hello everyone.
This is Machiyama from Monosus Thailand.
The year 2021 is almost coming to an end.
It's the middle of winter in Japan, so it must be very cold.
It's currently 31 degrees in Thailand. I wear short sleeves all year round.
I miss the clear winter air in Japan, where my breath turns white.
Well, I've been living in Thailand for about five and a half years now.
For about a year and a half, I have been living with a Thai woman and her two beloved cats.
She is an interior designer and has lived in the United States for about six years since her college days.
The inside of the house has a Western feel.
As expected of a professional, this is a real piece of fashion.
Actually, I also studied spatial design.
After studying spatial design at a design college, he joined Monosus.
I work in real estate, dealing with great office properties in Tokyo, and I have an eye for great spaces. I think I have a keen sense for buildings.
I usually walk around looking at buildings.
The house I live in now has caught my eye for some time now.
The house I live in now is just a two-minute walk from where Monosus Thailand's office was located until two and a half years ago.
It's located in a residential area, so you might not even notice it unless you take the time to go for a walk.
It's a hidden gem located just 1-2 minutes from the station.
I first noticed this building from the train platform.
At night, on my way home from work, I was looking at the surrounding buildings from the platform.
Suddenly, my eye was caught by a building with some rather stylish rooms.
It was dark at the time and I couldn't see very well, but the rows of windows looked like a school.
In the room where the warm light leaked out,
It was too far away to be sure, but I saw what looked like two shadows dancing.
This situation reminds me of something Yakusho Koji did a while back.
It's not that far away to be clearly visible with the naked eye, so I wondered if it might house a dance studio, but when I looked around the building on Google Maps, there was no information.
Anyway, I was interested in the beautiful building and dance studio.
The next day, I went for a walk and went to the building while it was still light out, and it appeared to be a townhouse.
A townhouse is a type of building that shares walls with neighboring properties. It is a type of building that is commonly seen in Thailand, similar to an apartment or a house in Japan. From here on, we will call it the "house type."
As soon as you enter the red gate at the entrance, there is a courtyard, and a path to the building we saw yesterday continues on the side. Along the path, nine three-story detached houses are lined up facing the courtyard.
Further ahead was the seven-story apartment complex-like building I had seen from the station platform last night.
Both types of homes are located on the same lot and have the same light blue exterior.
What caught my eye was a wooden lattice window. It can be opened in a variety of ways, and has a shape I've never seen in Japan. It's functional yet has a cute design.
I went near what looked like an apartment complex building, but I couldn't see any signs or bulletin boards, so it seemed there wasn't a dance studio there.
In a normal condominium, there will be someone at the reception desk who will tell you if there are any rooms available.
This townhouse usually has a guard or caretaker on duty, but at the time no one was there - perhaps they had gone out to buy lunch - and I had no idea who to ask about the building or how to ask them.
The building was very attractive, and I left wondering how I could possibly move in.
Time passed, and it was just before the spread of the new coronavirus infection began.
I was thinking about making some changes in my life,
I wanted to have more intercultural exchange, so I started looking for information about shared houses.
If you search for "sharehouse bangkok", a site called Craigslist will come up as a top result.
This site is a famous overseas bulletin board that has been around for a long time, and various information is exchanged regardless of genre. (It is rumored that there are many strange people on it, so you should be careful when using it.)
On this bulletin board, I found a share house room that interested me.
Although there were only photos of the interior, it looked very stylish with a Western feel, and I really wanted to live in this house...! I immediately got in touch.
We decided on a date for the viewing, and on the day, we met in front of the station.
I already had a feeling that this was the case, but when the girl came to pick me up, she showed me a detached house that stood on the same grounds as the building I had been interested in for a while.
I had been keeping an eye on her from the station platform ever since, but I hadn't been able to figure out how to approach her, so now I was unexpectedly struck by some good luck.
Furthermore, she had a nice personality, so we decided to move in immediately and have been living there for over a year and a half now.
As an aside, the room that inspired me to rent this building, which looked like a dance studio from afar, is actually a room that she has renovated and is now renting out.
I was drawn to that room and now I live there with her, so I feel like there is some kind of connection between us.
Just as we started living in this house, the spread of the COVID-19 virus suddenly accelerated.
So almost as soon as I started living in this house, I started working from home.
Depending on the household, being at home all the time can be quite stressful.
My current house has high ceilings, a sense of openness, good lighting, and a view of the greenery in the courtyard from the windows, so it's the perfect workspace. I don't mind being at home all day, and my two cats are a nice bonus.
I had heard that most people live in these types of detached houses for about 10 years, and that it is difficult to find vacancies.
Then, just a month ago, I noticed that all the windows of the house a few doors down were wide open. It looked like people who looked like contractors were painting inside.
The people who occupied the house were a group of five or six young people who ran a furniture and miscellaneous goods business, and the parking space was always overflowing with antique-looking items, but all of that had now disappeared.
I thought, "Hmm... maybe they've moved out!" so I asked my roommate, and it turned out she had just asked the manager, and that they'd only moved out a few days ago.
A house that is hard to find is now available, and no matter how hard I look, I can't find such a nice property that is close to the station...
My girlfriend told me that a famous bar owner had also come to see the building, so I knew that there were definitely others who had their eye on it (like me), and that if I missed this chance it would never come again, so I took the plunge and rented the house!!
In my previous job, I was involved in real estate work, dealing with office properties, so I know firsthand that properties really are all about timing.
No matter how good a property is, no one can predict when a great property that meets your requirements will become available, whether it will become available after a few months or even after three years.
So, while I'll think about how to use it later, for now I've secured this wonderful property.
I plan to use my newly rented house for various purposes, such as workshops, a gallery, dining parties, accommodation, etc., and I hope it will become a place for new encounters.
I'm checking how many Pilates mats I can lay out. If there's no furniture, it should be okay for about 6 people + teacher.
The idea is that if company employees come to Thailand on business trips, they will be able to stay overnight and even work there.
Anyway, the property I rented is still empty. I'm already paying rent, so I have to hurry up and prepare it so that it can be used.
There is plumbing, but the kitchen needs remodeling and there is no air conditioning.
I'll try to DIY what I can and get the place into a state where I can invite people over as soon as possible.
I'm going to write another article about the progress of the renovation. Please look forward to it! I hope you will keep an eye on us!