It’s officially, officially the most wonderful time of the year. I love everything about the holiday season and look forward to it all year, which I know is irrational. I love the decorations, the music, the foods and the parties, but more than anything I love the moments spent with loved ones. I’ve been especially looking forward to this year’s celebrations thanks to two very exciting personal updates that I’m sharing exclusively with members.
Update #1: We Moved!
It took forever – two years and one week from the start of seriously looking to moving to be exact – but we finally moved. And we seriously could not be more thrilled. I’ve never shared any of the apartment backstory before because honestly the internet is scary, but here we go.
The “Old” Apartment
I put old in quotation marks because it is our “old” apartment, but also the apartment is a lot older than our current apartment. It was built in the 16th century and our “new” apartment in the 20th century, so there is quite a big difference there.
I loved this apartment so much. It was the first place I called home in Paris. When I moved in it felt so tiny at 37 square meters (398 square feet), especially compared to the apartment I moved from in Dallas. But in Paris 37 square meters is totally doable for one person. The apartment wasn’t a studio and had a separate bedroom. There was tons of storage, including an “uncounted” 6 square meter mezzanine, and space was really optimized in both the kitchen and bathroom.
Plus the location was a literal dream. When I moved I barely knew a soul in Paris, and the reason I picked the apartment in the first place is because I knew I could walk practically anywhere in the city, and if I didn’t want to walk the public transportation options were great.
To make a long story short, COVID hit and luckily I was able to go to Normandy with Romain’s family because being stuck in 398 square feet in Paris would’ve been rough. By the time we made it to the “post-COVID” era (in France at least) Romain and I were engaged, and we knew we needed to start the dreaded search for a bigger apartment.
The Apartment Search
Our search radius was pretty small and my list of “wants” was pretty ridiculous (let’s just say I’d been spoiled with a working fireplace) but we weren’t really in a rush so it was fine. In the first year of looking I think we only visited four or five apartments which was a mix of us (me) being super selective and our dossier not matching what the owner was looking for.
By late November 2022 Boomer was definitely no longer a puppy and I added the annual 10+ foot tall Christmas tree to the mix. Suddenly we started taking the apartment search more seriously. I remember telling my mom we had to move before the next Christmas because it was too much (and I was not willing to sacrifice and get a smaller tree).
We visited a lot of apartments between December and April and got our hopes up numerous times where we felt like we were so close to getting the apartment…but it never ended up working out. It’s just so competitive. Eventually we decided to expand our search parameters.
We didn’t see much over the summer because we were traveling and there also didn’t seem to be that much available. It was at this point when I started realizing a lot of people were probably specifically not renting out their apartments long term in order to save them for the Olympics. I started thinking maybe we were going to have to figure out how to make it work in the current apartment for an extra year because we didn’t want to move somewhere just to move and not love it.
Naturally I was obsessively checking my alerts from both SeLoger and Jinka and saw a listing for a furnished apartment that looked decent. I sent it to Romain for him to call and set up an appointment as I always did and kind of forgot about it because at this point I was sending him around five listings a day. A few days later I asked if he’d called about the furnished apartment and he said no, he didn’t like the furniture so he didn’t call. We didn’t have anything else going on that Saturday so I asked him to please call and one hour later we had an appointment to visit the apartment.
The New Apartment
Basically from the second we walked into the apartment we knew we wanted it. We’d wanted apartments before and didn’t end up getting them so we tried to not get our hopes up, but this experience did feel different.
Romain asked the agent if there had been any other visits and she said no, we were the first. I wanted to tell her it was because the photos on the listing were terrible but I kept my mouth shut. We told her we were very interested and would send over our dossier right away. When we sent the rental file the agent responded saying something to the effect of “thank you for sending such a complete file” which no one had ever said to us before…they always either wanted additional information or told us that the owner went with someone else. It just felt different.
Two days later we found out that the owner had accepted our file. I can’t even describe how shocked and excited we were. It didn’t even feel real.
About a month later we moved in – less than a week before our trip to the US. We’ve only been here for a month, but it already feels like home. We still feel so lucky to be here and are so glad that we waited for just the right place. Having more space has been such a game changer and we are all so much more relaxed, Boomer included. I think everyone’s highlight has been the bed situation – Romain and I finally got to pick out our own bed (the old apartment was furnished and the bedroom was only big enough for a very old full bed – the blow up mattress that we slept on for the first week while waiting for our mattress to be delivered felt like an upgrade) and Boomer got a bed too. We have one more bed arriving soon which brings me to the next update…
Update #2: We’re Having a Baby!
We’re actually in the home stretch and Baby Boy is going to join us very soon, which makes the apartment timing all the more perfect.
I think I reached my stress limit the week we found the new apartment when I was trying to convince myself that we could convert what we were using as a bar in the old apartment into a changing table. And we definitely could have, and we could’ve made that apartment work for at least the first six months, but I’m so glad we didn’t have to.
I had no expectations for what it would be like to be pregnant in France, but overall it’s been a positive experience.
