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S1 EP3 | Tokyo Llama with Jaya Thursfield - The Abandoned Japanese House
60 Plays3 months ago
Dan and Nick speak with Jaya from Tokyo Llama who has over 250,000 subscribers on YouTube following his amazing Japanese house renovation.
Jaya bought the property abandoned and you'll cry when you hear the price!
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Transcript
Introduction to the DIY Guys Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the DIY ah Guys, the podcast where home renovations, power tools and mild panic go hand in hand. I'm Nick Morris. And I'm Dan Doher. And each week we'll be chatting with some property pros, some DIY diehards, and hopefully be able to help you with some tips and tricks along the
Special Guest: Jaya from Tokyo Lama
00:00:16
Speaker
way. Welcome back to the DIY Guys podcast, episode three. Thank you for everyone sticking with us and coming back.
00:00:24
Speaker
As always, joined by my co-host, Nick. How are you doing? Very good, thank you. How are you, mate? Yeah, not too bad. Thank you. Excited for today. Very excited, mate. I know you are because it's of your favorite guests, right? It is. it's um His name's Jaya from Tokyo Lama. I've been following him for years on YouTube.
00:00:42
Speaker
So i've got my own YouTube channel, but he has got like five times more followers than me down there. But it's such an interesting thing. We're talking a little bit about it more, but he's got this house in Japan he's bought. And it's awesome. I can't wait to talk to him about the details of it. Yeah, it just looks incredible, right? And and to see something you know so culturally different to like what we have here in the yeah uk exactly um and all the different processes they have it's a really cool project yeah surely it's going to be quite difficult as well i mean it looks good from what he's doing on youtube but he's australian but he's been living in england for like 10 years or so yeah um and he took the plunge and gone into japan where his wife's from so i'm just really interested to see
00:01:24
Speaker
the pitfalls of that because he's basically started from scratch, isn't he?
Nick's Renovation Challenges
00:01:28
Speaker
got find all tradesmen and decide what he's doing and the house he's gone for is really cool as well. yeah Amazing to see.
00:01:37
Speaker
But ah before that, can we get a little update where you're at with the bungalow? Yeah, so in the last episode I said about, we'll cover a couple of things. The asbestos test came back.
00:01:48
Speaker
How are doing? There's asbestos. Oh no, killer. ho So there's asbestos in the floor tiles. I don't think that is the world's biggest issue because it's under the carpet currently. yeah i haven't even got all the carpet up to see if there's floor tiles everywhere yet. but I'm assuming there's at least in maybe three rooms. yeah and that is concrete floor anyway so i can't get under the floor to like run pipes or run cables anyway okay so i've just got to look into so the best way of dealing with this um if i get it priced to be removed properly yeah it will literally be i think 50 60 pound per square meter so i reckon i'm in for a couple of grand yeah so i've got to look at a few things like
00:02:31
Speaker
Maybe i could screen over it. I could do some self leveling thing myself. Yeah. um I could speak to my flooring guy about the best technique to do that because then it's gone forever. But you've just got to be wary about spaces where like someone might drill into in the future. Yeah. um It's not really that likely, but or yeah or just dealt with and pay a lot of money.
00:02:53
Speaker
You don't really have to get it removed properly. so that's annoying, but it's not in the Arctic. Amazing. That's las it as good. Because that would be way more annoying because I'm rewiring it myself. I'm drilling holes for lights and drilling holes to get my switches up and all my power is running down the wall as well. from the loft, so it's going to be at least like five holes per room. At least I don't to worry about that. Although it's Artex and I did a DIY test, these companies were brilliant.
00:03:19
Speaker
I'm still going to get a proper graded asbestos mask and just wear doing the rewire just in case and i wash all my clothes properly. and so yeah I gave them three samples, I think it was, or two samples from two different areas, but Artex is like renowned for having like small traces of asbestos. So I bought these I can't think of it. I have to remember what they were called, like PPP3 or something, yeah grade masks.
00:03:44
Speaker
And they weren't that much. I i think on them for 30 pounds, i got 10 of them. So I'm literally, every time I'm doing a rewiring, I'm going throw it away at the end of the day. Yeah, exactly. Why bother? Well, it's just worth being a little bit more safe. I know you've done the test and stuff like that, but like you say, for the the sake of it, yeah you know you might as well do it. And to be honest,
Structural Engineering and Building Regulations
00:04:03
Speaker
it's probably the least ah problematic yeah that the floor tiles got it. Exactly.
00:04:08
Speaker
Hopefully you can just level over it and just and then just not worry about it. Hopefully there's just a small amount tiles maybe and it's been something removed in the past but I don't know. so how'm gonna little the car be up yet no I'll keep on that because that is annoying because yeah my 100 grand budget, if I have to deal with it, if it was in the ceiling, the floor, think I'll be in for like £5,000 probably. Yeah.
00:04:29
Speaker
So 5% of the budget would be gone. I've got think of ways that I'll do it safely and the and move forward. but This is where it's hard with budgets, right? Because you're like, yes, I've yeah carefully planned out everything and then there's always that spanner in the works. Exactly. It's so annoying. Specials is such such an obvious statement i'm about to say, if you just don't mess with it. It's so bad for you.
00:04:49
Speaker
If you don't touch it, it's not harmful whatsoever. mean, my grandkids are 99. in the house and she was there for 30 years, which is mad because she had it like below her feet the whole time. Obviously, didn't touch it, do anything to do with it. So, it's one of those things that's fine. But yeah, so more positive news is the structural thing I said I was going to try. Oh, yeah.
00:05:12
Speaker
um I didn't use structural engineer per se for a company because
Jaya's Move and Renovation in Japan
00:05:16
Speaker
I i got rough guides online of like £800 plus. Yeah. So, i was looking at cheaper ways and I did it online through this company. I'll get some links and stuff to put on like Instagram, things like that. And it cost me 400 pounds.
00:05:31
Speaker
It was with a little discount. one those things, know, you go on there like to say 10% if you sign up to this. It's like awesome as I did that. um And it came back within seven days and literally looks, i I've seen so many surveys and stuff over the years. It was awesome as well.
00:05:44
Speaker
got all the right things in the right places and like precautions like, oh, well, we've assumed the floor choice on this way, so please check this and things like that. And there's no skills whatsoever. Wow. So we're removing it two internal walls. Basically, the kitchen has four walls.
