My first hello!

Hi there! I'm Nicole, and in 2024 I decided to take the leap to purchase my very own property. For several months I was in doubt on what kind of property to buy, especially with the loan budget I had as a woman planning to purchase a property by herself.

Do I go for an apartment in shell form? Can I manage to find something that's already finished and maybe partially furnished? Do I buy on plan? Or do I put myself through a renovation project and purchase an older property?

The search went on...

I spent a couple of months searching like a headless chicken. I looked and looked at so many different properties of all kinds, but I soon realised that by not admitting to myself the kind of property I really wanted, I was wasting time looking at properties that were never going to satisfy my appetite.

From a young age, I was the kind of person that never takes the easy way out. If there's a project I really want to experience, I was going to grab that bone and chew at it until I turn it to dust. And that's exactly why in my search I kept gravitating towards older properties. Some were too expensive for me to consider, some were so cheap they seemed too good to be true (and they were...will explain this one later on!), and then there was this little 80-something square metre maisonette in the quiet parts of Ħamrun.

From the moment I walked in, something told me 'hey, psst, this is the one'. From it's high ceilings to it's adorable tiles (which ashamedly I didn't manage to save </3), I knew right then that I had to lock it down. In a span of a week I had confirmed the property and contacted the most efficient notary on planet earth, landing me my promise of sale (konvenju) agreement.

Ok...I can see I might have gone on a tangent here. So let me regroup my thoughts...Ah, yes...'My first hello!' and the reason why I'm setting up this blog.

Gathering back my thoughts

As I went on to the purchase of the property, search for suppliers, and start the renovation process, I felt one thing was missing: cohesive information in one place. I had to search the internet, pray to the AI gods, and connect data in order to be able to put what felt like an abnormal edged puzzle together.

In the meantime, I was telling (probably to the extent of annoying) my friends on the whole process. Recounting tales of all the experiences, the hassles, the excitement, until one of my closest friends Jessica Magro said: 'why don't you put it all together in a blog?' Up until that very moment, the only thing I had convinced myself to do was to put together a Facebook post on the famous Are You Being Served group. Nonetheless I had no clue how to put together all the information I wanted to share in one dainty post.

So I said, let me ask the audience on TikTok to see whether they'd consider following such a profile and blog with my renovation experience.

In just 24 hours, the video I prepared on a whim gathered over 6k views, around 140 likes, several comments and saves. It also brought my channel around another 40 followers.

Then I went on to create a quick blog website, write this blog post here, and set myself up to merge two of my passions together: writing and taking on projects that are bigger than me.

I hope that my experience helps you navigate this world with a bit more peace of mind, and make the headaches it brings with it worthwhile.