A few weeks ago I wrote about being homeless (That Empty Feeling). Since starting our house-sitting (Urban Nomad) lifestyle in May 2011 we’d had very few gaps in somewhere to live until the end of January this year (2013).
However, we seemed to have hit a bit of a wall and 2013 was very bare of bookings. This created considerable anxiety in us (well me actually, Danita is much better at ‘going with the flow’).
Recently, that changed dramatically. I received a phone call from someone enquiring about how it all worked and what we charged. The line was no very clear and so it was hard to have a detailed conversation at the time. (Isn’t it amazing how accepting we’ve become of drop outs and noisy lines? Back in the ‘old days’ you only had fixed lines but the call quality was generally very good. I guess that’s what you call ‘progress’.)
Our approach is to arrange to meet the home owner as soon as possible, to make sure they’re happy with us and we’re happy with their requirements (and the house). We’ve only had one place we really regretted taking on but thankfully it was a short stint. That was another lesson – limit short ones as much as possible. And we’ve actually turned down a couple because we thought the house and requirements just wouldn’t work for us.
OK so maybe we’re getting fussy. But that hasn’t caused this BIG gap.
Anyway, back to meeting our new potential ‘clients’. We were quite excited because they live in North Ryde (where we’d lived for many years before heading out onto the road) and being back in our old territory does have some appeal.
Also, they live VERY CLOSE to a couple who are special friends of ours. All looking very promising so far.
Then the really interesting bit kicked in. From our disjointed phone calls I’d understood they were looking for someone for 5-7 weeks. I’d clearly misunderstood – it’s 5-7 MONTHS.
And that’s not all. They don’t have any animals! They want someone to look after the house, collect the mail and keep the indoor plants watered. We can do that.
And finally, the most intriguing part – how did they find out about us?
When we started I had some house-sitting business cards made and have left them at various places. One of those was the local hardware store at North Ryde. Nearly two years later the home-owner was discussing the upcoming trip and wondering about having someone look after the house while they were away. Tony the owner of Coxs Road Hardware gave them our details. So, “thanks heaps Tony”. BTW if you’re in need of hardware they are the BEST place to go and that’s not just my opinion. When we did our renovations the builder commented on how it was the best hardware store he’d come across (and given his business, he’d know). They’re at 211 Coxs Road North Ryde – if you talk to Tony tell him “Laurence sent you” 🙂
From the beginning of April we’ll be back in the ‘burbs’ and we’re looking forward to being settled for a while. One of the things we’ve found with permanent house-sitting is that we’re having lots of new experiences. Right now it feels like being in one place for a few months almost qualifies as one of those and it’s one we’re excited about.