Someone Moved Into Our Abandoned House in Japan | Rural Renovation Vlog - video Dailymotion

Lloyd & Mandy

After four and a half years of travelling, Lloyd and Mandy finally push their abandoned house in rural Japan toward becoming a real home — just as their friend Joel arrives to help with the biggest jobs. The week starts with a hardware store run, then quickly turns into floor removal, bathroom demolition, boiler removal, and a much bigger termite problem than expected.  Joel, a carpenter with years of renovation experience, brings an extra set of hands and a lot of momentum as they rip out rotten materials, uncover old construction details, and figure out how to get electricians, plumbers, timber, and materials in a small Japanese town. They also deal with power cuts, a LiTime backup battery, and the challenge of preparing an old house for winter while living through a full renovation.  This rural Japan house renovation vlog mixes home restoration, DIY building, abandoned house rehab, and off-grid problem solving with plenty of practical work and real progress. For viewers who enjoy renovation videos, abandoned house transformations, Japan countryside projects, carpenter-led DIY, and home improvement content, this episode delivers a satisfying look at turning a neglected property into a livable home.  SEO: rural Japan renovation, abandoned house restoration, DIY house renovation, home improvement vlog, termite damage repair, bathroom demolition, floor replacement, carpenter renovation, Japan countryside living, renovation series, abandoned house transformation, off-grid backup power, practical DIY building, renovation vlog for home improvement fans.

Transcript

00:00We're Lloyd and Mandy and after four and a half years traveling the world

00:04searching for summer to call our forever home, we finally found it. A $22,000

00:10abandoned farmhouse in rural Japan.

00:23Woohoo! Damn son! That is wild. We'll just reroute that. What is that? Is that just dirt? Sand?

00:33Okay, so we were right. Looks like there is termites in here. We're just ripping all

00:39the floorboards up now. If you've been watching I think you know about my

00:50feelings about the bathroom are very strong. It's the worst part of this house

00:54so I'm so excited for us to get started on that and get rid of it. Yeah boy! This

01:02place is an absolute construction site. Compared to when we moved in it looks

01:07nothing like how it did. That's all coming up right now on Lloyd and Mandy.

01:16Alright, I'm on my way down to the train station to pick up a very very good

01:21friend of ours who's just flown into Japan. So what are you going to be seeing a

01:26little bit more of in future videos? So I met Joel actually about 12 years ago

01:34maybe. Maybe even longer actually. We were both working for the same drilling

01:38company in Australia. So we were working on the oil rigs in Australia and we met

01:45through our work and just became friends and have remained friends ever since.

01:50We both have the same interests. We love travel. We're the same age. We're both dads.

01:56But Joel has one thing that I don't have which is he's a carpenter and he's done a

02:02lot of renovations and he's got a lot of the skill sets that I haven't got yet so

02:07it's gonna be really good to have somebody who knows what they're talking

02:11about and knows what they're doing because they've done it before. I'm just

02:15looking things up on ChatGPT which is fine. I love learning new stuff but learning

02:20off him is going to be really good and it's going to be good to have another set

02:24of hands just to help out because we are trying to get this place really

02:30livable by winter so that we can all enjoy this winter season. I think we're gonna

02:36all spend Christmas here together. It's gonna be great so I'm a bit nervous

02:41though because Joel hasn't actually seen the house. We've just been sending him

02:45photos and doing FaceTime calls. He's gonna see the house for the first time

02:50and I'm hoping he doesn't walk in and say oh my god this is like too far gone.

02:55This is a mess. We can't do anything with this. I don't think he will but we'll see.

