Everyone dreams of owning their own perfect home, whether that is a picturesque cottage by the sea or a huge mansion in the countryside. One couple, Emilie and Jon James, are making their home-owning dreams a reality in a slightly different way.
The couple, who have been married for five years and together for 12, sold their previous home on Instagram and have spent their life savings to buy a rundown and abandoned caravan park in west Wales. Their dream? To turn it into their own home and tourist destination while living with no mortgage and within their own means.
Emilie, 33, and Jon, 33, are documenting their journey turning their abandoned caravan park into their dream home on TikTok (username @camp_out_west), Instagram, and YouTube. Jon grew up in Llandovery and Emily's family is from Swansea.
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The couple explained why they wanted to buy the caravan park and take on such a big project. They said: "We had been looking for land locally for two years, as we really wanted to build our own affordable tiny home in the countryside and be mortgage free. It's always been important to us to live within our means, so we really wanted to buy something affordable, without being in loads of debt or having a big mortgage.
"We really didn't have a big budget which meant our options were limited to what we could buy. The caravan park was in our budget and would allow us to live simply, in a place we love, debt free, so this just seems like the perfect fit for us."
They spoke about what it was like to return home to Wales, as their caravan park is in Carmarthenshire just outside of Llanelli. They said: "With both our parents and grandparents being from Wales, we both have a lot of family history here and this is where we both feel most at home."
"Jon is also a first language Welsh speaker and getting to live somewhere where he gets to speak Welsh every day, with our new neighbours in the village, is so special. It very much feels like we have 'come back to our roots.'"
The couple, who are full-time wedding photographers and videographers for non-traditional weddings and run three online stores, spoke about the impact of spending their life savings, leaving only £500 left in their bank, on the caravan park. They said: "This is the least amount of money we have ever had in our bank account, but we are very easily pleased and don't need much to be happy, so we are just taking it day by day.
"We spent all our money from our house sale and savings so we could buy the land outright, which left us with £500 in our bank, so it's a slow process as we start saving up our money each month from our day jobs. It's really important to us to do what we can afford, without taking out loans so we are just renovating it month by month, and feeling grateful that we were able to pay off our mortgage and now own the land outright, without any debt."
Emilie and Jon have only owned the caravan park for eight weeks but this and their limited budget has not stopped them from beginning work on the site, as they live in a caravan on site that they have already renovated. Their story has gained a huge following on social media, with over 204,000 followers on TikTok, and also from the local community.
Many in the area remember Jon's grandparents and have been telling Jon and Emilie their stories. The couple said: "The best thing that has come from our story being shared has been hearing all the incredible stories from strangers that remember Jon's grandads. There were both local legends within the communities where we bought our caravan park."
"His Grandad Islwyn Rosser was a local fireman, and also worked at the coal mine opposite our miner's caravan park, and his other grandad Graham James (known as "James the fruit' or Dat to many ), served all the villages within the Gwendraeth valley for decades with his fruit, veg, and sweet van, he also delivered to our caravan park! The amount of stories and comments we've received from people on TikTok and Facebook about them has been amazing."
Talking about the moment the caravan park became theirs and their offer had been accepted, Emilie added: "It didn't feel real! We heard that the land was for sale back in 2020 and when I mentioned it to Jon, asking if he knew where it was, he automatically replied 'no way are we buying that'. Jon knew exactly where it was, as we used to pass it every time we went to visit Jon's grandad.
"A year passed and it was still for sale so in August 2021 we thought we might as well go and look at it and as soon as we walked around, we fell in love and we put in our offer the next day. The sale took eight months to complete, and at points we thought it might never happen, so when we finally got the confirmation that it had gone through, there were a lot of happy tears. We literally wake up every day and say we can't believe it's ours!"
As Emilie and Jon continue their renovations, aiming to create two residential caravans for tourists and one for them to live in, you can follow their journey on their YouTube channel or TikTok account.
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