The project

After about 5 months of thourough search and a slight modification of our criteria we finally found our dream house. We knew it right away and it felt great that we hadn't given in to the pressure to compromise. So, if you are currently looking, have faith and patience, you will find it! (Of course we had the luxury of not being under time pressure- without that it would have been impossible...)

So, what were we getting ourselves into?

We signed the contract for a house built in 1906, owned almost for a century by the same family, renovated in 2001. An amazingly beautiful, undivided maison de maitre of Brussels.

In 2001 major works were done: all the electricity and the plumming, the attic enlarged, a veranda added between the kitchen and the living room, the chimney in the living room verified, the bathrooms redone. Technically everything was in a decent condition, but because the works in 2001 were of such a large scale, the owner did not have the means to use very high quality materials. The kitchen, as well as the bathrooms and the dressing were made of very simple and cheap materials and despite the owners intention, eventually the roof was not renovated.

Initially we thought we would move in by the late spring (after having received the keys in mid-December), but we ended up drafting a VERY LONG to do list. These -non exhaustively- included:

- upgrading the insolation of the roof, so that the house doesn't lose that much energy

- renovating the structure of the roof

- installing a solar hot water system
- redoing the windows for better insolation

- redoing one of the bathrooms entirely

- redoing the kitchen entirely

- sanding all the (original) wooden floors + oiling them (instead of using "lacque")

- cleaning the (original) cement tiles in the basement (someone used a bleaching product on them which left a horrible mark)

- cleaning the marbles of the (original) fireplaces

- renovating the "water pipe system" ("corniche" is the proper word in French) on the facade, because one  part was rotten

- deblocking the water pipe that "lands in the pavement"

- upgrading the front door (shitty locks, big space between the bottom of the door and the doorstep)

- renovating the "coal-chamber" that opens to the street just below the entrance (this place had serious black mould issues...)

- de-moulding the street-wall of the basement because it was moulding due to the humidity
- repairing the 3D wallpaper (so called "Lincrusta") in the hallway

Once the works have started new ideas emerged, such as:

- installing an extra roof window (Velux) in the attic

- redoing the entire dressing

- installing a system so that the toilets and the washing machine run on rainwater

How to find the perfect house in Brussels?

We started with the obvious option: Immoweb (http://immoweb.be/en/). Great website, available in English, allows you to enter tiny-winy details about the area, size, price, number of rooms etc. You can save your search criteria, subscribe to alerts and its all very handy.

To make the house-hunting process even more efficient, we have decided to sign a contract with Property Hunter (http://www.propertyhunter.be/), a young Belgian company, which is specialized in real estate searching (for individuals, for companies, for buying or for renting). They are super dynamic people (no wonder they've won the "best property finder" award in 2010!) and their contribution makes a big difference.

The idea is: you let them know the details of your dream place, and they help you find it. They are in contact with  different real estate agencies, they are surveying much much more than what you would be able to do. Once they identify something, they visit it, take pictures and write you a feedback. You only visit yourself, if you are convinced by their reaction. Needless to say, this saves a lot time and effort!

Another reason why we found their services invaluable: they recommended someone to supervise our renovations. We knew we could trust this person, because he came with a good reference, and in retrospect I have to say that it would probably not have been possible without him.

Why was this blog started?

Over the past 6 months we have been renovating a typical Brussels house. We have learned a lot through this process about...

- old type of windows from the early 20th century (and how to renovate them in a way that both the glass and the frame give the impression of being original!)

- cement tiles and how to renovate them in a way they can regain their original colours

- wooden floors and how they look like after you sand and oil them

- "3D wallpapers" and who can repare them

- sustainability options (soral hot water IS possible in Brussels!)

- subsidy options (for respecting and renovating the facade/upgrading the insolation/ installing solar-panels)

I decided to start this blog to share our "know-how", because some of the infos were quite difficult to obtain and others we had to figure out ourselves. I hope it will enable others to renovate their houses in a similar spirit: respecting the original features and with an environmentally conscious attitude.

Enjoy reading and good luck with your renovation!