Who says you have to live in one place? Maybe a few small houses would be preferable.
That's what Robert Losonsky and Edith Wassenaar discovered when they swapped a typical house in the Netherlands for several smaller ones, adopting a peripatetic lifestyle—one that prioritizes activities like surfing over work.
Oddly enough, her enthusiasm for living small began with a search for more space.
In 2017, they lived in a 1,500 square meter apartment in an upscale neighborhood in The Hague. “But we started working from home more and more,” said Mr. Losonsky, now 54, who had a career in sales at Microsoft, while Ms. Wassenaar, now 49, worked as an independent marketing consultant and business coach.
Conflicts inevitably arose. For example, Ms. Wassenaar may want to entertain clients in the home while Mr. Losonsky participates in a conference call. “So I thought, 'Why don't we find something small on the side so we don't always have to bother each other?'” he said.
Tiny Home No. 1: a 19th century fisherman's house
Since they were avid kitesurfers, they went looking for a place on the North Sea in The Hague and found a 600 square meter fisherman's house from 1878, just a few steps from the beach. After buying it in April for 180,000 euros ($190,000), they spent 18 months and 150,000 euros ($158,000) doing a gut renovation with the help of Global Architects.
“It was in really bad shape and didn't seem to have had much maintenance in the last hundred years,” said Arthur S. Nuss, the company's owner.
So they removed the walls that divided the house into several cramped rooms and instead created an open interior with a beachy atmosphere: plastered walls, microcement floors, rustic wooden beams and a small sitting area with a wood-burning stove.
To minimize the presence of the kitchen, which doubles as a dining area, they hid the refrigerator and oven under a staircase leading up to the single bedroom. They also added wood fiber insulation, new windows and solar panels on the roof to make the home more energy efficient.
When the renovation was complete, the couple were so happy with their new compact living space, proximity to the beach, and friendly neighborhood that they came to an unexpected conclusion: they wanted to live there forever.
“That’s how the downsizing began,” Ms. Wassenaar said. “We started living in the small town and renting out the larger house in the posh area.”
Mr Losonsky added: “The funny thing is that we left almost everything in the old home. We could barely take a closet or desk with us because it didn't fit. We literally left our old lives behind and completely re-evaluated what was really important to us.”
Soon Mr. Losonsky, who had bought the couple's old apartment and paid off the mortgage before meeting Ms. Wassenaar, came to a different realization: With rent coming in and expenses low, he no longer needed to work. He retired at the end of 2019, shortly before his 50th birthday.
Tiny Home #2: Wheels!
Inspired by surfers who travel around Europe chasing waves in RVs and buses, they soon decided they needed wheels too.
Because Mr. Losonsky no longer had to be in an office and Ms. Wassenaar could work from anywhere, “we felt this freedom,” he said. “Europe is so small but so rich in culture and opportunities that we wanted to explore it more.”
They bought a slightly used 2018 Fiat Ducato van for about 25,000 euros ($26,500), created an interior design for their house on wheels and hired Custom Camp to furnish it for about 35,000 euros ($37,000). The camper now has a loft bed, wool-covered walls, a wood-paneled ceiling, a kitchen with a hob and sink, a shower and a composting toilet.
“Covid hit just when it was ready,” Ms. Wassenaar said, but that didn’t stop her from traveling.
They drove 1,000 miles to southern Spain, where they camped for a few months. They then traveled by ferry to the island of Sardinia in Italy, where “we lived on the most beautiful beaches with no one around,” Ms. Wassenaar said. “We were in paradise.”
Tiny Home #3: An Island Fixer-Upper
While staying in their van longer than expected, they discovered a run-down 60 square meter house for sale in Mandriola on the west side of the island. “We looked at each other and said, 'It's a project, but we've done this before so we can do it again,'” Ms. Wassenaar said.
They bought the house in September 2021 for 120,000 euros. They then hired an engineer who told them that the roof was covered in asbestos and the sandstone walls were no longer load-bearing. It turned out that the entire house needed to be remodeled.
This time the couple worked with their contractors between trips to The Hague. To save space, they installed a folding staircase from Klapster to the sleeping loft; When not in use it disappears into the wall. They removed the bark from hemlock trees so that the trunks could be used as ceiling beams, and used slices of the original sandstone as a decorative element to give some walls an age-appropriate look.
“When you walk in the house now you feel, 'Oh, what a wonderful old house this is,'” Ms. Wassenaar said. “But it’s all new.”
The house, which they call Microcosmos, was completed in March 2023 after a renovation that cost around 120,000 euros ($127,000).
Now the couple can hardly believe what kind of life they lead.
“The freedom we created is still beginning to dawn,” Losonsky said. “All our friends ask when we will stay in The Hague and when in Sardinia. The real answer is that we don't know. We just want to go with the flow.”
Living Small is a bi-weekly column that explores what it takes to live a simpler, more sustainable, or more compact life.
For weekly email updates on residential real estate news, sign up here.