Ann and Dominic could Housesit for YOU!

We have one daughter in Sutherland Shire, south of Sydney, Australia, and one in Freshwater, north of Sydney. That is basically why we tend to housesit primarily within 200km of Sydney, but we have also done housesits in Tasmania, in a village in Switzerland, in Greece near Koroni, in New England USA, plus several in the UK. (Re covid, all of our overseas housesits were completed by Jan 2020. We have been in NSW since Jan 2020.)

We started housesitting to help a friend in Caringbah, Australia in February 2005. We have been housesitting ever since!

We are non-smokers. Very occasionally, we drink wine or beer. We do not eat meat nor much sugar; we do eat vegies, fruit, legumes, eggs, seafood and dairy.

We have both owned our own homes in the past.

We are both college graduates. Ann studied social psychology and Dominic studied physics.

We do NOT have pets of our own! The ones you see here all belong to people we have done housesits for.

We really like peace and quiet - to aid in concentration during the day, and to make sleep relaxing at night. If your neighborhood is especially quiet, we will be especially interested.

As long as your property is not located under a major airplane flight path or next to a major motorway, we will consider it.

We love dogs, cats and many other creatures. Getting to know the pets is one of the best parts of the housesitting adventure.

• Reliable, daily dog-walking (1x or 2x)
• Following detailed diet plans for pet feeding
• Feeding horses, alpacas, goats, cattle
• Collecting eggs, even from brooding chickens
• Moving cattle between gated paddocks
• Keeping bush turkeys out of dog food!
• Transport to the vet
• Hospice care for pets

FYI: This Very Expensive Cat Litter Robot actually works. The human only has to empty the drawer 1x per week, and disassemble+clean 4x per year.

Quiet neighborhood.

Fast, reliable internet. Prior to confirming a housesit, we usually ask that you run a speedtest and let us know your speed, or verify Optus 4G signal strength. We use about 45gb of data per month.

Near Sydney, NSW. Generally we try to stay within 300km of Sydney but we make many exceptions.

Under cover parking for our car is a plus.

Duration: Our average housesit length is 6 weeks. However, we will consider ANY housesit that fits our schedule and travel budget.

Contact

This is the type of information that is very helpful for us to receive in written form when we arrive.

• Pet feeding time(s), amount and what to feed them. Include details about any medicine or supplements.
• Dog walking schedule is usually easy to remember but we will not mind if you specify details.
• Vet name, address and telephone
• Power company name and account number
• Plumber name and telephone
• Internet account details in case we need to have any service issues resolved. Ideally, add one of us as a technical contact on the account for the time you are away, and that way, even Telstra will talk to us to resolve problems. This is most critical in rural areas where there are not hundreds of other customers nearby to complain about anything that might need fixing.
• Time of day for off-peak electricity as a reminder for running appliances. Rules seem to vary by region, even within New South Wales, Australia.
• "No go" zones for the animals, e.g. furniture in living room, on the beds.
• Name and phone number for one neighbor.
• Names and phone numbers for important friends or relatives, in case something comes up where we think a decision should be made by someone who knows you well.
• List of any mail you want us to open, scan and email to you, e.g. telephone or electricity bills that may need to be paid while you are away. By default, we save all mail unopened in a cardboard box for you.
• What you want us to say when answering the phone and when people ask when you will return. Usually we say "———'s house, this is Ann speaking..." and tell them that you will be back about a week after your actual return date so you do not get a flood of calls. Frequently relatives and friends will call because they have forgotten that you are away. We can usually identify the telemarketers and they do not get much out of us.
• How often to charge the car, or run it for you in the driveway, so the battery does not go flat.
• Compost: any rules e.g. no onion, no citrus...
• When to put out the rubbish and recycling bins
• Guidelines for which plants to water and how much, other than "all pot plants, before they get near wilting, depending on the weather."
• First Aid Kit – where