A Young Couple's Home in an Old Seoul House

Set in an alley in Huam-dong, Seoul, the house has no front gate and is the home of Shin Min-hyun, a construction-major man in his late twenties, and his wife Jeong Yu-jin.

While working at a major construction company, Shin Min-hyun found this house at a Huam-dong site. Interested in urban regeneration, he cancelled his savings subscription and decided to buy it with a loan.

It was an old, dilapidated house beside a sloping staircase, but the husband chose it because he liked the scenery and the memory of old houses. His wife Jeong Yu-jin said she was drawn to the fact that he had secured a self-owned house in Seoul at age 29.

Jeong Yu-jin received a marriage proposal in this house, and she feels a thrill at the fact that there is a house in Seoul at age 29.

The house, presumed built in 1959 according to the building register, appears to have been registered through a permitting process after the colonial period.

The couple carried out remodeling three times. At first, leaks in the roof left the sky visible, which they solved with water-repellent coating and roof repair.

They addressed insulation problems by carefully installing heat-reflective insulation, improving the inconveniences of an old house.

Shin Min-hyun estimates the house's age at about 59 years, but it is likely that it is actually older.

After their child was born, they smiled at the ceiling, which made this space especially meaningful to the couple. Shin Min-hyun says the ceiling beam is at least sixty years old and that it was his son's favorite space when he was born.

For structural safety, instead of tearing down walls, they connected the rooms with openings, creating a special space for the child.

They adjusted the toilet position in the narrow bathroom to resolve the discomfort of knees touching the wall.

According to Shin Min-hyun, when they first visited the house, the spot where the sink now stands was a toilet.

Using the step of the outdoor traditional toilet, they installed a masonry bathtub without extra construction, securing the bathtub his wife had requested and achieving privacy and comfort at once.

The couple carried out three remodels in total. The first focused on converting the existing building for newlywed life.

In the second remodel, they expanded into the adjacent space to create a new kitchen and dining room, finished in birch plywood for a mood distinct from the earlier spaces.

Learning of the pregnancy was the decisive trigger for starting the kitchen renovation.

Previously, the high space was left idle as storage, and the living conditions were poor: they grilled meat on an induction cooktop in the living room and did the dishes in the bathroom.

Using the high ceiling height, they placed the TV up high and the sofa like audience seating, and the tall ceiling acts as a sound chamber, creating a cinema-like atmosphere.

The narration noted that they staged the small space like a travel lodging, raising the efficiency of the living room.

Concerns were raised that many windows could expose privacy from outside, but his wife Jeong Yu-jin took this in a positive light.

She judged that their child watching neighborhood cats through the window and greeting the elderly neighbors helps them connect with the community, so the benefits outweigh the inconvenience.

The windows, though they mark boundaries, have become a space for communication that can be opened with a glance.

He judged that, with his wife Jeong Yu-jin working as an entertainment writer, he needed to find a way to stay by his child and wife while still earning a living.

He thought the best approach was to respect what his wife wanted to do and find work he could do himself, so he decided to resign.

The third remodel space connects to the main building and keeps the old hearth-style kitchen structure, low ceilings, and loft as they were.

They decided to repair the house with an eye toward running a stay for visitors from various countries.

The space has been transformed into a stay that introduces Korean housing culture to foreign guests.

Each time they did construction, the couple wrote the family's names and the time on the wall.

During the first work they wrote 'The House of Yu-jin and Mi-nyeon,' and during the second they recorded that their child Tae-yang had joined.

These records become evidence of a family history accumulating time and memories, and Shin Min-hyun says that fixing up an old house is a very meaningful thing to do.

Through the construction process, the homeowner wrote the family's names on the walls, making the house a space holding the family's history rather than simply a building.

Shin Min-hyun regards repairing and reusing the house as meaningful work, and carefully preserves the space where family time resides.

The host advised newlyweds to look beyond the limited apartment market and turn their eyes to old houses.

Old houses have inconveniences, but their history and advantages in space use are considerable.

With excellent access to the city center, old houses are an attractive alternative, and commentators found it interesting that the couple remade the house to suit them while preserving traces of the past.

Shin Min-hyun gives meaning to preserving the house as it is now, bearing in mind the possibility that the house site may disappear.

He recognizes the record of a family living and making a home as valuable history in itself, projecting the depth of time onto the space of the house beyond mere residence.