Ola Braanaas is rich, but he is not like most rich people. He lives alone in a converted farmhouse on an islet in the sea, Svinøyna in Gulen. He has spent NOK 35 million to save an old trading town from decay, and he does not expect to get it back. It is better to spend the money on culture, on something that lasts, than to waste it on the stock exchange, says Braanaas.

They live on one of the highest farms in the country, and they live three miles from the nearest road. Anne Gro was heavily pregnant when she and Åsmund moved to Argehovd in Møsstrond, his family farm, more than twenty years ago. The Løvås couple have lived there from sheep farming and tourism, and there they have brought up two daughters, who had to live in a boarding school for all their school years. Neither the parents nor the girls are sorry that they chose Argehovd.