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Articles and Experiences (Some are short - some are long and include advice as well as recounting their experiences) |
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Articles and Experiences (Some are short - some are long and include advice as well as recounting their experiences) |
Click these links to read of their experiences
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13th September 2003 - Italy
* 9th October 2003 - Australia - London, France, USA
* 4th December 2003 - Australia
* 2002 - 2004 - Australia wide
* April 2004 - 2005 - South Africa to
Scotland to USA
* 2003 - 2004 - Switzerland to Italy
* March 2005 - Australia wide - 2004 & 2005
* 2003 - 2005 -
Sydney
* February 2006 - Brisbane (from
Scotland)
* June 2006 - Australia 2005
/ 2006
* December 2007 - Colorado USA 2005 / 2006
/ 2007
* December 2007 - London to Montana USA 2007
* April 2008 -
10 Years experience - Melbourne to UK, Europe, USA, Canada
Other feedback testimonials here
Handy hints here
9th October 2003
Australia - London, France, USA
Hi Danny Thanks for the reply..........the sit we are about to do here in Brisbane was advertised under 'sitter wanted' and we also picked up a fill in at Sunbury from the 'sitter wanted'. We get lots and lots of requests but there are not enough months in a year.........so obviously lots and lots of people use your data base. Now of course we are being referred by our past house hosts and we now have options of sitting in London, France and USA .........maybe this will be our goal for 2005. Thanks again. Cheers Thelma and Alan
4th December 2003
Australia
To respect their privacy, we have agreed to use the nom de plume "Greenacres"
Hi Housesitworld,
"Attn Danny Raynel"
We have just received your reminder that it is getting to that time of year to renew our subscription to your wonderful service.
We have had a very enjoyable and industrious past 12 months thanks to your service!
Within hours of placing our original advertisement with you the offers started to come in!, In our view this was truly remarkable! Unfortunately there were a lot that didn't really suit our needs so we had to turn these people away. The positions/needs that we were asked to sit to, or for, were unbelievable! BUT! A word of caution to prospective/new sitters. Some of the people that requested our services really needed/wanted a free repair / maintenance service rather than a housesitter. And their expectations were truly "a bit over the top"
Prospective sitters should remember that "YOU are in the box seat!"
There are a lot of people out there that require, need, want, & appreciate the services that we provide! (It has recently cost a friend of ours $210.00 just to leave a couple of cats in a cat motel for a week in Brisbane! )
We have been very fortunate in the fact that the 1st couple that we "sat for" were off to the U.K. for approx 9 weeks. We were able to park our caravan on their property and just use the bathroom facilities in the self-contained flat attached to their heritage listed home. A near new ride-on mower was provided to help us maintain the lawns along with a list of phone numbers for various local tradesmen who were available to rectify any problems that may have popped up. As they were leaving a Freezer and other electrical things on in the house we agreed to halving the power bill between us. (This is only a matter of reading the meters on the power board at the commencement and end of the house-sit)
We used the agreement form that is supplied on your site. (the owners had their legal rep go over it and they were quite happy with it!)
We are currently "sitting" a property in southern Tasmania for several months and then will be heading back up to Queensland for the winter months.
Oh dear what a hard life! It sure beats sitting around doing nothing and we feel we are suppling a service that is not only required but appreciated as well (providing you make an honest effort to do things as the owner has asked! That is I feel the most important part of the whole deal, "HONESTY!" by both parties!)
Thank you for the service that you have supplied us with over the last year. Our cheque for subscription renewal will be sent to you in the next few days.
We hope that you and all your staff have a happy, safe and loving Christmas and wish you all well for the coming New Year.
Kindest regards
If you need/want to use this letter for advertising purposes please respect our privacy and use the nom de plume "Greenacres"
2002 - 2004
Australia wide
John & Joy Stallard
In two and a half years we have been West to east for the cost of our fuel.
Leaving Perth we headed for some place we had never heard of, Briagolong, Victoria.
Having found the sit on the net we made contact with the homeowners and soon had all arrangements in place for a three month sit, our first. We were there in snow time and it really was an experience at the age of 62. I was used to temperatures more Mediterranean in keeping with Western Australia. The parents of the couple we were sitting for lived not far away and they made sure we missed out on nothing, taking us to all the best spots and made our stay most enjoyable. We still keep in touch.
The house was very country and had a family feel about it. There was about two hectares of mostly grass as it had been used for horse agistment. This was fun for me as I got to keep the grass down with a ride on mower, walk the dingo, yes she was a dingo, a very loving and playful animal.
The other thing to do was to cuddle the cat and enjoy watching the "Roulettes" fly above in practice. The Air Force base was only 30 odd Klm's away at Sale.
Keeping our eye on the net we found a sit to follow this one in Southport Qld with only a months break, great we can stay with Joy's sister for a week or two in Coffs harbour.