00:06:01
Speaker
yeah two of those walls are coming out actually sorry three walls are eventually coming out to go into extension but for now two walls are coming out one of them's structural one of them not and actually yeah i'm amazed at no skills going in i checked in my building he said oh the length of timber they said to the thickness of the timber going in makes sense that that's strong enough because the roof is you know pitching onto this wall in the middle and stuff like that so that is my first like big saving because the steel i guessed at least two and i think still to like six to eight hundred pounds depending on the size.
00:06:34
Speaker
So I reckon I'm at least a couple of grand up from just being lucky with that. I'd really recommend the Structure to Engineer Service as well. I've even got one change included in the price. So if I came back to them and said oh, can we move this wall here or can of take down this? They did one more for free. Amazing. So that's some really good tips. yeah This podcast has tips about what we're doing. Why are we even here? We just want to just escape our family. So it was really good to see that. I think I've saved at least 500 pounds by using this company.
00:07:05
Speaker
um And yeah, it's a really, I think, try it. You can see how it goes, but for me, it's been great. And my builder has also double-checked what he's put and say actually it's refreshing because most structure engineers these days go immensely over the top. He said oh no this looks like exactly what you need and no more. makes less so Perfect. happy about that, not so happy about potentially killing myself. i best ask But um obviously you applied to the council for paying permission, it was accepted. yeah So are you going down the council route? Because I know you can go council approvals or private approvals. I'm going to go private approvals. Obviously the council for paying permission, but you can go externally, like Dan just said, for structural stuff and building regulations. the yeah I'm going to go externally just because
00:07:56
Speaker
I've just had problems with the council before where you'll get yeah different representatives come in and they say different things. um I had one representative my house say, oh you're fine to do the foundations to like 60 centimetres in the back because we've got a single storey extension. yeah Another guy came back whilst the foundations were done we were ready to pour and said it had to be 2.2, I think it was. wow Because there was a tree like 20 odd metres away or something. Yeah. And you're like, oh, but the other guy said, this is up. Well, it doesn't matter. I'm now doing it. And I've heard that with the other thing, you just get a representativeed representative and then he or she is the person. Yeah. So obviously if they left the company or whatever, it wouldn't be the case. But I've just had such issues with the councillors on jobs so where they've said, even things like on this house, they signed off the driveway. And was oh, you signed off the driveway? Yeah.
00:08:45
Speaker
drainage hasn't been done yet and they were like oh because we just literally put the guttering into the floor yeah until the drainage was done and they were like they didn't see it and i was like damn it what did i tell them about yeah i just don't think they're like i don't want to go slacking them off because i'll never get playing them again in my life i don't feel like they're on the site as much as these guys who have worked on the job before I think you pay a little bit more, right? But i feel like you get a better service for that. So although you're paying more money, you don't run into these, oh, now you've got to change this and change that. Exactly. And I think their fees are a lot more upfront. Like some people get stung with things like this, that you pay a little bit upfront with accounts, then at the end, you could get a little hit and whack.
Jaya's YouTube Journey
00:09:27
Speaker
Well, this is all upfront. This is going to be your cost. So that's what i'm doing as well. so yeah I reckon it won't be much more. I will compare the two. yeah Maybe 10% more. but one listening but I think for peace of mind, it'd be better for me on this one.
00:09:40
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And they just seem a bit more personable. Oh, you know what it is as well? It's the appointments. yeah So you try and phone the council. They basically don't pick up the phone. It's like they usually say, we're too're we're busy. And you're like, it's that phone line that everyone does. is's like can't just say you're busy yeah every day. Unexpected high volume calls every day. I swear that's got to be changed. yeah um ah So you can't speak to them over the phone, literally, unless there's a specific window and you're lucky.
00:10:05
Speaker
yeah um so you have to like email and do other things. Whereas this is like, you can they've got an online thing. You literally say, when you want a book in? They don't have to speak to another book in. so Just for peace of mind and not getting stressed after I'm going to go down this route. I'll price up both and put it online. And then maybe you could share your experiences. Obviously you've done some through the council and some private and then kind of make a comparison. Yeah. And then hopefully the house doesn't fall down because of bad structural work and bad fights for the whole thing. You might get good podcast views though. There's YouTube well. I see fun guy that fell down. That probably wouldn't get good views, but not willing to sacrifice it.
00:10:43
Speaker
Quite expensive to get like 10 more views on Instagram. Exactly, exactly. But yeah, should we um go to Jaya now? Yeah, let's jump in with Jaya. Morning, everyone. We have Jaya here from Tokyo Lama. And one of our more interesting, don't pressure on you here, Jaya, but I think this is one of the more interesting people I follow on YouTube because you are currently living in Japan.
00:11:05
Speaker
i wouldn't mind hearing about how this all started for you. Well, actually, so we were living in, i'm I'm Australian, but we were living in England. So we're living in London.
00:11:19
Speaker
And use so my wife is originally from Japan. And we were at a point where we had two, well, will we have two twin boys who were aged six at the time when we left the UK. We're at a point where ah where we had decide whether we keep staying in in the UK. and where we We really enjoyed it there. we We both of us enjoyed living there.
00:11:48
Speaker
Or... leave and get, become, get, well, move somewhere closer to our respective families. So my family, my parents down in Melbourne in Australia and my wife in Japan. So we decided to move to Japan just because we thought getting a house would be a lot cheaper.
00:12:09
Speaker
which, um you know, as as you might have seen in the how the YouTube videos, we're all cheating for the house in art in Melbourne. And, yeah, so basically that's it. We moved to...
00:12:21
Speaker
Japan in about 2017 and we first stayed with my mother-in-law at her house and then we sort of started looking for a a place a bigger place of our own and that's when we kind of um well it's when I started really looking at what they call Akiya which is really just a vacant house and you know and it's it's pretty well known these days that you know Japan are there declining uh well birth rate and depopulation of rural areas, and there are a lot of vacant houses around. So we basically then found this house, which is a traditional Japanese house, you know, the big roof and and made of of wood.
00:13:06
Speaker
ah Yeah, and, you know, after a bit of a complicated process, um ended up buying the place for about, well, 3 million yen. I'm not sure what that is in pounds. 20,000. You said it's probably $7,000, didn't you? $7,000 at the time. Probably around, 21, 22 maybe, Max. amazing.