03:00I'm gonna show him around the house today. We're gonna go to the hardware store and

03:04pick up a bunch of tools and we're really gonna get stuck into it. Ripping out the

03:08bathroom, redoing the floors. We've got the windows hopefully coming this week. We're

03:14going to be spending probably the next close to two weeks really going hard on

03:20renovations because that's how long he's here for. He has to go back home and then

03:24he's gonna come back so it's gonna be good but I am a little bit nervous of

03:29what he's gonna think. I actually just realized, thinking about it, Joel was in our

03:34first ever vlog that we filmed back in Australia. We were living in Byron Bay and

03:39we were getting ready to leave to go move to Bali back in 2021 and we were all

03:46living in Byron together. Me and Mandy and Joel all lived in Byron and Mandy and I

03:54had a men's haircare and grooming brand and we were doing a photoshoot. One of

04:02Joel's friends was the photographer. She did an amazing job but we needed a model

04:07which sounds weird to say but basically we needed someone with like a surfer

04:11sort of rugged sort of style look just to take some photos for this product and

04:15so we asked Joel and he said yes and that pretty much sums up Joel. He's always up

04:22for an adventure or doing something different. He's never the person that

04:25says oh I don't know if that'll work or I don't know if I should do that. Like he

04:29will literally jump into anything head first. The guy skydives, he jumps off cliffs

04:35with a parachute. Like he used to race downhill skateboards. Like he's an

04:40absolute nut job in the best kind of way. And so obviously when buying an

04:47abandoned house in Japan came up and renovating it he was definitely keen to

04:52jump in and help and be part of it. So really grateful that he's coming.

04:59Alright we're just at the hardware store. I'm going to pick up a bunch of tools, hopefully

05:04everything we need to start demolishing the bathroom. Definitely going to need some

05:12counters. It's so good eh. It feels wild in here. Seriously it feels, yeah. Man these things are mental.

05:30This is the hand source. We do need a hand saw. We're just going to try it.

05:33Alright we lost the trolley. What did we do with the trolley? Put the trolley down

05:38somewhere to look at something. Here it is.

05:4718 volt.

05:49Alright we got pretty much everything we need. All our tools.

05:57Came to about 250,000 yen. So just over two grand Aussie. Not too bad.

06:15Dude it's so sick up here.

06:17It's cool eh?

06:19Dude this is the...

06:21Ah jeez.

06:22I wonder how you're going. You're going to have to really watch where you walk out.

06:41I wonder if they all are.

06:47That one's solid? Yeah.

06:49So maybe it's just this one.

06:50Oh what the f*** are they? What is it?

06:53It's like cricket f***ing weird looking things. Look at that.

06:55They're all living under here. There's heaps of them. Oh sh**.

06:58Hey.

06:59Hey.

07:03What is that?

07:04Don't know there's heaps of them aren't they?

07:06They're not roaches are they?

07:07Hmm.

07:08Don't know.

07:27okay so we were right looks like there is termites in here we're just ripping all the floorboards

07:34up now and then I think we've got a termite inspector so we call him he's gonna come on

07:42Monday hopefully we can get all this sprayed and replace the floorboards

07:58brand new saw

08:26and two old picks under the house I wonder I wonder how long they've been under there for

08:31that's it decades eh I think we need a door there anyway and this is another floor as well an

08:50old

08:56a hoist or something

09:01what have you got

09:03this is the carpentry there

09:08this is what they used to carve

09:11that's how it used to join everything no nails

09:14like that it's all wedged that's pretty cool

09:18it's like going back in time ripping this house apart

09:27all this cool old carpentry old tools that are left under the house which is super weird

09:33anyway keep going

09:37BANDING

09:43fuck that dude

09:50looks like it

10:11it's gonna be a mission getting this here yeah it already looks better

10:19okay this is like literally my favorite day ripping out the bathroom

10:24if you've been watching I think you know about my feelings about the bathroom

10:27are very strong it's the worst part of this house so I'm so excited for us to get started on

10:33that

10:33and get rid of it aren't you happy that it's bathroom week

10:38I'm very happy

10:40the sooner we have a bathroom that works the sooner we can actually live here

10:43yeah we got rid of that purple hideous tile

10:50yes we're making progress

11:25oh

11:26oh

11:42We've got all these tiles and the general cloth

11:46Next we're going to get a roof

11:49Get rid of this wall

12:05Now we're going to get rid of this wall

12:35is it leaking

12:40everything's different levels that's different level that's different level that's different

12:43level they're different levels i feel like we could probably save ourselves a lot of work

12:51and put a break through there put like a solid piece of timber running through there

12:56like a like this yeah run it through so it's kind of like i'll just be a step in it

13:01we'll see once

13:02we pull it off because we'll have to run the level and see how hard yeah same as this i'm

13:08gonna have

13:09to maybe rip that ply up or pull that up and pack that up now because then that's going to

13:16be

13:16different to there but if that board we run over there it's a bit bigger we'll have to match that

13:20board going in into here this is probably still higher than that in it once we rip that up we'll

13:25have all this out today and then rip all this down we'll have a skeleton to work with

13:38okay

14:07I finally got rid of the boiler.

