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The story
A thread starter who built a new single-family home seven months ago touted its comfort by listing specific features: a dishwasher, whole-house air conditioning, a parcel delivery box, Ecocarat tile walls, a smart-key entrance, and an app-connected fridge and microwave oven. This drew pushback — comments like ‘rentals are comfortable too’ and ‘used homes are good enough’ — along with the observation that ‘the difference shows up around the 20-year mark,’ splitting the thread between those who valued new-build comfort and those focused on future repair costs. The thread starter also revealed that the home is actually a rental apartment building built as an investment, with the top floor set up as a penthouse where they live.
What people said
Used rental (lol)
Well it might be comfortable, but the quality of each fixture is different, right?
Re: #4
It's new construction.
Latest equipment.
Be specific — it's the Reiwa 8 (2026) model, right?
Be specific — it's the Reiwa 8 (2026) model, right?
Secondhand plumbing, secondhand shoe cabinet
Rental room (lol)
Home is where you make it. Making fun of it is kind of low. Shows what kind of person you are.
Well, the features themselves are things every household has —
it's just that mine are the latest versions, that's the difference.
had no substance, that's how I know.
For example, the kitchen is the latest Graphtect (LIXIL kitchen line) model.
The range hood buttons are touch-panel style,
the toilet has an auto-cleaning function, and the hallway has sensor lights.
Also, a somewhat unusual one is the built-in hair dryer niche —
having it as wall storage keeps things looking clean.
The washbasin is Aica's Smart Sanitary, which looks stylish.
The fridge is a Vegeta (Toshiba) and the microwave oven is an Ishigama Dome (Hitachi) — both connect to an app, which is convenient.
Also, the entryway hall and the wall behind the living room TV use LIXIL's Ecocarat tiles (moisture-absorbing decorative panels).
They absorb humidity and look good, so I really like them.
The robot vacuum is an Anker Eufy e25 —
it even does wet mopping, it's great.
Things change all at once once you hit about the 20-year mark.
Yeah, I guess that's true.
I'll probably renovate at some point anyway, so I'll just redo everything at once then.
Bathroom dryer
Carport
20 seconds on foot from the car to the living room
Whole-house air conditioning
Parcel delivery box
Don't have to worry about noise
Seriously the best!
That's the kind that, once it starts breaking down over the years, money flows out like water…
So jealous of the rich.
What, seriously?
Of course the front door is a proper smart key.
Guess it's not remote-controlled then.
I said auto-cleaning, didn't I?
If anything, there's no way a new build these days wouldn't have a remote-control toilet.
Bathroom heating in an age where whole-house AC is standard, lol lol LOL
What era did you time-travel from? 😂😂😂
My place has whole-house AC too, but the bathroom is freezing cold.
In the dead of winter, bathroom heating is a must!
Must be a cheap ventilation fan (lol)
but if you're satisfied, that's great.
If there's one thing I regret, it's that I should've put sensor lights inside the family closet.
I'll probably do it eventually though.
Other than that, it's not so much a regret as something I went in prepared for, but the windows are way too huge, so it was hot in summer.
Re: #46
Wait, you think these are optional extras?
These days they're standard equipment you'd expect as a given.
Well, except stuff like Ecocarat.
that's the classic 'yes, it can be added' sales pitch, right? (lol)
Yep, liar.
Family closets are the best.
Throw everything you don't want seen in there and the living room stays tidy!
My case is a bit unusual.
Basically, I built a rental apartment building and made the top floor a penthouse to live in myself, so it's not really on the same scale as a regular house.
Feel sorry for these old guys who don't know how far building materials have come.
20 years ago was the era of insulation grade 2 or 3, wasn't it?
You're the old guy who doesn't know about progress here…
Trying to flex on people as an old-timer with a 20-year-old house, that's just sad.
Those are downlights, right? You could just swap in sensor LED bulbs.
By the way, my downlights use this for sensor detection, so I want to do the family closet the same way.
Even with a pre-built house you wouldn't say you 'built' it.
If it's for investment, wouldn't marketability take priority over your own ideal, meaning it's not actually comfortable? lol
Like I said before, I built a new rental apartment building and made the top floor into a penthouse.
Re: #96
Investment like this is about going for income rather than capital gains.
In other words, I have no intention of selling it anytime soon.
Income, when you're living there yourself??
A penthouse, that's genuinely something to aspire to.
Is the elevator shared with the residents below?
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
The “standardization” of housing equipment has been advancing year by year, and features like parcel delivery boxes, bathroom dryers, and highly insulated building materials are no longer unusual in new homes today. On the other hand, homes built 20 years ago were constructed to the standards of an era when insulation grade 2–3 was the norm, making a direct performance comparison difficult. It’s also worth noting that the thread starter is in an unusual position — having built a rental apartment building as an investment and living on the top floor as a penthouse — which differs from a typical single-family home purchase. Alongside envious comments in the thread, there were also concerns that “repair costs could pile up a few years down the line” and counterarguments that “rentals are plenty comfortable too,” so opinions on new-build features were far from unanimous. The fact that specific fixtures like Ecocarat tiles and sensor lights were named in detail also makes it useful as a firsthand account.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Live Whatever-Happens board) thread「7 months since building my home」.
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