Feeling A Bit Better

 I think my moaning post yesterday was a lot of frustration.

We've been in this house for almost a year, but things aren't really sorted.

I'm not sure if paying for renovation is worth it. The bones of this house aren't that good. The other day, David tried to put a shelf up for the cats, but found the wall was too thin to take the weight of the shelf. These are the load-bearing walls, so they should be more solid!

We've also figured out why some of the floors are soft and give way when you stand on them. My mother-in-law only used two rooms, her bedroom and the kitchen/dining room. The other rooms were closed up. In Japan, the humidity can get very high in summer, up to 80%. Even in the bedroom she was using, she never ran an air conditioner, which would help to dry out the rooms. So maybe the floors are rotting because of damp. My room and Christophers' rooms are the worst, but even David's room has a few soft spots. 

I'm wondering what would! Be best. Try to renovate here or rebuild. I would love to rebuild, but the cheapest would be at least 20,000,000 yen ( about £100,600), which of course I don't have. 

Renovating wouldn't be cheap either. Just to do the toilet, bathroom, and kitchen could cost up to 4,500,000 yen, just over £2,000.

I have no idea how much it would cost to replace the floors, plus we need to extend the dining/kitchen room so we have a living room!

There's just a lot to do, but no money at all. This month, food prices are going up again. Over 3,000 items will go up by about 20 yen. That might not seem like a lot, but just 5 items means an extra 100yen on food!

I just don't see a way forward. I can't get a mortgage, no income and age. David or Christopher might be able to, but it's risky.

The best is to spend money to change the name of some of the land, then try and sell or rent it! We wouldn't get much, actually, it probably won't sell, this is not a popular area! There's land for sale near here that has been on the market for over 10 years!

So I'm fed up and rather frustrated, it always seems like one step forward, 10 back!

Just to add to my misery, we had the most incredible storm this afternoon. 

This was just the beginning. We ended up with a very close thunderstorm. This is not my image of October; this was like a summer storm that we get in August!