00:13:30
Speaker
It's going to be loads of people from the UK going right and moving to Japan. Yeah. Well, I have to say, it's not really apples and oranges because, you know, when we're comparing, say, a London, ah you know, house to a a house in the country in in Japan, a house in the country anywhere, it's going to be a bit cheaper. So there is that.
00:13:49
Speaker
But we're only on the outskirts of tokyo not, you know, an hour or less than an hour, 45 minutes on ah on the train into central Tokyo. So it's not that bad. you have that pair Amazing. i love it. And ah I love the the traditional Japanese house. It just looks incredible, doesn't it? So do you are you wanting to keep it like quite a traditional looking? Or have you like kind of added a sort of Australian-UK twist to it?
00:14:16
Speaker
I
Reflections and Closing Remarks
00:14:17
Speaker
wouldn't say i've added an Australian or UK twist, I don't think. But I've tried to keep a balance, you know. So i think... I think renovating an old house anywhere, you sort of want to keep some of the characteristics of that house, of that period.
00:14:32
Speaker
But at the same time, you want to modern modernize it a bit, you know, at least make it a little more comfortable to live in. Because, you know, a traditional Japanese house, you know, they're theyre they're cold in in the winter.
00:14:47
Speaker
They're drafty. They don't have much insulation. And in the summer, they can get pretty hot too. So, you know, we had to... First thing we, you know, first thing first, we needed to sort of fix the insulation issue and do all of that.
00:15:01
Speaker
And then we sort of wanted to make it a bit of our own and put in some of the more modern properties, like, you know, a nicer bath, a nicer kitchen, things like that.
00:15:14
Speaker
So yeah, we tried to get a balance between the the old and the new and, you know, keep and maintain its original carist characteristic. Yeah, it was amazing when I was watching you YouTube. I mean, I've been following you for years, actually, but um just researching.
00:15:29
Speaker
couldn't believe it was built in 1987, was it? So it's just see like they obviously just build it to look traditional, I guess, unless they're all just like that. Are there any sort of modern more modern properties where you are as well? Yeah.
00:15:42
Speaker
Yeah, so around us, you know, Japan doesn't really have very strict or any, you know, codes in terms, building codes in terms of preserving the look of, you know, the the location. So, you know, i guess like, you know, in the Cotswolds, you can't just build anything you want, there ah you know, and stick it next to one of the old stone houses.
00:16:08
Speaker
Here in Japan, they don't have anything like that. So most Japanese, what they do, they've been they knock down some of these old houses and then they put up a new, ah more modern, you know, better insulated, more convenient sort of house, which I can understand.
00:16:28
Speaker
But at the same time, know, it's a bit sad because you you sort of lose that traditional, you know, i guess, police traditional view of the countryside. So, you know, don't know. Have you been to Japan?
00:16:40
Speaker
No, no, it's a real, like, bucket list one. I'm just, I'm a bit scared because I've got a four-year-old who's actually um doing it, but... um Yeah, it's a long way to come. It's definitely on the right of my list.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah. So when you get into the the rural part of Japan, you you see lots of houses like mine. And and that that's kind of the, I guess, it's it's part of the landscape of the country in Japan. But that's slowly disappearing as as they these houses disappear. There's still lots and lots of them.
00:17:12
Speaker
um But, you know, slowly they sort of disappear. deteriorate or they become abandoned or vacant and they, someone else buys them or their children inherit them and then knock them down and build a a newer house. rather than renovate the existing house. Because I think cost-wise, if you want to do it you know to a certain standard where the house becomes a lot more comfortable and you have those modern elements to it, the cost is kind of more or less the same. and New houses are pretty cheap here in Japan.
00:17:45
Speaker
So, yeah, you you you do have that sort of factor there. I'm surprised they were knocking down, but just looking at your background, all the wood is just incredible, isn't it? Are they all like original features and beams?
00:18:03
Speaker
Yeah, they are. So we kept all of the original structure, you know all of the the main beams and the I guess the the pillars or posts. whatever you call them. But um I think actually now I'll just go back to your original question. I remember what it was.
00:18:20
Speaker
But yeah, the house, houses like this were built probably until the mid 90s, but they gradually were going out of favor because they are a bit more expensive to build and they require, I mean, this yes, this house was built using the traditional method mostly.
00:18:42
Speaker
So the carpenter who built the house was a what you call a miyadaiku, and that's a temple builder. So he his his style of building is the same as how Japanese temples of adultson are So he built it in that style.
00:19:00
Speaker
And one of the main differences was that Because the house was built after 1980, and in 1980 they changed a lot of the regulations in Japan to be more,
00:19:11
Speaker
um ah i guess, stable against earthquakes, which are you know a big issue here. So it does have a few, which is good for us, it because it does have a few more um elements, wood wooden and some metal cross-bracing and corners and things like that. So...
00:19:29
Speaker
ah That was probably the only real difference in terms of the structure of the house and the construction method. It still mostly, you know, log beams stacked on top of each other a of the joinery.
00:19:43
Speaker
It's just wood and, you know, just, you know, cutting and fitting all different shapes of wood and beams and posts to to sort of like lock in together like a ah kind of Jenga. Yeah.
00:19:58
Speaker
You shouldn't say that in an earthquake area. It's a bit more... Yeah, so it is one of the last houses built in this sort of style.
00:20:15
Speaker
And yeah, so I did speak to the original builder who lives just down the road. And he said he the last one he built in this style was about 1993 or Oh wow, that's amazing. it And I noticed you actually bought it at auction and un unlike, I think even auction properties in the UK these days are usually still sort of mostly vacant possession, but yours was just filled with things.
00:20:45
Speaker
It didn't look like, well, you might say differently, but didn't look like complete chaos or like in a bad way, but just a large quantity of just things. How did you sort of get your head around thinking, oh God, got like clear all this and Surely some. There must have been some good finds in there as well, hopefully.
00:21:03
Speaker
Yeah. Well, first of all, i hadn't really thought that deeply about it. I'll just go to the place and then I was going to just cross that bridge when I came back. And I hadn't really, you know, taken any time to think about how much work it would be to, or the cost involved on clearing the place, not just of the main house, but also the sheds, which were full of, you know, our agricultural farming equipment and tools. Yeah.
00:21:30
Speaker
So the only really, well, the the worst room was the kitchen. It still had, you know, dishes in the sink.
00:21:42
Speaker
There was an egg in the fridge. should They're like, um you know, ah instant ramen cups that hadn't were still sitting there with, you know, the the oil and the the the leftover ramen in the bottom and things like that.
