Yay! We got our to-be-renovated house! … Now what?

For most people, the purchase of a house will actually take several months between your last visit and your newly owned property time when you can finally dive into the renovation project and start making it pretty (although it can take a fair amount of mess before the prettiness!).

And theeeeen… you’re there. Keys in hand. Now what?!

Well, first: ENJOY IT. Go through every room, notice the details, start imagining your dream house and share some rough ideas. Make it an adventure.

For us, it took even more time to be able to do so, as we couldn’t go to France straight away to visit it due to the Covid regulations at the time, and frustration as family had to go there before us… So when we arrived, we made a point of appreciating the fact that it was ours, went in every room safely (spoiler: as dust-and-foreign-thing-falling-on-me averse, I went in fully suited from hair to toes! Great look…), visualised what they could become, mentioned the work needed and most importantly, what were the most urgent tasks to be done. So we started the organisation, the planning, of our renovation project.

The Start of A Renovation Project: visiting every room (safely!)

Optional: Being fully suited like me with what you have or a full protective suit. Although I would definitely recommend wearing a protective mask and gloves.

It is important that you start making a list of what is crucial to be dealt with first.

Glen’s point of view is to identify straight away said-tasks by looking at the external and internal structure and build up from there, when mine is to go from my vision and walk backwards to identify what it needs to be achieved. A few communication mishaps later (bound to happen when you have two very different ways of seeing things! and two different native languages too), and the plan was on to start tidying the garden, just so that we could enjoy sitting in it, and notify the neighbours that this was not an abandoned property anymore.

And the garden is no mean feat! Even on a smaller scale, armed with our secateurs, silver fox, and other strimmer, between the trees and the weeds that had taken over, it took us a solid 4 days, only to make it just a bit clearer (and a lot more to to get to the result of the first photo!).

But once this was done, even if the landscaping was far from being done (and still is), we had one area we could enjoy to start planning the rest of our renovation adventure in our newly bought project notebook.

The key phrase to remember: prioritisation of tasks.

Is it the roof, the windows, the tree growing in your wall? Can you start now or do you need more tools, a professional, or planning permission from your local mairie (town hall)? Or maybe your renovation is only internal and doesn’t require to demolish anything and you can just start straight away with stripping the wallpaper? Making a list of all your tasks and what you need per room, per scale of the task, and urgency (in a notepad like us or on your computer or phone) will help you see all your achievements, and also to divide them in smaller steps to feel less overwhelmed and not forget anything in the process (like the French administration…). Even just a brainstorm of ideas of what needs to be done will get you started on your planning and prioritisation!

And if you have any doubt or question or just to make sure, your mairie is there (more or less friendly) to tell you if you need any paperwork involved. It is worth asking your town hall if some parts of your renovation project require planning permission and how to get planning permission in your area of France. Not doing so when required (landscaping, changing colours on the facade, adding an opening, involvement of Batiments de France - check out our services if you need help with the latter!), can end up with you having to pay a hefty fine and forcing you to put everything back as it was prior to your amendments.

More about all of this in another post. For now, champagne is on (or Blanquette de Limoux, my only liked bubbly and way too underrated), and enjoy your new property and the adventure to come. Ahoy!