Hi! We are a happy and loving couple, aged 43 and 39, enjoying the adventure of living abroad. We've been together for 15 years and although we are both Australian, we have been living and house sitting mainly in Mexico for the past 5 years.
Back in 2009, we decided we would like to experience more than just the usual four week vacation each year, so we worked hard to get into a position where we could leave everything behind in Australia and take our time to really explore the rest of the world, starting with Central America. We left home in early February 2011 and since then, we’ve explored Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Panama, parts of the US and Europe and lived in a number of different places in Mexico and Europe.
House-sitting jobs completed (hotel sits below):
- Long-term: We have done three house/pet sits ranging between 6 months to over 1 year, all in Mexico (in Chapala, Puerto Escondido & San Jose del Cabo).
- Medium-term: We have done seven house sits ranging from 1-3 months, in Ajijic, (Mexico), Providence (US), Denver (US), Long Beach (US), Byron Bay (Australia), Pruna Sevilla (Spain) and most recently London (UK)).
- Short-term: We have done two house sits ranging from 1-3 weeks, in Malmo (Sweden) and Long Beach (California).
Hotel-sitting jobs completed:
- Medium-term: We have done four hotel-sits for the same hotel, every year for the past four years. It is a highly-ranked, small hotel in Puerto Escondido (Mexico) complete with staff, a steady flow of guests, a dog and 6 cats!
Currently:
- We are living and working in Netherlands and not available for house sits at this time.
All of our house and pet sits come with great references. All but two have been with pets.
I teach yoga and study part-time (online) for an undergraduate degree through Swinburne University in Melbourne, Australia. We have studied Spanish and have a good working knowledge of it. We love being able to soak up the various regional cultures in each country we go to. As a certified ESL teacher and Yoga Teacher, I can do some tutoring in English or hold yoga classes if I wish. Matty is a Hydrographic Surveyor so he works all over the world on a fly-in-fly-out basis generally for 4-6 weeks at a time. We both practice yoga and Vipassana meditation. Matty is a surfer. We are both non-smokers. I am vegetarian (Matty isn’t) so we love to cook and eat great food. We do a lot of walking and reading as well.
We welcome house sits in Mexico, Canada, Europe, certain parts of Central America as well as the US however we have no availability at this time. Generally we are very flexible with dates and open to short, medium and long-term house sits. We love to look after pets as well as the house and gardens. In addition to completing all these above-mentioned house sits, we also have extensive experience living in and managing the ongoing upkeep of our own lovely home and saltwater pool back in Australia.
For home owners with pets, Matt and I both grew up with various animals in and around our family homes – cats and dogs (even cows, donkeys, chickens, ducks and guinea pigs) – all very much part of the family. Sadly, our last dog passed away in 2010, however the silver lining to this is that we are now free to travel with no limitations. The opportunity to love and care for someone else’s pet gives us that special companionship that we miss so much.
If you are looking for a house sitter and would like further information about us, please feel free to contact us or any of our references. We look forward to hearing from you.
Fiona & Matty.