There's a great little video log following someone doing exactly this, acquiring an akiya house and renovating it (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBQ3TEq5SrUu

There's a great little video log following someone doing exactly this, acquiring an akiya house and renovating it (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBQ3TEq5SrUuTJuMl1S_4ig https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBQ3TEq5SrUuTJuMl1S_4ig). He starts from how they bought a house, to the state it was in when they started (spoilers, no one had ever emptied the fridge when the last occupant died), to the work done by a local carpenter and the work he did himself.