The rock wall is complete!

It has been raining very heavily here over the last couple of days, so I haven't been able to take any new photos of the completed rock wall. Today, we had a break in the weather, so I can now show you! Hooray! They did a beautiful job, and I can't wait until there's beautiful Japanese maples on either wide, hanging over the driveway.

Sorry for the dodgy stitch together! Hadn't planned on it. This is almost what it looks like, anyway!

Last time I put photos up of this side, they only had a few rocks in place. Now it's done!

They carefully cemented in between the rocks.

This is looking up from the road. BIG. ROCKS!

That's one pretty wall ; )

The rock wall continues...

It has been a few days since I was up at the land, and I've realised things happen pretty quick! Well, I think so anyway.

We have gone from having a little bit of a rock wall to a lot of rock wall. I also got to see the man and woman at work who are building it. A simple operation, but they certainly know what they're doing, as you can see by the way they've managed to get those rocks all lined up nicely to sit flat at the top. Geez...monolithic!

How flat can you get? How's the symmetry!

Looking from the land.

This side of the driveway they were working on today.

Rock still slung with wire rope. It's a beast!

Little look at the view! It was a beautiful day today.

Building a House in Japan...the beginning

After many, many months of looking for land, buying land, waiting for auspicious dates, going to open houses, visiting builders, negotiating with builders, planning with architects and finally signing contracts to build, work has begun on what will be our first ever home. Hooray!

It's a very exciting time for us, and I hope that this blog will be a great reminder of the building process, as well as maybe help other people who are thinking of building a house in Japan.

We began looking for land in 2009, after finding out about the government auctions of parcels of land in the same area some friends of our live in. Although the government auctions didn't pan out for us, we were inspired to keep looking for land, eventually finding the one we bought. I remember the first time I ever stepped foot on it - it really was love at first step! It was well tended by the next door neighbours, who were using half of it for a veggie garden, the other half they kept neat also. When we finally bought the land in February 2010, we let them keep their veggie patch until we were ready to build, and they have also taken care of the land for us, which has been such a bonus.

The land has beautiful views of the city and ocean, as well as views of the mountains behind. It has two Sakura (cherry blossom) trees, one of which, sadly, we have to remove. We plan to make up for it though!

This is what the land looked like when we first bought it:

Click here to view the Flickr album of the land when we bought it.

About two weeks ago, we had the ground breaking ceremony, and saw, for the first time, our house marked out with string and stakes. 

A marker for our house.

And now, this week, work began. The builders have started by bulldozing part of the rock wall in order to make the driveway. In Japan, you can't park on the street, and to register a car you have to prove you have parking. So, parking is an important part of the planning, and needs to be the first thing so the builders can bring all the material and be able to start digging the foundations - next week! I'll post some more pictures as we go. 

The rocks taken from the wall will be used to build the side of the driveway, so you can see on the right, where they have already begun. The rocks will also be used in other parts of the garden, especially in the herb garden.