00:21:56
Speaker
no Yeah, and then the rest of the rooms here were more just um personal items. But the um the the sheds were really ah well lot more, well, a lot worse than we had imagined because they had obviously had people dumping stuff in there. They were like old TVs, all the cathode ray TVs and things like that, dishwasher, washing machines.
00:22:20
Speaker
and Yeah, lots of stuff like that. And that took a lot of work. to get rid of because you can't just throw that away. You have to, know, take it to special sites to get rid of that stuff and pay a bit of money too.
00:22:36
Speaker
wow. Was there anything like in particular you found you're like, this is amazing? Yeah, not nothing. Well, we did find a bit of money. 70,000 yen. what's that? Yeah, quid something. it was being built.
00:22:54
Speaker
You know, some carvings and stuff.
00:22:58
Speaker
and ah yeah few photos of the house when it was being built ah you know some carvings and Things like that, but no, nothing exciting like an old samurai sword. Yeah, that's really what it's like.
00:23:19
Speaker
Most of the stuff we just had to get rid of. There was nothing particularly worth keeping. I did find a few things, like i've got an old, one of my early videos, I found that um a wooden statue, a buddhaist statue Buddhist statue, and that's still sitting there. I haven't put it anywhere in the house, but you know I held on to that.
00:23:36
Speaker
And a few pots, not pots, yeah, flow flower pots and vases and things like that. So it's exciting.
00:23:49
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, 400 pounds isn't bad. He's still one of them. Yeah, exactly, yeah. Have you had any experience in the UK renovating? The only reason I ask is i just think like you sort of know, well, I personally know the UK quite well of doing things. And going to Japan, there must be some things that you think, oh, it's so simple to organise in the UK, but it's just not a thing in Japan or it works slightly differently. I'd just like to know if there's anything that springs to mind on.
00:24:18
Speaker
Yeah, that's the thing though. hadn't really renovated anything in my life before. So in the UK, we were renting the whole time there. We never knew how long we were going to be staying for. We ended up staying 10 years. So we should have bought.
00:24:37
Speaker
What a bad advice of the first couple of years. ah If you're not going to stay more than five years, you you should just rent. But um if we'd bought something early on, i think by the time we left, we we would have been... You know, with the the way that the the the property prices has increased in in in the UK or in London by the time we left, we would have been, I think, pretty happy. with But anyway, so that we end ending why we didn't we didn't do any sort of renovating or anything like that. Yeah,
00:25:06
Speaker
yes sir nothing so much. I don't think it's so different, perhaps, if I sort of try and imagine, you know, you've got the home centers in Japan.
00:25:20
Speaker
So it's, I guess it's, uh, similar to BNQ. fair Yeah. And probably a better selection of, uh, uh, longer maybe from what I recall. Although, yeah, having said that, I didn't exactly, you know, look that closely. But, uh,
00:25:36
Speaker
me you but Yeah, so, you know, it's, everything's here to, you know, the materials are pretty close at hand and pretty easy to get hold of to renovate yourself and pretty cheap. I think that could be a difference. It's a lot of the, especially the local lumber, like the cedars and the,
00:25:57
Speaker
The sugi, which is cedar, and the hinoki, which is cypress, they're pretty cheap. Wow. That's a real contrast, because cedar wood is so expensive over here.
00:26:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, there's so much of it here, and, you know, there it's sort of like one of these, one of the only cheap woods that they they use quite commonly. So, yeah, it's pretty easy to get a hold of.
00:26:23
Speaker
nice And is everything sort of built from like local ma materials then? Is that how they kind of work in Japan? Yeah, not not not all the time because actually my house has some imported woods. So a lot of the big um beams in our house is actually ah Douglas fir.
00:26:49
Speaker
yeah I think at the time, because the house stuff, they they started building in... 1987, completed in 1989.
00:27:01
Speaker
At that time, it was the bubble. Japan was undergoing this bubble, which burst in the late 90s, if I remember correctly.
00:27:15
Speaker
But anyway, i think at that time... The yen was really strong. And so that's where Japan got a reputation of being expensive. and So I think a lot of these woods from the US, like the Douglas fir, were relatively cheap to import.
00:27:32
Speaker
So yeah, it does have, our house does have some of the the upper beams are Douglas fir. But um the rest of the house is mostly, yeah, ah hinoki, the cypress cedar, and keiaki, which is Japanese zilkova, which is a really hard wood, which the the internal beams and posts are made of in this house.
00:28:01
Speaker
Oh, wow. So is this something you've obviously just learned since you bought the house? Did you sort of go into it with just knowing nothing? and just Because you're saying this to us and we're like, wow, yeah no clue. Is this where you start from?
00:28:12
Speaker
so i say I sound like an expert, but yeah, had to realize that. Well, I had no idea when I first got the house. Like, I didn't know anything about any of the the Japanese woods and lippercuses made of. So it was all part of the process of renovating. I used to ask the carpenters who did the initial work on the house, you know, what but these woods were and and so on. So i was quite interested and curious about it. And also I knew down the track, I'd probably...
00:28:45
Speaker
start doing work on it myself at some point. So and what made you choose a renovation then over getting like a completed property? Well, I think ah one of the things was the price.
00:29:01
Speaker
So yeah, you, and yeah, wow. Yeah, there's a few factors. So one is the price. So initially what we were looking for was a large property.
00:29:12
Speaker
So I wasn't even really thinking that much about renovating or getting an old traditional Japanese house or anything like that. I just wanted to say um a decent sized property to have a big garden.
00:29:24
Speaker
and you know I grew up in in Australia at a time when everyone had big backyards and everything and things like that. And yeah i wanted to sort of do the same for our boys.
00:29:35
Speaker
And you know I like gardening and and so on. So that was the first thing. And then it became an issue of where do you you just don't see blocks like that in Japan that commonly, unless it's kind of ah a farmhouse or a farm place.
00:29:51
Speaker
So that was, that's what led me to looking for a farm. And then obviously lot of the, well, most of the properties on farms are going to be the old traditional houses or or maybe a more modern house, but a lot of the houses that were built in Japan after the war, ah in the the the seventy s or 90s, not that great quality.
00:30:17
Speaker
So you didn't, still didn't, even though they were more modern than the traditional houses, They were still really leaky, didn't have great insulation. They were freezing. Like my mother-in-law's house, the house that we stayed in when we first moved to Japan, that was freezing, that house. It was built in the 90s.
