Hello,
My husband and I are the caretakers on a 50 acre vineyard estate in Sonoma County, California. The property is about six miles away from Healdsburg on a “destination” winery road. It is a very popular area for wine lovers and bicyclists. The property includes two large homes plus our cottage, as well as a pool, tennis court, orchard and bocce court. The owners of the property are rarely here, much less so in the winter. We have been the caretakers here for eight years and still can’t believe our good luck in finding this great place to live.
This winter we are planning a trip that will have us away from January 3rd to February 15th. Given that most of our pay comes in the form of a great cottage to live in with all utilities paid, we can not afford to pay a housesitter. As former house sitters ourselves, we always thought it was a fair trade to do a few minor chores for someone in exchange for living in a place we could otherwise never afford to experience.
A house sitters duty here would be mostly to provide security through presence (being here roughly six nights out of seven). We have a 19 pound Fox Terrier that would need taking care of as well, no special medical needs, just excerise, food and love. She could stay over at my mother’s house for occasional long days away or for any overnight trips a housesitter might want to take. Other duties would be to skim the pool for leaves and leaf blow the grounds once a week or so. Once a week the two other homes on the property need to be checked to make sure all is well in them. Last but not least, a housesitter would need to pick up the mail daily.
Before we could engage a housesitter, the owners of the property would have to approve of our choice. Therefore, very good references and experience with house sitting and/or caretaking would be necessary. A clear police security check would be helpful as well.
A few things I should mention: 1.) We do not have fast internet; old fashioned dial up is all that is available (your smart phone would work fine You will need a car, we are provided a truck by the owner’s but I doubt I can pass on that perk to a housesitter. A clean DMV printout could be helpful in negotiating this detail No broadcast TV, just a large collection of DVD's. If this sounds like something that would work for you, please send me an with some information about yourself.
Thank you,
Holly