JJapan Finance

Lots of questions about house construction: Urucare, intercoms, entryway width, and lights

  • October 15, 2025

I am now building a house with Ichijo Komuten and on the design phase. The floorplan is mostly decided, with some small caveats, which I would really appreciate any advice about, especially regretful stories:

  1. Entryway (genkan) width: the house entryway is only 80cm wide (135cm minus wall width minus shoe closet). I know this is a ridiculous and probably unheard of width on a detached home, but small single-person apartments have similar entrances. Am I going to regret this?

Alternatives are removing the shoe closet, or decreasing the storage room besides the entrance. But we are two hoarders and we need a lot of storage space, so I am really trying to avoid that…

  1. Urucare: We are in Kansai, so winters are not so bad. Less temperature difference between interior and exterior probably mean less issues with overly dry air. Are we wasting money in Urucare? Should we remove it and save 100,000? I have never felt the air dry while living in kansai despite using a lot of AC all the time.

  2. Intercoms: Panasonic vs SwitchBot. The price will end up the same, but SwitchBot gives me a much better app and easy to upgrade in the future. Panasonic means I don't have to worry about batteries (it's wired). I heard Panasonic app only "rings" when it's too late to answer the door anyway, has that improved? Do you trust that Panasonic app will still work 10 years in the future?

  3. Lights: Although somewhat rare in Japan, I have decided to go with 2700k in the entire house and that's ok with the architect. But he insists in putting A LOT of lights in the living room, and what I feel is too little in the offices and washroom. We have no kids and nobody will do homework in the living room/kitchen, it's only a place to relax and chill. Will I regret making it darker?

Some examples (all 6w LED downlights 2700k): TV area, 4 lights for 5.25 tatami area. Dining-Kitchen, 12 lights for 14.6 tatami area. Office, 2 downlights for 3.5 tatami area.

  1. Control panels (important point I forgot about on the title!): how often do you need to do anything with your floor heating, solar panels, and eco-cute control panels? I want to hide all those controls in storage rooms, because it's an eyesore. But that would be bad if I need to use them on a daily basis.

by Alive-Arm-7999