00:30:35
Speaker
It was all crazy. There was nothing insulation at all. It was bad. but You know, insulation. So, you know, the the Japanese have come, which makes sense, back, you know, when...
00:30:47
Speaker
that houses came from, know, these traditional wooden houses and the technology back, you know, so when, you houses like mine can be 100, you know, 150 years old.
00:30:58
Speaker
So before air conditioning and, you know, before, you know, more modern heating methods. So it's, You would have a a drafty house because, you know, that Japanese summer is hot and humid.
00:31:11
Speaker
And so if you can't air condition the house, if you don't want mold in your house, you and if you want it to be a bit cooler, you want you want air to be able to travel through the whole house and through the walls and everything. So the houses came from that kind of background.
00:31:27
Speaker
And I guess they sort of, you know, coming from there and and then the the houses making the houses airtight or, you know, having insulation or just wasn't a ah huge priority for them until recently. i think and nowadays new houses that are built are pretty good.
00:31:46
Speaker
Some of them are very good now in terms of insulation. Yeah, because you always assume Japan is like high tech or what we do. I certainly do about it. So just for me to have no insulation in a freezing house is late. It's like the 90s. It was just bizarre to me. But it's funny. Yeah, I mean, there's there's ah there's a bit of insulation, but it's more like just token insulation.
00:32:08
Speaker
Yeah, the cold air just goes around the insulation, you know, through the, ah you know, the gas. Well, you, um... Once you cleared the house, did you have like a third room? You were like, I'm going to tackle this, um, like the kitchen or the bathroom. And was it something you wanted to do yourself or you, did you get some help in or?
00:32:29
Speaker
Yeah. So we did have two carpenters, a father and son team who did the initial renovation. So we, that's the my family, my mother-in-law and her friends cleared the house of all of the the the the rubbish and all the stuff in there. And once that was done, we'd been, while we were doing that, we had been getting quotes and also designs, renovation designs and ideas from um architects and renovation companies that specialized in doing traditional houses.
00:33:08
Speaker
and so Yeah, we we ended up going for an architect who was a friend of my mother-in-law and then hired a a separate carpenter, the her father and son team, who then, ah you know... um did the the renovation according to the design by the architect.
00:33:30
Speaker
So that was the initial stage and that took about 12 months or so. So that was everything. So that was the the kitchen area, bathroom, um most of the living room, bedrooms, you know, taking out some of the walls and putting in walls to...
00:33:48
Speaker
A lot of the bedrooms were quite small. So we wanted to make the at least the main bedroom, our bedroom, a bit bigger. And also the the the bathroom was ah kind of a separate building and we wanted to make that a little bit more unified with the main house.
00:34:07
Speaker
So things like that. So there was nothing that, yeah, the the first year was just everything pretty much getting renovated. And then after 12 months,
00:34:18
Speaker
Basically, it was the structural work was complete. So all the new floors and the walls and everything and the bathroom and the kitchen were finished.
00:34:29
Speaker
And so we moved in. The bedrooms weren't done at that stage. ah There was still just, you know, plasterboard. What do you call a drywall in there? because i cause i Yeah, drywall. Yeah, drywall, yeah. I don't know, because i cause I would learn a lot of the stuff from watching YouTube, and a lot of the yeah YouTube channels are from the US.
00:34:51
Speaker
Yeah. A lot of the American terminology. So I was keeping drywall. I'm pretty sure in Australia it's called plasterboard. Yeah, I was showing as well. Yeah, so a lot of the plasterboard wasn't even finished, was just bare plasterboard throughout the house. And I'd told...
00:35:07
Speaker
the carpenters that I would finish the the walls myself. this day You know, once the main stuff was done, we wanted to save as much money as possible. And I was also at that point interested in doing the work myself as well. Yeah. exercise You know, we moved in with pretty much bare walls, plasterboard walls.
00:35:28
Speaker
Yeah, no no walls had been finished, no bedrooms. This is our bedroom, the main bedroom. And so none of this had been plastered and the ceiling hadn't been stained or anything like that.
00:35:43
Speaker
And so, yeah, we moved in and just slept on, you know mattresses, fu al futon in the room. in the living air And then gradually, you know, completed the bedrooms and and everything until, yeah, I think that that bedroom process took it more than a year to get finished as well.
00:36:03
Speaker
I can imagine, yeah. Fair place to you for turning your hand to doing classroom as well. I can think wouldn't have the guts to do that, I don't think. Well, yeah, it's as one of those things where ah they use this plaster here. So why not? This room is probably the only room that doesn't have this lime plaster called shikui. In the UK, lime plaster was quite common at one point in like Yeah, we're speaking someone actually who is based in the cops world. It's sort of more popular in sort of rural places and like cottages and things. It's used because it's actually quite good for breathing as well, isn't it?
00:36:37
Speaker
that So yeah, no, it's definitely not used in houses like Dan and mine. But yeah, and in the cottages and in the country, it's used quite a lot. Yeah, because it's cause it's alkaline, I think, and yeahist it also absorbs moisture and sort of releases it. So it's great in Japan where you have a humid climate, you know, it's it's really good for there. So I wanted to do that and, you know, try and also because it's a traditional material, that's it's not used that much in Japan anymore either.
00:37:07
Speaker
So... It was a traditional our material. I wanted to use that, but because it's not used that much in Japan anymore, there aren't many trades who can actually apply it. So it's becoming more and more expensive.
00:37:22
Speaker
So I thought, oh, well, I want to do it. I'm going to have to do myself. Otherwise, we just won't have the budget for it. Yeah, cool. Yeah, so that'll work here. Sort of through necessity, partly, as well.
00:37:36
Speaker
and ah That's what things like YouTube were for, right? you just like pick up YouTube, hope to find someone that's done it. But obviously, you now post on YouTube, and it looks hugely successful, over like a quarter of a million subscribers. It's just insane to me. Was that something you always thought you were going to do? You thought, oh, this is quite interesting, or you just thought, see how it goes? because i think your first video, is it a million views or something like that? It's crazy.
00:38:00
Speaker
It's not eight million. I think my first, yeah, maybe three or four. I can't remember. I haven't checked my. No,
00:38:09
Speaker
So, um yeah, it was a bit of a bit of that. So i I, once we decided to get the traditional house, then I thought, actually, because, you know, ah I enjoyed watching renovation shows. And what is it um in in the UK? Grand Designs? said grandus Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:38:27
Speaker
Yeah, so used to watch that from time to time. And i hadn't really and when I was looking on YouTube to research the renovation, and I found there wasn't really that much in English in particular, even in Japanese. Yeah.
