Two stone cabins have been renovated by Doolaard.
He has over 400,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, where he uploads his progress on the plot.
The community offers crucial support and advice when it comes to funding his dream.
After many years of traveling the world, graphic designer Martijn Doolaard found a remote location to call home.
After fifteen years of working as a graphic designer in Amsterdam, Martijn Doolaard decided he wanted more adventure in his life so he began traveling around the world on his bicycle and documented it on the internet.
He wondered how he could make a place like that. He told Insider that he was pondering how to live there instead of camping.
After living full-time in Amsterdam, he started looking at remote properties in mountainous regions in Spain and Italy.
Doolaard was going to turn the cabins into a homestead. He said they looked like barns or animal shelters when he was filming.
The bones are bare. He said in the video that there was no plumbing, toilets, or electricity in the place.
Doolaard's channel has grown from a few hundred subscribers to over 400,000 after he posted videos of his renovation for a year.
The videos about the renovation drew a lot of viewers.
The first video of Doolaard's renovation series was posted in October of 2011. He visited the remote piece of land in the Italian Alps a day after taking ownership.
At the time, Doolaard had less than 1,000 subscribers, but the video blew up, and to date is his most-viewed video of all time, with almost five million views.
Doolaard thought he would have to make a lot of content in order to find a bigger audience, but he was pleasantly surprised by the quick rise in popularity. He said that you grow and build. It usually goes that way.
He filmed his progress to motivate himself.
To hold himself accountable and keep on top of the renovations, Doolaard was required to make a progress video each week for his YouTube channel.
He said that it motivates him to finish it even if he doesn't like it.
Adding solar panels to the land is one of the things documented in the videos. He was able to live on the land while he worked by setting up a campsite.
In three months Doolaard's audience had grown to 100,000 subscribers and they were giving him tips and suggestions on how to build.
Doolaard said he received 500,000 views in one day. He thought viewers liked the videos because they offered an escape.
He said that people come home from work on the weekend and open their laptop and have a plate of food on their lap.
After establishing an audience, Doolaard began receiving feedback from people with similar experience. They would send him long emails full of advice if they left comments with helpful insight.
There's feedback coming because the audience has grown. The community gets bigger and more interesting.
It was important for him to learn the skills he needed for the project with the help of videos on the internet.
Doolaard had a small amount of upkeep in his apartment in Amsterdam. He knew the process wouldn't be easy, but he liked that aspect of it.
He told Insider that it was part of the project to develop himself.
Doolaard was interested in learning how to fix a stone roof, so he went to the internet to watch videos on the subject. The more videos he watched, the more suggestions were given to help him build his skills.
He said that we live in a time where you can teach yourself. You can get pretty far if you have the time and passion to do it.
It was not always easy uploading videos from a rural location.
Doolaard said he had a lot of technical issues when he tried to film himself, as his camera batteries broke. He kept his filming set-up simple and bought a new camera that was more reliable.
After filming the progress of his land throughout the week, Doolaard edited the footage on Saturdays. He worked on the video on Sunday so it could be uploaded to the video sharing website.
For the first few months he had to climb on top of a hill to get reception from the nearest phone tower in order to access the internet.
He said there were always some issues. I tried to deal with it even though the microphone didn't work.
Doolaard uses the money he makes from the internet to fund his work.
The first year's worth of renovations would cost between 20,000 and 30,000.
The tools are one of the most expensive parts, and he saves a lot of money by doing it himself.
Due to the popularity of his videos, Doolaard was able to make enough money from the partner program to fund his lifestyle.
He has more time and energy to make the videos now that he is a full-time employee on the video site.
He said that it was perfect. I'm doing what I want to do and I live the life I want to live.
The progress he had made on the land and cabins in the first year was summarized in a video uploaded in October.
On October 21, Doolaard posted a three-hour video that showed a timeline of his progress over the course of a year.
He wanted to introduce electricity using solar panels and create a water connection so he could live on the land while he worked.
Adding a new door to the entrance was one of the changes made to the cabins.
It has received over 2 million views in the first month, and the comments have praised Doolaard for both the work he has done on the land and the way he has filmed and edited his videos. One comment said that this deserved an award. People are inspired in many ways by it.
Doolaard will continue to post weekly updates about his renovation.
After a year of renovations, Doolaard is still enjoying it and he will continue to make videos.
The goal is to complete the first cabin in six months and he will accept any mistakes he makes.
He said that he comes out of bed every day and goes to work. You try to learn from the experience.
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