Millennial couple buys their first home, an abandoned 27-room farmhouse complex

Imagine buying for the first time a house with over two dozen rooms in several buildings in an idyllic mountain landscape, feeling “in the middle of nowhere”, with picturesque views of the Alps?

A European couple managed to bag the whole thing for around $220,000, including taxes and other fees.

After years of living in rented accommodation and building up savings, 37-year-old Belgian Isis and 43-year-old Dutchman Bertus received the keys to their first home, an abandoned farmhouse complex in northwest Italy, in January 2023.

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The couple recently posted a video on their YouTube channel, Stories from the cascina, about the progress of their home’s renovation, which has been viewed over 1.6 million times since it was posted on June 30. Although the farmhouse’s last residents moved out about 15 years ago, large parts of the complex have been empty for well over two decades.

“We both have a diverse professional background,” said the couple, who did not reveal their last names, Newsweek. Bertus has worked as a historical consultant for cultural heritage institutions, as a tournament/actor, and as a historical armorer. Isis is an archaeologist and historian who, after six years in academia, “decided to turn her creative passion into her full-time job and became a wedding and family photographer and creative business coach,” the couple said.

The property is spread over around 16 hectares of land, totalling around 1,200 square metres, and features an impressive 27 rooms in around seven buildings. The buildings include the new farmhouse, the old farmhouse, stables, a chapel, a winery, a chicken coop (reportedly “a whole cottage in itself”) and several warehouses, as well as “a small cabin hidden deep in the woods,” Isis says in the video.

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They paid “around 200,000 euros for the farm, including notary and broker fees as well as taxes,” the couple said. News week.

“Overall, the structural integrity of the home is in good condition,” they said, but the property is still in the early stages of renovation. The first year was focused on getting amenities up and running and removing unwanted furniture and other items from the buildings. The couple’s renovations to their new home continue.

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“In the middle of nowhere”

The abandoned farm is located in the Langhe region of Piedmont.

“We always dreamed of living on a farm and seeing the mountains,” the couple said. “We also considered other countries, but for us it was important to be able to easily travel to Belgium and the Netherlands to visit our family. And since Isis’ mother lives in Italy, it was only logical to focus our house search here. We were already familiar with the culture and the language and always felt at home here.”

They continued: “What made this property so special for us was the views and the fact that on a clear day we can see the Alps, including the peaks of Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn. But also that although we feel like we are in the middle of nowhere, we are still close enough to the village to hear the church bells and reach all the shops and other amenities.”

These include a doctor’s office, a pharmacy and a hospital, which can be reached by car in 10 to 45 minutes.

The farm stood empty for about 15 years, but the “very old” previous owners are still alive and the couple maintains a good relationship with them.

“We love hearing their stories about the history of the farm,” the couple said. “Their father and uncle bought it in 1930… It was a working farm with cattle, vineyards, hazelnut groves, goats, chickens and they also raised silkworms here until the late 1960s. Two whole families lived here, as well as seasonal workers.”

Part of the farmhouse was rebuilt in the late 1960s and, “although outdated, is currently habitable,” said the couple, who moved into the property in late July 2023.

The newly built parts have a spacious kitchen, dining room, living room/lounge, bathroom and four bedrooms. The older part of the main house has a kitchen, a room that was formerly a living room and later a butcher’s shop, and a large store room, with five further rooms on the first floor.

In addition to the living quarters, the property includes a barn and a hayloft as well as several storage halls that were used as a chicken coop, garden and wood shed and to house large agricultural machinery.

The buildings of the estate were constructed between 1800 and 1980, with numerous construction phases and restorations taking place during this period.

The couple said: “It has a complex construction history which we are still trying to unravel together. The chapel is the oldest part of the property and probably dates from the 16th century. However, it was demolished in the late 19th century or early 20th century and rebuilt a few yards away when the course of the parish road was changed and the chapel was in the way.”

The couple said it was important to them to preserve as many of the property’s original features as possible, as well as to use and recycle existing materials wherever possible and to make sustainable choices when it came to building materials.

“While this means projects take a little longer, we also don’t contribute to landfill waste and can budget more money for big things like a new roof. So far, our renovation and maintenance costs have not exceeded €6,000 for materials and tools,” the couple said. They hope to do as much of the renovation work themselves as possible.

The property’s 16 hectares of land are “a lot more than we were originally looking for,” they said, and most of the land is currently being farmed by a neighboring farmer. They also hope to soon partner with a local beekeeper.

“Our plan for the property was and is to share it with other people. We are working on converting part of the property into a place for retreats, classes and family reunions/vacations where peace, connection and nature are the focus,” the couple said.

The couple realize that the renovation will take years and say, “We are not in a hurry because we want to enjoy every minute of the process.”

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