00:38:43
Speaker
thought ah this And and there were lots of um there were lots of renovations of, you know, how you know villas in Spain or, you know, houses in Provence and things like that. yeah has and blooms So i know they were getting like millions of views. And I was thinking, well you know, this could be interesting, but...
00:39:04
Speaker
At the same time, even even if no one watches it, for well, it's a good way of documenting the process that you can look at. yeah and So I thought I'll just film it and see how it goes.
00:39:15
Speaker
But I didn't really expect this many subscribers. I thought if I can get to a thousand subscribers, that'd be nice. That'd be fun. And yeah, I think it's sort of, with that first video, we just went, after about six months, not immediately, about six months, and after I've made a couple of more videos, yeah, it can kind of went viral. And I think it was during COVID as well. So a lot of people were on at home watching YouTube. So I was a bit lucky too.
00:39:47
Speaker
Amazing. So was there a particular video that you saw that you made and then it just sort of blew up or was it just sort of a slow progression over time? Yeah, so it was, yeah, it was a slow progression for about six months from the first video where I just did a sort of walk around of the house as it was when we found it.
00:40:06
Speaker
And yeah, I think by about six months, I got to about a thousand subscribers, which i was really, you Yeah, quick reset. right. Yeah, and then I don't know it was a coincidence because ah perhaps it wasn't. I don't know how YouTube and the algorithm works, but just after I hit 1,000, one of that those original first video, well, the first video that I her uploaded, the walk around of the house, yeah, took off. And I'd also made ah about a month earlier,
00:40:39
Speaker
a um a video on the whole process of buying the house and how I found it and everything. And that one also sort of took off. So I had those two videos take off kind of simultaneously.
00:40:51
Speaker
And then, yeah, just as the subscribers snowballed. And then was kind of good timing because it was right at the... Right at the beginning of the renovation.
00:41:03
Speaker
So most of the videos I'd done prior to that were on cleaning and clearing up the the property and the house and the the and the sheds and everything like that. So a lot of those new subscribers who came on from that first video, you know, after after it went viral, were there to see the subsequent series on the renovation itself. So it was, you know, just, I think, fortuitous timing.
00:41:29
Speaker
Yeah. And how actually did you find the house and even do viewing? Did you help you, was your mother-in-law living there in the time could help you? lad It seems like, it a Japanese right move? but when we're We're so naive how this process happens.
00:41:44
Speaker
Yeah. so i after i decided after I decided I wanted to find ah a farmhouse and ah a farm you know property that was a farm, decided I was looking around and and it's very very few of these sort of properties are listed anywhere.
00:42:01
Speaker
you know They tend to be kept in the family. And then, for example, our next-door neighbor, they've got three generations living there. So they have their original old house. And on the same property, they just build a new house for their, in this case, the daughter and her husband's family.
00:42:18
Speaker
So they don't necessarily hit the market. So I was... So I put out a word to, you know, my mother-in-law's friends and just around here, it's not a particularly large town where we are, that I was looking for a place.
00:42:36
Speaker
And then one of them found this place being auctioned off. in It was advertised in the the local newspaper, which I've never really read. Oh, look, there's a place here that you know might be of interest to you.
00:42:53
Speaker
And I looked at it and go, this is yeah definitely, it was a public auction by the um the tax office. And so we contacted them and asked them about it and they said, okay, yeah, this is the place.
00:43:06
Speaker
And they then said, no, can we ask, can we, can we look at it? And they said, no. ah Yeah. Because I think this is the, most of these public auction places, places that are being auctioned in this way,
00:43:20
Speaker
you pretty much buy them off the, um, uh, off the listing. You don't inspect them. And that's kind of the deal. But then they tell us, but this is the address. You're allowed to get the address.
00:43:34
Speaker
And, Kind of, they sort of hinted, well, if you go and look at it, and you look at it and, know, we, you're not allowed to go. you can't, we don't have keys, but it's up to you, you know?
00:43:46
Speaker
So we went down and, um, it was complete, a complete jungle around it. We couldn't even get into the property. It was just all bamboo everywhere.
00:43:56
Speaker
And then, so we virtually found a ah little, little side route in around the back. And then we, you know, got to the house and, you know, just to appeared out of all of this, uh, the, the weeds and the overgrown trees and bamboo and everything.
00:44:14
Speaker
And then we walked around, we found an open window and and, got in that way. Didn't matter. know, you know, it's. It's still a lot of money. If you're going to buy... Yeah, know yeah and exactly. £3,000 is still £20,000. Yeah. as i Having said that, our plan B was always, you know, if it is the house is in a really bad state it's beyond salvage, we would knock it down and build a new house. We'd have the land, obviously, the large land, still part of what I was looking for.
00:44:48
Speaker
So it wasn't complete, you know, it wasn't a complete risk. um or a huge risk so but anyway we had to had a look around and we brought a friend who was an architect not the same architect who did their design for the renovation but another architect friend who came in and inspected it with us and said yeah it's pretty much fine structurally it's fine so was that for this window as well obviously unlock the the doors for you obviously unlock the the doors from
00:45:18
Speaker
Yeah, because this architect figure is He's not climbing through we andva yeah so yeah so then that's how he found it then it was an auction But was not an auction like you get in, I guess, the UK and Australia where, you know, you have, you sort of have a a group of people and you take it in turns bidding.
00:45:46
Speaker
So this was a um ah blind auction. So you have, you go to the, to the, this is the tax office auctioning it. And you have a one hour window and they're auctioning off multiple properties at the same time.
00:46:02
Speaker
So what you do is you go and register, you fill out a form and you write down the figure that you're willing to read. There's a minimum and the minimum one was pretty much 3 million yen.
00:46:13
Speaker
And you write down your figure and you hand it in and at the end of the one hour and they announce who submitted the largest bid. The only issue is because they're auctioning off lots of properties all at the same time, you don't know is bidding on your property. So you don't know if you're bidding we against someone else or you're the only bidder on the house.
00:46:37
Speaker
So you've got to and know keep that in mind. Oh, that's a terrifying way of doing it. Yeah, it is. It's got a number. Say it's 3 million yen and that's all you've got. mean, that's kind of easy. But if you've got a little bit more, you're like, oh, it's a little bit more. It's so hard, isn't it?
