Rouen Renovation Diary: Part One
Why we chose to buy a rental, rather than a home; picked Rouen as the city to invest in; the apartments we visited (with photos) and how we found ours!
Just a quick note to say that this diary will be available exclusively for paid members, as I’ll be revealing confidential information about our finances. BUT being a paid member means you’ll also have access to all of my exclusive content (Paris travel guides, as well as style & homeware edits), be able to ask questions, join the conversation and community, AND you’ll be the first to get the details of all of my Rouen apartment sources (fixtures, furniture and accessories) once they’re installed! I’ll also be sharing apartment updates in the private chat from now on. (A feature new to Substack that I’m excited to use!) Anyway it really does mean the world to me that you’re here and supporting my content, so thank you! Do let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to see. Marissa xx
And so, for the first installment of this mini-series, I’m going to explain why we invested in a rental, rather than a home, purchased in Rouen and also take you through the journey of how we found the apartment; apartments we visited and the one that got away. Next week I’ll be talking about money: what we offered, how much we paid, the loan we asked for and how much we put in as a deposit.
If you read yesterday’s newsletter, you’ll know that our renovation is very behind schedule and not quite going to plan. Sadly we’ve had some really bad luck with our builder (amongst other issues that I’ll go into later in this series), who has been dragging his feet for months. I know this is nothing new in the world of renovations; they are notoriously difficult to manage, as are builders and so much can and does go wrong - indeed everyone keeps reminding me. And I know! I’ve spent the last couple of years working with builders for client projects. But it’s particularly disheartening as we enlisted a company (by recommendation from an estate agent) to help us find the builder as we’re not based in Rouen, and who we are also paying to help manage him, to avoid these kinds of problems. Plus I’m chomping at the bit to share it with you!
BUT, rather than sit around and mope, I’ve decided to turn this frustrating experience into something positive and write about it (I’ve always found writing to be incredibly cathartic), in the hope that it will help you on your interiors or renovation journey, perhaps even inspire you to start one, and to avoid any of the issues we are currently facing. So for the next few weeks, until it’s finally finished (fingers crossed for the end of May or early June, but who knows at this point), I’m going to be sharing the story of how we found and purchased our Rouen apartment, along with all the juicy details and updates.
We began this journey back in late 2022. Our first idea was