The owner of the house

(This was written a few weeks ago)

I look at the apps and all to keep my options open.

I like what I have, but come on, we only live once and if I see something that makes me feel hot and bothered, I’m going to go look.

This stayed at this looking stage, but the other day I just couldn’t help myself, I had to reach out.

So I told my wife: there’s a house I found on the apps that just looks too good to not go and look at. We gotta go.

The back and forth with the realtor was kind of normal. It was a chain realtor I guess, so big with many shops, and I had to go through their call center first. I’m more of an email man myself, but after they called three times and didn’t send an email, I summoned the lifestyle of my forefathers and gave them a call. During the phone call I did say I’m a very busy man, and would prefer to talk via email from then on.

I wanted to go Friday and 2pm, they said Friday at 4pm, as the owner still lives there and we need to have a time that works for both. I assumed this meant the owner wouldn’t be home.

We got on our way. Son was sleeping. I was excited. I think my wife was down for the activity in the day.

When we get there we saw the realtor outside. She was a woman to our shock! Not that their aren’t female realtors, but you sort of just imagine a guy in his 50s that is a little overweight. She was young and had her nails done up. We then went in the house where the owner of the house was waiting for us.

She was a very nice older woman. She seemed in very good health and I imagine kept in good shape in a non-obsessive way. One thing that grabbed my attention about the house is the amount of bookshelves filled with books. These books were in Japanese, English and German. There were bookshelves in the living room, in the hallway, in the washroom, in the bedrooms and in a dedicated library.

She didn’t need the books and would just be throwing them away she said. In the “study” that was her late husband’s, there were a lot of books on German fairy tales. Her husband studied them. In what I assume were her son’s rooms, there were Dragon Quest manga from the 90’s. In the living room, there were Agatha Christie books in English.

Besides the books, the entire setup of the house was of a grandparent’s house, proud photos of the children and grandkids, artifacts decorating the place from a life well lived, and tasteful furniture.

She was moving into an apartment (manshon) because the place was too big for her. I assume closer to her children. She didn’t need any of the books so if we wanted them we could have them. Same with the grand piano that fit easily in the living and dining space along with a two couch living setup and large dining room table.

She asked my job, and I think hoping that I would say I was a teacher or professor teaching English, and really I wish I was then. She could then perhaps tell me of what her husband or she did, or what her kids do. However, I did I do HR at a foreign company, and I think I didn’t speak loud enough for her to fully hear (she was a little hard of hearing) and so she repeated that I was a company worker, and left the conversation at that.

She said a few times that the house was likely too big for just the three of us, hinting that we could have more kids. Her eyesight she said also wasn’t the best, and she probably didn’t realize we were already in our early 40’s. Another kid would be great, but it may not be realistic.

There was a window over the stairs that was too high to reach, and she opened and closed it with a long stick that I think are typically used for ensuring plants grow straight. There was also an old-style light that could only be changed with a ladder placed on the stairs. They got someone to come in and do it.

On the outside of the house, the windows that came out a bit from the house had this weird padding on all the corners. My wife asked why this was done, and she said she did it herself beside her grandkids run around outside, and she didn’t want them to hit their head on the sharp corners.

The garden was in two parts, which were both with lush green and big trees. One part was for where their dog lived. He was an outside dog and it was a lovely space. The second part was on the way to the entrance of the house. We would need to do something to the garden once a year to ensure bugs don’t get everywhere she said.

It was a house of so much memory with a woman living there that seemed so nice, so refined, and so educated. I’m romanticizing a stranger’s life, but it really added to everything.

This was exactly the kind of house I wanted to buy. I feel houses from 20-30 years ago are built differently, and this will sound stupid, but with more hope and love in them. Our current house built in 2020 feels like everything on cost and utility was carefully decided by a committee. This could just be a difference in tateuri– ready-made houses and chumon jutaku– custom made houses, but I feel even with the custom houses I have seen these days there is a difference. I also loved the space. The land was four times bigger than where we are living now. This means more property tax for sure, but if we can afford it, I think it is somewhere to splurge a little for sure.

So I am left with two different feelings. One of just being happy to have met this lovely person nearing the final chapters of life, and envisioning buying her home and ensuring to continue to make happy and loving memories continue in it.

To note, it is much further from a station than we are, and much further from supermarkets and convenience stores. It is super close to two rivers that are beautiful with lots of nature surrounding them. It would be definitely more “suburban” in living. We would use a car more often. We would stay in shape cycling to the station.

Anyways. It was a lovely experience. And while we likely won’t move there really, I am moving ahead to thoroughly see if it is possible. Can we sell our house as a decent price, etc. etc. etc.