In part one of the Chronology of a House Sit: Arrival, I discussed aspects of getting started with a new house sitter assignment including learning the layout of the home and community and reviewing the details of homeowners’ requirements. The middle part of the...
My First Dog My love affair with dogs began when my mother brought home a black Labrador retriever puppy when I was ten years old. This was a big surprise because although my sister and I always enjoyed playing with our neighbors’ dogs, we never really expected to...
This is Part 3 in our Chronology of a House Sit series. Read Part I – Arrival here Read Part II – Living Your Life in a Foreign Country here Leaving a house sit is a big transition and requires a lot of organization. As house sitters, we really want the...
We stepped off into a pitch black night, after a five hour long bus trip, two weary travelers and four suitcases. We were the only two disembarking here on a Sunday night in August. We had been traveling for over 48 hours and had crossed the International Dateline....
Is getting old inevitable? I have read that too many people work too hard, for too long and take themselves to an early grave. Then again, retirees have reportedly died of boredom. I don’t actually subscribe to these crazy generalizations, but, I do know a...
Can you imagine choosing to be homeless? In 2012, we made the decision to stop paying our mortgage and instead spend our money on travel and adventure. We no longer have to pay property taxes, home maintenance, homeowners insurance, monthly utilities like sewer,...
So many people have asked about how we manage to travel, house sit and live such an easy lifestyle. One person even wrote that we must have tons of money in the bank. Not! What we do have is guts, daring, the willingness to break the status quo. We were not the best...
You have probably heard of “slow food”, but what about “slow travel”? We are on a journey of seeing the world with the goal of slowly savoring the places we visit. We may not see it all, nor do we visit all the tourist hot spots, but we are...
In our travels, many of the folks we meet have not heard of house sitting. They immediately see the benefits and want to learn more. House sitting is a great way to stay in nice homes for little or no cost. Once you decide that you would like to be a house sitter, you...
Part 1: Arrival House sitting assignments vary in length, but they all have a beginning, middle and end. One of the things we like about medium to long assignments is that these parts are pretty distinct and each has something we really enjoy doing. When we arrive in...
I read a lot of other people’s travel blogs. Many are youngish backpackers and a few have cleverly posted lists and photos of the things they pack, like Dan and Alissa at thisworldrocks. As long term house sitters in Australia, we had to pack for three seasons...
One thing I have noticed about house sitting is that it is definitely not like being on vacation, or on Holiday, as they say in OZ. The primary reason for that is that our main goal is not to see as many tourist sites as we can in a ten day period. We have decided...
These basic tips are from Trustedhousesitters.com, a web site that we can recommend for both house sitters and homeowners. We especially like how user friendly their web site is. We are enjoying our house sitting adventures. Come join us. You can read the tips here....
This article, by Nomadic Matt does a fine job of providing good basic advice on becoming a house sitter as well as what is expected of you. The author also describes some pitfalls and challenges of house sitting. You can read the full article here. Read Next ←...
When Laurie heard Chienne barking and went to investigate she came upon a frightening sight. The little terrier was face to face with a lizard that belonged in the reptile house of some zoo. At least sixteen inches long with a fat, heavy body and a purple mouth, the...
We have had a busy month full of changes and too much for one post, but I will do a recap of our travels for those who want to read a lot. Then get more into what it is like here, in Kendenup, in the next post. We left Boston, after a quick visit to Portland, Maine,...
I took a break from writing while playing tourist, using our City Pass to visit sites in and around Toronto. The pass is good for 9 days, so we had to cram it all in, even with our leasurely two months of time here! As we visited the big ciy, at first I was pretty...
By having a simple WordPress blog set up as a house sitter web site, we are able to more easily show off our abilities, our experience, our qualifications and our personalities. Providing more information than we can fit in our profiles on the house sitting web sites,...
I love doing appreciations before bed and when I awaken in the morning. Having never been the most disciplined and orderly person, my practices tend to vary and change. I am working on viewing this as an asset rather than a liability. I am open to new things,...
A good number of friends have expressed awe, appreciation, even envy over what we are up to. Depending upon my mood, I have different reactions. My most sarcastic response is something like this “You too can lose your house and most of your income and live this...
Laurie and Neil gave away or sold 99% of their possessions for a new life as international travelers. They share the secrets of how they turn limited resources into a life of unlimited fun and adventure. Read more