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Kees and Ingrid sold everything and moved to rural Portugal to build their own home from scratch.
A high-flying businessman, who quit the rat race to live off grid with his wife in a wooden house he built himself on a remote Portuguese hilltop, has revealed how he has found utopia.
Taking just two months to build his house single handedly from scratch, Kees Goossens, 55, and his wife Ingrid, 53, a nurse, left their modern brick home and his successful contracting business behind them in their hometown of Breda, Holland, in May 2017 and upped sticks in search of “total freedom.”
Explaining their bold decision, Kees, who claimed he was “bored of humdrum middle classed life,” said: “We lived very well and had everything – success, luxury, comfort. There was really nothing to complain about.”
He continued: “But there was always the feeling in the back of my mind that there could be something else. After years of living comfortably, I started to think – is this it?”
It was during a two week holiday in the rural Portuguese region of Alentejo in March 2016 that Kees and Ingrid, whose student sons, Tuen, 23, and Dirk, 20, still live in Holland, found the answer to their dreams – falling in love with the landscape and deciding to stay.
“We found something there that we had never experienced before,” Kees explained.
He added: “The natural beauty was astounding and the people were so friendly and open that, straight away, I knew I wanted to live there for the rest of my life.”
It took just a few months for the couple to sell up in Holland and buy a plot of land for €29,000 (£24,800) on an isolated hilltop near the village of Monte Sobreiro.
And eight weeks later, Kees had finished building their home, which they designed and constructed themselves – spending €30,000 (£25,700) on materials.
Now they literally live off the 50,000 square metres of land that surrounds their home, by harvesting cork from their quercus suber trees which cover it and breeding pigs for sale.
“When we go back to Holland now we try to stay for the shortest amount of time possible, as it feels very strange for us to be there,” said Kees, claiming they had never looked back.
“We don’t want to become part of that world again, as we are so happy with the lifestyle we now have.”
He continued: “It sounds very cliched perhaps, but here we feel free and we feel ourselves – something we’ve spent our whole lives looking for and finally found.”
Married for 32 years, Kees and Ingrid lived comfortably in Breda with their two children, earning a healthy income from Ingrid’s job as a nurse and Kees’ construction business, which paid him €50,000 (£42,800) a year.
Recalling their decision to turn their back on their conventional existence and start again, Kees added “We had found an extraordinarily beautiful place with wonderful people, where we could live independently and we could build our own home.”
He concluded: “I was convinced pretty much immediately after returning from the holiday that this was something we could really do and not just a pipe dream.”
Still slightly too nervous to commit immediately, at Ingrid’s behest they returned to Portugal after the spring break that won their hearts, in August 2016, on a fact-finding mission, to make sure the new life they craved was viable.
Kees continued: “We spent a month talking with local officials and architects, trying to find out all the necessary requirements for buying land and building a home.”
He continued: “We wanted to be certain that it was a good step to take and the visit cemented our belief that it was.
“After that we were both convinced.”
So, drawing on his years of experience in contracting to create a blueprint for the house, Kees then passed it on to an architect to check.
With the plot of land bought and given the go-ahead on his plans, he started the building work in June 2017 – with Ingrid and Kees doing everything themselves.
Two months later, during which time the couple lived in a small cabin they had built beforehand, their single-storey home was completed.
With one bedroom, a kitchen and a bathroom, their hilltop home also has two outhouses with additional bedrooms for guests.
And having no connection to mains electricity, gas or water supply, they rely on wood burners for heating, solar panels for powering their refrigerator and lights, and water pumped from a nearby brook for washing.
“After spending our entire lives living in towns and cities, it’s amazing that we really miss nothing about our former life,” said Kees, who buys food from a local supermarket in the village.
“There isn’t a single luxury that I feel I would have back.”
Despite their unwavering confidence in their decision, Kees says that friends and family were less sure.
He continued: “At first, people thought we had gone crazy and said to us, ‘What are you doing?’
“Our two sons especially couldn’t understand why we were doing this and were very sceptical about our choice.”
“But more and more they have started to understand, especially after they came to visit us for the first time,” Kees added.
“They could see how special the place we have is and gradually they realised that we were happier than ever before.”
With plans to become entirely self-sufficient one day, when they will no longer need to buy food or drinking water, the pair are working hard on developing their farm – a task that, together with weekly lessons in Portuguese, keeps them fully occupied.
“Every day is a joy because we are working for ourselves and doing things that matter to our lives,” explained Kees.
“For the first time in my life I feel that I am really living the way I want to.”