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For Ryan and his wife Damo, the pandemic has been a catalyst for a change in lifestyle.
Ryan had worked in the hospitality industry in Bali, Indonesia, for two years when COVID-19 hit. While tourism on the island was at a standstill, the couple returned to Thailand to be closer to their loved ones.
They traveled to Damo’s village in Buri Ram, eastern Thailand, where Damo’s family had given them land.
“We already had this land and were planning to expand it for the long term for our retirement,” Ryan, 35, told Insider. “But because we had free time, we ended up running with COVID-19. “
The couple, who have two young children, asked to be known only through their first call to protect their privacy. The couple provided Insider with a breakdown of their monthly expenses, as well as prices related to building their home and kitchen.
As the pandemic dragged on, the couple eventually fell in love with the rural lifestyle and even started a YouTube channel documenting their life on the farm.
But far from painting their YouTube channel about a romantic rural life, they talk unabashedly about the struggles they face adjusting to life in the countryside. Almost no topic is banned: they have talked about topics as diverse as the burden of life and the difficulties of agriculture in their videos.
As his audience grew, Ryan learned he didn’t need to return to corporate life, he said.
“We saw that we could do it on a limited budget, living an undeniable life while developing our own food and having our own animals,” she said.
The family arrived in the village, which is home to 150 other people, at the start of the pandemic. At the time, his terrain was nothing more than “a big flat piece of mud,” Ryan said.
In the face of so much uncertainty due to the pandemic, the couple must live cautiously.
“We wanted to save everything we had because the pandemic may have lasted for years; we didn’t know,” Ryan said.
Since they were unwilling to spend a lot of cash to expand the land, they lived in bamboo huts. Local artisans built two bamboo huts for them.
“We did this for about a year and a half and we were growing vegetables here,” Ryan said.
That was intended to be the long-term plan, but then pandemic restrictions eased and the couple changed their minds.
“We would use our savings to invest in a house. We wanted to build a cabin that would be smart for the kids if something were to happen to us,” Ryan said.
With the goal of permanence, the couple came up with a plan for a small space and a separate kitchen. They hired a local team of developers to bring their vision to life. They spent 821,593 Thai baht, or about $22,500, on the two structures. .
“I made virtual drawings and then we were on site every day showing the developers the main points of what we wanted the space to look like,” Ryan said.
It took some trial and error to come up with the final design, he added.
The fruit of their hard work is a two-story space with an orange roof, a covered porch, and a small balcony on the most sensitive floor. Inside, the home features a loft-style layout with an unbiased color palette and abundant wood. Accents.
The outdoor kitchen has a single-storey layout separate from the main dwellings. It includes a giant kitchen bar and a comfortable seating area in a corner.
But the most recognizable parts of both buildings are the log columns that cover the roofs.
“It was my wife’s idea,” Ryan added. You want to be treated every year against termites, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. We think of it a lot better than a square concrete post. “
Ryan said he learned that in the countryside some people turn their homes into small businesses to supplement their income.
It can simply be a small convenience store or even a kiosk that sells gasoline, he explained. “Maybe it doesn’t make a lot of money, but for an elderly couple, some other people who come to the store every day and spend, it provides them with a little bit of money. “
He said it made him think about how he and his wife could use their home to make money. And that’s where cooking comes in.
With the addition of a few tables and a cash register, they can seamlessly turn it into a small coffee shop, he says.
“It’s just a backup,” Ryan added. If you live in rural Thailand, you’ll want to think about how to make money, even if it’s just a small amount. “
Other people build houses with the goal of promoting them for profit. That’s not Ryan and Damo’s plan.
“We know it’s a house, anything we’re never going to sell, and that’s why it allows us to put our own stamp on things,” Ryan said.
For example, he described the floor tiles in his home as “psychedelic” leaning that not everyone would appreciate, but said it didn’t matter since he had no plans to sell the house.
“We didn’t have to think about the effect this would have on the market price of the house,” he added. “We were able to create what we wanted to create. “
As for costs, the couple now has no rent or mortgage. His electricity and monthly expenses amount to about 5,700 Thai baht, or $155, Ryan said. They are connected to the power grid and also have solar panels.
“We have an inverter that takes power from the solar panels and recharges the electrical energy during the day, but not at night; we don’t store it in batteries,” Ryan said. “And for the water, we pump it out of the well ourselves. “
The couple owns about 15 acres of land, some of which is used for farming and raising animals, chickens, pigs and buffalo.
“I need to be able to grow our own food or have animals on the farm to feed us,” Ryan said. “I need to be able to save money, generate our own electric power, and have our own water separate from the system. “
The couple homeschooled their eldest son, Otis, until he was four years old. They plan to do the same with their youngest son, Hugo. Otis is now five years old and Hugo is 6 months old.
Ryan said he knew this way of life wouldn’t be for everyone.
“We are very isolated. We spend a lot of time with the family, we’re out in nature, but there are a lot of paintings on the farm. It’s also hard to take care of all the animals,” she said.
But the biggest challenge of rural life for the couple is finding new tactics to earn income.
“You’ll still want cash even if you leave the network and build your own space in the middle of nowhere,” Ryan said.
He said that living off the land was harder than it seemed. “We try to be 100 percent self-sufficient by generating our own food. But for us, personally, we don’t think that’s possible. “
Unexpected situations, such as a swarm of insects or bad weather, can easily destroy your crops and ruin your efforts. Ryan said that while many other families may be 100 percent self-sufficient, they were able to produce about 35% of their own output. food.
Instead, he says, what the couple did was locate piles of little things that brought them small amounts of money.
“We sell Vietnamese pigs and my wife sells bottled honey and honeycombs,” Ryan said. “So they gave us all those little things that end up sustaining the whole ecosystem. “
Ryan said at the end of the day they had less cash than before. “We may not be as well off as we were when I ran a company, but we can be together as a family. “
And that, he added, has been the purpose of building his own farm and living sustainably.
Have you recently purchased or renovated your dream home and need to share the highlights and photographs of the process?Email this reporter, Amanda Goh, at agoh@insider. com.