I am currently enjoying my morning coffee in an idyllic place near Roxbury CT. Again, our house and pet sitting adventures have taken us to a gorgeous part of the country that I probably would not have seen otherwise. And the fact that it is spring with flowers and shrubs blooming all over makes it even more perfect.
Since my last post about our housesitting assignments, we’ve been to London ON, Eagan MN (borrowing a house), Holly MI, West New York NJ
and to our last sit of the non-sailing season in Roxbury. And during this time of ever-changing locations, we sold our lake property in northern MN and bought a new-to-us boat. Somehow, I don’t think we will ever have a chance to be bored.
I’ve had numerous people ask how we find these housesits and how it works. There are online housesitting services that match homeowners (or boatowners) with prospective sitters. Generally, both sides pay an annual fee for the service – I assume this is to cover their costs and to keep those not serious about housesitting away. Depending upon the service, they do a certain number of background checks but the sitter profile and reviews probably play the biggest part as to whether you are selected for a sit. If you are interested in which services we use or other aspects of the services, send a question through in the comment section below.
So here are some numbers from our housesitting season those of you who are interested in such details:
- Our housesitting season started on October 19 and goes through April 30 – 193 Days
- Including our stay in Eagan MN, we had confirmed house sits for 176 Days
- We cared for 10 horses, 10 dogs, 6 cats, 2 bunnies, 2 tanks of fish, and a bazillion wild birds
- We had 13 travel days between sits
- We’ve spent just over $3300 during this time for all housesit expenses including fees for the services we use, hotels/Airbnb’s between sits, gas used between sits, and food consumed between sits. It does not cover groceries as we would be buying groceries regardless of where we were staying. Basically $500 per month.
From my perspective, what we’ve spent has been well worth the experiences that we’ve had and the places we’ve seen.
There have been some surprises along the way – the biggest has been that we did not spend as much time exploring the areas that we were in as much as I expected. I attribute this to the sale of the property, purchase of the boat and prepping it for the sailing season, sprucing up our current boat to go on the market, and my involvement helping to organize the 3rd Annual Women Who Sail Rendezvous in Belize. Another surprise was the pet-lag: the expectation of getting out of bed and stepping on a critter even though you were no longer in a house with pets!
I expect next year will allow us to do a bit more in the exploration department as we won’t be selling property and we certainly won’t be buying another boat! And speaking of next year – I already have booked over a third of the dates!
Here’s some pictures of our housesits and travels:
Enjoyed the post Julie, I didn’t realize you did the house sitting in the off season. What an interesting way to see different parts of the country!
Thanks Val – it might not be for everyone but it’s working for us at this stage of our lives!
I have several sits lined up for Cathedral City(adjacent to Palm Springs) in the summer—I know, it’ll be close to 100 degrees but there’s a pool and I LOVE the desert!! Thanks to you I found out about TrustedHousesitters?
Awesome!