Arriving on the Gold Coast we made ourselves known to Peter and Lyn our new hosts. It was September and the weather was just great. It was a lovely home with swimming pool, cat and dog. Lyn had such a feeling for the dog as it had saved her from a life restricted to the house and so she bought an Echo car solely to take the dog to the park some 10klm's away. Twice a day around the park got me in trim again. We were there to see the Indy 300 and to see all the wonders of the area, great stay! We had my daughter and friend fly in from Perth for a week and Joy's brother and his wife come for a week and then Joy's sister and partner from Coffs come for a week. With the owners consent of course. We still make regular contact with Peter and Lyn and will call in again to say Hi on our way through to another Qld sit this Xmas.
We found another sit from the World wide House-sitting site on the net that took us on to Pt Lincoln in South Australia with only a week to spare, small world, it turned out that John Mc: worked my brother Ivan at Woomera. We had the best time of our lives at Lincoln and made some lifetime friends not only with our hosts but also with the members of the Salvation Army where we are soldiers. Although well out of the way it is a very beautiful spot for site seeing and fishing. As we are both nurses we worked as volunteers at the Flinders Nursing home for the aged. We have been back to Lincoln since just for a holiday.
Back to the West where we had a sit at Gidgegannup for three weeks while the folks there went on holidays to New Zealand. They left us their car and so we picked them up and dropped them at the airport. Gidgegannup is a picturesque spot set in the hills overlooking the coastal plains some 20 klm's East of Midland. A double storied house with a magnificent panorama. Our next sit wasn't far away on a horse stud at Bullsbrook, by far the most fun I have ever had without spending money. The Quarter horse is not just a horse but the most inquisitive animal I have ever come across and a delight to be with. The owners Bob & Kitty who run Dakota Stud are nearly as good as their horses and we have grown to love them like family. No time to become lax, we are off to Duncraig, a suburb of Perth for five months to sit house for a single lady who is off on her own to travel almost all the way around Australia on her own.
This suited us fine as it was easy travelling on the freeway to our daughters place not far from the other end of the Farmer Tunnel or to our son's place in Doubleview along the ocean front. Patsy is still among our list of newly acquired friends. A very lovely lady.
Bob & Kitty set up our next sit, they had friends in Claremont, a suburb between Perth and Fremantle, who were off to South Africa for a long, hard earned holiday. They were from South Africa and had friends and relatives to catch up with. We were somewhat dumbfounded when we saw the house. A beautiful double storied place with everything at your fingertips. We had landed in heaven and thankfully our hosts are still those we count among treasured friends.
My wife Joy worked at the Rockingham Hospital South of Perth before we started travelling and it was while we were at Claremont one of her colleagues from work asked if we could do a sit in Mandurah next and so we have come full circle but by no means finished. We leave this sit in another four weeks to go to Karratha in the states north to see or son and his family for a week before returning for a further three weeks to Dakota Stud.
Next we will return to Pt Lincoln to pick up our camper trailer that we left behind and then on to Wodonga for a three month sit followed by another three months just out of Brisbane in a bush setting that looks delightful and has an outside spa.
A word of wisdom to the newbie's - have a federal police clearance not more than three months old and a couple of good checkable references. We paid 50 dollars only for our web ad which is a once off payment. Feel free to contact me on my e-mail johnstallard@dodo.com.au Hope to see you on the road.
Joy's View.
The home we are now sitting is our eighth and I have learnt a few things along the way.
My first priority is to make myself at home wherever I am. I have my sewing machine for quilting etc. Books to read, my water colours & something to crochet so when we are not out & about checking out the new surroundings I have plenty to do.
Because we are soldiers in the Salvation Army we have an immediate family wherever we are. I miss my children at Xmas & birthdays but when we return to Perth we make up for it.
We have mini holidays between house sits and just meander along the highways & byways. One of the most wonderful things when travelling is the great people you meet along the way. To phrase a quote, "no stranger just friends to meet".
My advice to anyone contemplating house sitting is just give it a go, our lives have been enriched by the experience. Travel light, you don't need a lot of clothes, just good quality non iron, since you move to different places no one knows what you wore last week. You may get tired of them but that's no big deal. Op-shops are a great place to drop off your old clothes and maybe pick up something for yourself. We keep in touch by post cards, the internet and by way of a CDMA phone. Some hate that because it reminds them of where that would like to be.
I usually make arrangements to use the host's condiments and then I leave sugar, flour etc to compensate. No need to carry too much. We leave the day they arrive back and prepare a meal for them. I usually make a cake and a lasagne so they can settle back in without having to worry about cooking that first night.
John & Joy Stallard
April 2004
April 2004 onwards
South Africa to Scotland to USA
Janetta and EddyThis house-sitting is great. The first response to our first ad was for five months in the Highlands of Scotland, with six weeks off in the middle to go touring.
Our hosts own a private resort with twelve self-catering units in this very remote, rural setting close to Loch Ness; they have gone sailing in the Mediterranean. We are responsible for the large four bed roomed house and the care of two cats and about fifty houseplants. It is stunning beautiful around here with a conservation village at the end of our drive, different places to walk each day and the whole of the north of Scotland and islands to explore. We are surrounded by mountains, rivers, forests, ancient castles and beautiful scenery. We enjoy photography and have already taken hundreds of photos already.
