I bought a used 4DKS house for my cat, and now I have a lot of extra space
I wanted to live with a cat.
So, I bought a used 4DKS house for that purpose.
It is more than spacious enough for one person living alone.
No, it is too spacious.
It has been a while since I moved in, but I still have rooms to spare.
One room is dedicated solely to the cat's litter box.
Humans don't use it.
It is probably the most frequently used room in the house.
Another room is rarely used at all.
It only comes in handy when friends come over to stay or when we play mahjong or board games.
Its annual utilization rate is quite low.
Even so, I installed a new air conditioner in it.
I did it because I wanted my friends to be comfortable.
Thinking about it calmly, I feel like the air conditioner installation took longer than the annual usage time of that room.
There are four double-sized futons in the closet.
They are for guests.
The reason they are double-sized is that they were cheaper than the single-sized ones on sale.
I bought them without thinking too deeply about it.
As a result, they occupy most of the closet space.
There is also a storage room.
However, rather than a room for storage, it has become a place to put chairs.
That is because there are five chairs with casters that I bought for mahjong inside.
Since mahjong is played by four people, four chairs should normally be enough.
The reason there are five is that when I bought them on Jimoty, the seller threw in an extra one.
I was able to fit them in my car, so I took it.
As a result, I have to push the chairs aside whenever I enter the storage room.
I am not even sure myself if it is a room for storage or a room for storing chairs.
There is also a garden of about 20 tsubo behind the house.
Before I bought the house, I had all sorts of ideas.
Barbecues.
A vegetable garden.
A life of relaxing in the garden on my days off.
I had a bit of a longing for things like that.
After I started living here, I realized something.
I have neighbors.
That is obvious.
Of course, that is not a bad thing.
It is just that I was not thick-skinned enough to grill meat in my garden.
Would the smoke be okay?
Would the smell bother them?
That is the kind of thing I end up thinking about.
As a result, the main use for the garden has become mowing the grass.
It is a size that would be perfect for a dog run, but I don't own a dog.
Moreover, that garden cannot be seen from inside the house.
That is because there isn't a single window on the garden side.
I wonder why the person who built this house designed it that way.
To check on the state of the garden, I have to go outside.
My garden is probably seen more often by the neighbors than by me.
In fact, the neighbor next door even weeds it for me occasionally.
I don't remember how that conversation even started.
At first, I thought about giving them some kind of thank-you gift.
But they told me, "You don't need to worry about that."
I conveniently interpreted those words that way, and here we are now.
Sometimes I suddenly wonder.
In that house,
"The neighbor really never brings anything over, do they?"
I wonder if that has become a topic of conversation.
I am a little bit worried about it.
Looking back on it like this,
A room dedicated to cat litter boxes.
A guest room that is only used a few times a year.
Four sets of double futons.
A storage room you have to push chairs aside to enter.
A garden that exists solely for mowing the grass.
And a sense of guilt toward my neighbors.
It seems like a house full of waste.
Yet, strangely, I have no regrets.
The cats walk around looking satisfied, and when friends visit, they can stay over.
Sometimes we can even play mahjong or board games.
There is a lot of unused space.
But I like the house, including all that extra room.
I realized something while writing this.
Installing an air conditioner in a room used only a few times a year is not much different from the kid in elementary school who would buy snacks for others just to get them to play with him.
The only difference is that the snacks have become an air conditioner.