00:46:53
Speaker
That's exactly what happened. So, yeah, I kept on, like, in my head bidding against myself. If you want to go too high, I go, okay, 3 million yen. Of course, you don't want to put 3 million yen. but Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:04
Speaker
If there is someone else, they might put 3,010,000 yen. So got to more than that. So, okay, we'll down 3,020,000.
00:47:15
Speaker
yeah But what happens if the other person's thinking that too? So you start like remember.
00:47:22
Speaker
thirty thousand five hundred and so like that can yeah I don't know if you're a judge from any of it all, but, I mean, buying off the tax office doesn't seem, I don't know, I think they were just telling you someone else's bidding, even if it's for sure. Yeah, exactly.
00:47:40
Speaker
Yeah. So, uh, I think in the end there was one, was one other person was, but they, they, they'd, they'd done the, uh, the school boy, school boy era of, 30,000 and million, something like
00:47:56
Speaker
do down quick we got out cut the place That's amazing, yeah. I would have actually $3,310 or something like that. with or but thing I actually didn't go in the room myself.
00:48:13
Speaker
My wife went in because... you know We're in a small town. I'm one of the only foreigners and I couldn kind of stand out. So I didn't want to give anything away that we i we were bidding because you know someone else in the town might be bidding because it's so all through the prefecture. So it's not just our area.
00:48:31
Speaker
And so if there's only one property in our town that's going up to ive up going off up for auction, then no someone might go, oh, okay, so there is one other person and they they have that advantage. So I just ah sent my wife in and they've here we had she's then in at the end of the one hour, they and that she said that they announced all of the the winning bids.
00:48:53
Speaker
And hers was the only one that was wasn't a round number. Everyone was like, you know, different properties, 5 million, 500, 5 million yen 6 million 65 million. it went and went out 3 million, 30,000, 311,000.
00:49:05
Speaker
was like for bit embarrassed. Like that's the only thing. Oh, well, won Yeah, exactly. Yeah. thirty thousand three hundred and eleven but all she was like forbi embarsed like that the only for and oh well one out yeah exactly yeah with other weapons yeah Maybe you set a trend and so in the future everyone else is going to do the same thing. The engineer a bit of few about reading on the numbers. Exactly. So how have you found your DIY skills? and have they sort grown as the years have gone on? Have you got a bit more like courageous trying new things?
00:49:43
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. I think that they have improved if I look back. But at the same time, I think there's been a balance. I definitely, definitely very still very far from a professional level in terms of skills and also time it takes to do something. I just take ages to do things, but I guess I've got it, you know, I'm not really on the clock, so I yeah do try and make a bit more time to get it right. think that's one of the things, but i'm in my last project though, the one that I'm doing at the moment,
00:50:17
Speaker
I'm making some shells and I'm trying new joints that I hadn't really no tried before. And that's been quite fun. But yeah, I think so. I think, i yeah, I think I um have been getting a bit better.
00:50:34
Speaker
So I saw you. Yeah, I still make lots of mistakes and go. Because your dining room table looked amazing and you were just basically slating off all the time.
00:50:45
Speaker
Yeah, well, you know, to see what it it does have its mistakes. I usually show them the mistakes I do make. But, um yeah, but there were a lot of that was quite fun in terms of a lot of the the sort of techniques I used on that were just stuff I learned off YouTube.
00:51:00
Speaker
And, yeah, Yeah, so, and then, yeah, some of those techniques, then I can, you know, sometimes I use them later for other projects. So it has been pretty handy. yeah I do, I have shown the capacity to learn a bit.
00:51:17
Speaker
as yeah As you get older, it gets a bit trickier. yes true Yeah, true. Well, that's it with DIY, isn't it? Everyone we've spoken to is kind of in the same boat. They just start by doing it, make mistakes along the way.
00:51:28
Speaker
Then when they do it again, it gets so better and better. It's just sort of a natural process, I guess. Yeah, and I guess it's also you just, if you're doing it yourself, you you could live with a lot of the mistakes.
00:51:40
Speaker
Yeah. you're hiring someone who made that same mistake, you'd be really annoyed you paid money for it. Yeah, that's true. You're doing a mistake and you just go, well, I couldn't really do that. It's going to take me time and a bit of money to get them new materials, or I'll just live with it. And often for me, at least, that's what happens. I sometimes just go, ah.
00:52:02
Speaker
It'll do. no No one can see that. i sit Exactly. where So thank you really much for joining We always end with sort of asking the same question. It could be slightly different for you, but it's sort of the best thing about sort of DIY and that you've had with your house and then sort of your worst experience. But i guess for you it could be sort More Japan related as well. Like your best thing about moving to Japan and worst thing is completely up to you. But we're usually sort as is the DIY podcast, what's the favorite thing you've done? And then what's something you've done where you're like, oh, I wish I did it differently or next time I have to do it better.
00:52:41
Speaker
Yeah, I think the my favorite thing that I've done so far is probably a more recent project. ah It was this Japanese shrine. And it sounds dodgy when I when i explain. It's a huge shrine up on the wall.
00:53:03
Speaker
Actually, it's the hold it it's the the wood and the housing, or i guess what do you call it? An alcove that holds the shrine. And because we're not using the shrine, my wife didn't want to have the shrine.
00:53:17
Speaker
It's not that common these days to have the shrine because you've got to maintain it every day. You've got to feed it. Pour in sanke, and everything like that. a Shinto shrine. So we decided not to have that, and then we didn't need the alcove, so I...
00:53:30
Speaker
had the alcove taken down early on in the renovation by the carpenters and is made out of a really heavy, thick keaki, the Japanese selkova. And I converted that finally into a sort of ah side table.
00:53:46
Speaker
And yeah, that that took a lot of work, but I was really happy with how it it turned out in the end. so Amazing. It was a little great. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
00:53:57
Speaker
then know So it turned out better than expected. Usually with a DIY, a lot of them are like, oh, yeah, that's all right. But when they turned out better than expected, you go, oh, okay, oh, that's good. That's satisfying. It sounds morbid. It's like a work of art anyway. I'm proud of that one. I do go, oh, yeah. so When you've done it yourself and you are proud of it, you yeah I'm not going to lie. i'll walk into the house and go,
00:54:22
Speaker
Yeah, that looks good. I've done it just forever. It looks good, bossing it. Yeah, it still looks good, like you asked me a week ago. It looks good, yeah.
