Fundraising & Ways to Support

When we bought our first little cottage here in 2019, we certainly didn’t imagine that a few years later we would find ourselves responsible for an entire abandoned hamlet - or that so many people would choose to follow us as we slowly brought it back to life.

Restoring a place like this is a huge undertaking. There are cottages, barns, outbuildings, bread ovens and seemingly endless roofs, walls and chimneys all needing attention - and, as much as possible, we do the work ourselves.

Along the way, something rather wonderful happened.

People watching our journey began asking if there was a way they could help.

And that support has become part of the story of this village.

Every contribution, however large or small, helps us keep the restoration moving - whether that means buying materials, tackling another roof or wall, or paying for the skilled hands we sometimes simply couldn’t do without.

Keeping Dimples at the village

Over the past six months or so, our friend Ian - or Dimples, as our YouTube subscribers have affectionately christened him - has become a huge part of life at La Buslière.

With 47 years’ experience across various trades, he brings an extraordinary wealth of knowledge to the project, as well as an extra pair of extremely capable hands.

Of course, Ian has bills to pay too, which means we have to pay him for his time. And somewhere along the way, our subscribers decided they wanted to help us keep him here.

We now regularly receive donations accompanied by little messages along the lines of:

“This is so Dimples can stay on longer.”

We absolutely love that.

It means that some of the work you see happening at the village is quite literally being made possible by the people watching it.

And, judging by the number of requests to keep him, it would appear Dimples is no longer entirely ours anyway.

GoFundMe

Our GoFundMe was created for those who simply wanted to make a contribution towards the restoration of the village.

Whether it helps towards materials, another seemingly endless roof - or a few more days of Dimples - every contribution goes towards keeping the restoration moving forward.

Buy Me a Coffee

Our Buy Me a Coffee page offers another way to support what we’re doing, either with a one-off contribution or ongoing monthly support.

It’s also home to a few extras we’ve created along the way - including ORIGINS ~ The Backstory.

Amazon Wishlist

This one wasn’t actually our idea!

After lots of requests from subscribers asking if they could send us something practical to help with the restoration, we finally gave in and created an Amazon Wishlist.

It contains things we genuinely need and will use around the village - so if you’d rather contribute something tangible, you can choose an item and know that sooner or later you’ll probably spot it being put to work somewhere at La Buslière.

ORIGINS ~ The Backstory

ORIGINS is our six-part, almost five-hour filmed conversation telling the story of the lives we lived before all of this.

We decided to place the series behind a paywall and turn it into a fundraiser for the restoration.

There’s something we rather like about that idea:

Two broken people telling their stories to help fix a broken village.

So, if you’d rather receive something in return for supporting the project, you can watch the complete ORIGINS series while helping us continue the restoration at the same time.

Other ways to say hello

And finally

Please never feel that supporting the village has to mean contributing financially.

Watching our weekly episodes on our YouTube channel, subscribing, commenting, sharing what we’re doing with somebody else - or simply coming along for the ride - all helps enormously.

To everyone who has supported us in any of those ways:

Thank you for helping us put this extraordinary little place back together.

Yip & Paul xx