▲羅素買下一座芬蘭小島。(圖/翻攝自TikTok)
記者詹雅婷/綜合報導
美國加州房價居高不下,男子羅素(Oliver Russell)決定放棄在美國的生活,前往北歐芬蘭,並花費3.1萬美元(約新台幣99萬元)買下一座小島來住,「這筆錢比在加州買房的頭期款還要便宜」。
紐約郵報、每日郵報等報導,羅素擁有美國、芬蘭血統,從小在加州長大,每年夏季都會前往芬蘭探望親戚朋友。到了2020年,他搬到科羅拉多州,但卻難以取得較能負擔得起的州內學費(inter-state tuition),便把目光轉向芬蘭。
羅素2022年8月順利搬到芬蘭,在當地遇到20歲女友托馬舍夫斯卡(Helena Tomaszewska),兩人愛上擁有避暑別墅的想法,在打開房仲網站並開始議價之後,在2024年3月以3.1萬美元的價格買下一座空置10年的小島。這座小島面積2.5英畝,羅素與女友在2024年6月第一次踏上這座島,當時島上長滿樹木苔蘚,大部分區域無法居住。
@off.grid.island 2 months ago we started work on our off grid island in Finland! It has been a lot of fun, we have learned a lot and we can't believe how many people are on this journey with us! So far we have made a deck for our glamping tent out of logs we felled on the island. This was the first build on the island and a big milestone as I have never felled a tree before or build anything. We are really happy with the results and now have a comfortable place to stay with the 5m Bell tent The next project was getting a bathroom on the island, it was a bit difficult to transport as we don't have floating dock yet to make transporting materials to the island easier. In the end we got it build and it makes a huge difference with comfort on the island. There are still a few things we want to get at the basecamp before we start felling trees for our sauna cabin. Getting running water, a shower and a floating dock would make trips to the island much easier and allow us to stay longer so we can get more work done. We want to build a smaller sauna cabin first and if that goes well we will build a larger main cabin in the future. There is a lot of work to do and we have big plans for the island so follow along as we try and turn our off grid island into the island of our dreams! Thank you for everything, all the tips are help are always appreciated. Full videos about our island is on our yt channel Off Grid Island #finland #nordic #outdoors #offgrid #offgridliving #offgridlife #logcabin #logcabins #island #islandlife #islandliving #offgridisland #wood #woodworker #woodworking #glampingtent ♬ original sound - Off Grid Island
在芬蘭,大約每2人就有1個桑拿室。羅素與女友的目標就是要在島上建造一棟夏季小屋和桑拿室,親自動手設計,從砍樹、搭建房子開始,且兩人都還是學生,沒有建築相關經驗,並未劃設嚴格截止期限,初步計畫明年竣工。
如今兩人周末大部分時間都待在小島上為了夢想努力,羅素坦言,這充滿挑戰,但同時也相當有趣。
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