14:09The old boiler.

14:39Crikey, man.

14:42I got a big pint of beer.

14:48Woo-hoo!

14:53Oh, shit.

14:58Damn, son.

15:01That is wild.

15:03That's all we're sitting on.

15:05That is wild.

15:10I'm so glad we didn't rip this floor up.

15:13Why?

15:13Have a look.

15:14If we would have ripped up the floor, what would have been the consequence?

15:18Oh, we'd have to fray it right around, put FC sheeting.

15:22Oh, watch out.

15:24Watch out you don't loosen the rocks up underneath that concrete.

15:27Alright, well, we've pretty much gutted the bathroom.

15:29We have gutted it.

15:31The ceiling's off.

15:32All the tiles are off.

15:34All the walls are off.

15:35The bathtub's out.

15:38So now we've got to figure out what we're going to do with it.

15:39Mmm.

15:45Hey!

16:06In a few weeks.

16:09Cause I will get time to realise it's right before my eyes and I can take a look at this

16:17You!

16:19Mountain karting!

16:23So this is 2,000 yen and you get this cool little go-kart,

16:28ride it all the way down to the bottom of the mountain and then get the gondola back up.

16:33This looks like fun.

16:38Where are we going?

16:39The mountain kart course, uh...

16:43The course tape.

16:45The course tape.

16:47The course tape.

16:48Green arrow.

16:49Green arrow.

16:50Turn right.

16:52So we'll put the lift the button.

17:04It's a thing!

17:06Thank you!

17:09Oh my god.

17:11Oh my god.

17:16You didn't hear that.

17:18Oh my god.

17:21Why try anything I will get there?

17:25Just remember I know

17:30I can tell just what you want

17:34You don't want to be alone

17:38You don't want to be alone

17:43And I can't say it's what you know

17:48But you've known it the whole time

17:52Yeah, you've known it the whole time

18:10Alright, it's another beautiful day here in Hakuba

18:12The weather's really cooled off like it was ridiculously hot and muggy

18:18Until literally September 1st

18:20And somebody told me that

18:21September 1st is when kids go back to school

18:24And...

18:25It just turns into autumn

18:27So...

18:28Yeah, I guess this is like the third or fourth day of autumn now

18:31And we got a lot done at the house yesterday

18:34Especially with Joel

18:36An extra set of hands

18:37Who knows what he's doing

18:38We were able to completely rip apart our bathroom

18:41And we've basically got a blank canvas

18:44To work with now

18:45Now we have to figure out the hard part

18:48Which is all the electrical and the plumbing

18:50And the waterproofing

18:52Which usually wouldn't be that difficult

18:54But being in a small town in Japan

18:57And also not being fluent in Japanese

19:01Getting plumbers and electricians

19:03And trades people to come in

19:06Is definitely going to be more challenging

19:07It's very short notice as well

19:09They're obviously pretty busy for summer

19:10I think most people like to get their work done before winter

19:13But we're going to drive around today

19:15And see if we can find one

19:17Go to some hardware stores

19:18Get some materials

19:19And really just get stuck into it

19:22Alright, we found this electrician's office

19:23But...

19:25They didn't speak much English

19:26But we managed to get away with our limited Japanese

19:29And her limited English

19:31It was actually kind of like both of us

19:33Were practicing at the same time

19:34But um...

19:36They're going to email us

19:37But she said

19:38Everyone's super busy

19:39So...

19:39This is going to be our problem

19:40Is getting someone on short notice

19:42During like the busiest month

19:44Yeah

19:44Probably of the year

19:45Alright, well we found this big timber lumber yard

19:50And...

