At the beginning of this extensive blog series, I would like to introduce myself briefly. My name is Marcel, and I have been living in the idyllic southern Black Forest with my wife and our three children for three years. We moved here from Hamburg - with the plan to then move on to France. At least that was our original idea.

However, as is the case with many plans, this one did not survive the first "contact with the enemy". Just two months after arriving in the southern Black Forest, we decided to stay in this beautiful area and look for our own home.

The challenge: Finding our own house At first we thought about buying one of the many charming, old Black Forest houses and filling it with new life. But after looking at some of these houses, we got cold feet. The purchase prices were often astonishingly high, even though many of the houses had been empty for 30 to 40 years. With such buildings, you also have to expect the worst surprises: rotten beams, damaged walls or other hidden defects.

The cost of renovation and refurbishment could easily have doubled the purchase price - and even then the house would not have been up to the standard of a new build. In addition, the maintenance and upkeep costs would have remained very high. All of this would have eaten up a significant part of our income.

The plan: a new build instead of a renovation Finally, we decided to try our luck with a building plot. And now, as I write these lines, we are only about six weeks away from moving into our new house. There is still some work to be done inside, such as floors, walls, tiles and the installation of the kitchen and bathrooms.

I will share everything that has happened in the meantime and how we mastered the challenges with you in this blog series.

I hope you enjoy reading it and gain many exciting insights!