Romain and I know absolutely nothing, but we cannot wait for the newest addition to our family. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year!
A big merci for being a member! If there’s ever anything you’d like to see more of, don’t hesitate to let me know!
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Update #1: We Moved!
It took forever – two years and one week from the start of seriously looking to moving to be exact – but we finally moved. And we seriously could not be more thrilled. I’ve never shared any of the apartment backstory before because honestly the internet is scary, but here we go.
The “Old” Apartment
I put old in quotation marks because it is our “old” apartment, but also the apartment is a lot older than our current apartment. It was built in the 16th century and our “new” apartment in the 20th century, so there is quite a big difference there.
I loved this apartment so much. It was the first place I called home in Paris. When I moved in it felt so tiny at 37 square meters (398 square feet), especially compared to the apartment I moved from in Dallas. But in Paris 37 square meters is totally doable for one person. The apartment wasn’t a studio and had a separate bedroom. There was tons of storage, including an “uncounted” 6 square meter mezzanine, and space was really optimized in both the kitchen and bathroom.
Plus the location was a literal dream. When I moved I barely knew a soul in Paris, and the reason I picked the apartment in the first place is because I knew I could walk practically anywhere in the city, and if I didn’t want to walk the public transportation options were great.
To make a long story short, COVID hit and luckily I was able to go to Normandy with Romain’s family because being stuck in 398 square feet in Paris would’ve been rough. By the time we made it to the “post-COVID” era (in France at least) Romain and I were engaged, and we knew we needed to start the dreaded search for a bigger apartment.
The Apartment Search
Our search radius was pretty small and my list of “wants” was pretty ridiculous (let’s just say I’d been spoiled with a working fireplace) but we weren’t really in a rush so it was fine. In the first year of looking I think we only visited four or five apartments which was a mix of us (me) being super selective and our dossier not matching what the owner was looking for.
By late November 2022 Boomer was definitely no longer a puppy and I added the annual 10+ foot tall Christmas tree to the mix. Suddenly we started taking the apartment search more seriously. I remember telling my mom we had to move before the next Christmas because it was too much (and I was not willing to sacrifice and get a smaller tree).
We visited a lot of apartments between December and April and got our hopes up numerous times where we felt like we were so close to getting the apartment…but it never ended up working out. It’s just so competitive. Eventually we decided to expand our search parameters.
We didn’t see much over the summer because we were traveling and there also didn’t seem to be that much available. It was at this point when I started realizing a lot of people were probably specifically not renting out their apartments long term in order to save them for the Olympics. I started thinking maybe we were going to have to figure out how to make it work in the current apartment for an extra year because we didn’t want to move somewhere just to move and not love it.
Naturally I was obsessively checking my alerts from both SeLoger and Jinka and saw a listing for a furnished apartment that looked decent. I sent it to Romain for him to call and set up an appointment as I always did and kind of forgot about it because at this point I was sending him around five listings a day. A few days later I asked if he’d called about the furnished apartment and he said no, he didn’t like the furniture so he didn’t call. We didn’t have anything else going on that Saturday so I asked him to please call and one hour later we had an appointment to visit the apartment.
The New Apartment
Basically from the second we walked into the apartment we knew we wanted it. We’d wanted apartments before and didn’t end up getting them so we tried to not get our hopes up, but this experience did feel different.
Romain asked the agent if there had been any other visits and she said no, we were the first. I wanted to tell her it was because the photos on the listing were terrible but I kept my mouth shut. We told her we were very interested and would send over our dossier right away. When we sent the rental file the agent responded saying something to the effect of “thank you for sending such a complete file” which no one had ever said to us before…they always either wanted additional information or told us that the owner went with someone else. It just felt different.
Two days later we found out that the owner had accepted our file. I can’t even describe how shocked and excited we were. It didn’t even feel real.
About a month later we moved in – less than a week before our trip to the US. We’ve only been here for a month, but it already feels like home. We still feel so lucky to be here and are so glad that we waited for just the right place. Having more space has been such a game changer and we are all so much more relaxed, Boomer included. I think everyone’s highlight has been the bed situation – Romain and I finally got to pick out our own bed (the old apartment was furnished and the bedroom was only big enough for a very old full bed – the blow up mattress that we slept on for the first week while waiting for our mattress to be delivered felt like an upgrade) and Boomer got a bed too. We have one more bed arriving soon which brings me to the next update…
Update #2: We’re Having a Baby!
We’re actually in the home stretch and Baby Boy is going to join us very soon, which makes the apartment timing all the more perfect.
I think I reached my stress limit the week we found the new apartment when I was trying to convince myself that we could convert what we were using as a bar in the old apartment into a changing table. And we definitely could have, and we could’ve made that apartment work for at least the first six months, but I’m so glad we didn’t have to.
I had no expectations for what it would be like to be pregnant in France, but overall it’s been a positive experience.
Romain and I know absolutely nothing, but we cannot wait for the newest addition to our family. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year!
A big merci for being a member! If there’s ever anything you’d like to see more of, don’t hesitate to let me know!