After years of traveling the world, graphic designer Martijn Doolaard decided to find a remote place to call home.
Fifteen years ago, Martijn Doolaard was working full-time as a graphic designer in Amsterdam, but wanted more adventure in his life. travel around the world I ride my bike and record it on YouTube.
After spending the night camping in beautiful scenery, he wondered how he could make such a place his home. “I was wondering what it would be like to actually live there instead of camping overnight,” he told Insider.
In 2021, while still living in Amsterdam full-time, he began looking for remote properties in the mountains from Spain before considering options in Italy.
After a four-week campervan trip through the Italian Alps and touring the advertised neighborhoods, he discovered the land he decided to make his home. He said he paid €21,000 for just under six acres of land in Piedmont, northwestern Italy. ($21,600).
It was accompanied by two stone huts that Doolaard intended to convert into a homestead. Built in 1903, he said it looked like a barn or animal shelter at the time of filming.
“It’s very bare. It’s basically four walls and a leaking roof,” he said in the video, adding that there were no plumbing, toilets, or electricity.
Doolaard, now 38, has been posting renovation videos for the past year and has grown from a few hundred subscribers to over 400,000 subscribers. His platform on YouTube not only funded his project, but also kept him motivated and provided a community of support and advice as he embarked on the renovation.