19:50They were pretty cool

19:52Um...

19:52We can basically just...

19:54Pick out what we need

19:55And they're going to deliver it down to our village

19:57So...

19:57And it's about a half an hour drive

19:59Maybe more

19:5940 minutes

20:00From here

20:01So...

20:02Hopefully they don't charge too much for delivery

20:04But we should be able to get everything we need here

20:10Power's out

20:12Alright, well I've just turned the power off for the electrician

20:15Uh...

20:15It's probably going to be out for a few hours

20:17Actually most of the day

20:18But luckily we've bought this backup battery from LeeTime

20:21It's a 12 volt 320 amp hour battery with Bluetooth

20:26So...

20:27We can connect all our computers

20:29All of our power tools can be charging

20:31We can hook up lights to it

20:32So we're not working in the dark all day

20:34Even our Starlink is hooked up to it

20:37So we've still got Wi-Fi

20:38While the electricity is off

20:40It turns out

20:40When you're renovating an old house

20:42You're going to have the power out a lot of the time

20:45This thing's pretty impressive

20:46It has over 4000 watt hours capacity

20:48So it lasts an extremely long time

20:50It's also got Bluetooth as well

20:52So you can connect it to the light time app

20:54And actually see how much charge you've got left

20:57And monitor the battery status

20:58So we've got it hooked up to this 1000 watt inverter

21:01Which means even if the power is out for literally all day

21:04We can keep everything running

21:06Everything charging

21:06No worries

21:07And that's obviously important for us

21:09Because we need to still be able to have Wi-Fi

21:11We need to keep our tools charged

21:13Because we need to be able to keep working

21:14And we don't want having the electricity shut off

21:17To stop us from working all day

21:19So this is great if you're doing any camping

21:22Off-roading or anything like that

21:23And you need a spare battery

21:24Or if you want it just for your household like this

21:27I think this is going to be really good for us

21:28Because not only are we doing renovations

21:30But in the middle of winter

21:32We could easily get power outages

21:34And we can just recharge this using the inverter

21:38So as soon as the power goes back on

21:40I'll plug it back into the inverter

21:42Charge it up

21:43And then next time we have a power outage

21:44It could be because of a snowstorm

21:46Or anything like that

21:47We can run this for hours and hours

21:50And charge everything that we need

21:51So yeah I'll leave a link down below in the description

21:53If you want to check it out for yourself

21:55You can use our discount code for 10% off at checkout

21:58Alright well I think we finally found a hardware store here in Nagano

22:02That will lend us a truck

22:03So we just purchase everything we need

22:05And then you get free truck rental for 90 minutes

22:08So that's going to be just enough time for us to get back to our place and come here

22:23Let's get this in for a bit wet

22:24Do you want to chuck this up, yeah?

22:26I actually can't believe they actually rented us a truck

22:29I thought as foreigners

22:31And especially like

22:33Yeah

22:34They wouldn't let us take one

22:36But no problem

22:37We just have to fill in a form

22:38And it's free for 90 minutes

22:39So we've got to literally

22:40Get back

22:41Unload everything

22:42And then come back here

22:43Because it's about a 40 minute drive

22:44It's going to be like

22:4510 minutes buffer

22:48Ahoyou!

22:50Ahoyou!

22:59Ahoyou!

23:00Ahoyou!

23:01Let's unload this stuff to get back there

23:04Ahoyou!

23:06Ahoyou!

23:07Ahoyou!

23:09Ahoyou!

23:13Ahoyou!

23:14Trying to get everything unloaded from the truck

23:16And take it back

23:18But the lumber guy just showed up

23:19While we've been here for literally 2 minutes

23:23And

23:23I have to move quite quickly

23:34Get the one out of the road

23:36The short one?

