Buying a $20K Cabin in the Woods (Sweden is CHEAP)

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Roaming Wild Rosie is fixing up a Swedish cottage and she started with hand tools and still has no car. She produces the most beautiful and relaxing videos.

My suggestion is to rent a place you love for a year so you can experience all conditions. Then decide if it feels like a fit for the long haul. Some travel and some stability might be a nice mix.

Hi guys, just my tuppenceworth; like you I have perpetual itchy feet and actually physically vomited when we signed our mortgage in UK 18 years ago. That house has been rented out for a fair chunk of that time while we've been travelling. One of the places we have lived in is Sweden. Now I know it's not fashionable to say anything against the perceived paradise that is Scandinavia, however, having lived for 7 months through Winter, Spring and Summer on the islands off Gothenburg, the thing I struggled most with was the light. For 5 months of the year you will find it dark and miserable. I found the UK winters got me down and with Emma's history of depression that is definitely something to take into consideration - the snow and cold are dealt with very well there - the right housing insulation and clothing can work wonders, but they don't do anything about the light. I found it too dark for January to April, really, the days were just too short, then in Summer the days are too long and you have to learn to sleep in the light only having 2 hours of actual darkness per night - which yes, you can get blackout blinds, but that stops the airflow in the house - and it gets warm, so that's definitely something to think about. If you're thinking of homestead style life, the growing season is SHORT unless you have a top notch greenhouse setup. Then there's the taxes. They are very high. You get your money's worth, but it is something to consider. Also groceries and produce are expensive. Swedish people are generally incredibly nice, but they have their friendship groups and aren't naturally seeking to meet more friends, so building your community can take time. That said when you do 'crack the nut' you have true friends for life! A cheap house isn't the only thing, but I can understand how it's enticing on the surface.

I sold my large four bedroom house in Chicago and moved into a two room house, just five minutes from the beach in Mexico. I couldn't be happier.

A small "stuga" (cottage) in the forest my seem romantic, but you would find a lot of difficulties coming with it, especially in our long winter. School is compulsory here, and you need the proximity of it for your son. The northern part of Sweden is enticing, but the summers with mosquito clouds are a curse. As soon as you come closer to civilization, the house prices shoot up. Lots of stuff to consider. Anyway, it was so cool to see you two considering my country :)

Do it! I moved to Canada 13 years ago. I live on three acres on a beach, no close neighbours, we are safe, don’t shut our doors,20 minutes from a small harbour, 2 hours from big shops but I love it. I go back to England and it’s terrifying. Everyone one is busy, aggressive, drive too fast, don’t have time, live too close, less and less green space as they add more and more houses. I don’t always feel that safe, I can’t wait to get back to see deer in the garden and eagles. I’m not even sure I could afford to move back to the UK. .

I’m going to impart some advice here. I’ve worked in the movie business for 30+ years on various film sets from Vancouver, to Texas, to NYC, to Budapest and all places in between. I’ve been on a long run of living like a nomad. Staying in one place too long made me itchy to go on the next adventure. Ok, sounds like fun, but here am, several decades from when I started, and I have no home base with community that I’m connected to. It’s given me a whole pile of regret for a home and connected life I didn’t even know I wanted. Be careful waiting too long to set down some roots. It’s a daunting prospect if you think “this is it, the place I’m stuck with for the rest of my life?” But Establishing a home. . . It’s a journey, just like travels are. No one says you’re stuck in that one place for the rest of your life. You’re young. Try someplace out. It might not be the perfect place…..but it just might be the perfect place.

Take it from a 70 year old woman. Location is location is location. Any issues you are struggling with will follow you to each location after the newness wears off. So deal with the issues and then decide what the location should be.

I'm glad you guys are considering settling down in our fair country. Something that is not addressed in this video which you probably should try to experience once before moving here is the darkness of winter. Depending on how far north you live the amount of daylight in the deepest of winter can vary from a few hours per day in the south to nothing at all if you settle above the arctic circle. On the other hand you will get 24h of light in the summer up north down to around 21h of light in the south in the summer. A lot of people think that living in the south of Sweden will save you from the worst of Swedish winters. In my opinion this is a trap. Winters in the south of Sweden are dark, damp, windy, non-consistent subzero degrees which makes the snow never stay for long which adds to the darkness and general misserable state of thing whereas the winters up north almost always have steady subzero degrees which means the snow is kept frozen which means that the snow brightens things up a fair bit and also, frozen snow equals dry snow. so you can go sleding, skiing, skating etc. Another tip from a fellow parent. Noah is just a baby now but around the age of four he is going to want to make friends of his own and build relationships with other kids so I would highy recommend you guys to put down some roots by then. Even though I highly enjoy your travel vids. Also, if you need local help I will gladly answer any questions you might have about Swedish bureaucracy if needed. Good luck!