00:54:35
Speaker
Okay, so that's the good one. So what's the bad one? Is like there's a wall that's not there anymore that's supposed to be there? Well, the wall is still there. There's still some glassware. I've still got walls that I haven't blasted yet. Or one main wall.
00:54:53
Speaker
the um
00:55:02
Speaker
Well, perhaps it's a It's hard to say, yeah, maybe my current project, I've been ah a bit sloppy and I've had a few jigs that haven't been very well made and You know, the if you look really if you look closely, there are lots and lots of mistakes. And I'm trying to make ah ah a shelf against a ah a wall that's not square or not flat.
00:55:26
Speaker
glad it's us It's been an absolute nightmare, really, trying to i and get everything to fit nicely. i just gave up, basically, on trying to get it perfect and now just make just just want to get it done.
00:55:41
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. yes Yeah, I just want to get started a new project. I just want to get this. a goodrick yeah Well, i amazing. J. Thank you for joining us so much. Could you tell well and the listeners where to find you and what platforms you're on? I always say to people about Viewer Viewer, but your one, honestly, is one of the first YouTube accounts I've followed.
00:56:06
Speaker
Super, super interesting. So where can we find you guys? Yeah, so it's basically YouTube iron only. high yeah at well Tokyo Llama, that's Tokyo as in the city and llama as in the animal, double L-A-M-A.
00:56:22
Speaker
So yeah, you YouTube, just search for Tokyo Llama. I do have Instagram, but I don't update that as often as I should. But um yeah good why yeah, Instagram, Tokyo Llama as well. then Basically, I don't do any other social media outside of that.
00:56:40
Speaker
Amazing. Well, thank you so much for joining us. And now we look forward to following the rest of your journey and who speak to you soon. Yeah, thanks for having me. It's been a good chat. Thank you. agree i Thanks so much, jaan it's Such a great chat. It so interesting talking to you about your Japanese house and how different everything is. like You would think a home renovation would be quite similar, but it just seems like everything's quite different over there. and Yeah. Everything...
00:57:10
Speaker
don't know, it seems bit cooler, doesn't it? Yeah, know, he was really good guest. I don't know, like, slack off up, I guess. But it's just like a bolder thing that he's done. I know he's got ties to Japan, obviously, through his wife's side of the family, but it's just a risky and sort of, like, ballsy thing to do, isn't it? I'd be, like, too scared to it. And he's literally the most chilled out guy ever. Yeah, I know. So calm. And he's like, yeah, this went wrong, but yeah, whatever. Yeah. And it's just interesting hearing about everything, isn't it? Not just the house, but, like, social media, the fact he's got culture, the million followers,
00:57:40
Speaker
doesn't really post much on Instagram and stuff but it's just ah insane I really recommend you guys following him in Tokyo Lama I know he said it the end but it's such a cool thing to go and see so what was your favourite bit do you think I mean, favorite bit has to be getting a house for 20k. Like where you couldn't even get a garage in the UK for 20k. My mate just sold his Volkswagen Golf for like 24 grand. So you got a house. Yeah. That's absolutely mental. And also like the sort of history that went with it as well. And you know, it's not like he was buying a really small cheap house. Like this was like something that was really well built. Yeah.
00:58:18
Speaker
crazy it was only built in the 80s. I know. Actually, that was probably one of my favorite things is that it's an 80s building. I think our 80s and 90s builds, all the houses historically were beautiful. yeah It's almost like we're building them worse to a degree. Even my house right now is like a rendered front, which I don't even like, but I'd have no choice.
00:58:37
Speaker
It's like he just had all these nice beams, didn't he, like woodwork. The cedar wood, was it, inside? It just looked so beautiful. as you say, 20 grand, what a joke. So annoyed. And even on the video, you're like, I was having a little nose in the background. You're oh, it just looks incredible. I know, yeah. And he sent the alcove video he did on YouTube and stuff. It's just everything. It's so much detail in it as well. Which, again, I think when we struggle with our house, where we extended so much, you end up with these boxes with not much like details because his house was full of touches and details and lots of exposed beams and wood and yeah, so lovely. Just looked amazing. And what nice guy as well. Yeah, top bloke. He clearly doesn't mind traveling around Australia, UK, Japan.
00:59:23
Speaker
Wow, just amazing isn't it. So what about you? What was your favorite part? um It's tricky because there's so many you things. I mean, the price obviously, like you said, is awesome. I really liked that he used like a local builder.
00:59:35
Speaker
yeah We said on the previous episode, and we were talking about my gran's place that you know look down the road and speak to people that have done the extension to maybe see if that builder was good. yeah like Quite a good tip. But he actually found the builder that built all the houses around yeah and a lot the houses around there. And I thought that was awesome. That's a really good idea. oh And it's like they just would have so much knowledge of what's been used everywhere and what maybe in the 30 or 40 years has moved on, what could be put in now. Yeah. Because I imagine it didn't have like insulation everywhere and things like that. So think that was really like just a cool little tip for people as well. Yeah, definitely. And the guy's got experience doing similar projects. So he can also advise you on, oh, know you're thinking about putting a bar from here, but I put it here in another property and it works really well. So you've got that sort of experience to it as well. Exactly.
01:00:27
Speaker
Yeah, awesome. So, yeah, really excited. and um Next episode, we're back onto my grand bungalow. So just be Dan and I talking. um And then we're just going to keep going guests in and out as well. We've got some really exciting guests coming up as well.
01:00:42
Speaker
We don't know which one to pivot to first. We're going to be speaking to lots of exciting people. Definitely. But if you guys have got any questions for us, please, please get in touch. I've totally forgot my piece of paper here. So hello at DIYguyspodcast.com is our email address and our Instagram is just DIYguyspodcast. Yeah. Or DIY underscore guys underscore podcast. Does that make me an old man saying it like that? Just typing DIYguyspodcast on Instagram. You'll find us surely.
01:01:08
Speaker
So we'll be posting like the guest clips and then other clips from like my grand place and maybe we'll try and get to give in advice. or We're a bit scared to give advice. and We're not claiming to be experts. Yeah, yeah.
01:01:19
Speaker
But so yeah, excited and we'll talk to you next week about a bit more about my grand's house where I'll be tackling the kitchen, the bathroom. Sounds good. Catch you next week. See ya.