When Rob and I started dating somewhere in 2015, it quickly became clear that we would travel a lot, and perhaps not stay in the Netherlands forever. I was often in Ghana where I was setting up my startup Goodget. Rob spontaneously came to Ghana, and we made tours along the coast together.

In the Netherlands I was looking for a house that I could easily lock up and leave behind for a longer period. Very useful if you travel a lot. At the time, I lived in an old double ground floor house in Rotterdam with a front and back garden. Beautiful, but a lot of maintenance.

I had made a Wish list, and I found exactly what I was looking for in Katendrecht, a Rotterdam neighborhood on the rise. It was a maisonette with a view (Wish 1) of the Maas, the Erasmus Bridge, Hotel New York and the Euromast. I was my own upstairs neighbor (no upstairs neighbors Wish 2), and it had a roof terrace facing south on the living room floor (Wish 3). Very affordable and no high service costs (Wish 4). Ideal; close the door and leave (Wish 5)!

Rob and I renovated that house together and created our home base there. From Katendrecht we made quite a few trips in The Netherlands and abroad.

We were doing well, but we were always looking around. Looking for a new place. More self-sufficient, more nature, more freedom. Fewer people, less traffic, less concrete. Something like that.

It wasn’t all that concrete. Plus: we’re both not very attached to a place, we can settle anywhere and saw possibilities (almost) everywhere we went. That makes it difficult to search, especially if it’s quite vague what you’re looking for…

A detached house with land in a nice location, that was the first thing that was clear.

We first looked in the Netherlands; we looked at farms in Friesland, Groningen, and Overijssel. Our budget wasn’t too high, but at that time there was still plenty for sale in the lower price range.

But what was for sale wasn’t so great. Those farms were nothing more than a single brick shell, with a musty, dilapidated structure of plywood and hardboard inside. Everything always had to be completely renovated and insulated on the inside. And there was often a pigsty or busy road nearby. Not what we wanted.

In retrospect, there is only 1 house in the Netherlands that I regret didn’t work out. That was an old, detached house just outside Giethoorn with a large piece of land bordering a waterway at the front, and a garden bordering a nature reserve at the back.

In the meantime, we also looked in France. Particularly in Dordogne. Beautiful nature and more sun! We looked at quite a few houses in Dordogne. Because our budget wasn’t very high, they were often old houses that had been empty for a while. There was usually something seriously wrong. Click here for a more about the most striking houses we viewed in France.

Also read my blog with Tips for searching and viewing houses abroad; How do you approach your search, what should you pay attention to, and how do you select the houses you want to view? Click here

In addition to France, we also searched in Portugal, in particular on Madeira and Azores. Both are Portuguese territory: Madeira is located off the coast of Marrocco, the Azores are 9 volcanic islands in the middle of the Atlantic ocean.

The Azores are very beautiful; so green, so quiet, and a view of the sea everywhere. Due to the outbreak of the Corona epidemic, we spent 3 months in Azores in 2020 – on the island of Pico to be precise. Pico is an island with an enormous volcano – the Pico -, also the highest mountain in Portugal. Read more about our search on Madeira and Azores.

We ended up somewhere else after all. Years ago, Rob had climbed in the Picos de Europa, a mountain range in Asturias, a province in Northern Spain. At one point he said: we should go and have a look there too, it’s also very beautiful and green. I had my doubts, because I had seen something about Northern Spain on TV, and it was all rain and gloomy. Not very promising!

Nevertheless, I started looking for houses in Asturias online, and we set off with the camper. Via Dordogne, mind you…

Asturias was a real breath of fresh air: so much green, so much nature, so quiet. The coast is enchantingly beautiful, it looked a lot like Azores. The mountains are not inferior to Switzerland and Austria in terms of beauty. We drove around everywhere with our camper and looked at various houses.

You can read more about our search in Asturias in this blog.

In April 2023 we bought our house in Asturias. As seen on a well-known show about emigrants on Dutch national TV, December 10. NPO1

We moved into the house immediately, and started cleaning and restoring it step by step. I will write more about the renovation in forthcoming blogs.

Our search was not just about finding a new place. We are also looking for a new way of life. What is possible in this place? What initiatives are already here in our valley? What suits us best? How do we approach our new lifestyle? 

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