requests. He even let Evan try his hand with the shikkui.

There’s many more projects to tackle before we’re ready to welcome our first guests, but wow, this is a lot of progress in less than a month! The contractors are almost done with their part of the renovation, and we’ll keep plugging away with our part of the renovation! Then the fun begins, when we get to furnish and decorate the house. Furnishing will all come from various thrift stores (Imabari and Onomichi), or if they must be bought new, local stores on the island. And in honoring the history of the home, decorations will mostly come from what we found and refurbished.