We have been on the road for almost two months now. What an adventure we are experiencing with the three of us in our camper! ✨

We sold our house in the Netherlands, including all furnishings and other possessions, such as our car, motorcycle and the rest.

It was a super exciting period, in which we completely turned our lives upside down.

Read on to find out how that whole process went for us and why we chose to sell everything and travel! 🤩

The way there

“But how, with a three-year-old son, could you ever make the choice to let go of everything you have built up over the past few years and take this 'extreme' step?”

Well, for us it was a matter of perfect timing.

We had seen a beautiful semi-detached house in a small Frisian village, in the middle of the forest and close to the IJsselmeer. When we went to have a look, we fell in love immediately. But as you may know, the housing market is not the easiest for buyers. We had made a great offer. Feasible for us, but well above the asking price and still not high enough to become the owner of this dream place. 😔

During this process, we of course also had our current house calculated. This house, which we had renovated from top to bottom with our friends and family, three years before we found that new house. Then we discovered that there was a huge surplus value on it, which suddenly created completely different possibilities.

A long cherished dream

Let's go back a year before we found the house in the small village in Friesland, in the middle of the forest.

Dennis was a bit down at the time. After turbulent years, he felt a strong need to radically change course. Because if it continued like this, we would not be happier and we were afraid that it could even cost us our relationship in the long run.

That's why we discussed at length whether it would be a good idea to sell the house and move into a camper. That way we could explore the world and have all the space to create something completely new, purely by following our hearts. ❤️

But then… To Dennis's great disappointment, Attie was definitely not ready for that yet.

Dennis had been dreaming of this plan for years. Attie had always said she wanted to see a lot of the world, but the thought of selling everything at that moment and traveling full-time with a camper was simply too much for her.

A difficult decision

A month later, Dennis still didn't feel good about the idea that he couldn't do what he wanted most. And that the reason for that was his great love, who didn't like it.

But what now? Was this the end of our relationship? Would Attie change her mind? How would this end?

The uncertainty ate at Dennis. Would his dream ever come true without having to leave Attie?

But yeah... We had a two year old child and we love each other very much. It would be ridiculous to break up for this reason, while on paper we have a wonderful life?

We owned a house, a car and a motorbike. Every month we had enough left to eat healthy, go on holiday once a year and occasionally go out to a nice restaurant.

However, a difficult decision was made.

Dennis decided and told Attie that he would travel anyway, a year after the date of that conversation. Whether it was with a camper and together, or in some other way and alone, it didn't matter. The seed had been planted in any case: in a year there would be a trip.

This decision hit Attie hard.

She had a hard time with this, which Dennis of course understood. But what else could we do? Dennis was becoming increasingly unhappy with the way we were living, so we had to be open and honest about this, right?

The year after the decision

The year that followed was special in many ways.

On the one hand, we didn't think about it every day and we actually grew closer to each other. After all, we wanted everything, except to break up. We thought it was important that Lias grew up with both his father and mother in one house.

This year was all about connection and innovation.

Every now and then Dennis would bring up his decision, maybe once every two months. But when Attie brought it up, Dennis quickly reassured her. He said that he wouldn't just leave her to go on a trip alone. That would mean that he wouldn't see her and Lias for a long time.

And whether it was a month-long trip or a complete breakup, neither ultimately felt right.

But then…

Then the moment came when we heard that the purchase of the house in Friesland did not go through.

That was the moment when we started thinking: what else can we do with the equity in our home?

Are we going to build an extension to get an extra ten square meters of space?
Should we look for another dream location, like the house that did not materialize?

To be honest, at that moment we had not even considered for a second the idea that we could also use the equity to make that long-cherished trip of a lifetime.

So a decision was quickly made.

We contacted a carpenter who had previously done work on our house and we were very happy with him. If anyone had to do the extension, it was him!

Everything was set in motion: it had to be ten square meters extra. Everything was measured and the carpenter got to work with a cost estimate and drawings.

But then we started to doubt...

Before we received the quote and plans from the carpenter, a question came to mind:

"Does this actually make us truly happy?"

An extra ten square meters to the living room, but the house remains in the same place and the mortgage only increases.

"Is that what we want?"

The answer was simple: no.

This didn't make us happy.

And then Dennis asked the question he didn't think he'd dare ask:

"Isn't this the perfect time to sell our house and everything and finally take that trip?"

Lias was only three and according to compulsory education he didn't have to go to school until he was five years and one month old. The equity in our house was big enough to buy a nice camper and bridge a considerable period. This gave us the time to discover our passions and make work of them. For Dennis that was photography, for which he had set up this website. He hopes to eventually be able to balance the fixed costs with the income from the webshop. By selling unique collections of wall decoration on dibond & unique educational e-books to motivate others to also capture the most beautiful pictures while traveling or in their environment, with the right knowledge for beginners and advanced. For Attie it was still a bit unclear, but she knew that something would come her way if she gave herself the space.

Her answer nearly made Dennis fall off his chair.

"Yeah, I think so too!" 😳🥳

And so our big adventure began: selling everything and traveling, traveling with a child and living in a camper. 🚐✨

The whole process that followed

Oh no, now it's all getting really close and serious!

Now we suddenly had to make arrangements with the real estate agent to put our house up for sale. We also had to decide whether we wanted to keep some of our possessions or whether we really wanted to get rid of everything.

In addition, we had to inform our employers of our choice and think about a date on which we wanted to terminate our contract.

And of course we had to tell our family and friends that Dennis' dream was now really going to come true. The reactions were a mix of amazement and enthusiasm:

"Wow, that's incredibly cool of you."

"But you have everything so well organized, don't you?"

"You were looking for another house, weren't you?"

"Have you really thought this through?"