My advice, as a parent of three, now adults, get your travelling itch in as much as you can now, while Noah is still a little one. Once he gets to school age it's really not fair to be dragging him around all over the place preventing him develop friendships and routines. Do the settling down stuff at that stage. You can still go on travelling stints in the school holidays. it's also all very easy when things are okay, but if something goes wrong, you need your support network around you.

I think sometimes our indecisions come from a place of not wanting to take responsibility for what we may perceive as a mistake. ( it comes from fear ) Maybe changing words like mistakes... to learning valuable lessons, is the key. Stop avoiding the lessons and take one step at a time. Make a decision, it's okay. Remember, there is no failure, just lessons learned.💚💙

There’s nothing wrong with settling down, raising your family and having a home of your own…. You have been traveling for quite some time, so it’s natural to yearn for a change in pace and being in 1 place for a time. Take your time, do your research and find what’s right for your family… 😊

You’re never really tied to a house. Having bought and sold three, and lived in 14 different flats, you soon realize nothing is permanent. ❤

Welcome to Sweden. Me and my family live in a house in the woods since 4 years. We moved from Stockholm and we love it. The silence and the wildlife are amazing.

A little advice that's been relevant for my family on making big decisions. First - buying a house is a choice and not buying a house is a choice. Both "tie you down" in a sense in that they limit your options. There is no avoiding making choices. Not making the choice is a choice in itself! Second, when we make one choice - like choosing a place to live - we are left with many, many more choices to make. It's kind of like getting married or having a child. It's one choice and it narrows your scope of other choices but you're still left with so many options - what to do for work, what vacations to take, what hobbies to embrace, what friends to make etc. Sometimes choosing something that will limit other choices is actually a gift because infinite choices can be paralyzing. Hope this helps!

Dear Beans, to satisfy your itchy travel feet and need to put down roots at the same time, I really recommend rooting into a place that either has a well connected international airport within 1 hour drive OR a place that has a lot of interesting destinations you can visit within a half day's drive. I say this because I used to be a US digital nomad traveling nonstop for a few years. Then I put roots down in a fairly remote part of a remote foreign country: Queenstown, New Zealand. But it has TONS of destinations you can visit in a short drive and an international airport to get you out of there. However, that airport is NOT well connected to get you anywhere truly different, and after about 4 years I'd seen everything in the local area multiple times in different seasons. So I got itchy feet to leave and put down roots in a more well-connected area. Thankfully I had rented, so it was fairly easy to move! I recommend renting first and staying in the area for at least 1 month during different seasons to see if you really might like to live in that place year-round and not just on a holiday for a week.

Growing up in the 70's, 80's and even through the 90's, I moved from country to country at the whim of the Military. As a child and as an adult myself. Often times just staying long enough to make a few friends just to say goodbye to them. I promised my oldest son (who was born in the midst's of all this) that once he starts school that we would not move again until he graduated school and moved out on his own. Now we're full time in the RV and travel again, because my wife hasn't had the chance to see everything that I did. Yeah, traveling we get to see the world, but for a child.... we rob them of never having a life long friend, often times major life events like Prom, school sports, and such.... I have no ROOTS, my children do though. That might be a thought.

My family became nomadic, RVing America, right at the height of the pandemic with a baby. My family thought we were insane and my mom has only further put her foot down on that idea after we added another kid to the mix a year ago. We had the house and I can only tell you coming from the house to nomadic lifestyle I love "scratching that itch" and exploring America. Property is somewhere on the horizon but like you, we really struggle with where feels the most like home. Our kids like all the adventures and we make time to circle back to family, making time for the big events but roaming around the rest of the time. Good luck dudes! ✌️😎

We moved to Denmark about a year ago. Coming from the Netherlands where it is always crowded and people are always stressed and in a rush. This is so much more relaxing. The kids (6-8) are also much more relaxed here. We love it here and will never go back. Tip: find a place you love. Visit it in all the 4 seasons en feel The difference. And a place with only nice weather is always the right place.