Couple buys uninhabited island in Finland to build a dream summer cabin instead of buying a house

The young generation has been struggling to keep a roof over their heads with the real estate prices soaring all over the world. Some prefer to pay hefty rent for a small condo whereas others are pooling all their savings to purchase a house big enough to start a family. However, a 24-year-old Finnish-American man is doing things differently. According to LADbible, Oliver Russell and his girlfriend Helena Tomaszewska, 20, chose to purchase a tiny island in Finland after realizing it was cheaper than buying a house.

Russell grew up in America and he would routinely visit Finland each summer. It led him to fall in love with the local summer cottage culture that is popular in the country. Not only that, Finland provides free tuition to college students if they are Finnish citizens and it persuaded Russell to move from the U.S. to Finland. When he met his girlfriend, they started looking for options to move in together. “In Finland, the summer cottage life is a huge part of the culture and I would come out here every summer. I loved the summer cottage life and wanted one of my own,” Russell explained to the outlet.

The couple had options between hunting for an apartment in Helsinki and building their summer cabin in the woods. Russell hopped onto a real estate website and found a vacant island that has been up for sale at $36,569 for the past 10 years. “It ended up being cheaper than a normal lot I could buy so we jumped on it,” he revealed, adding that the previous owner accepted an offer of $31,000 and sold the island to Russell. Russell and his girlfriend could finally move to the 2.5 acres of vacant land. However, they were only allowed to build their cabin at the top portion of the island as the rest of it was classified as forest land.

The young couple spent their first night on the island in a floating tent which they transformed into a glamping site. They built a deck and a frame with materials purchased from hardware sites and fallen trees. The duo has also built an outhouse and an off-grid shower on their property. Neither Russell nor Tomaszewska had any experience living off the grid, before deciding to move to the island. Since both of them are students, they visit the site every other week and dedicate their time to construction when they are free. They have also started looking for sources of firewood to sustain themselves on the island during the harsh winter season.

“The ultimate dream is to build a log cabin for the summer. But first, we want to build a sauna cabin—based on the [building] rules, one-third of the plot has to be a sauna cabin,” Russell mentioned. “We haven't set ourselves super hard deadlines as there have been a lot of learning experiences. Every time we go to the island, it doesn't feel real that it is ours—it is so nice to be out there.” The couple share their time building their off-grid lifestyle through posts and videos on their Instagram page, @off.grid.island. So far, they have shared about setting up a shower and water heater in the wilderness, their first trip to the island and how things have been progressing after two months of work on the site.