We are an active, non-smoking Canadian couple in our early fifties who escaped the corporate grind when our circumstances allowed. In 2007, we sold our house of eighteen years in Calgary (Alberta) and retired to our beautiful seaside cottage in Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland where we operated a small summer rental business for several years until 2014. We have since relocated to Vancouver, BC where the winters are a little more clement and where we can bicycle year round. We are lucky to be free to travel at leisure and we have a flexible schedule which shapes up as we find interesting house-sits.
We are experienced housesitters and we can provide great references from our homeowner hosts (over 50 assignments to date). In house-sitting opportunities, we are looking for the chance to travel and experience new places and especially to escape the cold snowy winters. We appreciate not having to drive all the time, so a transit system, or bikes to use (or buy used) are always a big plus. We really enjoy towns or cities with heritage districts and interesting neighbourhoods.
Our life philosophy is to 'tread lightly and leave it as we found it' as best we can. We really love cooking at home, so a well-equipped kitchen and convenient access to a good grocery store are highly appreciated features.
In our previous lives as homeowners, we enjoyed having two cats for several years. Our own home ownership experience spans inner-city to remote rural, and we have developed the very broad skillset that these situations demand. We are very dependable, conscientous, and take the responsibility of house-and-pet sitting very seriously.
In general, we would consider numerous geographic locations for a house-sitting assignment, though do prefer the convenience and novelty of small cities / large towns. We do enjoy coastal towns, but we're not beach or sun worshippers. For winter sits, we would really prefer locations with a moderate to warm climate, not much snow (rain is okay), and ideally an eye-opening living experience.
Anyway, that's a brief introduction to us. Please pop us a message to start a discussion .... cheers!