"Are you sure you're going to sell your house? With this housing market, you'll never get a house like this back!"

And this was just a small selection of all the questions and comments we received. What many people did not know was that we had been thinking about this for years. 😊

The search for a camper

This turned out to be not so easy.

What kind of camper do you choose if you are going to live in it full-time?

A campervan appealed to us at first. Sleek, compact and exactly our style. But when we looked at a few, we quickly discovered a problem: Dennis could not stand upright in any of the campervans. And because we were travelling with a child, it would mean that we would have to convert half the campervan every day to be able to sleep. That was not ideal.

We soon found ourselves in an alcove camper. This type of camper is perfect for families:

✅ Fixed beds, so no hassle with converting
✅ Enough space to sit inside
✅ A spacious kitchen
✅ A separate shower and toilet
✅ Enough storage space for everything we needed

After looking at about 100 campers online and 40 in real life , we finally found the perfect camper at a private owner's. This one even had an XXL garage that fit our bikes and solar panels that allowed us to go off-grid for a while could stand.

You can already feel it coming: this became our camper! 🚐✨

The sale of the house

What a rollercoaster this was!

Our house went online on Friday and we were curious to see how much interest there would be over the weekend. Well, we found out! Within one day, four viewings were scheduled and the house had been viewed thousands of times.

On Monday morning, at 10:00 am, the phone rang.

"Dennis, don't be alarmed, but someone just called and made a fantastic offer. They want to sign the contracts as soon as possible to close it."

We were stunned. Someone seriously offered a large amount of money without even seeing the house? That felt crazy.

After consulting Attie and Dennis' mother, we decided to accept the offer. But because the buyer had previously bought a house in our street and had withdrawn during the cooling-off period, we thought it was fair to give the other interested parties a chance as well.

These were nerve-wracking days full of uncertainty. But in the end everything went through! After a few bumps along the way everything was arranged at the notary and suddenly we had no house anymore! 😳

Living in a camper for the first time

From that moment on we lived in the camper . We stayed at a campsite in Sneek, in the same district as our house, so that we could stay in our familiar surroundings for a while.

The sale of our house went so fast that we had to stay in the Netherlands for a few months before we had our last day of work and left. In retrospect, that was a good thing, because we soon discovered all kinds of hidden defects in the camper:

❌ Incorrect wiring at the domestic battery
❌ A broken battery charger, which meant that the battery was not charged while driving, nor was it charged via shore power or solar panels.
❌ Leakage through the air conditioning unit, which required us to replace the entire unit
❌ Even more leaks due to dried-out sealant seams and cracks in the corner profile

Luckily we were able to have everything repaired in the Netherlands by our top technician from Autofirst vd Steen in Sneek!

Well, such things are part of choosing a life in a camper . A camper has to endure a lot more than a house that stays in one place. But luckily Dennis is also very handy, so if we experience something like that on the road, we'll take care of that too! 💪🏼

The farewell and the departure date

And then the time had come. A month earlier than planned.

Because why would we stay in the Netherlands in December with that gray weather, if we could already leave for the sun? ☀️

On December 1st we said goodbye to family and friends in restaurant De Kajuit, right next to the campsite where we stayed. We enjoyed a cup of coffee and a pastry and nice conversations about the future.

There was sadness, because seeing each other again in May is different than being together every week. But above all we felt gratitude and joy.

In the afternoon after the farewell we left. The first stop: Dennis' parents' house, to sort out the last things. Then the journey really started. On Tuesday 3 December we got in and left for Nunspeet. There we had an appointment with a good friend of Dennis, because Attie had done a special photoshoot with her and wanted to show us the photos of it with a 'reveal party', wow!

The journey really begins now

Then we really left, no more appointments, just 1 place we had to go to! Our first stop was camping shop Obelink , to get the last things. And then… we drove away. We looked at each other with a big smile, but also with tension.

"This is the moment. Now we're just really going for it. Is this a dream?"

No. This was the reality .

The three of us, in our house on wheels, into the wide world. At our own pace. In our own way.

The first weeks on the road

We didn't have a fixed plan, except that we wanted to find the sun. But the weather threw a spanner in the works. Rain, snow, storm... Not really ideal.

So we decided to drive straight to southern Spain . We ended up in Alcoutim, just over the border in Portugal. We stayed there for two weeks.

For the holidays we moved to Tavira, a nice village where we could stay at a nice place for Christmas and New Year. We stayed here for three weeks , because it was so nice there.

Dennis took drone photos and videos of the camper place and in return we could stay for free. The owner was so enthusiastic that he offered us to stay at his other camper places in the Algarve in exchange for drone photos and videos of those places.

There's no better way to travel than by making a good deal without any money.

How we are doing now

We have been on the road for almost two months now. How time flies!

We really like living in a camper , but it is also a big adjustment. You have to let go of old habits and are together 24/7. This is of course fantastic, exactly what we wanted, but it also takes some getting used to.

It is wonderful to be in the most beautiful places, where we have the choice every day to stay or go to a new place.

Tomorrow we drive to Nazaré, where gigantic waves are predicted - a dream place for Dennis to photograph. After that we will most likely return to the south, because Dennis still has to book a camper place in Silves. It is a strange route, but hey, if you have all the time anyway it doesn't matter!

Sell ​​everything and travel We are really enjoying it so far and we hope our story inspires you!

👉 Want to follow us? Check @international_wander on Instagram or follow us on Polarsteps !

Dennis shares all his photos almost daily on his instagram @dennishuitema.nl

Want to support us? Order a unique wall decoration print on dibond, which Dennis has released in his webshop and/or take your photography skills to the next level with his educational e-books!

Thanks for reading and see you next time! ❤️