Do It Yourself

By Yuko Aoki

On movies, TV dramas, or even commercials, I often watch Americans paint their own houses and fix buildings. As an international student from Japan, this is a pretty strange thing. Most people know how Japanese buildings are standing; shoulder to shoulder and each house has very small areas. I assume this is the reason. There is no place to put all the equipment that is required for remodeling. Also, most of the time, extension of an existing building, or creating a new building is impossible due to space limitations.


Now, I am living in a house with an American housemate who owns the house. It was built in 1951. Even though the previous owners did maintain the house well, things are getting old and styles and tastes have changed. The spare bathroom had the most distasteful wall and floor and old fixtures, so we decided to update them. First, I thought we would get someone to remodel the room but when we were out of town for vacation, the housemate’s family took all fixtures out and tore down the walls in the room!! I was so surprised. The next action we took was comparing the prices of drywall, toilets, vanities, etc., and brought them to the house. I love to make a building model for a school project and do crafts but I had never nailed drywall to studs, mudding, or painting before.


We finished all the work for the spare bathroom project by ourselves except the shower plumbing and installation. It took a long time to finish but I had fun working. I could not have and will never have this experience in Japan but I hope I will get to do more improvement projects.