23:37Yeah

23:53Made us an egg pot of white chicken chilli

23:56Which is Lloyd's favourite thing that I cook

23:58I think

23:59Um

23:59We're going to be here quite late

24:00So we're going to eat here tonight

24:02And

24:03That chilli would be perfect for a rainy day like this

24:06Yeah

24:06I think it might like their spirits a bit

24:16Oh yeah

24:17That's very bad

24:19Bye bye bye

24:26Yeah

24:27Yeah

24:28Yeah

24:29Yeah

24:30Yeah

24:31Yeah

24:33So I've had to compromise quite a bit in this renovation process already

24:38Because it's quite hard to source things here in Japan I've found

24:41Um

24:42Just like the type of materials

24:43Um

24:45And furnishings that I want to get

24:47Are a bit harder to find

24:48I thought I was going to have to

24:51Give up my dream of having strip lighting in the bathroom

24:54But it sounds like

24:55The electrician just got here

24:57And it sounds like we're going to be able to do it

24:59Which is super exciting

25:00I'm very happy about that

25:01But yeah

25:02It's been hard to source things

25:03I think that's

25:04Worth noting

25:05So everyone kind of knows that

25:07Um

25:08But I'm still able to find like affordable

25:11Good quality things

25:12Just not really my first choice

25:14But we can always upgrade and change things later on also

25:17Things seem to be more designed for practicality

25:20Rather than like aesthetics or that type of thing

25:22A few weeks ago we were handed

25:23Some books of just like fit outs for bathrooms

25:26So you can just select like

25:29One generic bathroom

25:31And just pay the price and you chuck it in

25:34You don't have to pick anything that goes into it

25:37But for me I just couldn't do that

25:38Um

25:40It feels a bit soulless to me

25:41Like I understand that it's like quick and easy

25:43And convenient

25:44I'd rather go through the inconvenience

25:46And have a space that I really enjoy being in and using

25:49So we decided to do the more difficult thing

25:57What are you working on?

25:58Put all that rotten posts out

26:00Start chucking some

26:02New posts in

26:03That's exciting

26:04I think we're going to chuck a bit of a termite bomb in there first

26:07Yeah

26:08Probably chuck down the new joys

26:09Clean it all up

26:10Get rid of all this termite shit

26:11And then

26:11Set off a fucking termite bomb underneath it

26:14And cover it all

26:15But

26:16Everything else is good

26:17Yeah

26:18Yeah

26:18I think there's a little bit of damage here

26:20But

26:21I feel like we can save it

26:24Cool

26:24Yeah

26:25That's good news

26:39Can we just reroute that?

26:41What is that?

26:42Is that just dirt?

26:43I don't know

26:44Sand

26:44Ah look at

26:52I think we should go get some more termite spray and stuff

26:54Well we'll get more spray

26:56We'll spray all the foam

26:58All around where the concrete is

26:59All around the dirt

27:00Where the timber meets the dirt

27:02We'll spray it all the termite before we put the floor back on

27:06Anything what dirt is touching timber

27:09We'll try to concrete around it or

27:11Something like a termite barrier

27:14Yeah

27:15It's looking really good here

27:16There's no damage

27:17So I think they've used their insulation

27:19It's like mud building

27:19Yeah

27:20We've got tied bamboo with mud and grass mixed together

27:24Yeah

27:24And that's the only thing

27:26Maybe termites might be coming up through

27:28But there's no sign of termites here anywhere

27:31Looks pretty good for how old it is

27:39That's a good log

27:40Yeah I was almost going to just replace the whole lot

27:45You want to?

27:46It just looks so much better

27:48And safer

27:49I mean they're pretty good them logs

27:51I'm just

27:52I might spray the shit out of them

27:53With that termite stuff

27:55But I'm putting one there

27:57And then I'm going to put

27:59I'm going to put another one there

28:00One there

28:01And I'll put one next to that as well

28:02Yeah

28:03I know I'm almost thinking about

28:04Just getting rid of that one

28:06This one here?

28:08Yeah

28:10I think it will

28:11I think we'll love enough

28:13Yeah that looks so fresh

28:15Yeah

28:16Is it just way cheaper to build on stumps like this

28:18Than foundation?

28:20Oh

28:21Oh yes and no

28:22Why would they do it?