Our hosts made us extremely welcome and now we feel very much at home: we have regular contact with their staff that run the resort, and have made friends with some of our neighbours. We would recommend house-sitting for everyone, what a clever concept.
Janetta and Eddy Reitsma, May 2004
And, November 2004 . . .
Hi Danny, Well we are well into our second amazing house-sit, this time in Connecticut, New England, USA, looking after a lovely old house, two cats, and wild birds. The "fall colours" were amazing and we have had an early snow. We have made so many friends and have a great social life here. We are here until end February and then have a month in Florida and Las Vegas "on holiday", although it all feels like being on holiday!
Next stop is New Zealand, so please can you put up the ad for us.
Thanks for running such a great business, we are having the time of our lives!Best Regards
Janetta and Eddy Reitsma, Nov 2004
www.geocities.com/eddy_reitsma
Hi Danny, Thanks for putting our details back on the site. We actually do more house exchanges than housesittings, but did two of the latter in 2003. Three weeks in Tuscany in August (HOT!) house, cat, dog and garden sitting worked out very well. We were just 10 minutes from the sea, which was great. It convinced us we would like to really learn to speak Italian so we took on a 5-month house-sitting job in Umbria, about 40 kms from Perugia. That worked out well from the Italian-learning point of view: we took two months of full-time courses at the Universitą per Stranieri and two months of private courses twice a week with a local teacher. And the opportunity to visit some fantastic places out-of-season was good too - Perugia, Assissi, Gubbio, Cittą di Castello, Urbino, Todi, Cortona - the list is endless and all within day-trip distance. And the food was fantastic and the local trattorias full of Italians. Not too many tourists in sight between November and March! BUT, this experience also convinced us never to spend another winter in an old (although well renovated) farmhouse. We froze! The temperatures averaged around 0°C for 3 months and it snowed 5 times! We had agreed to pay the heating costs which the owner said were 750 Euro for the 5 months - and thank God we got that in writing! We only heated 1/4 of the house, couldn't get the temperature above 18°C and the gas bill amounted to 2,500 Euros. The bedroom temperature hovered around 6-10° all winter. And the owner also conveniently forgot to mention the dog problem in the village. There were more dogs than people and they barked day and night. All this to say that housesitting is a great idea - but get all the facts before you go - and get the costs you will be expected to pay in writing!
Kind regards, Carol Collins, May 2004.
Australia, March 2005 ( All 2004 & 2005)
Hello Danny
Time to wish you a happy Easter - almost!! Having a fab time on the little farm here in Tassie - lots to do but very enjoyable. Will be back in Canberra around the end of June and will be doing a sit for friends until late August. Can you please update my details again. It must soon be time for your fee again?
Find the people I meet through housesitting often ask about the site so of course I can rave on about my success!! Always mention that I actually met you and can assure them you ain't some character in a penthouse in Sydney!!
I would suggest that its pretty dry down here - no serious rain since I arrived 21st Feb.. Most beautiful spot here high on a hill and at the top of the hill Bass Strait can be seen. Cycling down is a bit tricky so you can guess about cycling up!! Once down though good cycling beside the Forth River. About 11k to Devonport and Ulverstone with good shopping. Prefer Ulverstone as its easy and safer to cycle there.
Plenty of cultural activities and had a good fix at the Star of the Sea church Burnie last Monday night. Cologne Chamber Orchestra - wonderful concert all for $27!!!
I'm rapt in life down here where you can still buy houses under $200,000 close to beaches!!
Hope life goes well for you.
Cheers, Keith.
Dear Sir / Madam,
Reference for Mr and Mrs Jens Steffen
I contacted the Steffen's via your website, and after couple of phone calls
we decided that they sounded like the perfect people to look after our cats
and our home.
We invited them to pop round before we went on holiday, so we could show
them where everything was, and of course, to introduce them to the cats.
The cats love company, and one could tell the Stiffens were used to cats, so
we were immediately reassured that the cats would be cared for.
We left a couple of days later and had a wonderful holiday, knowing that our
house was secure, and our cats taken care of.
Jens Steffen offered to collect us from the airport upon our return, which
we gladly accepted, and when we arrived back home, it was to a house that
was cleaner than we had left it (I am embarrassed to say), and the cats
hadn't missed us at all. The fridge was full of goodies, so I didn't even
have to go shopping the next day. The lawn was mowed, the plants were
watered - amazing, it was as if we'd never left...
All in all, the Steffen's were very reliable, trustworthy and extremely
generous. We were very lucky to have found them, especially as it was the
first time we had ever used house sitters.
The website is very good too, and we were very appreciative of the tips you
give. We didn't feel the need to go as far as a contract, though
admittedly, it would help prevent misunderstandings.
We will definitely use your website again, perhaps even to advertise as
house sitters ourselves! Perhaps you should look into house swaps as an
option...
Best regards,
Richard and Julie, Brisbane, Feb '06