28:24Foundation you wouldn't want to do it

28:24Well just the humidity I guess

28:27You need the airflow through the house

28:29Otherwise

28:30Yeah

28:30It just gets super damp

28:31Yeah

28:32They would've just built it

28:33Just to create that airflow

28:34And that's why nothing's really rotten under here

28:36They've just raised everything up

28:38It's got airflow

28:38Hmm

28:39We're just going to have to see

28:42How cold it is this winter

28:43And then we'll know what we need

28:45Yeah

28:46Double trackies

28:47Double socks Mark

28:48Probably like six heaters

28:50No we're in a good spot

28:51I reckon

28:53Do another clean up and

28:54Start fresh tomorrow

28:55Have a half a day

29:07Put your floors in today

29:09Sick

29:09So there won't be a big hole in there anymore?

29:12No there might actually be a floor

29:13Wow

29:14Turmite treatment

29:16This thing's sick

29:17Got to do all the timber ends and everything before we move forward with all this stuff

29:27Don't paint anywhere that's visible

29:30Cool

29:31Obviously there's timber

29:33And where you're going to see

29:34Yeah

29:36Don't

29:36Don't paint

29:37Get underneath there as well

29:39So don't paint the roof

29:57Huh

29:58I need that

29:58So

30:20That's awesome

30:21So this is one of the magazines that we were given with the pre-made bathrooms

30:28So you can like just select one of the bathrooms that you like and there's really no personalizing that you

30:38have to do

30:38It literally just gets put in there and hooked up to plumbing I suppose

30:42And electric

30:43Like I said

30:44Not really my style

30:46I would much rather have mistakes and like quirkiness

30:49I understand why people would do it

30:51But yeah it's not really for us it's very convenient and fast to do but yeah

30:57Not my style

30:59This seems to be super common for kitchens as well as bathrooms

31:03Probably other rooms honestly

31:05But I've only seen kitchens and bathrooms so far that you can get these like pre-made fit outs for

31:09them

31:28What a mission this is

31:31Haven't got enough to do the other one but at least we get this one done

31:34Yeah

31:34It's got to be one of the best days for concreting

31:37Yeah

31:38Nah

31:41Horrible

31:42Oh

31:43Yeah you're soaked

31:48The ceiling looks good

31:51Yeah still got to push that one up tomorrow

31:58Yeah

31:59Got window guys coming tomorrow

32:01We're gonna replace this one

32:02And get a quote for all the other windows so we have some insulation

32:06I've got a plumber coming tomorrow

32:08And a pest control guy coming tomorrow

32:11So we somehow managed to get all these tradies in

32:13Very short notice

32:15Well it's been a busy week here

32:16We've got all the floors ready to go

32:19We just need to put some insulation down

32:21And then put the floorboards in

32:24The bathroom

32:26Is all ready to go pretty much

32:28We've got a plumber coming back in

32:32Three weeks

32:33Couple of weeks

32:34So

32:35We're sort of waiting on him so that we can

32:38Finish the bathroom

32:39But

32:39It's all ready to go

32:46Very busy week

32:47We've been here from 7am

32:49Every morning for the last week

32:51Getting stuck into it

32:53We've made so much progress though

32:54The most we've made since we got in here

32:56It feels good

33:01And we've got all this mess

33:03And we need to clear up next week

33:05We're gonna be doing a lot of

33:07Runs to the recycle centre

33:09All this stuff

33:13Some stuff that needs to be picked up

33:14This place is an absolute

33:17Construction site

33:18Compared to when we moved in

33:19It looks nothing like how it did

33:21And I'm really excited about how it's gonna look

33:23In a couple of weeks

33:24Once we get the bathroom done

33:26Get the floor finished

33:28We can actually have a living room

33:29Do a bit of paint

33:30Our goal really is to get this place

33:33Really good and liveable

33:35By Christmas

33:36So that we can spend Christmas here

33:37And just have a really good time snowboarding

33:40I think we'll get there

33:41Alright, well that's the end of the video

33:42If you made it this far

33:43Please remember to like and subscribe

33:45Thanks for watching

33:46And we'll see you in next week's video

33:47Cheers

Someone Moved Into Our Abandoned House in Japan | Rural Renovation Vlog

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